The musicianship of this song is what initially made me fall in love with it, as I love the synchronicity of the musicians with Simone’s vocal phrasing, following her exactly. Her piano lead-in before the song kicks in is very beautiful, she begins on a very low note, and we hear her fingers traverse the piano to end on a note that contrasts where she began. In an attempt to evade her mother’s judgement, she became Nina Simone.Before we are to interpret the lyrics of “Young, Gifted and Black” I feel that it is very important to analyze what’s going on behind Simone’s alluring voice.
With this in mind, I feel that its implications can reach even further, as the gift of blackness can be honed into more than artistic talent, but activism and actively suppressing White-Supremacy’s prevalence in the American hegemony.Nina Simone and James Baldwin, in the early Sixties. Rather than this, I would like to say that it is more so related to blackness itself, and that if one is black, they are gifted. You could pick nearly any part of this song out and see its message of empowerment.I would also like to argue that the “gift” which this song focuses on is not a gift that is entirely related to talent. There really is no particular point in this song that conveys this more than another, whether the lyrics refer to being young, gifted and black as lovely or precious, common or expansive, or part of a great truth which indicates that one’s soul is intact. Instrumentally alone, this song is divine and positive.Now that we have looked into the earlier part of Nina Simone’s life, understood that she was in fact, young, gifted and black, and have looked into the musicianship of all involved in the song, we can go on to analyze the its lyrics.Yeah, there’s a great truth you should knowThe lyrics of this song further an empowering message which conveys that young African Americans have immense worth, as well as that this message should be further conveyed to young African Americans to combat America’s Eurocentric thought that has continued to paint people of color as unworthy and “other”. Don Alias always kills it with precise timing and rhythm, fills and drawn out high-hats, and tonally every musician and all who contribute mesmerizing back-up vocals bring forth nothing but cathartic euphoria.
Nina Simone & James Baldwin. Ninasimone.com, edited by Sarah Epler, The Estate of Nina Simone. This is a true message of empowerment which gives energy to pride in Blackness, and encourages it, bringing the aim of the song to its totality.Written by Cylus Hill-Yastek, on December 4, 2018.Bowman, Rob, et al.
“To Be Young, Gifted and Black.”, produced by Stroud Productions, RCA, 1970. 2018.Simone, Nina, and Weldon Irvine.
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