Big Thing is good and inspired album
― you can see me from westbury white horse, Tuesday, 12 September 2023 00:29 (seven months ago) link
Dr. Dre's peak as a producer is not The Chronic but rather the post-Straight Outta Compton 89-91 period (The D.O.C., Above the Law, 100 Miles, N4L)
― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Monday, September 11, 2023 4:30 PM (five hours ago) bookmarkflaglink
Doggystyle imho
― xheugy eddy (D-40), Tuesday, 12 September 2023 02:36 (seven months ago) link
jeff lynne's peak is 1967-1971. those idle race albums are wonderful.
― houdini said, Tuesday, 12 September 2023 22:55 (seven months ago) link
Not controversial with me!
― Monthly Python (Tom D.), Wednesday, 13 September 2023 06:33 (seven months ago) link
the best Move albums are the ones without him though.
― scott seward, Wednesday, 13 September 2023 13:43 (seven months ago) link
The Move were better before he joined. I agree with that too.
― Monthly Python (Tom D.), Wednesday, 13 September 2023 14:22 (seven months ago) link
i know this has been touched on by other folks here but i'm ready to plant my flag: nina simone is overrated.
― the adventures of Yari and ixa. (Austin), Sunday, 22 October 2023 18:07 (six months ago) link
I rate her as "the finest musician of the 20th century", so if you only rate her 2nd or 3rd that's your right I guess
― Preach The Crapen (flamboyant goon tie included), Sunday, 22 October 2023 19:41 (six months ago) link
I know it's not a contest but Ella > Nina > Billie
― The Royal House of Hangover (Ye Mad Puffin), Sunday, 22 October 2023 19:43 (six months ago) link
if you only rate her 2nd or 3rd
not even top 50 tbh
― the adventures of Yari and ixa. (Austin), Sunday, 22 October 2023 19:46 (six months ago) link
The Royal House of Hangover (Ye Mad Puffin) at 8:43 22 Oct 23I know it's not a contest but Ella > Nina > Billie
― the world is your octopus (Camaraderie at Arms Length), Sunday, 22 October 2023 19:58 (six months ago) link
CAAL you have definitely understood the assignment of the thread!
Fitzgerald at her best is just so freaking smooth, and can go great places. The duets with Armstrong on Cole Porter material may not be your thing but I will never not love them.
Scat, generally, is not my thing but I have no quarrel with those who enjoy that aspect of her career.
Nina Simone is a virtuoso and a genius and a hero; her writing and activism are essential. That said, there is really almost no time at which I just want to put on a Nina Simone record, sorry. I am glad she existed but I just don't want to listen to her frequently. It isn't what I want as a pleasurable voluntarily leisure activity.
― The Royal House of Hangover (Ye Mad Puffin), Sunday, 22 October 2023 21:06 (six months ago) link
given those three as choices, if i had to i would rate the same way as YMP. then again, the live Ella and Duke records are among my favorite live records ever made so i am certainly biased. i have a friend who is a soul and r&b nerd, used to DJ out a lot, and his complaint about Nina was that she had become the safe/accessible option for white folks to the detriment of the profiles of much better singers. tbh, i can kind of see his point! we had a long talk about it once because i didn’t get it.
― butt dumb tight my boners got boners (the table is the table), Sunday, 22 October 2023 21:07 (six months ago) link
Table and I just said opposite things and it's kinda fun that both can be true.
I am a white person and I don't think I think of Nina Simone as "safe/accessible." In fact she's challenging, in a good way! That's what I like about her! I just don't usually want her music washing over my ears. I respect and admire Nina Simone more than I want to listen to her.
― The Royal House of Hangover (Ye Mad Puffin), Sunday, 22 October 2023 21:16 (six months ago) link
yeah, i rarely want to listen to Nina but that’s because i did so much for many years.
― butt dumb tight my boners got boners (the table is the table), Sunday, 22 October 2023 21:33 (six months ago) link
I'm with you YMP. I'm so incredibly sick of hearing Feeling Good that I can't listen to it anymore.
― I? not I! He! He! HIM! (akm), Sunday, 22 October 2023 21:37 (six months ago) link
This is a very good encapsulation of my feelings. I am 100% opposed to jazz singers who sing jazz standards; don't need to hear that stuff ever, by anyone. And scat singing...well, it's called scat for a reason. If I'm in the mood for angry jazz vocalists who write their own material, I tend to go Abbey Lincoln > Jeanne Lee > Linda Sharrock > Nina Simone.
― read-only (unperson), Sunday, 22 October 2023 22:34 (six months ago) link
abbey lincoln and jeanne lee do standards pretty great too
― Left, Sunday, 22 October 2023 22:39 (six months ago) link
nina simone is a different kind of thing for the most part but she's not overrated at all
― Left, Sunday, 22 October 2023 22:42 (six months ago) link
ella is underrated in the way mozart is underrated - I won't elaborate
― Left, Sunday, 22 October 2023 22:44 (six months ago) link
hey who here doesn’t like opera
― brimstead, Sunday, 22 October 2023 23:20 (six months ago) link
ah whatever, Nina’s performance at Montreux 1976 is the greatest live performance, say I’m wrong with examples and I’d be pleased to enjoy said examples
― Preach The Crapen (flamboyant goon tie included), Sunday, 22 October 2023 23:34 (six months ago) link
Linda Sharrock over Nina, now I've heard everything
― Paul Ponzi, Sunday, 22 October 2023 23:36 (six months ago) link
Nina Simone rules and any opinion to the contrary drools.
I appreciate Ella but rarely feel like listening to her. Nina is just perfect. Her version of Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues knocks my socks off every time.
― Cow_Art, Sunday, 22 October 2023 23:48 (six months ago) link
Judy at Carnegie Hall
― J Edgar Noothgrush (Joan Crawford Loves Chachi), Sunday, 22 October 2023 23:58 (six months ago) link
I am a white person and I don't think I think of Nina Simone as "safe/accessible." In fact she's challenging, in a good way! That's what I like about her! I just don't usually want her music washing over my ears. I respect and admire Nina Simone more than I want to listen to her.― The Royal House of Hangover (Ye Mad Puffin), Sunday, October 22, 2023 2:16 PM
― The Royal House of Hangover (Ye Mad Puffin), Sunday, October 22, 2023 2:16 PM
all of this definitely where i'm at. re:activism/non-music endeavors- agreed, she rules for all of that. but her music, while related to it, isn't that. it's just. . . okay, y'know? pretty solid ftmp. does that mean she never had any classic moments? of course not! just. . . whoa, let's not get carried away. she's great, but uhh.
re: "safe" option-- really!? i was always under the impression that she was kinda like an early 90s gangsta rapper in her day in terms of pissing off white people. yeah she sold a lot of records, but i have to wonder how many were buying out of curiosity.
(of course that may all have to do with the fact that i got yelled at as an 18 year old for playing a nina record in the house. definitely not a safe choice back where i come from. hrmph.)
― the adventures of Yari and ixa. (Austin), Monday, 23 October 2023 00:10 (six months ago) link
also Duke Ellington at Newport for live performance albums, my God
― J Edgar Noothgrush (Joan Crawford Loves Chachi), Monday, 23 October 2023 00:28 (six months ago) link
Nina Simone rules any contrary opinion is pure nincompoop nonsense
― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Monday, 23 October 2023 00:42 (six months ago) link
Is it "worse" to listen to music and hate it or never listen to it at all, even go out of your way to avoid listening to it?
― Halfway there but for you, Monday, 23 October 2023 00:53 (six months ago) link
I mean specific artists, not music in general.
― Halfway there but for you, Monday, 23 October 2023 00:54 (six months ago) link
Wasn’t there some Nina in a 90’s movie and that’s what brought her into Gen X consciousness? I def remember a friend of mine hearing her in a movie and running out and buying some Nina cd’s. That’s when I first heard her. And it was pretty different and new to us, we were more into punk/gothy things.
This is when the Commitments soundtrack was the common soul cd to be found lying about.
― Cow_Art, Monday, 23 October 2023 00:58 (six months ago) link
Life is too short to listen to music you think you probably won't like. Sure, you might be missing out on something incredible...but the truth is, probably not.
― read-only (unperson), Monday, 23 October 2023 01:02 (six months ago) link
xp Big Lebowski maybe?https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nina_Simone#Music
― out-of-print LaserDisc edition (sleeve), Monday, 23 October 2023 01:05 (six months ago) link
I think a lot of casual listeners (I'm including myself here) want her catalog to sound like "my baby just cares for me", but it's mostly stuff like "they call me Peaches".
― enochroot, Monday, 23 October 2023 01:11 (six months ago) link
I feel like that's right, though, Cow_Art, that in the age of the internet we became more aware of Simone as a person, about her own ideas about her craft and the choices she'd made about how to live her life -- when as a late teen I first bought a greatest hits, orange sleeve I think, all I knew was she had a super great version of "I Put a Spell On You." biographical info about her wasn't accessible to me from avail materials pre-internet. In 2015 two documentaries were released, I think a broader acknowledgment of her as a major artist proceeds after these contextualize her accomplishments for a broader audience. "greatest musician of the 20th century" sure seems like a stretch to me, but what do I know
― J Edgar Noothgrush (Joan Crawford Loves Chachi), Monday, 23 October 2023 01:27 (six months ago) link
I mean it when I say it! Ornette comes pretty close tho
― Preach The Crapen (flamboyant goon tie included), Monday, 23 October 2023 01:30 (six months ago) link
Also a cornerstone of my highest of highest estimations of her: her piano playing, it’s just bonkers she can do all that while maintaining such focus on her vocal delivery
― Preach The Crapen (flamboyant goon tie included), Monday, 23 October 2023 01:32 (six months ago) link
so...she's great then, right? Why all the equivocations?
― hat trick of trashiness (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 23 October 2023 01:33 (six months ago) link
This many Nina posts an no love for Funkier Than a Mosquito’s Tweeter?
― The land of dreams and endless remorse (hardcore dilettante), Monday, 23 October 2023 02:13 (six months ago) link
Okay, I rooted around and found it. The Point of No Return (1993) soundtrack featured a whole lotta Nina: Feeling Good, Here Comes the Sun, Wild is the Wind, Sugar in My Bowl, Black is the Color of My True Love’s Hair. I don’t know how big of a deal it was outside of my podunk town, but in my mind that was when white teens took notice.
I remember being amazed by this music and promptly found a greatest hits cd and played it for my mom who didn’t like it. “She sounds like a man.” Which… whatever, but it’s notable that she doesn’t seem to care about sounding Pretty. She sounds strong, like someone you don’t want to deal with if you work in customer service.
― Cow_Art, Monday, 23 October 2023 02:14 (six months ago) link
I was recently reading up on "Feeling Good" the song (because it's kind of having a moment in ads rn), learning that the Simone version became a Top 40 hit in the UK after being featured in a Volkswagen commercial, and it became sample fodder afterwards as well. So that's another key point in the Simoneissance.
― an icon of a worried-looking, long-haired, bespectacled man (C. Grisso/McCain), Monday, 23 October 2023 02:58 (six months ago) link
The Simone VW ad being in 1994 BTW.
― an icon of a worried-looking, long-haired, bespectacled man (C. Grisso/McCain), Monday, 23 October 2023 03:02 (six months ago) link
She definitely had a moment in the 90s; I remember hearing "My Baby Just Cares For Me" in the movie Shallow Grave.
― read-only (unperson), Monday, 23 October 2023 03:31 (six months ago) link
Def plenty of controversial opinions on Nina Simone … who I put on the same pedestal of brilliance in terms of vocal performance and activism with Diamanda Galas.
― sarahell, Monday, 23 October 2023 03:55 (six months ago) link
when my daughter was born the myriad team of healthcare professionals attending in the delivery room were super cool with us playing whatever we liked thru some speakers we brought
started with sam cooke in the lead up, and moved to nina as things moved along and got real intense for an hour or so
no regrets, though upon delivery we switched to the village stompers
― Florin Cuchares, Monday, 23 October 2023 04:14 (six months ago) link
The last scene of Before Sunset is very Nina Simone centric
― bbq, Monday, 23 October 2023 04:15 (six months ago) link
Diamanda Galas.
Hell yeah, speaking of incredible live performance documents
― Preach The Crapen (flamboyant goon tie included), Monday, 23 October 2023 04:27 (six months ago) link
It always sounds strange when people try to distinguish and then reconcile the music with the figure of the artist. Various versions of "She was good and I admire her but also don't enjoy her and never listen to her" sound a bit confused, like you're pondering about her great legacy of doing nothing for you.
― Nabozo, Monday, 23 October 2023 07:40 (six months ago) link
― bbq, Monday, October 23, 2023 12:15 AM (three hours ago) bookmarkflaglink
Best scene.
― Benson and the Jets (ENBB), Monday, 23 October 2023 07:42 (six months ago) link
i feel bad for the mean stuff i used to say about nina simone on ilm. years ago. i've come around since then.
― scott seward, Monday, 23 October 2023 11:54 (six months ago) link