Summer is here. (Well, according to the calendar, anyway. I hope the weather will catch up soon.) It is time to feel good, relax a bit and leave the more scientific topics behind for a couple of weeks. The main feature of this week's post is a song. I first heard it some years ago at a friend's party. It was dawn and most of the folks had already left or had fallen asleep. A few of us were still up and we were just chilling out. Then suddenly there was this woman singing from a CD and I became wide awake. What a great song and what a voice! It was Nina Simone singing the song 'Feeling Good'. Since then, I have heard this song many times in many different versions but this one still remains to be my favourite.
Nina Simone (picture from here)
Nina Simone (Eunice Kathleen Waymon) was a Grammy-award winner singer, songwriter, pianist, arranger and civil right activist. She was trained as a classical pianist and started singing only later in her career, when she got a job as a bar musician. (According to a legend, the bar's owner told her that playing the piano was not enough and she had to sing as well - big thanks to the anonymous owner.) She is mainly classified as a jazz musician although her style is a mixture of blues, jazz, classical music, folk music, RnB and gospel. She took on her stage name because she didn't want her mother to know that she played the "devil's music". Her songs have been used in many motion picture soundtracks (e.g. The Big Lebowski, Notting Hill, Sex and the City...) and many artists (e.g. Aretha Franklin, David Bowie, The Animals...) have covered her work. Now, let's listen to the song!
You can read the lyrics of the song here. After the text of the lyrics you will find a very easy exercise to revise the words of the song :-)
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