Filling the song with both grudge and glee, pain and power, Simone released her take of "Backlash Blues" in her 1967 album Nina Simone Sings the Blues. In this ongoing series, we highlight the songs of the Black Lives Matter movement that launched and empowered people's pleas for a brighter future. You're the one will have the blues. "The Backlash Blues" is a poem in blues form, but its title focuses on the backlash against gains made by African-Americans and other disenfranchised groups during the civil rights movement. The Weary Blues - Droning a drowsy syncopated tune, Droning a drowsy syncopated tune, - The Academy of American Poets is the largest membership-based nonprofit organization fostering an appreciation for contemporary poetry and supporting American poets.
Lyrics powered by LyricFind. Watch the moving clip below.SoulMusic.com is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon properties including, but not limited to, amazon.com, endless.com, myhabit.com, smallparts.com, or amazonwireless.com.In the turbulent times of the civil rights era, filled with rampant protests against the Vietnam War and the assassination of Rev.
Edit Lyrics. "Backlash Blues" as written by Nina Simone Langston Hughes. The Backlash Blues Langston Hughes. While you're livin' in your mansionPoor workin' man's wife is starvin',One of Hughes's last protest blues poems appeared in The Panther and the Lash.In this poem Hughes raises questions about the identity that white society has imposed on the black man and the method by which the system attempts to guarantee the failure of the black man in that society. TRACIE: So Backlash Blues, she actually wrote it with Langston Hughes, great Harlem Renaissance poet. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Inductee was a rare spirit. Backlash, Mr. Backlash Just who do think I am You raise my taxes, freeze my wages And send my son to Vietnam You give me … On Silk & Soul (1967), she recorded Billy Taylor's "I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel to Be Free" and "Turning Point". "Backlash Blues", one of Simone's civil rights songs. The album 'Nuff Said!
Backlash, I'm gonna leave you With the backlash blues Mr. But I choose to reflect the times and the situation in which I find myself. She sang "Backlash Blues" written by her friend, Harlem Renaissance leader Langston Hughes, on her first RCA album, Nina Simone Sings the Blues (1967). He wrote the lyrics and she wrote the -- I guess the music. Not me, just wait and see. Mr. Poets.org. Mister rich man, rich man, Tell me, Mister Backlash, Who do you think I am? With the backlash blues At the finale of her thrilling, head-bobbing rendition – you can watch it on YouTube * – Simone, full of grudge and glee, pushes up from the piano to face the audience and speak the poem’s warning, which in her mouth feels like a curse: ‘You’re the ones who’ll have the blues, not me!,’ she sings. "The House of the Rising Sun" was previously recorded live by Simone in 1962 on Nina at the Village Gate. Check back in weekly to listen and learn about the songs that have unified people throughout history to stand up for racial equality.When the backlash emerged, it didn't bleed blue, but rather red, with rage.In the wake of nationwide heartache following the news of George Floyd's death, there is a growing urgency to support the Black Lives Matter cause.
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The white man's control over identity, economics, education, the family, and politics would then be at an end. A literal white backlash is, of course, something with which slaves would be very familiar, but that is now to be countered by a backlash of global proportions as people of color unite. The lyrics were written by her friend and poet Langston Hughes. Backlash Blues This song is by Nina Simone and appears… on the album Nina Simone Sings the Blues (1967) on the live album Nuff Said! She was also something of a genius when it came to marrying blues, politics, soul, gospel and jazz.
Nina Simone - Backlash Blues Mr. The final coda completes the turnaround: the next "backlash blues" will be the white man's. Simone aspired to become a classical pianist while working in a broad range of styles including classical, jazz, blues, soul, folk, rhythm and blues, gospel, and pop. ” Langston Hughes wrote a poem, “The Backlash Blues,” which Nina Simone later set to music and recorded. Mister Backlash, Mister Backlash, Just who do you think I am? You give me second class houses, Second class schools. The poem reveals Langston Hughes' feelings about uneven, racial divisions in communities and low wages for blacks, which is what was referred to as "backlash."