“NINA SIMONE Sings the Blues” LP RCA ’67 DG original STEREO EXCELLENT

$

49

Artist:  NINA SIMONE

Title:   “Nina Simone Sings the Blues”

Label:   RCA ~ # LSP 3789.  Stereo pressing on medium weight vinyl.  Label is black with silver text, with deep groove.

Matrix numbers:

Side 1:  A1/3S

Side 2:  A2/3S

Year:  1967

Condition: 

DISC:  Vinyl is EXCELLENT with full original gloss.  Has been played a small number of times and handled with care.  There are a couple slight hairline paper scuffs but no serious or audible marks or problems.  Plays beautifully with superb fidelity.  Labels are clean.  This hard-to-find LP is one that you will never need to upgrade.      

JACKET:  Jacket is nice VG++ with nice bright artwork.   Seams, spine, and surfaces are excellent.  A bit of light rubbing wear on seams and at corner tips.  Reverse has some smudge marks as shown in photo, but otherwise clean with no writing, stickers, or cutout indications.  Overall a very fine jacket.      

Track Listing: 

Side One:

• Do I Move You?
• Day and Night
• In the Dark
• Real Real
• My Man’s Gone Now
• Backlash Blues  

Side Two:

• I Want a Little Sugar in My Bowl
• Buck
• Since I Fell for You
• House of the Rising Sun
• Blues for Mama

Review:

“Nina Simone Sings the Blues, issued in 1967, was her RCA label debut, and was a brave departure from the material she had been recording for Phillips.  Indeed, her final album for that label, High Priestess of Soul, featured the singer, pianist, and songwriter fronting a virtual orchestra.  Here, Simone is backed by a pair of guitarists (Eric Gale and Rudy Stevenson), bassist (Bob Bushnell), drummer (Bernard “Pretty” Purdie), organist (Ernie Hayes), and harmonica player who doubled on saxophone (Buddy Lucas).  Simone handled the piano chores.  The song selection is key here.  Because for all intents and purposes this is perhaps the rawest record Simone ever cut.  It opens with the sultry, nocturnal, slow-burning original "Do I Move You," which doesn't beg the question but demands an answer: "Do I move you?/Are you willin'?/Do I groove you?/Is it thrillin'?/Do I soothe you?/Tell the truth now?/Do I move you?/Are you loose now?/The answer better be yeah...It pleases me...."  As the guitarists slip and slide around her husky vocal, a harmonica wails in the space between, and Simone's piano is the authority, hard and purposely slow.  The other tune in that vein, "In the Dark," is equally tense and unnerving; the band sounds as if it's literally sitting around as she plays and sings.   

There are a number of Simone signature tunes on this set, including "I Want a Little Sugar in My Bowl," "Backlash Blues," and her singular, hallmark, definitive reading of "My Man's Gone Now" from Porgy and Bess.  Other notable tracks are the raucous, sexual roadhouse blues of "Buck," written by Simone's then husband Andy Stroud, and the woolly gospel blues of "Real Real," with the Hammond B-3 soaring around her vocal.  The cover of Buddy Johnson's "Since I Fell for You" literally drips with ache and want.  Simone also reprised her earlier performance of "House of the Rising Sun" (released on a 1962 Colpix live platter called At the Village Gate).  It has more authority in this setting as a barrelhouse blues; it's fast, loud, proud, and wailing with harmonica and B-3 leading the charge.  The original set closes with the slow yet sassy "Blues for Mama," ending with the same sexy strut the album began with, giving it the feel of a Möbius strip. 

Nina Simone Sings the Blues is a hallmark recording that endures; it deserves to be called a classic.”

(courtesy Thom Jurek, allmusic.com.)

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