"Young, gifted and black, we must begin to tell our young, there's a world waiting for you, this is a quest that's just begun"
In the midst of the Civil Rights Movement where spirits may not have been high, Nina Simone walked onto the stage and used her raspy voice to send a message. That message is there's always tomorrow and the future is bright. It's a live album that features Simone singing some of her biggest songs as well as other songs that she was fond of at the time. It also features a lot of dialogue from Simone on issues facing black Americans at the time. She also debuted her song "Young Black And Gifted," which went on to become a staple of the Civil Rights Movement.
You can't actually watch the performance but it should be pointed out that Nina Simone was known as "The High Priestess of Soul," because of her performing. There's countless YouTube videos of her stepping out into the crowd. She often played the piano while performing which was unheard of at the time. In addition to that she was one of the first artist to break apart songs with monologues featuring one after almost every song.
Long before she was sampled on songs like Cassidy's "Celebrate," Lil Wayne's "Misunderstood," or Kanye West's "Blood On The Leaves," she made a name for herself with her voice. It's undeniable that Simone had a unique voice. It was raspy, low and bashful. Some people even called her voice manly. At the time it was completely unheard of for a woman with such a voice to rise to any popularity whatsoever, on top of that, she stayed away from pop music which was popular at the time. She spent large amounts of time studying and integrating classical music into her routines. She stated that she only did pop music when the bills were due. Despite avoiding pop music she quickly became known for never shying away from any topic mixing spirituality with sexuality.
Simone opens the album with a song called "Black Is The Color Of My True Love's Hair." The song is an old and traceable back to at least 1915. In her version Nina adjust some verses to say "Black is the color of my true love's skin." Making it an ode to black love.
Another notable song was "Westwind" which was an old African song she learned from Miram Mekeba. Makeba was a singer from South Africa who was heavily influential in the Civil Rights Movement. She was so involved that she gained the nickname of Mother Africa. The song predominately features a drum beat that Simone calls "The heartbeat of our people." The song calls for a unification of black people. Not to rule the world, but to protect, and support each other while spreading glory.
The song that stands out most is "Young Black And Gifted." The song was written by Weldon Irvine who was a poet, playwright, and composer that later went on to mentor rappers like Q Tip and Mos Def. After his suicide Madlib named an album after him called Tribute To Brother Weldon. The song was written and sang in honor of their friend Lorraine Hansberry who had recently died of pancreatic cancer. Hansberry was most notably known for writing the play A Raising In The Sun who died at age 34 after She introduces the song with:
"It is not addressed to white people primarily. Though it doesn't put you down in any way...it simply ignores you. For my people need all the inspiration and love that they can get."The song sings of how important it is to foster the growth of young gifted black people. She points out how important it is tell young black people to embrace their talents. She lets them know that being black shouldn't hinder the creativity but make it even stronger. As young black children they should do everything they can to use their gifts and be noticed. Repeatedly telling them young gifted and black is where it's at.
The album is called Black Gold. Oil is often referred to as black gold. That isn't the black gold referred to here. Black Gold in this sense is the black youth. Young black people are the gold and long before Whitney Houston sang that the children were the future Nina Simone pointed out how important black children were. The children, or black gold, are to be treasured. They aren't to be ignored and pushed aside. They're the future leaders. She wants to let the whole world know how special it is to be not only young and gifted, but black as well.
Feel free to follow along with our Black Music Month Series
You can hear Darrell on the CP Time and Powerbomb Jutsu podcasts. He also plays classic arcade games on The Cabinet
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