1 00:00:12,713 --> 00:00:15,763 [audience applauding] 2 00:00:29,732 --> 00:00:32,612 [announcer] Tremendous pleasure and honor to welcome 3 00:00:32,693 --> 00:00:37,403 the incredible, unique, and fantastic, one and only Nina Simone. 4 00:00:37,490 --> 00:00:39,110 [audience applauding] 5 00:00:51,464 --> 00:00:53,294 [applause continues] 6 00:01:04,478 --> 00:01:06,228 [applause continues] 7 00:01:18,451 --> 00:01:20,542 [applause fades] 8 00:01:26,585 --> 00:01:28,455 [scattered applause] 9 00:01:33,176 --> 00:01:34,716 [applause stops] 10 00:01:51,321 --> 00:01:52,911 Hello. 11 00:01:52,989 --> 00:01:54,359 [audience member] Hi! We're ready. 12 00:01:57,411 --> 00:01:59,121 [audience laughing] 13 00:02:06,128 --> 00:02:07,708 One, two, three. 14 00:02:12,678 --> 00:02:17,138 I haven't seen you for many years, since 1968. 15 00:02:18,434 --> 00:02:23,645 I have decided that I will do no more jazz festivals. 16 00:02:24,649 --> 00:02:26,899 That decision has not changed. 17 00:02:28,612 --> 00:02:30,532 I will sing for you, 18 00:02:30,614 --> 00:02:34,955 or we will do and share with you a few moments, 19 00:02:35,953 --> 00:02:40,243 after which I shall graduate to a higher class, I hope, 20 00:02:40,332 --> 00:02:42,663 and I hope you will come with me. 21 00:02:43,587 --> 00:02:45,967 We will start from the beginning, 22 00:02:48,174 --> 00:02:50,514 which was about a little girl, 23 00:02:52,013 --> 00:02:53,843 and her name was Blue. 24 00:02:54,641 --> 00:02:57,061 [playing "Good King Wenceslas"] 25 00:03:44,028 --> 00:03:45,488 [playing fades] 26 00:03:52,412 --> 00:03:54,332 [tape recorder rolling] 27 00:03:56,875 --> 00:03:58,295 [interviewer] What's "free" to you, Nina? 28 00:03:58,376 --> 00:03:59,546 -What's "free" to me? -Yeah. 29 00:03:59,628 --> 00:04:01,998 Same thing it is to you. You tell me. 30 00:04:02,089 --> 00:04:04,130 [interviewer] No, no, you tell me. 31 00:04:04,217 --> 00:04:05,927 [both laughing] [interviewer] I don't know. 32 00:04:08,512 --> 00:04:10,892 It's just a feeling. 33 00:04:10,974 --> 00:04:13,225 It's just a feeling. 34 00:04:13,310 --> 00:04:16,390 It's like, "How do you tell somebody how it feels to be in love?" 35 00:04:16,480 --> 00:04:19,440 How are you going to tell anybody who has not been in love 36 00:04:19,524 --> 00:04:20,944 how it feels to be in love? 37 00:04:21,026 --> 00:04:23,197 You cannot do it to save your life. 38 00:04:23,279 --> 00:04:26,659 You can describe things but you can't tell them, 39 00:04:26,742 --> 00:04:29,152 but you know it when it happens. 40 00:04:29,244 --> 00:04:30,824 That's what I mean by "free." 41 00:04:30,912 --> 00:04:34,493 I've had a couple of times onstage when I really felt free, 42 00:04:34,584 --> 00:04:36,664 and that's something else. 43 00:04:36,753 --> 00:04:39,873 -[interviewer laughs] -That's really something else! 44 00:04:39,964 --> 00:04:43,135 Like, all... all... Like... like-- 45 00:04:43,218 --> 00:04:46,678 I'll tell you what freedom is to me, no fear. 46 00:04:49,016 --> 00:04:51,766 I mean, really, no fear. 47 00:04:52,936 --> 00:04:55,777 If I could have that 48 00:04:55,857 --> 00:04:59,777 half of my life, no fear. 49 00:04:59,861 --> 00:05:04,032 ♪ I wish I could share ♪ 50 00:05:05,743 --> 00:05:08,833 ♪ All the love that's in my heart ♪ 51 00:05:11,123 --> 00:05:15,134 ♪ Remove all the bars ♪ 52 00:05:16,880 --> 00:05:20,680 ♪ That still keep us apart ♪ 53 00:05:22,886 --> 00:05:26,637 ♪ I wish you could know ♪ 54 00:05:27,684 --> 00:05:31,694 ♪ What it means to be me ♪ 55 00:05:32,855 --> 00:05:38,156 ♪ Then you'd see and agree ♪ 56 00:05:38,236 --> 00:05:42,866 ♪ That every man should be free ♪ 57 00:05:44,202 --> 00:05:49,292 ♪ I wish I could give ♪ 58 00:05:50,792 --> 00:05:53,792 ♪ All I'm longing to give ♪ 59 00:05:53,878 --> 00:05:57,009 [Lisa Simone Kelly] My mother was one of the greatest entertainers of all time, 60 00:05:57,091 --> 00:05:58,711 hands down... 61 00:05:58,801 --> 00:06:00,171 but she paid a huge price. 62 00:06:01,636 --> 00:06:04,517 People seem to think that when she went out on stage, 63 00:06:04,599 --> 00:06:08,439 that was when she became Nina Simone. 64 00:06:08,519 --> 00:06:10,739 My mother was Nina Simone 24/7... 65 00:06:10,814 --> 00:06:14,905 and that's where it became a problem. 66 00:06:16,112 --> 00:06:21,362 -♪ One day I woke up and I could fly ♪ -[chorus] ♪ Yes, I know ♪ 67 00:06:21,450 --> 00:06:26,881 -♪ I'd look down at the sea ♪ -♪ Yes, I know ♪ 68 00:06:26,957 --> 00:06:29,337 ♪ And I wouldn’t know myself ♪ 69 00:06:29,417 --> 00:06:32,257 ♪ I'd have new hands ♪ 70 00:06:32,337 --> 00:06:37,428 -♪ I’d have new feet ♪ -♪ Yes, I know ♪ 71 00:06:37,510 --> 00:06:43,020 -♪ I’d have new vision ♪ -♪ Yes, I know ♪ 72 00:06:43,099 --> 00:06:49,440 -♪ My eyes would be open a little better ♪ -♪ Yes, I know ♪ 73 00:06:50,440 --> 00:06:55,861 [Lisa] When she was performing, she was brilliant, she was loved. 74 00:06:55,947 --> 00:06:58,027 She was also a revolutionary. 75 00:06:58,116 --> 00:07:01,156 She found a purpose for the stage, 76 00:07:01,244 --> 00:07:07,175 a place from which she could use her voice to speak out for her people. 77 00:07:07,251 --> 00:07:10,341 -♪ Don't get in my way ♪ -♪ Yes, I know ♪ 78 00:07:10,421 --> 00:07:12,001 [audience clapping and cheering] 79 00:07:16,303 --> 00:07:19,643 But when the show ended, everybody else went home. 80 00:07:19,722 --> 00:07:23,312 She was alone and she was still fighting... 81 00:07:23,393 --> 00:07:26,604 but she was fighting her own demons... 82 00:07:26,689 --> 00:07:29,479 full of anger and rage. 83 00:07:31,027 --> 00:07:33,407 She couldn't live with herself... 84 00:07:34,530 --> 00:07:36,031 and everything fell apart. 85 00:07:36,700 --> 00:07:40,160 ♪ For one moment of my whole life ♪ 86 00:07:42,164 --> 00:07:44,294 ♪ I would know how ♪ 87 00:07:46,169 --> 00:07:48,629 ♪ It would feel ♪ 88 00:07:52,092 --> 00:07:57,513 ♪ To be free ♪ 89 00:08:08,235 --> 00:08:11,525 [interviewer] Good evening. Our guest tonight is Nina Simone. 90 00:08:11,613 --> 00:08:15,993 Probably the foremost blues singer, jazz singer, singer of all songs 91 00:08:16,076 --> 00:08:17,537 in the United States today. 92 00:08:17,620 --> 00:08:21,210 Nina, are you happy with the kind of work you are doing? 93 00:08:21,290 --> 00:08:23,420 [Nina] What makes me the happiest, 94 00:08:23,501 --> 00:08:26,802 is when I'm performing and there are people out there 95 00:08:26,881 --> 00:08:30,181 who feel with me and I know I touched them. 96 00:08:30,259 --> 00:08:32,259 But to be completely honest, 97 00:08:32,344 --> 00:08:35,394 the whole thing seems so much like a dream. 98 00:08:35,472 --> 00:08:38,893 I never thought I was gonna stay in show business. 99 00:08:38,977 --> 00:08:40,937 When I first got into show business, 100 00:08:41,021 --> 00:08:44,021 I wasn't a blues singer and I wasn't even a jazz singer. 101 00:08:44,107 --> 00:08:46,187 I was a classical pianist. 102 00:08:46,276 --> 00:08:47,527 I studied to become 103 00:08:47,611 --> 00:08:50,911 the first black classical pianist in America, 104 00:08:50,990 --> 00:08:53,320 and that's all that was on my mind. 105 00:08:53,409 --> 00:08:56,739 That's what I was prepared to be. 106 00:08:57,330 --> 00:09:00,870 I was born Eunice Waymon, which is my real name, by the way, 107 00:09:00,959 --> 00:09:04,499 in a town called Tryon, North Carolina. 108 00:09:04,587 --> 00:09:08,808 I started to play the piano when I was three or four. 109 00:09:08,885 --> 00:09:10,975 My mother was a preacher 110 00:09:11,054 --> 00:09:15,144 and she took me with her on her revivals, 111 00:09:15,224 --> 00:09:17,855 and I started to play the piano in church. 112 00:09:17,937 --> 00:09:19,897 ["Children Go Where I Send You" playing] 113 00:09:22,942 --> 00:09:25,902 ♪ Children go where I send you ♪ 114 00:09:25,986 --> 00:09:27,737 ♪ How shall I send you? ♪ 115 00:09:27,822 --> 00:09:30,492 ♪ I'm gonna send you one by one ♪ 116 00:09:30,575 --> 00:09:36,875 ♪ One for the little biddy baby was born, born, born in Bethlehem ♪ 117 00:09:36,957 --> 00:09:40,878 Revival meetings were some of the most exciting times 118 00:09:40,962 --> 00:09:42,922 that I've ever had. 119 00:09:43,005 --> 00:09:45,085 The music was so intense, 120 00:09:45,174 --> 00:09:47,755 you just sort of went out of yourself. 121 00:09:47,844 --> 00:09:49,094 I felt it tremendously. 122 00:09:49,179 --> 00:09:50,639 I was leading it. 123 00:09:52,099 --> 00:09:57,189 When I was seven, the choir of our church gave a program at the local theater, 124 00:09:57,270 --> 00:10:00,611 and I was on that program... 125 00:10:00,691 --> 00:10:03,111 And I played some song, I don't remember what it was, 126 00:10:03,194 --> 00:10:07,194 and these two women, two white women, in the audience heard me. 127 00:10:07,281 --> 00:10:09,742 One of them was the woman that my mother worked for, 128 00:10:09,826 --> 00:10:13,496 and the other one was a music teacher, Mrs. Mazzanovich, 129 00:10:13,580 --> 00:10:16,460 and they decided right then and there to give me lessons. 130 00:10:16,541 --> 00:10:19,342 And so, for five years after that, 131 00:10:19,420 --> 00:10:23,010 I studied piano, classical piano, with this teacher. 132 00:10:27,845 --> 00:10:32,106 I crossed the railroad tracks every weekend to get to Mrs. Mazzanovich. 133 00:10:32,184 --> 00:10:33,734 And, you know, railroad tracks in the South 134 00:10:33,810 --> 00:10:36,020 are supposed to be dividing the blacks from the whites. 135 00:10:36,105 --> 00:10:37,275 Well, it really did. 136 00:10:38,190 --> 00:10:40,151 I was so scared. 137 00:10:40,235 --> 00:10:42,825 Mrs. Mazzanovich frightened me. 138 00:10:42,904 --> 00:10:47,824 It was her being white, in the sense that I had never seen. 139 00:10:47,909 --> 00:10:49,780 She was alien to me. 140 00:10:49,870 --> 00:10:53,620 Her white hair, the combs in it, her pleasantness... 141 00:10:54,208 --> 00:10:56,088 I loved that. 142 00:10:56,169 --> 00:10:58,289 And she started me on Bach. 143 00:10:58,379 --> 00:11:01,170 And this Bach, I liked him. 144 00:11:06,013 --> 00:11:08,053 Mrs. Mazzanovich had it in her mind 145 00:11:08,140 --> 00:11:12,141 that I was gonna be one of the world's greatest concert pianists. 146 00:11:12,228 --> 00:11:15,778 So it was all very disciplined classical music. 147 00:11:15,856 --> 00:11:19,947 Bach, Beethoven, Debussy, Brahms, you name it. 148 00:11:20,028 --> 00:11:24,738 Then Mrs. Mazzanovich got a fund together, "Eunice Waymon Fund," 149 00:11:24,825 --> 00:11:26,825 and I gave lots of recitals, 150 00:11:26,910 --> 00:11:27,910 and they would take up collection 151 00:11:27,994 --> 00:11:31,455 to further my education after I had left her. 152 00:11:32,584 --> 00:11:36,004 [Lisa] Mommy took to all of the training like a fish to water, 153 00:11:36,088 --> 00:11:37,798 but it was a double-edged sword. 154 00:11:37,880 --> 00:11:39,471 She had a very lonely life 155 00:11:39,550 --> 00:11:42,970 because she was practicing seven, eight hours a day. 156 00:11:43,053 --> 00:11:44,933 [Nina] When I first started to take lessons, 157 00:11:45,013 --> 00:11:46,643 I became terribly aware 158 00:11:46,724 --> 00:11:50,345 of how isolated I was from the other children, 159 00:11:50,437 --> 00:11:53,147 and how isolated I was 160 00:11:53,232 --> 00:11:56,072 from the white community and the negro community. 161 00:11:56,151 --> 00:11:59,862 I felt it, all the time, even when the kids used to play with me. 162 00:11:59,947 --> 00:12:03,327 They always wanted me just to play the piano for them to dance. 163 00:12:03,409 --> 00:12:06,249 I wasn't asked too much to do anything else. 164 00:12:06,329 --> 00:12:09,499 That was very hard. 165 00:12:10,501 --> 00:12:13,961 Part of that isolation, of course, was the thing about color. 166 00:12:14,880 --> 00:12:18,090 I was a black girl, and I knew about it, and I lived in it. 167 00:12:18,175 --> 00:12:20,226 I lived in the South for 17 years. 168 00:12:21,971 --> 00:12:24,601 [Lisa] My mom rarely referred to Jim Crow and segregation 169 00:12:24,682 --> 00:12:29,772 and a lot of the racial issues that were going on at that stage in her life. 170 00:12:29,854 --> 00:12:32,855 But she did tell me about times when she was told her nose was too big, 171 00:12:32,941 --> 00:12:35,151 her lips were too full and her skin was too dark. 172 00:12:36,069 --> 00:12:38,569 And after she was told that, they probably told her, 173 00:12:38,656 --> 00:12:42,327 "There's only certain things you'll be good for in your life." 174 00:12:42,411 --> 00:12:44,531 [Nina] What I knew, I knew. 175 00:12:44,621 --> 00:12:47,991 But we weren't allowed to mention anything racial in our house. 176 00:12:48,082 --> 00:12:50,833 I wasn't consciously dealing with race. 177 00:12:50,920 --> 00:12:53,220 That wasn't consciously on my mind at all... 178 00:12:53,798 --> 00:12:55,798 until years later. 179 00:13:00,764 --> 00:13:03,054 After I graduated from high school, 180 00:13:03,141 --> 00:13:06,571 the money that had been saved from the Eunice Waymon Fund 181 00:13:06,645 --> 00:13:11,816 sent me to New York to Juilliard for a year and a half. 182 00:13:12,735 --> 00:13:18,865 And then I applied for a scholarship to Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. 183 00:13:18,950 --> 00:13:23,291 I was playing Czerny and Liszt and Rachmaninoff and Bach. 184 00:13:23,372 --> 00:13:28,042 I knew I was good enough, but they turned me down, 185 00:13:28,126 --> 00:13:33,797 and it took me about six months to realize it was because I was black. 186 00:13:33,883 --> 00:13:40,013 I never really got over that jolt of racism at the time. 187 00:13:42,643 --> 00:13:44,393 Then the money ran out 188 00:13:44,479 --> 00:13:47,689 and the reality hit me that I had to go to work. 189 00:13:47,773 --> 00:13:52,824 My parents had moved the whole family to Philadelphia to be near me, 190 00:13:52,904 --> 00:13:56,074 and my family is very poor, so I had to work. 191 00:13:56,157 --> 00:13:57,817 What else was there for me to do? 192 00:13:57,909 --> 00:14:02,120 So, I got myself a job in Atlantic City for a summer. 193 00:14:02,206 --> 00:14:04,716 It was a very crummy bar 194 00:14:05,460 --> 00:14:09,670 and I used to go in in evening gowns. I didn't know any better. 195 00:14:09,756 --> 00:14:12,217 And I played everything that I could think of. 196 00:14:12,301 --> 00:14:15,721 Pop songs, classical, spirituals, all kinds of things. 197 00:14:15,804 --> 00:14:18,144 It was very strange. 198 00:14:18,224 --> 00:14:20,474 And I had never sung before, 199 00:14:20,559 --> 00:14:22,270 and the owner came in the second night 200 00:14:22,354 --> 00:14:25,814 and told me if I wanted to keep the job, I had to sing. 201 00:14:28,693 --> 00:14:32,824 So, $90 was more money than I had ever heard of in my life, 202 00:14:32,907 --> 00:14:36,157 so I said, "Well, I'll sing," and ever since then, I've been singing. 203 00:14:39,414 --> 00:14:43,085 [Roger Nupie] Eunice Waymon was playing in the bars to support her family 204 00:14:43,168 --> 00:14:47,838 and to have money to continue her classical piano training. 205 00:14:47,923 --> 00:14:49,583 But since she didn't want her mother to know that 206 00:14:49,675 --> 00:14:53,056 she was playing "the devil's music" in bars, 207 00:14:53,137 --> 00:14:55,767 she changed her name. 208 00:14:55,848 --> 00:14:58,138 Eunice Waymon became Nina Simone. 209 00:14:59,561 --> 00:15:02,522 She named herself "Niña," meaning "little one," 210 00:15:02,606 --> 00:15:05,066 and she had a boyfriend who called her "Niña," 211 00:15:05,150 --> 00:15:09,910 and "Simone" came from the French actress Simone Signoret. 212 00:15:10,823 --> 00:15:12,533 [Nina] I didn't want my mother to find out. 213 00:15:12,616 --> 00:15:14,367 I knew she would hate it. 214 00:15:14,453 --> 00:15:19,333 So I, kind of, kept it from her for a long, long time. 215 00:15:19,416 --> 00:15:21,036 [interviewer] Was it lonely for a young girl 216 00:15:21,125 --> 00:15:22,786 entertaining in these strange bars? 217 00:15:22,878 --> 00:15:24,838 [Nina] Extremely. Extremely lonely. 218 00:15:24,922 --> 00:15:26,802 [interviewer] Working peculiar hours, I imagine. 219 00:15:26,882 --> 00:15:29,012 [Nina] 12:00 midnight to 7:00 in the morning. 220 00:15:29,093 --> 00:15:30,683 [interviewer] It ruined your social life, uh... 221 00:15:30,761 --> 00:15:31,971 [Nina] Never had much of one. 222 00:15:32,054 --> 00:15:35,225 [interviewer] Why'd you keep on with it? [Nina] Couldn't help it. 223 00:15:35,309 --> 00:15:38,439 I have to play and I needed money. 224 00:15:38,520 --> 00:15:44,071 It was always a matter of necessity from day to day what I'm going to do. 225 00:15:44,151 --> 00:15:46,191 I didn't even know I was going to stay in show business. 226 00:15:46,278 --> 00:15:48,488 I never thought about a choice. 227 00:15:48,573 --> 00:15:55,494 [Nina singing] ♪ Nobody's fault but mine ♪ 228 00:15:58,584 --> 00:16:02,884 [Al Schackman] From the beginning, I felt there was something eating at her. 229 00:16:02,963 --> 00:16:05,634 You know, "What's eating at you, Nina?" 230 00:16:05,717 --> 00:16:07,097 And, um... 231 00:16:08,928 --> 00:16:11,228 gradually that got stronger. 232 00:16:13,350 --> 00:16:18,061 ♪ For all we know ♪ 233 00:16:20,149 --> 00:16:27,120 ♪ We may never meet again ♪ 234 00:16:29,660 --> 00:16:31,830 [Al] The first time I played with Nina, 235 00:16:31,912 --> 00:16:37,543 it was the summer of 1957 at a restaurant in New Hope, Pennsylvania. 236 00:16:37,627 --> 00:16:39,127 She didn't look at me. 237 00:16:39,211 --> 00:16:42,181 Said nothing, as though I wasn't... I wasn't even there, 238 00:16:42,256 --> 00:16:45,847 and started in on a song. 239 00:16:45,928 --> 00:16:47,808 She never told me what key she was going to be in. 240 00:16:47,888 --> 00:16:51,638 She just started playing, and I knew exactly where I was going to go with it. 241 00:16:51,725 --> 00:16:55,436 It was like we had a telepathic relationship. 242 00:16:55,522 --> 00:16:58,272 Before you knew it, we were just weaving in and out. 243 00:16:58,357 --> 00:17:00,897 And then she looked up. 244 00:17:01,528 --> 00:17:06,319 ♪ Until... ♪ 245 00:17:06,409 --> 00:17:10,199 ♪ ...the last minute ♪ 246 00:17:10,705 --> 00:17:14,465 [Nina] Al Schackman is a terribly sensitive, creative man. 247 00:17:14,543 --> 00:17:16,003 He has perfect pitch, 248 00:17:16,086 --> 00:17:18,556 which means that no matter what key I'm in, 249 00:17:18,630 --> 00:17:22,260 he's able to adapt himself immediately, 'cause I do that all the time. 250 00:17:22,342 --> 00:17:25,093 I'll change the key in the middle of a tune. 251 00:17:27,640 --> 00:17:32,640 [Al] Nina had a wonderful way of taking a piece of music, and... 252 00:17:32,729 --> 00:17:37,860 not interpreting it, but... but, like, metamorphosizing it. 253 00:17:39,069 --> 00:17:42,989 You know, morphing it into her experience. 254 00:17:43,782 --> 00:17:50,663 ♪ This may only be a dream ♪ 255 00:17:51,583 --> 00:17:55,794 [Nina] What I was interested in was conveying an emotional message, 256 00:17:55,880 --> 00:17:58,430 which means using everything you've got inside you 257 00:17:58,508 --> 00:18:00,758 sometimes to barely make a note 258 00:18:00,843 --> 00:18:03,343 or if you have to strain to sing, you sing. 259 00:18:03,428 --> 00:18:05,889 So sometimes I sound like gravel, 260 00:18:05,974 --> 00:18:09,054 and sometimes I sound like coffee and cream. 261 00:18:09,144 --> 00:18:16,065 ♪ So baby, love me, love me tonight ♪ 262 00:18:19,989 --> 00:18:26,920 ♪ Tomorrow was made for some ♪ 263 00:18:30,417 --> 00:18:34,917 [George Wein] When I first saw Nina at my club in 1959, 264 00:18:35,005 --> 00:18:37,336 I was impressed. She was different. 265 00:18:37,425 --> 00:18:40,215 She mixed in folk music with jazz. 266 00:18:40,303 --> 00:18:42,513 She played very fine piano. 267 00:18:42,597 --> 00:18:46,058 Her voice was totally different from anybody else. 268 00:18:46,143 --> 00:18:50,273 It was a woman's voice, but it had the depth of a baritone. 269 00:18:51,190 --> 00:18:57,111 That depth and that darkness carried the insight of what was in Nina's soul... 270 00:18:58,114 --> 00:19:00,364 and it reached you very quickly. 271 00:19:00,450 --> 00:19:07,371 ♪ For all... ♪ 272 00:19:16,050 --> 00:19:22,051 ♪ ...we know ♪ 273 00:19:22,140 --> 00:19:26,020 She was an artist. She was an original artist. 274 00:19:26,103 --> 00:19:30,274 So we paid attention, and in 1960, I put her on the Newport Jazz Festival, 275 00:19:30,358 --> 00:19:32,868 and she was a hit there. 276 00:19:34,153 --> 00:19:35,693 [band playing] 277 00:19:39,702 --> 00:19:42,242 ♪ I got a beau you ain't got none Little Liza Jane ♪ 278 00:19:42,329 --> 00:19:45,499 ♪ I got a beau you ain't got none Little Liza Jane ♪ 279 00:19:45,583 --> 00:19:48,664 ♪ I got a beau you ain't got none Little Liza Jane ♪ 280 00:19:48,754 --> 00:19:52,004 ♪ I got a beau you ain't got none Little Liza Jane ♪ 281 00:19:52,090 --> 00:19:55,600 ♪ Oh, little Liza, little Liza Jane ♪ 282 00:19:55,677 --> 00:19:58,978 ♪ Oh, little Liza, little Liza Jane ♪ 283 00:19:59,932 --> 00:20:01,982 [Stanley Crouch] Her sound is so original. 284 00:20:02,059 --> 00:20:03,609 When she first appeared... 285 00:20:03,686 --> 00:20:06,226 she was one of those musicians who... 286 00:20:06,313 --> 00:20:08,814 Once-- You don't have to hear them a bunch. 287 00:20:08,901 --> 00:20:11,991 If you hear them once, then the next time you hear 'em, you say, 288 00:20:12,070 --> 00:20:14,030 "Oh, that's that same one I heard last week. 289 00:20:14,114 --> 00:20:16,484 Nobody sounds like that except her." 290 00:20:16,574 --> 00:20:19,695 ♪ Come my love and live with me ♪ 291 00:20:19,788 --> 00:20:22,998 ♪ I will take good care of thee, little Liza Jane ♪ 292 00:20:24,208 --> 00:20:25,208 [Al] At Newport, 293 00:20:25,293 --> 00:20:28,174 she was sitting on a high stool with a tambourine, 294 00:20:28,255 --> 00:20:29,345 and I was in the back. 295 00:20:29,423 --> 00:20:32,343 She wasn't sure she wanted to go through with it. 296 00:20:32,426 --> 00:20:36,806 If I remember right, she was a little, you know, "What am I doing here?" 297 00:20:36,889 --> 00:20:39,470 And I said, "You're here because, you know, you belong here." 298 00:20:39,559 --> 00:20:42,599 ♪ He took me to this great big town ♪ 299 00:20:42,729 --> 00:20:45,479 ♪ Lot of people standing around ♪ 300 00:20:45,565 --> 00:20:47,325 ♪ Little Liza Jane, Jane, Jane... ♪ 301 00:20:47,400 --> 00:20:50,191 And she said, "Okay, Al, but you better play." 302 00:20:50,279 --> 00:20:52,989 [laughs] And I said, "Don't worry, I'll play." 303 00:20:53,074 --> 00:20:55,954 ♪ Oh little Liza, little Liza Jane ♪ 304 00:20:56,035 --> 00:20:59,456 ♪ Oh little Liza, little Liza Jane ♪ 305 00:21:00,373 --> 00:21:03,833 But then, if you watch during her performance of "Little Liza," 306 00:21:03,919 --> 00:21:06,039 she has that little smile from time to time. 307 00:21:07,505 --> 00:21:09,216 She let go, and it was really cute. 308 00:21:09,300 --> 00:21:12,670 ♪ Little Liza Jane, Jane Little ol' Liza ♪ 309 00:21:12,762 --> 00:21:15,552 ♪ Little Liza Jane, Jane Little ol' Liza ♪ 310 00:21:15,639 --> 00:21:19,020 ♪ Little Liza Jane, Jane Little ol' Liza ♪ 311 00:21:19,103 --> 00:21:21,473 [Nina] Then I recorded seven or eight tunes 312 00:21:21,563 --> 00:21:23,693 that I had been doing all of those years, 313 00:21:23,774 --> 00:21:26,604 and of course, the public picked out "I Loves You Porgy." 314 00:21:26,694 --> 00:21:30,155 It was not pushed or promoted to be a hit at all. 315 00:21:40,042 --> 00:21:42,882 -Girls! Guys! Hi. -Hi, Hugh, nice to see you. 316 00:21:42,962 --> 00:21:43,972 Real good. 317 00:21:44,046 --> 00:21:46,426 Eleanor, you want to, uh, take Don's coat here, 318 00:21:46,507 --> 00:21:50,008 and maybe you can show the girls where the powder room is and bedroom. 319 00:21:50,095 --> 00:21:51,595 Hello, there. 320 00:21:51,679 --> 00:21:53,219 Very nice to have you with us this evening. 321 00:21:53,306 --> 00:21:54,426 This is Playboy's Penthouse, 322 00:21:54,516 --> 00:21:58,186 and I'm Hugh Hefner, editor/publisher of Playboy magazine. 323 00:21:59,397 --> 00:22:03,477 I'd like you to meet someone that I think most of you know, Nina Simone. 324 00:22:03,567 --> 00:22:08,157 She came out of nowhere in the last year as a recording star. 325 00:22:08,239 --> 00:22:10,740 Now has a very, very big record in "Porgy" 326 00:22:10,826 --> 00:22:12,866 that is breaking all kinds of sales records. 327 00:22:12,953 --> 00:22:14,453 We're very happy she could join us 328 00:22:14,538 --> 00:22:15,958 -tonight on Playboy's Penthouse... -Thanks. 329 00:22:16,040 --> 00:22:20,581 ...and she's going to play and sing a little bit for us now with her group. 330 00:22:20,670 --> 00:22:22,340 -[all clapping] -[playing piano] 331 00:22:23,882 --> 00:22:25,172 Do you want to hear "Porgy"? 332 00:22:25,258 --> 00:22:27,048 -[all] Very much! -Right! 333 00:22:27,135 --> 00:22:29,646 Good, that's what we'll do. 334 00:22:34,852 --> 00:22:40,523 ♪ I love you, Porgy ♪ 335 00:22:40,608 --> 00:22:44,538 ♪ Don't let him take me ♪ 336 00:22:46,781 --> 00:22:49,952 ♪ Don't let him handle me ♪ 337 00:22:50,036 --> 00:22:53,916 ♪ And drive me mad ♪ 338 00:22:55,583 --> 00:22:58,253 ♪ If you can keep me ♪ 339 00:22:58,336 --> 00:23:04,967 ♪ I'm gonna stay here with you forever ♪ 340 00:23:06,553 --> 00:23:09,133 ♪ And I'll be glad ♪ 341 00:23:12,018 --> 00:23:15,108 ♪ Yes, I loves you, Porgy ♪ 342 00:23:16,522 --> 00:23:19,772 ♪ Don't let him take me ♪ 343 00:23:21,195 --> 00:23:24,115 ♪ Sweetie, don't let him handle me ♪ 344 00:23:24,198 --> 00:23:27,788 ♪ With his hot hands ♪ 345 00:23:29,912 --> 00:23:33,213 ♪ If you can keep me ♪ 346 00:23:33,291 --> 00:23:39,921 ♪ I'm gonna stay here with you forever ♪ 347 00:23:40,007 --> 00:23:43,298 ♪ I've got my man ♪ 348 00:23:43,386 --> 00:23:46,136 [interviewer] Nina, there's a man named Andy Stroud. 349 00:23:46,222 --> 00:23:49,182 He walked into your life and became a permanent part. 350 00:23:49,267 --> 00:23:50,848 How did you meet your husband? 351 00:23:50,936 --> 00:23:56,766 [Nina] He came to see me at a nightclub and a mutual friend introduced us. 352 00:23:56,858 --> 00:24:01,449 Nina came to the table and sat, and I was eating a hamburger plate, 353 00:24:01,531 --> 00:24:04,741 and there were fries, and she dipped into them. 354 00:24:04,825 --> 00:24:07,125 And she wanted to know if it was okay. I said, "All right." 355 00:24:07,203 --> 00:24:12,424 We got cute and then she gave me that card with a note on it. 356 00:24:12,501 --> 00:24:16,961 Then I went over to see her at her place in the next day or two. 357 00:24:18,049 --> 00:24:24,010 ♪ But when he comes I know ♪ 358 00:24:24,097 --> 00:24:29,527 ♪ I'll have to go ♪ 359 00:24:31,314 --> 00:24:36,314 ♪ I love you, Porgy ♪ 360 00:24:36,402 --> 00:24:39,652 [interviewer] How did you know that Andy Stroud was to be your husband 361 00:24:39,738 --> 00:24:42,709 and not just another guy out for a date or something else? 362 00:24:42,784 --> 00:24:45,664 [Nina laughs] That's a hard question. 363 00:24:45,745 --> 00:24:49,295 He told me that he had wanted to meet me for a long time. 364 00:24:49,374 --> 00:24:52,005 And he had come for me. I fell in love with him. 365 00:24:52,087 --> 00:24:56,927 Then later, he scared me to death. He was so, you know... 366 00:24:57,008 --> 00:25:00,808 He knew what he wanted and he just took over. 367 00:25:00,886 --> 00:25:03,517 ♪ With you forever ♪ 368 00:25:03,599 --> 00:25:07,189 He abandoned his own career as a sergeant of the police department 369 00:25:07,269 --> 00:25:08,479 to manage me, 370 00:25:08,562 --> 00:25:12,993 and for the first time, I knew what it was not to be just floundering out there. 371 00:25:13,068 --> 00:25:16,858 ♪ ...got my man ♪ 372 00:25:25,248 --> 00:25:26,918 [song ends] 373 00:25:27,000 --> 00:25:29,750 [all clapping] 374 00:25:31,462 --> 00:25:33,303 [Al] I just remember meeting Andy. 375 00:25:33,382 --> 00:25:39,302 Here was a tough, New York, you know, vice squad cop, 376 00:25:39,388 --> 00:25:44,099 that when he stepped out of his car uptown, people ran. 377 00:25:45,686 --> 00:25:50,446 And he had... he had a way of just saying one word... 378 00:25:50,525 --> 00:25:52,195 [in deep voice] "Hey." 379 00:25:52,277 --> 00:25:55,528 ...and that could put a lot of fear in people. 380 00:25:55,614 --> 00:25:59,784 But Andy and Nina married in 1961. 381 00:25:59,868 --> 00:26:03,369 He retired from the police force and became her manager, 382 00:26:03,456 --> 00:26:04,456 and he did well for her. 383 00:26:04,541 --> 00:26:08,041 They bought a beautiful house in Mount Vernon, New York. 384 00:26:08,128 --> 00:26:12,969 [Nina] We had a 13-room house, four acres of land, lot of trees. 385 00:26:13,051 --> 00:26:16,341 [Nina singing] ♪ My baby don't care for shows ♪ 386 00:26:16,429 --> 00:26:20,229 ♪ My baby don't care for clothes ♪ 387 00:26:21,809 --> 00:26:25,360 ♪ My baby just cares for me ♪ 388 00:26:28,900 --> 00:26:35,831 ♪ My baby don't care for cars and races ♪ 389 00:26:37,368 --> 00:26:39,788 ♪ My baby don't care for... ♪ 390 00:26:42,748 --> 00:26:45,589 ♪ ...high-tone places ♪ 391 00:26:45,669 --> 00:26:48,379 [Nina] And Lisa was born nine months later. 392 00:26:48,464 --> 00:26:54,465 The first three hours after Lisa was born were the most peaceful in my life, 393 00:26:54,554 --> 00:26:57,224 and I was in love with the world. 394 00:26:57,307 --> 00:26:58,307 And Andrew was there. 395 00:26:58,391 --> 00:27:00,481 He was sitting right there, and he said-- 396 00:27:00,560 --> 00:27:02,730 I said, "How's the baby?" He says, "How's the mother?" 397 00:27:02,812 --> 00:27:04,943 And I loved him for that. 398 00:27:05,023 --> 00:27:06,693 I loved being a mother. 399 00:27:06,775 --> 00:27:08,605 I was a good mother. 400 00:27:08,694 --> 00:27:11,454 I was a goddamn good mother. 401 00:27:12,365 --> 00:27:14,486 [Lisa] I remember our house in Mount Vernon 402 00:27:14,576 --> 00:27:15,776 like the back of my hand. 403 00:27:15,869 --> 00:27:17,079 It was like a fairy tale. 404 00:27:17,162 --> 00:27:19,832 I remember seeing the paisley on the walls. 405 00:27:19,914 --> 00:27:22,884 The walls were kind of like a... [sighs] 406 00:27:22,959 --> 00:27:25,340 They were hued in gold, but it really wasn't gold. 407 00:27:25,421 --> 00:27:27,091 It was more like a muted gold 408 00:27:27,173 --> 00:27:28,713 but it felt like it was velvet. 409 00:27:28,799 --> 00:27:33,759 So I'd always run my hands, like, over the walls, because it was textured. 410 00:27:33,846 --> 00:27:36,267 And my mom, she had her cold storage 411 00:27:36,350 --> 00:27:40,520 where she kept her fur coats and her costumes. 412 00:27:40,604 --> 00:27:42,234 So I was always in there. 413 00:27:42,814 --> 00:27:44,615 [Andy] These were the good, sweet days. 414 00:27:44,692 --> 00:27:48,282 We were building and growing together. 415 00:27:49,113 --> 00:27:50,903 [song continues] 416 00:27:55,871 --> 00:28:00,911 [Andy] I had an overall plan to develop and create her as an artist. 417 00:28:01,001 --> 00:28:04,922 I had set up an office at 5th Avenue and 42nd Street. 418 00:28:05,006 --> 00:28:07,216 I had a publicist. 419 00:28:07,301 --> 00:28:12,221 I had a guy who was a record-promotion man that I got from Atlantic Records. 420 00:28:12,306 --> 00:28:16,227 I had another fellow who did the college radio station promotion, 421 00:28:16,311 --> 00:28:19,481 and a photographer. 422 00:28:19,564 --> 00:28:20,974 Dad was the original Puff Daddy. 423 00:28:21,065 --> 00:28:25,656 I mean, he really had a vision, and he was a very astute businessman. 424 00:28:25,737 --> 00:28:28,907 [Andy] And of course, she was burning to get on to Carnegie Hall. 425 00:28:28,990 --> 00:28:33,120 She had trained as a classical pianist with the one thought in mind 426 00:28:33,204 --> 00:28:37,285 of being the first black female classical pianist 427 00:28:37,375 --> 00:28:39,165 to appear in Carnegie Hall. 428 00:28:39,252 --> 00:28:41,382 That was her prime objective. 429 00:28:43,465 --> 00:28:46,756 However, none of the New York City promoters 430 00:28:46,844 --> 00:28:49,314 would undertake this project. 431 00:28:49,388 --> 00:28:53,428 So, I took my own money to promote the appearance. 432 00:28:54,685 --> 00:28:59,516 She was ecstatic. I mean, she was out of her mind with joy. 433 00:29:01,526 --> 00:29:03,776 [interviewer] You apparently wrote a letter to your parents saying, 434 00:29:03,862 --> 00:29:06,153 "This is where you wanted me to play, 435 00:29:06,241 --> 00:29:08,571 -but I should have been playing Bach." -[Nina] "Playing Bach." 436 00:29:08,659 --> 00:29:10,239 [interviewer] So this was your glory occasion, 437 00:29:10,328 --> 00:29:11,828 but you were still disappointed? 438 00:29:11,912 --> 00:29:14,082 [Nina] Well, I loved the audience, 439 00:29:14,164 --> 00:29:18,085 but I wasn't playing classical music, and I wanted to be, 440 00:29:18,169 --> 00:29:19,169 and so I wrote, 441 00:29:19,255 --> 00:29:24,135 "Yes, I'm in Carnegie Hall, finally, but I'm not playing Bach." 442 00:29:26,346 --> 00:29:27,396 [applause] 443 00:29:27,472 --> 00:29:34,392 [Nina singing] ♪ I can't go on without you ♪ 444 00:29:37,400 --> 00:29:44,360 ♪ Your love is all I'm living for ♪ 445 00:29:46,826 --> 00:29:53,796 ♪ I love all things about you ♪ 446 00:29:54,959 --> 00:30:01,890 ♪ Your heart, your soul, my love ♪ 447 00:30:05,763 --> 00:30:07,094 [song ends] 448 00:30:07,182 --> 00:30:08,772 [applause] 449 00:30:10,561 --> 00:30:12,401 [jazz piano playing] 450 00:30:14,773 --> 00:30:18,144 ♪ Say love me, leave me Let me be lonely ♪ 451 00:30:18,235 --> 00:30:21,105 ♪ You won't believe me but I love you only ♪ 452 00:30:21,197 --> 00:30:22,577 [Andy] After Carnegie Hall, 453 00:30:22,657 --> 00:30:25,577 she was getting airplay all over the country, 454 00:30:25,660 --> 00:30:28,331 magazine pictures and stories. 455 00:30:29,164 --> 00:30:32,424 ♪ Nighttime is my time for just reminiscing ♪ 456 00:30:32,501 --> 00:30:35,841 ♪ Regretting instead of forgetting with somebody else ♪ 457 00:30:35,921 --> 00:30:39,932 She became highly successful and recognized. 458 00:30:40,009 --> 00:30:42,349 [indistinct chatter] 459 00:30:42,429 --> 00:30:45,009 -Oh! Thank you very much! -[man] Meeting in Japan. 460 00:30:45,098 --> 00:30:47,679 [host 1] A young woman who's made a very emphatic name for herself... 461 00:30:47,768 --> 00:30:49,888 [announcer] An accomplished pianist and distinctive... 462 00:30:49,979 --> 00:30:51,479 [host 2] ...who's now become a rather famous artist. 463 00:30:51,564 --> 00:30:54,024 [host 3] A remarkable blues-soul sound. 464 00:30:54,108 --> 00:30:56,068 [host 4] For the first time on British television, 465 00:30:56,151 --> 00:30:57,992 The High Priestess of Soul... 466 00:30:58,071 --> 00:30:59,191 [speaking French] 467 00:30:59,280 --> 00:31:01,200 -Nina Simone. -Nina Simone. 468 00:31:01,282 --> 00:31:02,372 The great Nina Simone. 469 00:31:06,246 --> 00:31:08,257 [host 1] Miss Simone brings to her music 470 00:31:08,333 --> 00:31:10,163 a kind of technique and discipline 471 00:31:10,251 --> 00:31:12,501 we generally associate with classical music. 472 00:31:12,587 --> 00:31:15,177 She has introduced fugue and counterpoint 473 00:31:15,256 --> 00:31:18,807 into the freewheeling spontaneity of the jazz world. 474 00:31:22,723 --> 00:31:24,263 [interviewer] Nina, do you think that 475 00:31:24,350 --> 00:31:26,890 now that you are successful as a popular artist 476 00:31:26,977 --> 00:31:28,648 that you'd like to do any classical? 477 00:31:28,730 --> 00:31:32,200 [Nina] Yes, but I don't have time to think about it too much. 478 00:31:32,275 --> 00:31:36,695 But you have to realize that when I'm most satisfied with my music, 479 00:31:36,780 --> 00:31:41,001 I call upon all of the things that I have learned in classical music. 480 00:31:45,623 --> 00:31:48,994 [Andy] She wanted everything that money and success could buy. 481 00:31:49,085 --> 00:31:53,005 So I promised her that she was going to be a rich black bitch. 482 00:31:53,089 --> 00:31:55,719 [Nina] We had a blackboard and he used to put on there, 483 00:31:55,801 --> 00:31:58,682 "I'll be a rich black bitch by this such-and-such date," 484 00:31:58,763 --> 00:32:01,483 and he said, "Then you could quit," and I always believed him, 485 00:32:01,558 --> 00:32:04,348 but I never could quit because he worked me too hard. 486 00:32:05,603 --> 00:32:09,654 [Nina singing] ♪ Breaking up big rocks on the chain gang ♪ 487 00:32:09,733 --> 00:32:13,363 ♪ Breaking rocks and serving my time ♪ 488 00:32:13,446 --> 00:32:17,276 ♪ Breaking up big rocks on the chain gang ♪ 489 00:32:17,365 --> 00:32:21,156 ♪ 'Cause they done convicted me of crime ♪ 490 00:32:21,245 --> 00:32:25,085 ♪ Hold it right there while I hit it ♪ 491 00:32:25,166 --> 00:32:28,246 ♪ Well, I reckon that ought to get it ♪ 492 00:32:28,336 --> 00:32:31,757 ♪ Been workin' and workin' ♪ 493 00:32:31,841 --> 00:32:35,551 ♪ But I still got so terribly far to go ♪ 494 00:32:36,554 --> 00:32:40,765 ♪ I committed crime Lord, I needed ♪ 495 00:32:40,851 --> 00:32:43,811 ♪ Crime of being hungry and poor ♪ 496 00:32:44,896 --> 00:32:48,116 [Al] Andy said, "Nina, it's hard work. 497 00:32:48,191 --> 00:32:50,572 You wanna make the money, you have to work." 498 00:32:50,653 --> 00:32:52,613 And she resented that. 499 00:32:52,697 --> 00:32:53,867 Then Lisa was born, 500 00:32:53,948 --> 00:32:57,828 and she resented being torn away, having to go on the road. 501 00:32:57,910 --> 00:32:59,621 ♪ Well, reckon that ought to get it ♪ 502 00:32:59,705 --> 00:33:02,755 ♪ Been working and working... ♪ 503 00:33:02,833 --> 00:33:05,833 [Lisa] I didn't realize what my mom did for a living. 504 00:33:05,919 --> 00:33:08,639 I just know that Mom was always traveling. 505 00:33:08,714 --> 00:33:12,055 My mother often told me that I had 13 nannies in seven years. 506 00:33:12,135 --> 00:33:14,345 So, while she was trying to maintain 507 00:33:14,428 --> 00:33:18,098 some sense of a schedule for me and normalcy for me, 508 00:33:18,182 --> 00:33:19,683 she was out there doing what she was doing. 509 00:33:19,769 --> 00:33:22,269 [Nina] Can I have five more minutes? It's very frustrating... 510 00:33:22,354 --> 00:33:25,524 [Al] When we were on the road, there were times we had to be careful. 511 00:33:25,608 --> 00:33:28,608 She could get angry and start arguments with people. 512 00:33:28,694 --> 00:33:29,905 Y'all pushing! You're pushing! 513 00:33:29,988 --> 00:33:32,408 Don't put nothin' in it! Let's do it again. 514 00:33:32,491 --> 00:33:35,331 [Al] If anyone were talking in the audience, she would just sit, 515 00:33:35,410 --> 00:33:39,420 and at first, she would say, "Please..." 516 00:33:39,498 --> 00:33:42,039 and she said, "I'm not continuing." 517 00:33:42,126 --> 00:33:45,376 She'd get up, walk out, and the gig was over. 518 00:33:45,462 --> 00:33:47,052 [Nina] I just want them to listen to the music 519 00:33:47,131 --> 00:33:49,011 like they did in the classical world. 520 00:33:49,091 --> 00:33:52,602 I thought they needed teaching. If they couldn't listen, fuck it! 521 00:33:54,515 --> 00:33:56,175 [Andy] She got into Carnegie Hall, 522 00:33:56,266 --> 00:34:02,517 and she got the big house in the country, but she began questioning herself. 523 00:34:02,607 --> 00:34:06,737 She'd get into moods of depression about the whole business, 524 00:34:06,820 --> 00:34:10,201 the personal relationship, cursing and smashing things, 525 00:34:10,282 --> 00:34:13,582 and this worsened as the time went by. 526 00:34:13,661 --> 00:34:18,251 ♪ Gonna see my sweet honey baby ♪ 527 00:34:18,332 --> 00:34:22,003 ♪ Gonna break this chain off and run ♪ 528 00:34:22,087 --> 00:34:26,387 ♪ I'm gonna lay down somewhere shady ♪ 529 00:34:26,466 --> 00:34:31,517 [Nina] All I did was work, work, work. 530 00:34:31,598 --> 00:34:35,898 I was always tired. I was always tired. 531 00:34:35,977 --> 00:34:37,607 I could never sleep. 532 00:34:37,687 --> 00:34:40,447 You see, music always goes through my head, 533 00:34:40,522 --> 00:34:43,813 which means the more I played, the less I could relax. 534 00:34:43,902 --> 00:34:46,322 I kept thinking Andy would let me rest. 535 00:34:46,404 --> 00:34:48,034 He never did. 536 00:34:48,115 --> 00:34:51,706 ♪ But I still... ♪ 537 00:34:51,786 --> 00:34:57,666 ♪ ...got so terribly far to go ♪ 538 00:35:01,338 --> 00:35:03,428 -[song ends] -[applause] 539 00:35:12,809 --> 00:35:15,559 ♪ Got my liver ♪ 540 00:35:18,231 --> 00:35:21,742 [Al] She felt she was being handled like a racehorse, 541 00:35:21,819 --> 00:35:24,529 and she was always fighting, fighting, fighting it. 542 00:35:24,614 --> 00:35:27,984 Andy would say, "Nina, we've got a career here. 543 00:35:28,075 --> 00:35:31,245 That's not going to continue if you don't nurture it." 544 00:35:31,328 --> 00:35:35,079 So, she came to resent Andy... 545 00:35:35,167 --> 00:35:36,787 but she was afraid of Andy. 546 00:35:38,170 --> 00:35:42,011 [Nina] Andrew protected me against everybody but himself. 547 00:35:42,091 --> 00:35:44,841 He wrapped himself around me like a snake. 548 00:35:44,928 --> 00:35:48,428 I worked like a dog, and I was scared of him... 549 00:35:48,514 --> 00:35:50,564 and Andrew beat me up. 550 00:35:50,642 --> 00:35:53,063 But I've never talked to you about this. 551 00:35:53,145 --> 00:35:56,355 But he beat me up. I was deathly scared of Andrew. 552 00:35:58,776 --> 00:36:00,786 ♪ I put a spell on you ♪ 553 00:36:06,076 --> 00:36:08,706 ♪ 'Cause you're mine ♪ 554 00:36:10,621 --> 00:36:15,712 One time, early in the morning, like 4:00, 5:00 in the morning, uh... 555 00:36:15,795 --> 00:36:21,055 the phone rings. It's Nina, and she needed to hide out. 556 00:36:22,344 --> 00:36:23,974 ♪ I ain't lying ♪ 557 00:36:24,054 --> 00:36:28,394 [Nina] I had gone to a discotheque with Andrew... 558 00:36:28,475 --> 00:36:31,065 and a fan came up to me and gave me a note, 559 00:36:31,144 --> 00:36:34,735 and he saw me take this note and put it in my pocket. 560 00:36:34,816 --> 00:36:38,196 ♪ You're runnin' around You know better, Daddy ♪ 561 00:36:38,277 --> 00:36:41,327 [Al] She thought nothing of it. I mean, she related this to me. 562 00:36:41,405 --> 00:36:43,786 And Andy came back and grabbed her arm 563 00:36:43,868 --> 00:36:47,748 and took her out from the place and beat her up. 564 00:36:47,830 --> 00:36:52,000 [Nina] And when I got out on the street, he started raining blows on me. 565 00:36:52,084 --> 00:36:53,335 Bloody blows. 566 00:36:53,419 --> 00:36:55,969 He beat me all the way home, 567 00:36:56,047 --> 00:37:01,677 up the stairs, in the elevator, in my room, put a gun to my head. 568 00:37:01,762 --> 00:37:04,063 Then he tied me up and raped me. 569 00:37:08,060 --> 00:37:12,650 She came to my place and... and she was beat up. 570 00:37:12,732 --> 00:37:15,533 And I, you know, put her to bed, and... 571 00:37:15,610 --> 00:37:20,200 and she, you know, rested for a couple of days. 572 00:37:20,282 --> 00:37:22,492 [Nina] He didn't find me for two weeks. 573 00:37:22,575 --> 00:37:24,576 My eyes, I couldn't see. 574 00:37:24,662 --> 00:37:27,252 And he said, "Who beat you up like that?" 575 00:37:27,331 --> 00:37:28,331 And I said, "You did!" 576 00:37:28,416 --> 00:37:30,876 He said, "No, I didn't. I've been looking for you for two weeks." 577 00:37:30,960 --> 00:37:33,591 I said, "You're insane!" 578 00:37:33,672 --> 00:37:37,222 He was brutal... but I... I loved him 579 00:37:37,301 --> 00:37:40,721 and I guess I just believed he wouldn't do it anymore. 580 00:37:40,805 --> 00:37:43,646 ♪ You're mine ♪ 581 00:37:51,482 --> 00:37:54,653 [Lisa] My mother always said, till the day she died, 582 00:37:54,736 --> 00:37:57,956 Dad was the best manager that she ever had. 583 00:37:58,032 --> 00:38:00,032 But on top of being charismatic, 584 00:38:00,117 --> 00:38:04,458 he could be a bully and he could be very mean, 585 00:38:04,539 --> 00:38:08,799 and she was on the receiving end of that... 586 00:38:08,877 --> 00:38:12,797 more times than, you know, she should have been, 587 00:38:12,881 --> 00:38:14,212 which should have been never. 588 00:38:15,301 --> 00:38:17,801 Mom would allude to, you know, 589 00:38:17,887 --> 00:38:21,227 "He's rammed my head into a concrete wall." 590 00:38:21,307 --> 00:38:23,437 She said that he punched her in the stomach 591 00:38:23,517 --> 00:38:25,068 when she was pregnant with me. 592 00:38:41,162 --> 00:38:44,673 [Lisa] As a child, I remember sitting in the car between them 593 00:38:44,750 --> 00:38:46,880 and they were arguing about something, 594 00:38:46,961 --> 00:38:50,551 and I remember my father reaching across me, 595 00:38:50,631 --> 00:38:53,011 so it was like this, and backhanding her. 596 00:38:54,385 --> 00:38:58,846 [Andy] We're going home in the car, I'm driving, and I slapped her. 597 00:38:58,932 --> 00:39:03,272 Blood spurted... right over this eyebrow. 598 00:39:03,353 --> 00:39:08,284 She had, like, a one-inch cut from my ring, you know. 599 00:39:08,359 --> 00:39:09,649 We got her home 600 00:39:09,735 --> 00:39:14,365 and I clipped the skin together and taped it... 601 00:39:14,448 --> 00:39:17,909 and a week later, there wasn't even a scar. 602 00:39:20,247 --> 00:39:21,907 [Lisa] I think they were both nuts. 603 00:39:21,999 --> 00:39:24,369 She stayed with him. 604 00:39:24,459 --> 00:39:26,380 She had this love affair with fire. 605 00:39:29,340 --> 00:39:32,130 That's like inviting the bull with the red cape, 606 00:39:32,218 --> 00:39:34,968 "Just come on into my kitchen and let's see what we can do." 607 00:39:35,055 --> 00:39:37,016 That's what she did. 608 00:39:37,099 --> 00:39:39,389 -What do I want for her? -[interviewer] Yes. 609 00:39:39,476 --> 00:39:42,026 Myself. What else? 610 00:39:42,104 --> 00:39:43,854 -[laughing] -[interviewer] Career-wise. 611 00:39:45,358 --> 00:39:48,698 [Lisa] My father had a strategic plan in terms of 612 00:39:48,778 --> 00:39:51,198 how Mom's career was going to go. 613 00:39:51,281 --> 00:39:54,571 He wanted her to be able to win all the awards, 614 00:39:54,659 --> 00:39:58,210 and to become the huge star that he knew that she could be... 615 00:39:59,958 --> 00:40:02,418 but she wanted something more. 616 00:40:02,501 --> 00:40:06,292 There was something missing in her, some meaning. 617 00:40:06,381 --> 00:40:07,971 -[booming] -[glass shattering] 618 00:40:11,720 --> 00:40:15,771 [newscaster 1] They died in Birmingham, the nation's most segregated big city. 619 00:40:15,850 --> 00:40:17,480 Dynamite exploded on Sunday morning, 620 00:40:17,560 --> 00:40:20,730 killed four little girls, injured 20 other negroes. 621 00:40:20,813 --> 00:40:22,473 [newscaster 2] It was one of more than 40 bombings 622 00:40:22,565 --> 00:40:23,735 in that Birmingham area. 623 00:40:23,816 --> 00:40:25,106 [indistinct shouting] 624 00:40:25,193 --> 00:40:31,274 [James Baldwin] Kids were murdered in Birmingham on a Sunday 625 00:40:31,367 --> 00:40:34,197 and in Sunday schools in a Christian nation, 626 00:40:34,286 --> 00:40:35,456 -and nobody cares! -[bangs podium] 627 00:40:36,957 --> 00:40:41,837 [Nina] When the kids got killed in that church... that did it. 628 00:40:41,919 --> 00:40:44,379 First you get depressed, and after that, you get mad. 629 00:40:45,298 --> 00:40:47,429 And when these kids got bombed, 630 00:40:47,510 --> 00:40:49,760 I just sat down and wrote this song. 631 00:40:49,845 --> 00:40:53,525 And it's a very... moving, violent song, 632 00:40:53,599 --> 00:40:55,599 'cause that's how I feel about the whole thing. 633 00:40:55,684 --> 00:41:01,025 ♪ Alabama's gotten me so upset Tennessee made me lose my rest ♪ 634 00:41:01,108 --> 00:41:06,188 ♪ Everybody knows about Mississippi, goddam ♪ 635 00:41:06,280 --> 00:41:10,031 ♪ Can't you see it? I know you can feel it ♪ 636 00:41:10,118 --> 00:41:12,368 ♪ It's all in the air ♪ 637 00:41:12,453 --> 00:41:15,703 ♪ I can't stand this pressure much longer ♪ 638 00:41:15,790 --> 00:41:18,621 ♪ Somebody say a prayer ♪ 639 00:41:18,710 --> 00:41:24,170 ♪ Alabama's gotten me so upset And Tennessee's made me lose my rest ♪ 640 00:41:24,258 --> 00:41:28,979 ♪ Everybody knows about Mississippi, goddam ♪ 641 00:41:31,183 --> 00:41:32,393 [Dick Gregory] "Mississippi Goddam." 642 00:41:32,475 --> 00:41:33,645 Phew! 643 00:41:33,726 --> 00:41:35,436 Hmm? Got my attention. 644 00:41:35,520 --> 00:41:38,521 What she was doing was different. 645 00:41:38,607 --> 00:41:42,657 There's something about a woman... 646 00:41:42,736 --> 00:41:46,906 if you look at all the suffering that black folks went through... 647 00:41:46,990 --> 00:41:52,291 not one black man would dare say, "Mississippi, goddam." 648 00:41:52,372 --> 00:41:58,123 And then to have someone with her stature talking about your problem, 649 00:41:58,213 --> 00:42:00,373 you know how happy they had to be? 650 00:42:00,465 --> 00:42:03,345 We all wanted to say it. She said it. 651 00:42:04,510 --> 00:42:06,220 "Mississippi, goddam!" 652 00:42:06,304 --> 00:42:09,515 ♪ Hound dogs on my trail ♪ 653 00:42:09,600 --> 00:42:12,520 ♪ School children sitting in jail ♪ 654 00:42:12,603 --> 00:42:14,653 ♪ Black cat cross my path ♪ 655 00:42:14,730 --> 00:42:18,321 ♪ I think every day's gonna be my last ♪ 656 00:42:18,401 --> 00:42:21,951 ♪ Oh, but my country is full of lies ♪ 657 00:42:22,029 --> 00:42:24,869 ♪ We all gonna die and die like flies ♪ 658 00:42:24,949 --> 00:42:27,329 ♪ I don't trust nobody any more ♪ 659 00:42:27,410 --> 00:42:31,501 ♪ They keep on saying, "Go slow" ♪ 660 00:42:31,582 --> 00:42:33,882 [Lisa] For Mommy to write a song called "Mississippi Goddam" 661 00:42:33,959 --> 00:42:35,129 was revolutionary. 662 00:42:35,211 --> 00:42:38,552 They didn't have cursing on the radio or on television or anything. 663 00:42:38,632 --> 00:42:40,092 DJs refused to play it, 664 00:42:40,175 --> 00:42:45,395 and boxes of the 45s used to be sent back from the radio stations cracked in two. 665 00:42:45,472 --> 00:42:48,723 -♪ Well, that's just the trouble ♪ -[chorus] ♪ Too slow ♪ 666 00:42:48,809 --> 00:42:51,769 -♪ Washing the windows ♪ -♪ Too slow ♪ 667 00:42:51,854 --> 00:42:54,564 -♪ Pickin' the cotton ♪ -♪ Too slow ♪ 668 00:42:54,649 --> 00:42:57,399 -♪ We're nothin' but rotten ♪ -♪ Too slow ♪ 669 00:42:57,485 --> 00:43:00,116 -♪ We're too damn lazy ♪ -♪ Too slow ♪ 670 00:43:00,197 --> 00:43:03,207 -♪ Our thinkin' is crazy ♪ -♪ Too slow ♪ 671 00:43:03,284 --> 00:43:06,074 ♪ Where am I going? Or what am I doing? ♪ 672 00:43:06,162 --> 00:43:08,953 ♪ I don't know, I don't know ♪ 673 00:43:09,040 --> 00:43:12,000 [Al] As the civil rights movement really swung into high gear, 674 00:43:12,084 --> 00:43:14,334 she swung into high gear with it. 675 00:43:14,421 --> 00:43:19,802 In '65, we played at the Selma March in Montgomery, Alabama. 676 00:43:19,885 --> 00:43:23,935 [Martin Luther King Jr.] We have a legal and constitutional right 677 00:43:24,014 --> 00:43:27,474 -to march from Selma to Montgomery! -[crowd cheering] 678 00:43:27,560 --> 00:43:30,071 [Al] It was extremely dangerous. 679 00:43:30,147 --> 00:43:32,317 The federal Marshals were called in, 680 00:43:32,399 --> 00:43:36,069 and they were standing on the tops of all the buildings downtown 681 00:43:36,153 --> 00:43:38,403 with guns. 682 00:43:38,488 --> 00:43:41,989 [Andy] Seated in front of the stage facing the audience 683 00:43:42,076 --> 00:43:43,536 was Martin Luther King, 684 00:43:43,619 --> 00:43:47,959 Ralph Bunche from the UN and a lot of other worldwide dignitaries. 685 00:43:48,040 --> 00:43:52,421 [Al] You had Langston Hughes, James Baldwin, Sidney Poitier, 686 00:43:52,504 --> 00:43:55,624 Bill Cosby, Leonard Bernstein, Harry Belafonte, 687 00:43:55,716 --> 00:43:57,636 and we did "Mississippi Goddam." 688 00:43:57,718 --> 00:44:00,929 ♪ Can't you see it? Can't you feel it? ♪ 689 00:44:02,474 --> 00:44:04,934 ♪ It's all in the air ♪ 690 00:44:05,017 --> 00:44:08,937 ♪ I can't stand the pressure much longer ♪ 691 00:44:09,021 --> 00:44:11,112 ♪ Somebody say a prayer ♪ 692 00:44:12,610 --> 00:44:15,860 ♪ Alabama's got me so upset ♪ 693 00:44:15,946 --> 00:44:18,656 ♪ Selma made me lose my rest ♪ 694 00:44:18,741 --> 00:44:20,702 [crowd cheering] 695 00:44:20,785 --> 00:44:24,625 ♪ Everybody knows about Mississippi, goddam ♪ 696 00:44:28,210 --> 00:44:30,791 [Lisa] My mother said that after she sang that song, 697 00:44:30,880 --> 00:44:34,710 she got so angry that her voice broke... 698 00:44:34,800 --> 00:44:36,550 and from "Mississippi Goddam" on, 699 00:44:36,636 --> 00:44:41,057 it never, ever returned to its former octave. 700 00:44:41,141 --> 00:44:43,471 [crowd singing "Go Tell It On The Mountain"] 701 00:44:43,560 --> 00:44:47,980 But I think that Mom's anger is what sustained her. 702 00:44:48,982 --> 00:44:53,943 The energy and the creativity and the passion of those days 703 00:44:54,030 --> 00:44:55,690 is really what kept her going. 704 00:45:11,215 --> 00:45:12,885 [Andy] When she wrote "Mississippi Goddam," 705 00:45:12,967 --> 00:45:14,467 I thought it was something else. 706 00:45:14,553 --> 00:45:16,463 You know, I liked it. 707 00:45:16,555 --> 00:45:19,595 They put a 45 out on it, and I knew it had a lot of impact. 708 00:45:20,309 --> 00:45:22,770 But my complaint was that 709 00:45:22,853 --> 00:45:26,853 while I was always pushing for the commercial side of the picture, 710 00:45:26,941 --> 00:45:31,202 she got sidetracked with all of these civil rights activities. 711 00:45:32,448 --> 00:45:35,448 [Nina] When the civil rights thing came up, all of a sudden, 712 00:45:35,534 --> 00:45:41,205 I could let myself be heard about what I'd been feeling all the time. 713 00:45:41,290 --> 00:45:44,630 When I was young, I knew to stay alive. 714 00:45:44,711 --> 00:45:47,631 As a black family, we had to work at it. 715 00:45:47,714 --> 00:45:49,924 We had to keep secrets. 716 00:45:50,007 --> 00:45:53,048 We never complained about being poor, 717 00:45:53,136 --> 00:45:56,466 or being taken advantage of or not getting our share. 718 00:45:56,557 --> 00:45:58,977 We had to keep our mouths shut 719 00:45:59,059 --> 00:46:02,270 as I walked across that railroad track every Saturday. 720 00:46:02,356 --> 00:46:05,196 So I knew to break the silence 721 00:46:05,274 --> 00:46:09,744 meant a confrontation with the white people of that town. 722 00:46:11,155 --> 00:46:12,536 [Nina singing] ♪ Southern trees ♪ 723 00:46:12,617 --> 00:46:14,457 And though I didn't know I knew it, 724 00:46:14,535 --> 00:46:18,085 if the black man rises up and says, "I'm just not gonna do that anymore..." 725 00:46:18,163 --> 00:46:21,834 ♪ Bearin' strange fruit ♪ 726 00:46:21,918 --> 00:46:24,298 ...he stands to get murdered. 727 00:46:25,506 --> 00:46:28,056 ♪ Blood on the leaves ♪ 728 00:46:28,133 --> 00:46:32,054 But no one mentioned that, which is, indeed, quite strange. 729 00:46:32,138 --> 00:46:35,148 ♪ And blood at the roots ♪ 730 00:46:39,646 --> 00:46:45,357 ♪ Black bodies swinging in the southern breeze ♪ 731 00:46:50,365 --> 00:46:54,036 [Nina] It touched me first time when I gave a recital at this library. 732 00:46:54,120 --> 00:46:56,380 Everybody was seated 733 00:46:56,456 --> 00:46:58,996 and they told me my parents had to sit in the back, 734 00:46:59,083 --> 00:47:00,083 and I said, 735 00:47:00,168 --> 00:47:02,759 "If they have to sit in the back, I won't perform." 736 00:47:02,838 --> 00:47:04,218 They fixed it that time 737 00:47:04,298 --> 00:47:06,798 and they brought them to the front and they let them sit down, 738 00:47:06,884 --> 00:47:12,014 but it was my first feeling of being discriminated against, 739 00:47:12,097 --> 00:47:15,518 and I recoiled in horror at such a thing. 740 00:47:20,732 --> 00:47:23,533 [people clamoring] 741 00:47:23,611 --> 00:47:25,321 [playing "The Backlash Blues"] 742 00:47:35,165 --> 00:47:36,835 [people screaming] 743 00:47:44,884 --> 00:47:47,934 ♪ Mr. Backlash ♪ 744 00:47:48,012 --> 00:47:49,932 ♪ Who do you think I am? ♪ 745 00:47:51,725 --> 00:47:56,776 ♪ You raise my taxes and freeze my wages Send my only son to Vietnam ♪ 746 00:47:58,524 --> 00:48:00,824 ♪ You give me second class houses ♪ 747 00:48:01,861 --> 00:48:03,862 ♪ You give me second class schools ♪ 748 00:48:05,073 --> 00:48:09,873 ♪ You think all colored people are just second class fools ♪ 749 00:48:11,204 --> 00:48:13,955 ♪ Mr. Backlash ♪ 750 00:48:14,959 --> 00:48:18,679 ♪ I'm gonna leave you with the blues Yes, I am ♪ 751 00:48:25,095 --> 00:48:30,435 I choose to reflect the times and the situations in which I find myself. 752 00:48:30,518 --> 00:48:32,938 That, to me, is my duty... 753 00:48:33,020 --> 00:48:35,741 and at this crucial time in our lives, 754 00:48:35,815 --> 00:48:40,315 when everything is so desperate, when every day is a matter of survival, 755 00:48:40,403 --> 00:48:42,653 I don't think you can help but be involved. 756 00:48:42,739 --> 00:48:44,450 Young people, black and white, know this, 757 00:48:44,534 --> 00:48:47,154 and so that's why they're so involved in politics. 758 00:48:47,244 --> 00:48:49,164 We will shape and mold this country 759 00:48:49,246 --> 00:48:52,286 or it will not be molded and shaped at all anymore. 760 00:48:52,374 --> 00:48:53,795 So I don't think you have a choice-- 761 00:48:53,877 --> 00:48:57,297 How can you be an artist and not reflect the times? 762 00:48:58,006 --> 00:49:00,176 ♪ When I try to find a job ♪ 763 00:49:01,593 --> 00:49:03,393 ♪ To earn a little cash ♪ 764 00:49:04,806 --> 00:49:09,056 ♪ All you got to offer Is your mean old white backlash ♪ 765 00:49:09,143 --> 00:49:10,733 ♪ But the world is big ♪ 766 00:49:14,524 --> 00:49:16,404 ♪ Big and bright and round ♪ 767 00:49:18,195 --> 00:49:22,285 ♪ And it's full of other folks like me Who are black, yellow, beige and brown ♪ 768 00:49:22,365 --> 00:49:23,625 ♪ You better believe me ♪ 769 00:49:25,078 --> 00:49:27,828 ♪ Mr. Backlash ♪ 770 00:49:28,832 --> 00:49:31,462 ♪ I'm gonna leave you with the blues ♪ 771 00:49:39,927 --> 00:49:42,017 [Nina] I've always thought that I was shaking people up, 772 00:49:42,096 --> 00:49:44,517 but now I want to go at it more 773 00:49:44,600 --> 00:49:48,470 and I want to go at it more deliberately and I want to go at it coldly. 774 00:49:48,561 --> 00:49:51,561 I want... I want to shake people up so bad 775 00:49:51,648 --> 00:49:55,739 that when they leave a nightclub where I've performed, 776 00:49:55,820 --> 00:49:57,860 I just want them to be to pieces. 777 00:49:57,947 --> 00:50:00,247 All right! 778 00:50:00,324 --> 00:50:01,994 ["Backlash Blues" playing] 779 00:50:32,567 --> 00:50:35,067 ♪ I said, when he died ♪ 780 00:50:35,154 --> 00:50:36,775 ♪ I said, when he died ♪ 781 00:50:36,865 --> 00:50:39,575 ♪ He told me all my life ♪ 782 00:50:39,660 --> 00:50:42,410 ♪ He said, "Keep on working girl ♪ 783 00:50:42,495 --> 00:50:46,786 ♪ They open up the door one of these days ♪ 784 00:50:47,626 --> 00:50:50,206 ♪ You won't have to wait much longer ♪ 785 00:50:51,547 --> 00:50:55,507 ♪ Just tell 'em exactly how you feel ♪ 786 00:50:55,593 --> 00:50:59,393 ♪ So I'm gonna leave you with the blues ♪ 787 00:50:59,472 --> 00:51:02,102 ♪ That's me, yeah" ♪ 788 00:51:03,727 --> 00:51:05,978 I want to go in that den 789 00:51:06,064 --> 00:51:10,614 of those elegant people with their old ideas, smugness, 790 00:51:10,694 --> 00:51:12,484 and just drive them insane. 791 00:51:12,570 --> 00:51:14,070 [Nina] Rise up! 792 00:51:17,409 --> 00:51:19,079 [audience cheering] 793 00:51:32,633 --> 00:51:35,013 It's all right if you dance slow! 794 00:51:42,353 --> 00:51:45,773 But it was very exhilarating to be part of that movement at the time 795 00:51:45,857 --> 00:51:47,568 because I was needed. 796 00:51:47,650 --> 00:51:53,410 Now I could sing to help my people, and that became the mainstay of my life. 797 00:51:53,490 --> 00:51:58,831 Not classical piano, not classical music, not even popular music, 798 00:51:58,913 --> 00:52:01,413 but civil rights music. 799 00:52:01,499 --> 00:52:06,469 I got to know Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, Andrew Young, 800 00:52:06,545 --> 00:52:10,136 and artists, actors, actresses, poets, writers, 801 00:52:10,217 --> 00:52:14,597 people like myself who felt compelled to make the stand that I have. 802 00:52:14,679 --> 00:52:18,390 [Roger] It was very important for her to connect with 803 00:52:18,476 --> 00:52:21,356 the writers and playwrights of that moment 804 00:52:21,437 --> 00:52:23,147 because those people had 805 00:52:23,231 --> 00:52:26,401 the intellectual background of the movement 806 00:52:26,484 --> 00:52:27,945 and she didn't have that. 807 00:52:28,029 --> 00:52:30,029 She had music, the musical background. 808 00:52:30,697 --> 00:52:32,317 For instance, Langston Hughes, 809 00:52:32,408 --> 00:52:34,988 he wrote the lyrics for "Backlash Blues" for her. 810 00:52:35,077 --> 00:52:39,288 Lorraine Hansberry, Nina took her play, Young, Gifted, and Black, 811 00:52:39,374 --> 00:52:40,834 and made a song out of it. 812 00:52:40,918 --> 00:52:41,918 It's regarded as 813 00:52:42,002 --> 00:52:44,502 one of the most important songs in the civil rights movement. 814 00:52:45,505 --> 00:52:48,676 [Nina] I know that there are only 300 black students here 815 00:52:48,759 --> 00:52:52,009 in this college of 18,000. 816 00:52:52,096 --> 00:52:55,516 So this song is dedicated only to you. 817 00:52:56,184 --> 00:53:00,355 ♪ To be young, gifted and black ♪ 818 00:53:01,440 --> 00:53:07,480 ♪ Oh, what a lovely, precious dream ♪ 819 00:53:08,614 --> 00:53:13,244 ♪ To be young, gifted and black ♪ 820 00:53:13,328 --> 00:53:15,628 [Nina] Lorraine Hansberry was my best friend, 821 00:53:15,705 --> 00:53:19,586 and she wrote plays, Raisin in the Sun and Young, Gifted, and Black. 822 00:53:19,668 --> 00:53:23,088 She taught me a lot about Karl Marx, Lenin, philosophy. 823 00:53:23,172 --> 00:53:25,382 [Lorraine Hansberry] The basic fabric of our society 824 00:53:25,466 --> 00:53:27,846 that has negroes in the situation that they are in 825 00:53:27,928 --> 00:53:30,888 is the thing which must be changed, you know. 826 00:53:32,432 --> 00:53:37,012 ♪ Who are young, gifted and black ♪ 827 00:53:37,104 --> 00:53:39,935 [Lisa] Those times were pretty amazing. 828 00:53:40,024 --> 00:53:43,404 I look back now and I'm just like, "Wow! Who's who of Black America!" 829 00:53:43,486 --> 00:53:45,276 Lorraine Hansberry was my godmother. 830 00:53:45,363 --> 00:53:49,494 Malcolm X's wife, Betty Shabazz, was my auntie. 831 00:53:49,576 --> 00:53:52,036 They lived right next door in Mount Vernon. 832 00:53:52,121 --> 00:53:54,041 There are six daughters and I was like the seventh. 833 00:53:54,123 --> 00:53:56,533 So I was always riding my bike over there. 834 00:53:56,625 --> 00:53:59,666 Lisa and I were the same age, and... 835 00:53:59,754 --> 00:54:02,214 I think we may have called one another twins. 836 00:54:02,298 --> 00:54:04,928 It was just a great, great time. 837 00:54:05,010 --> 00:54:07,300 There was music, there were discussions. 838 00:54:07,387 --> 00:54:11,888 Whether it was at our house or Lisa's house, Nina Simone's home, 839 00:54:11,976 --> 00:54:15,016 it was definitely party with a purpose. 840 00:54:15,646 --> 00:54:18,066 [Ambassador Shabazz] We happened to be a fly on the wall 841 00:54:18,149 --> 00:54:25,110 with some of the genius poets and poetesses of the time, the era. 842 00:54:25,198 --> 00:54:27,988 And to sit in that room and listen... 843 00:54:28,076 --> 00:54:31,827 These were brilliant, well-read, well-traveled, 844 00:54:31,915 --> 00:54:36,385 charming, alluring, charismatic people 845 00:54:36,460 --> 00:54:39,501 who were moved to make a difference in the world. 846 00:54:40,132 --> 00:54:43,722 I'm born of the Young, Gifted, and Black affirmation. 847 00:54:43,802 --> 00:54:47,342 For me, and those of us in that environment, 848 00:54:47,431 --> 00:54:50,602 it was daring to proclaim it... 849 00:54:50,685 --> 00:54:54,645 and then share it joyously when she sang it. 850 00:54:54,730 --> 00:54:59,361 ♪ To be young, gifted and black ♪ 851 00:54:59,445 --> 00:55:03,695 [Shabazz] People would stand up and engage in their African-ness 852 00:55:03,782 --> 00:55:05,862 without apology... 853 00:55:05,952 --> 00:55:09,533 and it's a contemporary, hip song of the era. 854 00:55:09,622 --> 00:55:12,492 It means you get to hum it in public. [laughs] 855 00:55:12,584 --> 00:55:15,334 ♪ It's where it's at ♪ 856 00:55:15,420 --> 00:55:16,630 [crowd cheering] 857 00:55:17,630 --> 00:55:21,101 [Andy] She became a legend in the activists' movement, 858 00:55:21,177 --> 00:55:24,767 and through meetings and discussions that I overheard, 859 00:55:24,847 --> 00:55:28,307 she was convinced that certain things must be done 860 00:55:28,392 --> 00:55:31,683 in order to... push the revolution. 861 00:55:31,771 --> 00:55:34,531 I told them that's not the answer, 862 00:55:34,608 --> 00:55:39,818 and then it began to manifest in her attitude towards me and the business. 863 00:55:39,904 --> 00:55:41,575 She'd fly off. 864 00:55:41,657 --> 00:55:43,157 I remember a few nights, you know, 865 00:55:43,243 --> 00:55:45,793 you go to bed happy and holding one another. 866 00:55:45,870 --> 00:55:46,870 I wake up, 867 00:55:46,954 --> 00:55:49,744 and she'd be sitting up in bed with her arms folded, 868 00:55:49,832 --> 00:55:51,753 looking at me, thinking about killing me. 869 00:55:52,419 --> 00:55:57,669 And this is how it went. The political work became very heavy. 870 00:55:59,010 --> 00:56:01,051 [Nina] To me, we are the most beautiful creatures 871 00:56:01,138 --> 00:56:03,348 in the whole world, black people. 872 00:56:03,431 --> 00:56:07,891 So my job is to make them more curious 873 00:56:07,977 --> 00:56:10,267 about where they came from 874 00:56:10,355 --> 00:56:14,986 and their own identity and pride in that identity. 875 00:56:15,069 --> 00:56:16,359 That's why my songs... 876 00:56:16,445 --> 00:56:19,035 I try to make them as powerful as possible, 877 00:56:19,115 --> 00:56:22,496 mostly just to make them curious about themselves. 878 00:56:22,577 --> 00:56:24,167 We don't know anything about ourselves. 879 00:56:24,246 --> 00:56:25,246 We don't even have 880 00:56:25,330 --> 00:56:28,120 the pride and the dignity of African people, 881 00:56:28,208 --> 00:56:31,079 but we can't even talk about where we came from. 882 00:56:31,171 --> 00:56:32,791 We don't know. 883 00:56:32,880 --> 00:56:35,000 It's like a lost race. 884 00:56:35,633 --> 00:56:38,133 ♪ Ain't got no home ♪ 885 00:56:38,219 --> 00:56:41,050 ♪ Ain't got no shoes ♪ 886 00:56:41,140 --> 00:56:43,430 ♪ Ain't got no money ♪ 887 00:56:43,517 --> 00:56:46,017 ♪ Ain't got no class ♪ 888 00:56:46,103 --> 00:56:48,643 ♪ Ain't got no skirts ♪ 889 00:56:48,730 --> 00:56:51,231 ♪ Ain't got no sweaters ♪ 890 00:56:51,318 --> 00:56:53,818 ♪ Ain't got no perfume ♪ 891 00:56:53,903 --> 00:56:56,443 ♪ Ain't got no love ♪ 892 00:56:56,531 --> 00:56:58,611 ♪ Ain't got no faith ♪ 893 00:57:01,454 --> 00:57:04,124 ♪ I ain't got no culture ♪ 894 00:57:04,207 --> 00:57:06,667 ♪ Ain't got no mother ♪ 895 00:57:06,750 --> 00:57:09,220 ♪ Ain't got no father ♪ 896 00:57:09,295 --> 00:57:11,796 ♪ Ain't got no brother ♪ 897 00:57:11,881 --> 00:57:14,011 ♪ Ain't got no children ♪ 898 00:57:14,468 --> 00:57:16,928 ♪ Ain't got no aunts ♪ 899 00:57:17,011 --> 00:57:19,481 ♪ Ain't got no uncles ♪ 900 00:57:19,556 --> 00:57:21,977 ♪ Ain't got no love ♪ 901 00:57:22,060 --> 00:57:23,810 ♪ Ain't got no mind ♪ 902 00:57:27,065 --> 00:57:29,605 ♪ I ain't got no country ♪ 903 00:57:29,692 --> 00:57:32,153 ♪ Ain't got no schoolin' ♪ 904 00:57:32,238 --> 00:57:34,698 ♪ Ain't got no friends ♪ 905 00:57:34,781 --> 00:57:37,621 ♪ Ain't got no nothin' ♪ 906 00:57:37,701 --> 00:57:39,701 ♪ Ain't got no wine ♪ 907 00:57:39,786 --> 00:57:42,117 ♪ Ain't got no money ♪ 908 00:57:42,207 --> 00:57:44,627 ♪ Ain't got no faith ♪ 909 00:57:44,709 --> 00:57:47,039 ♪ Ain't got no God ♪ 910 00:57:47,129 --> 00:57:50,089 ♪ Ain't got no love ♪ 911 00:57:52,050 --> 00:57:54,340 ♪ Then what have I got? ♪ 912 00:57:54,928 --> 00:58:00,718 I really mean to provoke this feeling of, like, "Who am I? Where'd I come from?" 913 00:58:00,809 --> 00:58:03,390 You know, "Do I really like me?" and, "Why do I like me?" 914 00:58:03,480 --> 00:58:06,480 And, like, you know, "If I am black and beautiful, 915 00:58:06,566 --> 00:58:09,946 I really am and I know it, and I don't care who cares or says what." 916 00:58:11,070 --> 00:58:13,741 ♪ I got my hair, got my head ♪ 917 00:58:13,824 --> 00:58:16,124 ♪ Got my brains, got my ears ♪ 918 00:58:16,202 --> 00:58:20,542 ♪ Got my eyes, got my nose Got my mouth ♪ 919 00:58:20,623 --> 00:58:23,254 ♪ I got my sex ♪ 920 00:58:25,212 --> 00:58:27,792 ♪ I got my arms, got my hands ♪ 921 00:58:27,881 --> 00:58:30,341 ♪ Got my fingers, got my legs ♪ 922 00:58:30,426 --> 00:58:32,767 ♪ Got my feet, got my toes ♪ 923 00:58:32,845 --> 00:58:34,845 ♪ Got my liver ♪ 924 00:58:34,931 --> 00:58:37,221 ♪ Got my blood ♪ 925 00:58:37,309 --> 00:58:38,859 ♪ I've got life ♪ 926 00:58:41,813 --> 00:58:44,104 ♪ I've got life ♪ 927 00:58:46,319 --> 00:58:49,369 ♪ I've got headaches and toothaches ♪ 928 00:58:49,447 --> 00:58:54,458 ♪ And bad times, too, like you ♪ 929 00:58:55,579 --> 00:58:58,329 ♪ I got my hair, got my head ♪ 930 00:58:58,415 --> 00:59:00,495 ♪ Got my brains, got my ears ♪ 931 00:59:00,584 --> 00:59:02,664 ♪ Got my eyes, got my nose ♪ 932 00:59:02,752 --> 00:59:04,803 [Nina] This is what compels me 933 00:59:04,880 --> 00:59:08,590 to push black people to identify with black culture. 934 00:59:08,676 --> 00:59:14,097 Giving out to them that black-ness, that black power. 935 00:59:14,766 --> 00:59:16,936 ♪ Got my heart, got my soul ♪ 936 00:59:17,018 --> 00:59:18,898 ♪ Got my back ♪ 937 00:59:18,979 --> 00:59:21,479 ♪ I got my sex ♪ 938 00:59:23,901 --> 00:59:25,861 [Stanley Crouch] Nina was a real rebel. 939 00:59:25,945 --> 00:59:27,365 She didn't really fit 940 00:59:27,447 --> 00:59:31,237 in the revolutionary black female role that was offered her. 941 00:59:31,993 --> 00:59:35,254 She could avoid pretentious phoniness 942 00:59:35,331 --> 00:59:37,751 and get more depth out of a song 943 00:59:37,833 --> 00:59:40,543 than people are used to hearing out of those songs. 944 00:59:40,628 --> 00:59:42,288 ♪ I got my freedom ♪ 945 00:59:43,923 --> 00:59:47,843 She was a kind of patron saint of the rebellion. 946 00:59:50,764 --> 00:59:52,264 [song ends] 947 00:59:52,349 --> 00:59:54,060 [audience cheering] 948 00:59:58,648 --> 01:00:01,568 [Al] Nina started to get more aggressive. 949 01:00:01,651 --> 01:00:05,152 I remember one time as she walked right up to Dr. King and said, 950 01:00:05,822 --> 01:00:08,532 "I'm not non-violent!" 951 01:00:08,617 --> 01:00:12,747 And he said, "That's okay, sister. You don't have to be." 952 01:00:12,829 --> 01:00:16,460 [Nina] I was never non-violent. Never. 953 01:00:16,543 --> 01:00:20,373 I thought we should get our rights by any means necessary. 954 01:00:20,463 --> 01:00:22,883 [Al] And then she met Stokely Carmichael. 955 01:00:22,965 --> 01:00:25,806 Miss Simone says something very significant 956 01:00:25,886 --> 01:00:28,056 in her song "Mississippi Goddam." 957 01:00:28,138 --> 01:00:33,058 She says, "This country..." She says, "This country is built on lies." 958 01:00:33,143 --> 01:00:35,724 You're gonna sit in front of your television set 959 01:00:35,814 --> 01:00:37,684 and listen to LBJ tell you that, 960 01:00:37,774 --> 01:00:41,524 "Violence never accomplishes anything, my fellow Americans." 961 01:00:41,611 --> 01:00:45,282 And the honky drafting you out of school to go fight in Vietnam. 962 01:00:45,366 --> 01:00:47,696 If you don't want any trouble, 963 01:00:47,785 --> 01:00:50,955 keep your filthy white hands off our beautiful black skin. 964 01:00:51,038 --> 01:00:52,708 -Keep them off! -[crowd cheering wildly] 965 01:00:53,207 --> 01:00:57,458 [Nina] I am just one of the people who is sick of the social order, 966 01:00:57,546 --> 01:01:01,006 sick of the establishment, sick to my soul of it all. 967 01:01:01,091 --> 01:01:05,102 To me, America's society is nothing but a cancer, 968 01:01:05,179 --> 01:01:08,719 and it must be exposed before it can be cured. 969 01:01:08,808 --> 01:01:10,138 I am not the doctor to cure it. 970 01:01:10,226 --> 01:01:13,896 All I can do is expose the sickness. 971 01:01:13,980 --> 01:01:15,731 [people clamoring] 972 01:01:15,816 --> 01:01:18,486 Are you ready, black people? 973 01:01:18,569 --> 01:01:19,939 [crowd] Yeah! 974 01:01:21,154 --> 01:01:22,534 Are you ready, black people? 975 01:01:22,615 --> 01:01:23,825 [crowd] Yeah! 976 01:01:23,907 --> 01:01:25,238 [men singing] ♪ Are you ready? ♪ 977 01:01:25,327 --> 01:01:28,247 -Are you really ready? -[crowd] Yeah! 978 01:01:28,788 --> 01:01:31,078 [Andy] She wanted to align herself 979 01:01:31,165 --> 01:01:35,175 with the extreme terrorist militants who were influencing her. 980 01:01:35,253 --> 01:01:37,794 And after all of these meetings with all these people, 981 01:01:37,882 --> 01:01:38,882 she would come to me and, 982 01:01:38,966 --> 01:01:42,516 "Let's get the guns. Let's poison the reservoir." 983 01:01:42,595 --> 01:01:45,395 All sorts of violent terrorist acts. 984 01:01:45,473 --> 01:01:50,644 Are you ready to call the wrath of black gods... black magic... 985 01:01:50,729 --> 01:01:51,739 [crowd] Yeah! 986 01:01:51,813 --> 01:01:53,233 ...to do your bidding? 987 01:01:53,314 --> 01:01:55,194 [Nina] Black people are never going to get their rights 988 01:01:55,275 --> 01:01:57,656 unless they have their own separate state. 989 01:01:57,737 --> 01:02:01,117 And if we'd have armed revolution, there'd be a lot of blood. 990 01:02:01,198 --> 01:02:03,198 I think we'd have that separate state. 991 01:02:03,284 --> 01:02:07,205 Are you ready to smash white things? 992 01:02:07,289 --> 01:02:09,959 [crowd] Yeah! 993 01:02:10,042 --> 01:02:12,002 To burn buildings, are you ready? 994 01:02:12,085 --> 01:02:14,125 [crowd] Yeah! 995 01:02:14,212 --> 01:02:16,213 [Roger] At a certain point, Nina started to play 996 01:02:16,299 --> 01:02:19,179 only political songs and nothing else, 997 01:02:19,260 --> 01:02:20,890 and that started to hurt her career. 998 01:02:20,970 --> 01:02:23,390 That became a problem to book her, 999 01:02:23,473 --> 01:02:25,183 because promoters were a little bit afraid that 1000 01:02:25,266 --> 01:02:29,647 it might only be the political message that you were getting. 1001 01:02:29,730 --> 01:02:32,570 Are you ready to kill if necessary? 1002 01:02:32,650 --> 01:02:34,400 [crowd] Yeah! 1003 01:02:34,485 --> 01:02:36,145 Is your mind ready? 1004 01:02:36,236 --> 01:02:37,237 [crowd] Yeah! 1005 01:02:37,322 --> 01:02:39,662 -Is your body ready? -[crowd] Yeah! 1006 01:02:39,741 --> 01:02:43,241 [Nina] If I'd had my way, I'd have been a killer. 1007 01:02:43,328 --> 01:02:46,078 I would have had guns, and I would have gone to the South 1008 01:02:46,164 --> 01:02:49,635 and gave them violence for violence, shotgun for shotgun, 1009 01:02:49,711 --> 01:02:51,251 but my husband told me... 1010 01:02:51,337 --> 01:02:53,797 I didn't know anything about guns, and he refused to teach me, 1011 01:02:53,881 --> 01:02:56,431 and the only thing I had was music, so I obeyed him. 1012 01:02:56,509 --> 01:02:59,890 But if I'd had my way, I wouldn't be sitting here today. 1013 01:02:59,972 --> 01:03:01,932 I'd be probably dead. 1014 01:03:02,015 --> 01:03:04,395 Are you really, really, really ready? 1015 01:03:04,477 --> 01:03:06,017 [crowd] Yeah! 1016 01:03:06,103 --> 01:03:08,564 [Andy] She's putting down the white people... 1017 01:03:08,648 --> 01:03:11,818 [mimics dog] I mean, you know, like a barking dog, 1018 01:03:11,901 --> 01:03:14,741 but she still wanted all the good things. 1019 01:03:14,821 --> 01:03:21,372 Whenever she'd see, like, Aretha Franklin and Gladys Knight and all of these people 1020 01:03:21,454 --> 01:03:26,914 on the prime television shows, she, of course, was very upset because 1021 01:03:27,001 --> 01:03:31,422 she wasn't able to get on to these shows because of her reputation. 1022 01:03:31,507 --> 01:03:36,557 It got so that there wasn't that much work and the expenses were high. 1023 01:03:36,637 --> 01:03:40,018 It was cutting the legs out from all the work that I had done. 1024 01:03:40,099 --> 01:03:41,809 -See you later. -[crowd cheering] 1025 01:03:41,893 --> 01:03:43,563 I'll see you later. 1026 01:03:43,645 --> 01:03:44,645 [Lisa] I remember my dad 1027 01:03:44,729 --> 01:03:47,650 complaining about the fact that she never stopped speaking out, 1028 01:03:47,733 --> 01:03:49,773 but that's who she was. 1029 01:03:49,860 --> 01:03:51,070 It was okay when you were onstage. 1030 01:03:51,153 --> 01:03:52,523 It's okay 'cause you let it all hang out, 1031 01:03:52,613 --> 01:03:54,823 and then when the show ends and the lights go out, 1032 01:03:54,907 --> 01:03:56,827 "Okay, let's put the monkey back in the cage, 1033 01:03:56,909 --> 01:03:59,710 and eat your banana and, you know, just behave yourself." 1034 01:04:00,371 --> 01:04:03,331 It was like she was penalized and punished 1035 01:04:03,416 --> 01:04:05,876 for being herself. 1036 01:04:05,960 --> 01:04:11,301 That's a very painful, lonely place to be. 1037 01:04:11,383 --> 01:04:12,393 [tape rolling] 1038 01:04:12,467 --> 01:04:13,847 [interviewer] Good evening. 1039 01:04:13,928 --> 01:04:18,059 Tonight my guest in the studio with me needs almost no introduction. 1040 01:04:18,141 --> 01:04:19,641 She is Miss Nina Simone. 1041 01:04:19,726 --> 01:04:23,056 Nina, when it comes to the artists today, we find that more of the artists 1042 01:04:23,146 --> 01:04:27,606 are attempting to alert America to the need for change. 1043 01:04:27,693 --> 01:04:29,244 Is this really the artist's role? 1044 01:04:29,862 --> 01:04:34,952 [Nina] Well, I think it's something that, um, I have chosen to do 1045 01:04:35,034 --> 01:04:38,665 and I have felt compelled to do it. 1046 01:04:38,747 --> 01:04:40,957 So it is my role... 1047 01:04:41,041 --> 01:04:44,631 but sometimes, I wish it wasn't. 1048 01:04:44,712 --> 01:04:46,632 I think that the artists 1049 01:04:46,714 --> 01:04:50,265 who don't get involved in preaching messages 1050 01:04:50,343 --> 01:04:52,593 probably are happier, 1051 01:04:52,679 --> 01:04:57,759 but you see, I have to live with Nina, and that is very difficult. 1052 01:05:02,106 --> 01:05:06,366 ♪ Baby, do you understand me now? ♪ 1053 01:05:06,443 --> 01:05:07,773 [applause] 1054 01:05:10,281 --> 01:05:15,031 ♪ If sometimes you see that I'm mad ♪ 1055 01:05:16,788 --> 01:05:20,089 ♪ No one can always be an angel ♪ 1056 01:05:22,461 --> 01:05:26,841 ♪ When everything goes wrong you see some bad ♪ 1057 01:05:28,259 --> 01:05:33,640 ♪ But I'm just a soul whose intentions are good ♪ 1058 01:05:34,557 --> 01:05:40,318 ♪ Oh, Lord, please don't let me be misunderstood ♪ 1059 01:05:41,399 --> 01:05:44,399 I think 19 people depend on me for their livelihood. 1060 01:05:44,485 --> 01:05:45,815 That's a hell of a lot of people. 1061 01:05:45,904 --> 01:05:49,074 I know that if I say, "Well, look, I'm too tired to work tonight," 1062 01:05:49,157 --> 01:05:50,908 I'm gonna get it from both ends. 1063 01:05:50,993 --> 01:05:54,963 Nobody's going to understand or care that I'm too tired. 1064 01:05:55,039 --> 01:05:56,919 I'm very aware of that. 1065 01:05:56,999 --> 01:05:59,710 Now, I would like some freedom, somewhere... 1066 01:05:59,795 --> 01:06:01,335 where I didn't feel those pressures. 1067 01:06:01,421 --> 01:06:08,391 ♪ Don't let me be misunderstood ♪ 1068 01:06:11,933 --> 01:06:14,603 ♪ Cause if I’m misunderstood ♪ 1069 01:06:14,686 --> 01:06:18,436 ♪ All my life would have been in vain ♪ 1070 01:06:22,736 --> 01:06:28,746 ♪ And Lord knows I don’t want to come here again ♪ 1071 01:06:28,826 --> 01:06:30,457 ♪ So don't let me be... ♪ 1072 01:06:30,536 --> 01:06:33,836 [Al] By the late '60s, I realized that Nina was fighting 1073 01:06:33,915 --> 01:06:37,295 demons that could appear at any moment and you wouldn't know it. 1074 01:06:37,376 --> 01:06:40,427 She could get violent, she could get really physical, 1075 01:06:40,505 --> 01:06:43,385 and the change in her would be dramatic... 1076 01:06:43,467 --> 01:06:45,677 boom, like a switch. 1077 01:06:45,761 --> 01:06:49,591 And I... I, after a while, realized that I was... 1078 01:06:49,682 --> 01:06:53,563 I wasn't with my sister, I was with "that one..." 1079 01:06:53,644 --> 01:06:57,314 and that one was... menacing. 1080 01:07:02,905 --> 01:07:08,615 ♪ Don't let me be misunderstood ♪ 1081 01:07:12,916 --> 01:07:16,966 [Andy] She was very concerned, in her sane moments, 1082 01:07:17,045 --> 01:07:21,296 about these fits of depression and anger. 1083 01:07:21,384 --> 01:07:24,134 We even went to Columbia-Presbyterian Hospital, 1084 01:07:24,220 --> 01:07:26,980 I think, signed her in for four or five days. 1085 01:07:27,056 --> 01:07:32,227 They conducted every test known to... medicine at the time 1086 01:07:32,312 --> 01:07:35,822 and they were unable to find anything. 1087 01:07:35,900 --> 01:07:40,570 [Nina singing] ♪ Give me a clear mind ♪ 1088 01:07:43,074 --> 01:07:50,044 ♪ Give me the words to say what I mean ♪ 1089 01:07:54,336 --> 01:08:00,796 ♪ Don’t let me be misunderstood ♪ 1090 01:08:12,816 --> 01:08:17,116 [Andy] And her downward spiral, it just got worse and worse. 1091 01:08:18,112 --> 01:08:20,742 We did a tour with Bill Cosby, 1092 01:08:20,824 --> 01:08:24,375 and the last night, she became erratic. 1093 01:08:24,453 --> 01:08:27,123 She had a can of shoe polish. 1094 01:08:27,206 --> 01:08:29,546 She was putting it in her hair. 1095 01:08:29,624 --> 01:08:32,545 And she began talking gibberish, 1096 01:08:32,628 --> 01:08:36,388 and she was totally out of it, incoherent. 1097 01:08:36,466 --> 01:08:39,466 It appeared she was having a nervous breakdown. 1098 01:08:39,552 --> 01:08:41,672 And when it came time to go on, 1099 01:08:41,762 --> 01:08:47,683 I had to escort her by holding her arm onto the stage 1100 01:08:47,769 --> 01:08:50,279 and sat her down at the piano, 1101 01:08:50,356 --> 01:08:53,947 and I immediately stood in the wings on the opposite side 1102 01:08:54,027 --> 01:08:56,317 where we could see one another. 1103 01:08:56,404 --> 01:09:00,694 She's watching me pantomime and she performed. 1104 01:09:02,119 --> 01:09:05,710 Basically, she had no control over her emotions, 1105 01:09:05,789 --> 01:09:10,089 and underneath it all, sex dominated her. 1106 01:09:10,169 --> 01:09:12,840 There were times, once or twice a week, 1107 01:09:12,923 --> 01:09:19,013 when there was a sex attack when she goes into a maniacal rage. 1108 01:09:19,096 --> 01:09:23,227 There had to be sex. I mean, this is driving her. 1109 01:09:23,309 --> 01:09:27,649 [Nina] My attitude towards sex was that we should have it all the time. 1110 01:09:27,730 --> 01:09:29,610 [interviewer] How did Andy act towards you? 1111 01:09:29,690 --> 01:09:33,741 [Nina] I just wanted him to move me sexually, and he never was able to. 1112 01:09:33,820 --> 01:09:34,820 [interviewer] Right. 1113 01:09:34,906 --> 01:09:38,026 [Nina] He didn't know how to touch me and he never had enough time. 1114 01:09:38,117 --> 01:09:42,497 He'd come to see me late at night and be there two hours and leave. 1115 01:09:43,498 --> 01:09:47,748 [Andy] I knew that she was dating other people. 1116 01:09:47,835 --> 01:09:53,176 We agreed that we could both have our own outside partners... 1117 01:09:53,259 --> 01:09:58,549 but we would work together for the sake of the business and the child. 1118 01:10:00,808 --> 01:10:06,899 [Shabazz] I can't sit here and speak about Aunt Nina and Uncle Andy's marriage. 1119 01:10:06,982 --> 01:10:08,692 What I can say is that 1120 01:10:08,775 --> 01:10:13,366 participation and activism during the '60s... 1121 01:10:14,365 --> 01:10:18,665 rendered chaos in any individual's lives. 1122 01:10:19,620 --> 01:10:23,831 People sacrificed sanity, well-being, life. 1123 01:10:24,751 --> 01:10:27,211 Nina Simone was a free spirit 1124 01:10:27,296 --> 01:10:31,216 in an era that didn't really appreciate a woman's genius. 1125 01:10:31,300 --> 01:10:35,681 So what does that do to a household and a family? 1126 01:10:35,763 --> 01:10:37,133 Not because of income, 1127 01:10:37,224 --> 01:10:41,264 but because of your soul not being able to do what you need to do. 1128 01:10:42,938 --> 01:10:44,029 [gun cocks] 1129 01:10:44,107 --> 01:10:45,357 [gunshot] 1130 01:10:46,985 --> 01:10:48,855 [people screaming] 1131 01:10:53,199 --> 01:10:55,450 [announcer] Direct from our newsroom in Washington, 1132 01:10:55,535 --> 01:10:59,915 this is the CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite. 1133 01:10:59,999 --> 01:11:02,629 Good evening. Dr. Martin Luther King, 1134 01:11:02,709 --> 01:11:05,760 the apostle of non-violence in the civil rights movement, 1135 01:11:05,838 --> 01:11:08,418 has been shot to death in Memphis, Tennessee. 1136 01:11:08,508 --> 01:11:10,638 Jesus! 1137 01:11:10,718 --> 01:11:12,178 [sobbing] Jesus. 1138 01:11:12,262 --> 01:11:16,063 [Cronkite] There was shock in the nation's negro communities. 1139 01:11:16,142 --> 01:11:18,062 Men, women and children poured into the streets. 1140 01:11:18,144 --> 01:11:21,194 They appeared dazed. Many were crying. 1141 01:11:22,023 --> 01:11:25,654 [Stokely] I think White America made its biggest mistake 1142 01:11:25,735 --> 01:11:28,745 when she killed Dr. King last night. 1143 01:11:28,821 --> 01:11:32,281 He was the one man in our race 1144 01:11:32,367 --> 01:11:34,237 who was trying to teach our people 1145 01:11:34,327 --> 01:11:38,698 to have love, compassion, and mercy for what white people had done. 1146 01:11:38,791 --> 01:11:42,291 When White America killed Dr. King last night, 1147 01:11:42,378 --> 01:11:45,499 she killed all reasonable hope. 1148 01:11:48,468 --> 01:11:51,728 [Nina] We want to do a tune written... 1149 01:11:53,057 --> 01:11:55,858 for today... 1150 01:11:55,935 --> 01:12:00,525 for this hour for Dr. Martin Luther King. 1151 01:12:00,606 --> 01:12:04,366 We had yesterday to learn it, and... 1152 01:12:05,571 --> 01:12:06,771 so we'll see. 1153 01:12:08,574 --> 01:12:13,454 ♪ Once upon this planet Earth ♪ 1154 01:12:14,788 --> 01:12:19,549 ♪ Lived a man of humble birth ♪ 1155 01:12:19,627 --> 01:12:22,797 ♪ Preaching love and freedom ♪ 1156 01:12:22,880 --> 01:12:27,681 ♪ For his fellow man ♪ 1157 01:12:30,264 --> 01:12:36,055 ♪ He was dreaming of the day ♪ 1158 01:12:36,146 --> 01:12:40,856 ♪ Peace would come to Earth to stay ♪ 1159 01:12:42,402 --> 01:12:48,203 [Nina] Last year, Lorraine Hansberry left us, and she was a dear friend, 1160 01:12:48,284 --> 01:12:50,414 and then Langston Hughes left us. 1161 01:12:50,495 --> 01:12:51,535 Who can go on? 1162 01:12:51,621 --> 01:12:54,921 Do you realize how many we have lost? 1163 01:12:56,085 --> 01:12:59,425 Then it really gets down to reality, doesn't it? 1164 01:13:00,964 --> 01:13:02,884 Not a performance. 1165 01:13:04,468 --> 01:13:07,719 Not microphones and all that crap, 1166 01:13:07,805 --> 01:13:10,225 but really something else. 1167 01:13:11,518 --> 01:13:14,058 We can't afford any more losses. [voice breaking] 1168 01:13:14,146 --> 01:13:18,317 Oh, no. Oh, my God. 1169 01:13:18,401 --> 01:13:21,571 They're shooting us down, one by one. 1170 01:13:21,654 --> 01:13:23,944 Don't forget that... 1171 01:13:24,031 --> 01:13:25,701 'cause they are... 1172 01:13:27,411 --> 01:13:30,031 killing us one by one. 1173 01:13:31,331 --> 01:13:35,251 ♪ If you have to die, it's all right ♪ 1174 01:13:35,335 --> 01:13:39,006 ♪ 'Cause you know what life is ♪ 1175 01:13:39,089 --> 01:13:42,429 ♪ You know what freedom is ♪ 1176 01:13:42,510 --> 01:13:45,590 ♪ For one moment of your life ♪ 1177 01:13:47,849 --> 01:13:49,769 ♪ What's gonna happen ♪ 1178 01:13:50,894 --> 01:13:52,814 [people clamoring] 1179 01:13:52,896 --> 01:13:59,817 ♪ Now that the King of love is dead? ♪ 1180 01:14:01,656 --> 01:14:03,236 [audience applauding] 1181 01:14:10,458 --> 01:14:11,958 [sirens blaring] 1182 01:14:21,428 --> 01:14:24,218 [Nina] I knew that we were lost. 1183 01:14:24,306 --> 01:14:29,227 I felt chased all the time, no matter what I did or how sad I got. 1184 01:14:29,312 --> 01:14:33,862 I felt that there was just no life for me in the country. 1185 01:14:33,941 --> 01:14:37,321 I knew I had to quit or I had to leave Andy 1186 01:14:37,404 --> 01:14:39,364 or do something. 1187 01:14:39,448 --> 01:14:43,238 So I took my ring off, put it on the table... 1188 01:14:43,327 --> 01:14:45,447 and I left the country. 1189 01:14:47,248 --> 01:14:54,169 ♪ I left a note on his dresser ♪ 1190 01:14:56,341 --> 01:15:03,302 ♪ And my old wedding ring ♪ 1191 01:15:07,019 --> 01:15:11,600 ♪ With these few... ♪ 1192 01:15:11,691 --> 01:15:15,361 ♪ ...goodbye words ♪ 1193 01:15:15,445 --> 01:15:19,036 [Lisa] According to my godsister Attallah Shabazz... 1194 01:15:19,116 --> 01:15:23,166 I was staying with them, and Mom had gone away, 1195 01:15:23,246 --> 01:15:26,086 and the phone would ring and whenever it would ring, 1196 01:15:26,165 --> 01:15:29,126 I would go running, saying, "Is that my mommy on the phone?" 1197 01:15:29,961 --> 01:15:32,501 And then I remember going back to the house in Mount Vernon 1198 01:15:32,589 --> 01:15:34,599 and Dad just wasn't there. 1199 01:15:34,675 --> 01:15:36,175 He wasn't there. 1200 01:15:36,260 --> 01:15:39,521 And nobody told me anything, you know? 1201 01:15:39,597 --> 01:15:42,767 [stammers] And, um, so... 1202 01:15:44,686 --> 01:15:48,316 One day you're at home and the staff is there 1203 01:15:48,398 --> 01:15:49,689 and your dad's there and the dog's there 1204 01:15:49,775 --> 01:15:52,275 and everything that's familiar to you is there, 1205 01:15:52,361 --> 01:15:54,701 and then you come back, I don't know, weeks later 1206 01:15:54,780 --> 01:15:57,950 and... nothing's there, nobody's there. 1207 01:15:58,033 --> 01:16:04,954 ♪ Don't look for me ♪ 1208 01:16:16,387 --> 01:16:19,968 [Nina] I decided that I wanted to go to Africa to live 1209 01:16:20,058 --> 01:16:22,388 and never come back to America. 1210 01:16:22,478 --> 01:16:26,858 I got a divorce from Andy and I went to Liberia... 1211 01:16:26,940 --> 01:16:28,730 and I moved there to stay. 1212 01:16:30,987 --> 01:16:36,407 When I got to Africa, I am happy, I'm beyond happy. 1213 01:16:36,493 --> 01:16:40,954 Liberia is a place that was founded by the American slaves, 1214 01:16:41,039 --> 01:16:44,999 and it only makes sense that I should feel at home there. 1215 01:16:46,629 --> 01:16:48,539 I wore... Bikinis and boots is all I wore. 1216 01:16:48,631 --> 01:16:49,632 [woman] Yeah. 1217 01:16:49,716 --> 01:16:52,766 [Nina] Well, there was no loneliness. There was no boredom. 1218 01:16:52,844 --> 01:16:55,134 The days flew into nights, 1219 01:16:55,221 --> 01:16:58,011 and you just couldn't keep up with the times 1220 01:16:58,099 --> 01:17:01,220 'cause there was so much to do. It was always fun. 1221 01:17:03,606 --> 01:17:05,986 I also am keenly aware 1222 01:17:06,066 --> 01:17:11,577 that I've entered a world that I dreamed of all my life 1223 01:17:11,657 --> 01:17:14,747 and that it is a perfect world. 1224 01:17:14,826 --> 01:17:17,116 And I remember thinking of the United States 1225 01:17:17,203 --> 01:17:21,414 as something that I had had in a dream 1226 01:17:21,501 --> 01:17:23,761 sometime in my life, 1227 01:17:23,836 --> 01:17:28,216 but is now gone, like it never existed! 1228 01:17:28,299 --> 01:17:31,470 It was a dream that I had had 1229 01:17:31,554 --> 01:17:33,214 and I had worked myself out of it 1230 01:17:33,305 --> 01:17:37,345 'cause I had toiled so long in that place, in that prison... 1231 01:17:38,351 --> 01:17:41,612 and now I'm home, now I'm free, 1232 01:17:41,690 --> 01:17:43,730 and there is no going back. 1233 01:17:43,817 --> 01:17:46,817 There, it was vast and open, 1234 01:17:46,903 --> 01:17:49,283 and everything was natural. 1235 01:17:49,363 --> 01:17:50,374 Everything! 1236 01:17:50,450 --> 01:17:55,000 I have seen lightning in Africa not flash, but hover, 1237 01:17:55,079 --> 01:18:00,249 and what it does is it electrifies you into complete speechlessness. 1238 01:18:00,334 --> 01:18:04,595 I have seen it! I have seen God. 1239 01:18:11,473 --> 01:18:15,313 [Lisa] In my seventh grade year, Mom moved me to Liberia, 1240 01:18:15,392 --> 01:18:17,352 but she was always traveling, 1241 01:18:17,437 --> 01:18:20,097 and I never knew half the time if I wasn't going, 1242 01:18:20,189 --> 01:18:22,770 that she was leaving or when she was coming back. 1243 01:18:22,860 --> 01:18:27,700 So I lived with a family for a year and I went to school there, 1244 01:18:27,781 --> 01:18:28,821 and I lived with them 1245 01:18:28,907 --> 01:18:32,788 until Mom came and decided to buy a house on the beach, 1246 01:18:32,871 --> 01:18:36,041 and I went from living with them to living with her, 1247 01:18:36,124 --> 01:18:38,294 and she just... 1248 01:18:41,129 --> 01:18:43,460 I could never do anything right. 1249 01:18:45,050 --> 01:18:50,130 She went from being my comfort to the monster in my life. 1250 01:18:50,222 --> 01:18:53,223 Now she was the person that was doing the beating, 1251 01:18:53,309 --> 01:18:55,939 and she was beating me. 1252 01:18:56,605 --> 01:19:00,445 One time, we were in public somewhere, I did something, and she just... 1253 01:19:00,526 --> 01:19:04,027 she went off on me in front of everybody, 1254 01:19:04,113 --> 01:19:05,903 and I didn't show any emotion 1255 01:19:05,990 --> 01:19:08,950 because when Mom... when Mom would see you cry, 1256 01:19:09,035 --> 01:19:10,285 she knew she could push your buttons. 1257 01:19:10,369 --> 01:19:11,620 That's what she wanted, 1258 01:19:11,705 --> 01:19:13,995 and I would not give her that satisfaction. 1259 01:19:14,082 --> 01:19:17,672 When she would hit me, I would look her dead in her face... 1260 01:19:19,046 --> 01:19:23,507 and she'd be like, "You better cry. You better cry." 1261 01:19:23,593 --> 01:19:25,223 I wouldn't do it. 1262 01:19:26,763 --> 01:19:28,973 Times got really bad, 1263 01:19:29,057 --> 01:19:33,058 to the point where I thought about committing suicide. 1264 01:19:33,145 --> 01:19:35,895 So, when I was 14, I flew to New York, 1265 01:19:35,981 --> 01:19:39,531 and I wound up living with my dad and I never went back. 1266 01:19:42,906 --> 01:19:45,526 [Andy] After we broke up, a lot of things happened. 1267 01:19:45,617 --> 01:19:49,077 She didn't file taxes. She didn't take care of business. 1268 01:19:49,162 --> 01:19:50,872 She lost the house in Mount Vernon. 1269 01:19:50,956 --> 01:19:53,247 Everything went crazy. 1270 01:19:54,210 --> 01:19:59,090 [Roger] She lived a nomadic life, having no manager, having no husband... 1271 01:19:59,173 --> 01:20:03,804 but she always said living in Africa was the happiest time in her life. 1272 01:20:03,887 --> 01:20:08,147 She could just be there, enjoy herself. She didn't have to sing at all. 1273 01:20:08,225 --> 01:20:11,775 [Lisa] She wasn't playing piano and she wasn't performing. 1274 01:20:11,854 --> 01:20:15,275 She said she hated the piano. She hated it. 1275 01:20:15,358 --> 01:20:18,618 Think about it. She's playing since she was four years old. 1276 01:20:19,528 --> 01:20:20,618 [Roger] On the other hand, 1277 01:20:20,697 --> 01:20:24,618 she was very well aware that in Africa, no money came in. 1278 01:20:24,702 --> 01:20:26,662 So she had to pick up her career again. 1279 01:20:28,122 --> 01:20:31,332 She didn't want to return to what she called, 1280 01:20:31,416 --> 01:20:33,587 "The United Snakes of America." 1281 01:20:33,670 --> 01:20:38,470 So she moved to Switzerland, which was the complete opposite of Africa, 1282 01:20:38,549 --> 01:20:41,679 and the first thing she did was the Montreux concert. 1283 01:20:43,389 --> 01:20:45,229 [audience applauding] 1284 01:21:07,248 --> 01:21:08,628 You on yet? 1285 01:21:10,501 --> 01:21:13,301 Do you hear all those noises? 1286 01:21:13,379 --> 01:21:15,340 You didn't forget me, huh? 1287 01:21:15,424 --> 01:21:19,144 That's-- That's what's so wild, you didn't forget me. 1288 01:21:21,596 --> 01:21:23,516 I didn't expect you to, 1289 01:21:25,351 --> 01:21:27,561 but I'm tired. 1290 01:21:29,605 --> 01:21:31,445 You don't know what I mean. 1291 01:21:33,694 --> 01:21:36,615 And there are many people in show business who said, 1292 01:21:36,698 --> 01:21:39,158 "Oh, she-- You know, she used to be a star. 1293 01:21:39,241 --> 01:21:41,371 She's gone all the way to the bottom," 1294 01:21:41,452 --> 01:21:45,373 and all kinds of crap which means nothing to me at all. 1295 01:21:46,458 --> 01:21:50,918 I hope that you will see me or see the spirit 1296 01:21:51,004 --> 01:21:55,595 in another sphere, on another plane very soon now. 1297 01:21:55,677 --> 01:21:58,807 And again, I don't wanna let you down and I get this feeling. 1298 01:21:58,888 --> 01:22:03,188 So I think the only way to tell you who I am these days... 1299 01:22:03,267 --> 01:22:07,818 is to sing a song by Janis Ian. 1300 01:22:11,151 --> 01:22:15,612 ♪ Stars, they come and go ♪ 1301 01:22:15,699 --> 01:22:18,539 ♪ They come fast, they come slow ♪ 1302 01:22:19,494 --> 01:22:24,665 ♪ They go like the last light of the sun, all in a blaze ♪ 1303 01:22:24,751 --> 01:22:27,091 Hey, girl, sit down! 1304 01:22:27,169 --> 01:22:28,469 Sit down! 1305 01:22:28,545 --> 01:22:30,295 [scattered laughter] 1306 01:22:34,135 --> 01:22:35,426 Sit down! 1307 01:22:43,186 --> 01:22:46,817 ♪ Stars, they come and go ♪ 1308 01:22:46,900 --> 01:22:49,150 ♪ They come fast, they come slow ♪ 1309 01:22:49,235 --> 01:22:54,065 ♪ They go like the last light of the sun, all in a blaze ♪ 1310 01:22:55,200 --> 01:22:57,830 ♪ All you see is glory ♪ 1311 01:22:59,454 --> 01:23:05,345 ♪ But it gets lonely there when there's no one there to share ♪ 1312 01:23:07,005 --> 01:23:09,715 ♪ You can shake it away ♪ 1313 01:23:14,429 --> 01:23:17,220 ♪ If you'll hear a story ♪ 1314 01:23:22,980 --> 01:23:25,651 ♪ People lust for fame ♪ 1315 01:23:27,360 --> 01:23:29,780 ♪ Like athletes in a game ♪ 1316 01:23:34,034 --> 01:23:38,745 ♪ They break their collarbones and come up swinging ♪ 1317 01:23:40,249 --> 01:23:42,789 ♪ Some of them are crowned ♪ 1318 01:23:42,877 --> 01:23:45,087 ♪ Some of them are downed ♪ 1319 01:23:46,590 --> 01:23:50,420 ♪ Some are lost and never found ♪ 1320 01:23:57,102 --> 01:23:59,852 ♪ But most have seen it all ♪ 1321 01:24:03,984 --> 01:24:09,275 ♪ They live their lives in sad cafés and music halls ♪ 1322 01:24:15,204 --> 01:24:17,625 ♪ And they always have a story ♪ 1323 01:24:23,296 --> 01:24:27,297 ♪ Some make it when they're young ♪ 1324 01:24:29,220 --> 01:24:33,310 ♪ Before the world has done its dirty job ♪ 1325 01:24:35,059 --> 01:24:39,110 ♪ And later on someone will say, "You've had your day ♪ 1326 01:24:41,984 --> 01:24:44,244 ♪ Now you must make way" ♪ 1327 01:24:47,573 --> 01:24:49,323 ♪ Don't they always? ♪ 1328 01:24:50,035 --> 01:24:53,705 ♪ But you'll never know the pain ♪ 1329 01:24:55,957 --> 01:24:59,878 ♪ Of using a name you never owned ♪ 1330 01:25:02,089 --> 01:25:07,680 ♪ The years of forgetting what you know too well ♪ 1331 01:25:09,973 --> 01:25:14,393 ♪ That you who gave the crown have been let down ♪ 1332 01:25:14,477 --> 01:25:19,068 ♪ You try to make amends ♪ 1333 01:25:21,945 --> 01:25:25,495 ♪ Without defending ♪ 1334 01:25:26,782 --> 01:25:28,703 ♪ Perhaps ♪ 1335 01:25:31,080 --> 01:25:36,250 ♪ Pretending you never saw the eyes ♪ 1336 01:25:37,127 --> 01:25:39,508 [Nina] In Switzerland, there I had no money. 1337 01:25:39,589 --> 01:25:41,549 I never got anything from Andy. 1338 01:25:41,632 --> 01:25:44,962 He just cut himself off from me and I was left high and dry. 1339 01:25:45,053 --> 01:25:50,184 So I left Switzerland and I went to Paris, thinking that I could resume my career. 1340 01:25:50,267 --> 01:25:51,897 I did it alone 1341 01:25:51,978 --> 01:25:55,528 and I landed in the wrong place. 1342 01:25:55,606 --> 01:26:00,237 I was working every night in a small cafe for about $300 a night. 1343 01:26:01,029 --> 01:26:02,619 [stammering] 1344 01:26:03,448 --> 01:26:04,778 [speaking French] 1345 01:26:09,872 --> 01:26:12,422 No, we just do "Vous Etes Seuls." 1346 01:26:12,500 --> 01:26:13,670 It goes like this! 1347 01:26:13,751 --> 01:26:19,172 [singing "Vous Êtes Seul, Mais Je Désire Être Avec Vous"] 1348 01:26:19,258 --> 01:26:22,638 [Nina] I was desperate and no one believed that I was there. 1349 01:26:22,719 --> 01:26:26,309 I was too big to be there. No one came to see me. 1350 01:26:26,390 --> 01:26:29,101 And I had fallen from grace. 1351 01:26:30,145 --> 01:26:36,325 I'm sorry that I didn't become the world's first black classic pianist. 1352 01:26:36,401 --> 01:26:38,992 I think I would have been happier. 1353 01:26:39,071 --> 01:26:42,201 I'm not very happy now. 1354 01:26:42,283 --> 01:26:45,583 I wouldn't change being part of the civil rights movement. 1355 01:26:45,661 --> 01:26:47,081 I wouldn't change that. 1356 01:26:47,163 --> 01:26:50,124 But some of the songs that I sang have hurt my career. 1357 01:26:50,208 --> 01:26:55,628 All of the controversial songs the industry decided to punish me for... 1358 01:26:55,713 --> 01:26:58,593 and they put a boycott on all of my records, 1359 01:26:58,675 --> 01:27:01,056 and it's, uh... 1360 01:27:02,513 --> 01:27:05,353 hard for me to incorporate those songs anymore 1361 01:27:05,433 --> 01:27:07,143 because they are not relevant to the times. 1362 01:27:07,226 --> 01:27:11,107 In terms of the civil rights movement, how far have we come? 1363 01:27:11,190 --> 01:27:12,640 There aren't any civil rights! 1364 01:27:13,817 --> 01:27:14,987 What do you mean? 1365 01:27:15,069 --> 01:27:18,789 There is no reason to sing those songs. Nothing is happening. 1366 01:27:18,863 --> 01:27:21,784 There's no civil rights movement. Everybody's gone. 1367 01:27:23,286 --> 01:27:28,246 [Gerrit de Bruin] I met Nina in 1967 and I've been her friend all her life. 1368 01:27:28,333 --> 01:27:31,714 She called me in 1982 and she was here in Paris, 1369 01:27:31,795 --> 01:27:35,135 living in a very small apartment, hardly with any money. 1370 01:27:35,216 --> 01:27:39,557 She did concerts of four hours long at Trois Mailletz, that nightclub, 1371 01:27:39,637 --> 01:27:41,977 and she got a few hundred dollars a night. 1372 01:27:42,682 --> 01:27:44,692 And that was the worst period. 1373 01:27:44,767 --> 01:27:49,107 I visited her in that little apartment and it was so dirty, 1374 01:27:49,189 --> 01:27:53,400 so I cleaned it all up and, "Nina, you can't live like this," 1375 01:27:53,486 --> 01:27:55,566 but at that moment, she was still uncontrollable. 1376 01:27:56,489 --> 01:27:58,779 This thing in the Grand Hotel in Paris happened. 1377 01:27:58,866 --> 01:28:01,157 Somebody looked her in the eyes a bit too long, 1378 01:28:01,245 --> 01:28:07,415 and she was already a bit nervous and she kind of... made a movement 1379 01:28:07,501 --> 01:28:09,541 and I thought, "She's going to hit him." 1380 01:28:09,628 --> 01:28:11,089 Immediately, my arms around her, 1381 01:28:11,172 --> 01:28:15,472 and I dragged her out in a taxi and I said to the taxi driver, "Drive!" 1382 01:28:16,802 --> 01:28:21,773 [Al] When I saw her in Paris, she was like a street urchin dressed in rags. 1383 01:28:21,850 --> 01:28:26,600 I couldn't believe what was happening and I was really, really sad. 1384 01:28:27,273 --> 01:28:30,234 Gerrit and I, we knew something was very wrong, 1385 01:28:30,318 --> 01:28:32,648 and we were trying to figure out, 1386 01:28:32,737 --> 01:28:35,367 and like, "What is it? What is it, really?" 1387 01:28:37,159 --> 01:28:41,540 So Gerrit found her a condo in Nijmegen in Holland, 1388 01:28:41,622 --> 01:28:46,332 and Gerrit had a friend, a doctor, that he brought to Nina's place, 1389 01:28:46,419 --> 01:28:49,329 and the doctor examined her and asked her questions, 1390 01:28:49,422 --> 01:28:52,423 and he prescribed a medication 1391 01:28:52,509 --> 01:28:56,059 which was kind of new... new spectrum, called Trilafon. 1392 01:28:57,096 --> 01:29:01,017 [Lisa] It wasn't till I was in my 20s and I went to visit her in Nijmegen, 1393 01:29:01,101 --> 01:29:05,101 that's when I learned the term "manic-depressive" and "bipolar" 1394 01:29:05,190 --> 01:29:06,200 and I remember asking, 1395 01:29:06,274 --> 01:29:08,064 "Well, what is that? What do you mean by that?" 1396 01:29:08,151 --> 01:29:09,851 And her mood swings 1397 01:29:09,944 --> 01:29:12,525 and a lot of the things I dealt with earlier in life 1398 01:29:12,614 --> 01:29:14,154 when, you know, one minute she'd be happy 1399 01:29:14,241 --> 01:29:16,831 and then the next minute... 1400 01:29:16,910 --> 01:29:21,041 I'd be dealing with someone that wasn't in the room five minutes ago. 1401 01:29:21,123 --> 01:29:23,953 It started to make sense. 1402 01:29:24,043 --> 01:29:27,003 [Gerrit] She got so deep in the shit in the end 1403 01:29:27,088 --> 01:29:31,088 that she realized it's either dying or give in. 1404 01:29:31,177 --> 01:29:33,927 And she gave in because we said, "Nina... 1405 01:29:34,012 --> 01:29:38,232 we'll get you a house, we'll get you your musicians, 1406 01:29:38,309 --> 01:29:41,269 we'll make the things all right around you, 1407 01:29:41,355 --> 01:29:43,765 we'll book your concerts... 1408 01:29:43,857 --> 01:29:46,487 but you have to do as we say. 1409 01:29:47,486 --> 01:29:50,236 You have to take your medicine. You have to work. 1410 01:29:50,322 --> 01:29:54,123 God has given you the possibility to be able to do what you do, so do it! 1411 01:29:54,201 --> 01:29:57,451 The only thing we want to hear is either 'yes' or 'no.'" 1412 01:29:57,538 --> 01:30:01,168 And she said, with tears in her eyes, "Yes." 1413 01:30:02,168 --> 01:30:03,288 [Lisa] When I saw her, 1414 01:30:03,379 --> 01:30:07,209 I was very concerned because she had a... a nervous tic. 1415 01:30:07,299 --> 01:30:10,259 You know, she'd be talking or sitting and this-- 1416 01:30:10,344 --> 01:30:12,265 Her mouth would always be twitching, 1417 01:30:12,347 --> 01:30:15,727 and when she would walk, it was more of a shuffle. 1418 01:30:15,808 --> 01:30:18,058 And I'm like, "What's going on here?" 1419 01:30:18,144 --> 01:30:20,354 You know, "Why-- 1420 01:30:20,438 --> 01:30:22,649 What's going on? What am I missing?" 1421 01:30:22,733 --> 01:30:24,483 And they had her on medication. 1422 01:30:25,528 --> 01:30:28,748 [Al] She started taking the Trilafon and the doctor said, 1423 01:30:28,822 --> 01:30:32,743 "Through the years, it's going to have an effect on her motor skills. 1424 01:30:32,827 --> 01:30:38,297 Her voice is going to start to slur and her piano abilities will decline. 1425 01:30:38,375 --> 01:30:39,755 You can deal with that 1426 01:30:39,834 --> 01:30:45,545 or you can deal with her probably damaging herself or someone else." 1427 01:30:46,926 --> 01:30:49,386 But the Trilafon really helped. 1428 01:30:49,470 --> 01:30:51,270 I mean, there were times in Holland, 1429 01:30:51,347 --> 01:30:54,478 sitting on her terrace in these lounge chairs 1430 01:30:54,560 --> 01:30:55,940 and just holding hands... 1431 01:30:56,019 --> 01:30:59,109 I mean, she was like-- She was my sister. 1432 01:30:59,189 --> 01:31:03,780 ...and not talking at all for hours, just enjoying the day. 1433 01:31:05,947 --> 01:31:09,287 [Lisa] And I suppose that medication enabled her to perform 1434 01:31:09,367 --> 01:31:12,657 and fulfill the business dealings that were taking place 1435 01:31:12,746 --> 01:31:15,286 so that her career could get back on track, 1436 01:31:15,374 --> 01:31:17,334 but there were times when I questioned that, 1437 01:31:17,418 --> 01:31:18,588 you know, "But what about her heart?" 1438 01:31:18,669 --> 01:31:22,759 Because at the end of the day, you guys got wives and husbands and lives, 1439 01:31:22,841 --> 01:31:24,511 but she's alone. 1440 01:31:26,511 --> 01:31:29,721 [Nina] My personal life is a shambles. 1441 01:31:29,806 --> 01:31:34,887 I've had a few love affairs and I would love to be married, 1442 01:31:34,979 --> 01:31:39,399 but everything has had to be sacrificed for the music. 1443 01:31:44,030 --> 01:31:46,490 [crowd cheering and applauding] 1444 01:31:51,372 --> 01:31:54,623 [Gerrit] We had to do, first in Holland, eight concerts, 1445 01:31:54,709 --> 01:31:57,499 and the word spread that Nina's doing the job well. 1446 01:31:57,587 --> 01:32:01,097 Then she was on the road again and it was... poof. 1447 01:32:01,173 --> 01:32:02,423 The business was going. 1448 01:32:04,595 --> 01:32:05,635 [Roger] She came onstage 1449 01:32:05,721 --> 01:32:09,391 and you had this overwhelming, emotional feeling 1450 01:32:09,475 --> 01:32:13,525 coming from the audience just because she was there. 1451 01:32:15,023 --> 01:32:18,023 Now listen to me. 1452 01:32:18,109 --> 01:32:19,529 I love you very much. 1453 01:32:19,611 --> 01:32:23,231 I think you know that and I know that you love me. 1454 01:32:23,322 --> 01:32:24,743 -I know that. -[audience member whoops] 1455 01:32:24,825 --> 01:32:27,495 [cheers and applause] 1456 01:32:27,578 --> 01:32:28,668 [Roger] And we never knew too well 1457 01:32:28,746 --> 01:32:31,206 what was going to happen and how the mood would be. 1458 01:32:31,874 --> 01:32:35,465 So this place is very hot and it's very crowded 1459 01:32:35,546 --> 01:32:37,256 and it's very ugly. 1460 01:32:37,338 --> 01:32:38,798 [audience laughing] 1461 01:32:40,884 --> 01:32:43,514 [Roger] But she opened her heart and soul 1462 01:32:43,595 --> 01:32:44,926 at that moment. 1463 01:32:45,014 --> 01:32:48,134 That's this special kind of connection she had with an audience. 1464 01:32:48,976 --> 01:32:51,856 This song is popular all over France. 1465 01:32:52,605 --> 01:32:54,646 It's from our first album... 1466 01:32:54,733 --> 01:32:57,533 the very first album we made in this world, 1467 01:32:57,611 --> 01:33:00,361 which is at least 25 years old. 1468 01:33:00,448 --> 01:33:02,578 I only wish I was as wise... 1469 01:33:02,658 --> 01:33:06,249 could have been as wise then as I have become now. 1470 01:33:07,622 --> 01:33:08,962 I have suffered. 1471 01:33:10,041 --> 01:33:13,711 But there's a Bösendorfer here, so we'll see what happens. 1472 01:33:13,795 --> 01:33:15,546 "My Baby Just Cares For Me." 1473 01:33:22,472 --> 01:33:24,813 She was helped by "My Baby Just Cares For Me," 1474 01:33:24,891 --> 01:33:28,891 that song that became a hit because of the Chanel advertisement. 1475 01:33:28,979 --> 01:33:32,019 [Nina] And when "My Baby Just Cares For Me" came along, I said, 1476 01:33:32,107 --> 01:33:35,568 "I have to take this opportunity now to go all over the world 1477 01:33:35,653 --> 01:33:37,823 because this is my last chance." 1478 01:33:37,905 --> 01:33:41,915 And so I worked very hard to take advantage of my second coming 1479 01:33:41,993 --> 01:33:44,873 because it was my last time as far as I was concerned. 1480 01:33:46,999 --> 01:33:49,459 ♪ My baby don't care for clothes ♪ 1481 01:33:49,543 --> 01:33:52,833 ♪ My baby don't care for shows ♪ 1482 01:33:53,839 --> 01:33:57,760 ♪ My baby just cares for me ♪ 1483 01:34:00,429 --> 01:34:03,609 ♪ My baby don't care for... ♪ 1484 01:34:05,059 --> 01:34:07,820 ♪ cars and races ♪ 1485 01:34:07,897 --> 01:34:10,487 ♪ My baby don't care for... ♪ 1486 01:34:12,276 --> 01:34:14,366 ♪ high-tone places ♪ 1487 01:34:15,445 --> 01:34:18,286 ♪ Liz Taylor is not his style ♪ 1488 01:34:19,200 --> 01:34:21,960 ♪ And even Sally Burton's smile ♪ 1489 01:34:23,246 --> 01:34:26,797 [Lisa] And she was happiest doing music. I think that was her salvation. 1490 01:34:26,876 --> 01:34:29,296 That's the one thing that she didn't have to think about. 1491 01:34:29,378 --> 01:34:32,548 When she sat at the piano, her fingers could fly. 1492 01:34:32,632 --> 01:34:35,302 ♪ My baby don't care who knows it ♪ 1493 01:34:36,762 --> 01:34:38,142 ♪ My baby just cares for me ♪ 1494 01:34:38,221 --> 01:34:39,471 She was an anomaly. 1495 01:34:39,557 --> 01:34:41,807 She was a genius. She was brilliant, 1496 01:34:41,892 --> 01:34:47,193 and that brilliance shone through no matter what she was going through. 1497 01:34:47,273 --> 01:34:50,993 Even into her old age, she was brilliant. 1498 01:34:51,069 --> 01:34:54,279 ♪ My baby don't care for clothes ♪ 1499 01:34:54,363 --> 01:34:57,664 ♪ My baby don't care for shows ♪ 1500 01:34:57,743 --> 01:35:00,583 [Gerrit] She was genius. She could do whatever she liked. 1501 01:35:00,663 --> 01:35:03,003 And when she didn't have her medicine, 1502 01:35:03,082 --> 01:35:06,463 she, musically, could get even further out. 1503 01:35:07,420 --> 01:35:09,960 ♪ My baby don't care for... ♪ 1504 01:35:11,883 --> 01:35:14,633 ♪ high-tone places ♪ 1505 01:35:14,720 --> 01:35:16,931 In one of those little concerts, and it's recorded, 1506 01:35:17,014 --> 01:35:20,604 she starts playing one song and she sings another. 1507 01:35:20,685 --> 01:35:23,355 And this recording, I made Miles Davis... 1508 01:35:23,437 --> 01:35:26,818 while we were on tour, we were on the same jazz tour as Miles Davis, 1509 01:35:26,900 --> 01:35:28,400 and I made him listen to it, 1510 01:35:28,485 --> 01:35:31,785 and he said, "Gerrit... let me listen to it again! 1511 01:35:31,864 --> 01:35:34,034 How is she doing this?" 1512 01:35:34,116 --> 01:35:35,536 He couldn't understand. 1513 01:35:35,618 --> 01:35:39,839 ♪ My baby just cares for me ♪ 1514 01:35:42,250 --> 01:35:46,580 [Shabazz] As I got older, I started to look at her and I thought to myself, 1515 01:35:46,671 --> 01:35:49,672 "Wow, she's from another time!" 1516 01:35:49,759 --> 01:35:54,269 But she was not at odds with the times. The times was at odds with her. 1517 01:35:54,930 --> 01:36:01,781 I think when a person moves to their own kind of clock, spirit, flow, 1518 01:36:02,731 --> 01:36:07,071 if we were living in an environment that allowed us to be exactly who we are, 1519 01:36:07,152 --> 01:36:09,233 you're always in congress with yourself. 1520 01:36:09,321 --> 01:36:10,951 The challenge is, 1521 01:36:11,032 --> 01:36:14,202 "How do we fit in in the world that we're around, but we-- 1522 01:36:14,285 --> 01:36:17,165 Are we allowed to be exactly who we are? 1523 01:36:17,246 --> 01:36:21,997 Was Nina Simone allowed to be exactly who she was?" 1524 01:36:23,211 --> 01:36:26,221 As fragile as she was strong, 1525 01:36:26,298 --> 01:36:29,969 as vulnerable as she was dynamic, 1526 01:36:30,053 --> 01:36:32,813 she was African royalty. 1527 01:36:32,889 --> 01:36:36,639 How does royalty stomp around in the mud 1528 01:36:36,726 --> 01:36:38,847 and still walk with grace? 1529 01:36:39,646 --> 01:36:44,276 Most people are afraid to be as honest as she lived. 1530 01:36:44,944 --> 01:36:47,574 ♪ My baby just cares for... ♪ 1531 01:36:48,699 --> 01:36:51,739 ♪ He just says he cares for... ♪ 1532 01:36:52,703 --> 01:36:56,293 ♪ My baby just cares for me ♪ 1533 01:36:58,667 --> 01:37:00,297 [Nina] Good night! 1534 01:37:01,212 --> 01:37:03,632 [audience cheering and applauding] 1535 01:37:35,499 --> 01:37:39,170 [Nina singing "I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel To Be Free"] 1536 01:39:18,403 --> 01:39:20,444 ["Sinnerman" playing] 1537 01:41:49,528 --> 01:41:51,738 [song ends]