My Life in the Cutout Bins: Nina Simone/Emergency Ward!

"The times are desperate and America is one big emergency ward with everybody in the hospital"

--Nina Simone--

Leonard Bernstein's controversial Mass was composed for the 1971 opening and dedication of The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. President Richard Nixon did not attend, having been advised against it by FBI reports that composer Leonard Bernstein sought to embarrass the U.S. government and that Mass' liturgical Latin sections might contain coded anti-war messages.

During the course of Bernstein's piece the celebrant (priest) is faced with a congregation that questions the relation of ecclesiastic dogma to faith and challenges the role of God in a turbulent, chaotic world. How can a merciful God refuse to intervene on behalf of needful, petitioning humanity? Where is the sign that divinity or the molecular intelligence of the universe loves and cares for us? Bernstein explored similar territory in his Third Symphony, the 'Kaddish' Symphony (1963), which he dedicated to the memory of John F Kennedy:

You surely remember, Father?—the part

That refuses death, that insists on You,

Divines Your voice, guesses Your grace.

And always You have heard my voice,

And always You have answered me

With a rainbow, a raven, a plague, something.

But now I see nothing. This time You show me

Nothing at all.

Bernstein was not the only one to have a crisis of faith in 1971. In November of that year singer, pianist, songwriter, and activist Nina Simone was set to walk onstage at the Towne Theatre (a literal movie theatre) in Wrightstown, NJ, just outside Fort Dix, and deliver a performance for members of the American military, many of whom were black. Black Americans were fighting on two fronts. At home, they fought for their civil rights that, while granted by the Constitution, were slow in coming. At the same time, far too many were called upon to fight in America's doomed war in Vietnam. That war was increasingly seen as unjust and unnecessary by the American public, and peace protests had become common in cities and on college campuses across the country. One such protest proved fatal when National Guard soldiers opened fire on American students at Kent State University.

Simone's show was part of Jane Fonda and Donald Sutherland's F.T.A. tour, a sort of alt-USO show meant to counter Bob Hope's pro-war USO tours, which had grown much less popular with troops over the years. Although they applied to perform on military bases, they were never granted permission, so the shows took place in theaters and coffeehouses as near to the base as possible. Turnout for the shows was strong, impressive considering that army members were discouraged from attending and were sometimes photographed and accused of taking part in anti-war activities.

It isn't clear how Nina Simone ended up performing at the show, nor how RCA Records, her label, ended up recording the performance, but she clearly wanted to make a statement. Given the arc of her performance and its contents, it is clearly based on an idea she had in her mind, and it is every bit as theatrical and dramatic as Bernstein's piece, yet the details retain an air of improvisation--Nina's soliloquies, asides, and half-thoughts are improvised to a certain extent. It's a fierce kind of poetic performance, the likes of which we only see rarely in rock artists (Bono, Van Morrison, Patti Smith).

There were reportedly around 900 audience members (in a 700 seat venue), mostly service member from Fort Dix, in the audience. According to this report, there were so many left who wanted to see the show that a second performance was added. It is also clear that Nina was the star attraction at this show: "It was the guest appearance of singer Nina Simone which brought on the loudest clapping, the most persistent stamping, and the greatest number of "power fists,"particularly among black GIs."

For her sermon on this day, Nina Simone has selected two texts: George Harrison's 'My Sweet Lord" and David Nelson's poem "Today Is A Killer," and from these plus her own musical and poetic input she fashions a statement that examines one woman's crisis of faith in the face of a brutal, cruel, and indifferent world. "My Sweet Lord" is a song of exultation and yearning. When Harrison says that he wants to see his Lord, he means just that--he longs to look on the face of the divine. What Simone means is 'I really want to see you show that you give a damn about what is happening to us here on this planet.' In other words, show up.

Raised on church music, Nina kicks off "My Sweet Lord" like a gospel barn burner, complete with an insistent piano riff as well as bass and drums, plus hand-clapping and, yes, a gospel choir. The choir kicks into their best 'Hallelujah" vocal responses to Nina's exhortations: "My sweet lord/Oh my lord/I really want to see you." But Nina is already impatient, singing that it 'takes too long,' 'I've been waiting my whole life for you/so you gotta bring the proof." Her urgency is apparent as the group's hand-claps break into double time and the chorus takes off, pushing Simone further.

At four minutes, she makes her major pleas--"I really need to see you, Lord." and the group simmers along, the chorus doing its best to reach God as the singer implores her deity to show themself. The gospel energy breaks down around six minutes. Now it's just Nina and her piano and her prayers, influenced by Nelson's poem, but consisting of her own thoughts, her own personal exhortations to her God, who still hides in the shadows. It doesn't last too long, maybe a minute and a half, and then the choir returns and the celebratory aspect comes back with it.

The next breakdown begins as the chorus drops out, leaving only Simone's brother doing some backing vocals, and percussion. The beat continues, but Nina begins to recite David Nelson's poem, that first marvels at the beauty of nature and the universe and man's place in it. Simone, still at the piano, creates a musical setting for the poem, pounding out chords along with the words 'effervesce!, effervesce!" before reciting the second half of the poem, that talks about the ugliness of 'today, pressing its ugly face against mine.' The sacred and profane--two sides of the same coin. "Only you can save us, Lord" she says. Again she cries out to God, sustaining a long note as the rhythm section rejoins her near the fifteen minute mark. For a brief moment it seems we will return to the gospel performance, but Nina reasserts herself, telling her God that she needs to be with him "today, today" until she turns the mantra into her final line, speaking directly to the deity: "Today you ARE A KILLER." The chorus ends with a final "HALLELULAH" and the audience breaks into applause. A moment later the rhythm section returns, playing through the applause and then fading out.

Leonard Bernstein faces similar issues in Kaddish and in Mass: a God who seems distant, unengaged, who refuses to show up for those who faithfully believe. The street choir of everyday pehjnople in Mass and the speaker/singer in Kaddish both chide God for his absence, accusing the deity of not honoring his contract with humanity.

Jack Gotlieb writes, in his notes on Kaddish on Bernstein's official site:

Such "blasphemy" has a Biblical precedent in the story of Job and also has its roots in the folk traditions, as in the legend of Rabbi Levi Yitzhok of Berditchev. Bernstein strongly felt the peculiar Jewishness of this "I-Thou" relationship in the whole mythic concept of the Jew's love of God, from Moses to the Hasidic sect, there is a deep personal intimacy that allows things to be said to God that are almost inconceivable in another religion.

For Nina Simone, singing 'you are a killer' *is* blasphemous, as noted on her official website: "It is a staggering moment, with more impact because of the sacred context. To co-opt the Bethany Baptist Church Junior Choir of South Jamaica, NY, into this act of blasphemy is a masterstroke of subversion."

"My Sweet Lord/Today Is a Killer" forms the entire first side of the original vinyl release of Nina Simone's album Emergency Ward! As in: we are in the emergency ward, the U.S. is in the emergency ward, our world is in the emergency ward. Because of Vietnam, because of inequality, because of genocidal attitudes towards blacks that includes promoting drug addiction, because human beings treat each other with brutality and hatred, for all these reasons, we are in the emergency ward. The Harrison/Nelson performance is the only live track on the album, despite the cover proclaiming 'Live!'

The second side was comprised on two tracks: "Poppies," an anti-drug song, and a lengthy reading of another George Harrison song released the previous year, "Isn't It a Pity." These were both recorded during the same sessions.

"Poppies" starts out quietly, with just Simone and her piano, but it picks up steam until it features a drummer and full string section arranged by Weldon Irvine, giving the sound of a '70s blaxploitation movie soundtrack. Written Lennie Bleacher and Jeremy Wind with, of course, additional lyrics by Nina Simone, not much is known about the song, nor is there a record of musicians who played on the track. But it's a haunting performance made more intense by Irivine's swirling string arrangement.

The original vinyl release of Emergency Ward! concluded with an eleven-plus minute rendition of "Isn't It a Pity," and here again Nina seems to be referencing a God that is not there, perhaps trying to goad him into a reaction. "Isn't it a pity, Lord?" she repeats until she is not longer asking for validation but instead stating a fact and then prodding her deity to see if they are, in fact, present. Nina Simone may not be a Buddhist, but she inherently understands the way that repetition, like a mantra, can phase in and out, creating its own energy, similar in approach to the searching openness of John Coltrane.

The CD and streaming reissues of the album feature a fourth track, and this one is once again recorded live at the Fort Dix performance, a version of "Let It Be Me." The French song, translated and adapted into a hit record by The Everly Brothers, is performed as a duet with her brother, Sam Waymon. Nina had taken a liking to the song and she recorded a studio version of it with Sam for her next album, 1974's It Is Finished.

To many listeners today, it seems amazing that a record like Emergency Ward! existed at all. It points to the fact that, despite being a broken system in many ways, the music business didn't operate solely as a business model. At this point in time, the labels and many of the men (and women, though far too rarely) who owned and operated them saw that the music was an artistic endeavor and they were sometimes willing to support that idea—or at least certain individuals were. I find it hard to believe that anyone at RCA made a case for this record, characterized by Simone biographer Nadine Cohodas as"basically a concept album" being a blockbuster seller, and indeed it was not. But it had clear cultural importance and it is a historic document of the tenure and temperature of those times, and there was a subset of Simone's fans who were being radicalized along with her. This record was, and remains, for them.

As a white kid growing up in the 'burbs in the mid-seventies, a lot of the historical significance of the performance escaped me until later, but the general message was pretty clear, and in a lot of ways this performance wasn't that different to me from what a lot of rock performers were doing. But the rock solid foundation of the gospel performance was a breath of fresh air. In Nina's hands "My Sweet Lord" became the sort of "Oh Happy Day" analog that George Harrison had set out to compose in the first place. Her further ruminations on the nature of the world and recitation of David Nelson's dark poetry wasn't unlike some of Jim Morrison's ritualistic performances, while her re-creations of classic rock/pop material into poetry and performance art would be echoed in a few years by Patti Smith.

Emergency Ward! is also a personal cry for help from a woman whose life was becoming very troubled. She suffered from mental illness, and there are accounts by her daughter of physical abuse during this period. Following the release of It Is Finished she emigrated to Liberia, then to Paris, finally coming to rest in the Netherlands, which became her home and a source of strength. Her Fort Dix performance projects a dark night of the soul, reinforced by her resigned, sighing take on "Isn't It a Pity."

Listening today, we can perhaps take a measure of solace in the knowledge that although she suffered greatly, Nina Simone did manage to achieve a stable lifestyle and measure of happiness during the final phase of her life. May we all be so lucky.

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