Nina Simone

https://mobile.twitter.com/joshweller/status/1281263843763720195 <- This is a great thread on Nina Simone

Nina Simone wrote:I saw her live around this time. After one of the greatest concerts I've ever seen, the crowd clapped for an encore. She turned round and shouted : I've given all I've got to give, now go to hell!

Nina Simone wrote:Richard Blackwood: ‘we’ve got Backstreet Boys, TLC, who do you admire out of the new groups?’
Nina Simone: ‘.....I don’t.’  

And that song again from another out-spoken woman (and one of my favorite songs)

She added a verse to the earlier versions: "when you make your bed in hell I will be there"

I never realized this but the reference must be to Psalms 139 "If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there". It is a line that gave me chills when I first heard it and it is how I remember this song: it cuts to the bone.

Make your deals with yourself, make your deals with your demons, give into despair, curse the good and long for hell. Give up of all higher hopes. Embrace your place among the many, many damned. None of it matters. Hide in the deepest spot in hell. It doesn't matter. She is there waiting. Your conscience cannot be killed or escaped.

I remember teaching criminology all day and hearing this song that night and it pierced me to the core.
"Where ya goin' to fuckin' run to?"

[The song is called Downpressor Man because it is a Rastafarian play on the word OPpressor>UPpressor>DOWNpressor]