A belated entry – I heard Nina Simone on the radio for Women’s Day, Missippi Goddam the Carnegie version which I know word for word and sang along tears in my eyes. (Notable change: in the original the line ‘You’re gonna die like flies’ – one of the strongest expressions of righteous anger I’ve heard on record – gets changed in the later (?) linked video to ‘We’re’). I was looking it up and found a performance of ‘Four Women’ which spears the stereotypes around women, especially black and mixed race women, so that seemed more appropriate.
Also glad to hear Delia Derbyshire on the radio, who is another of my choices from past years…what they both share is the struggle of being female musicians and geniuses in a man’s world, and the fact they mentally suffered for those wars. Never again, please? Imagine what more wonderful music we’d have now, the operas and classical pieces that Nina wanted to write and perform but was barred from doing so, or the pieces that Delia might have created if she hadn’t been chewed up and spat out by the BBC?
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