I Put a Spell On You: The Autobiography Of Nina Simone

Nina Simone is, in my mind, one of the most significant and influential singer-songwriters of all time. Her back catalogue of recordings is an absolute treasure. Whilst this autobiography makes an utterly fascinating - albeit brief - read, the actual book itself is a travesty. Two different fonts and appalling quality photos that are so faint they look as if they are photocopies of photocopies of photocopies. Buy this book to read about this incredible woman, but don't expect it to be a book you would like to return to again and again from an aesthetic perspective.

Having admired the music of Nina Simone for years, I decided I wished to know more about the inspiration behind the songs. This book gives a wonderful insight to the life behind the performances, her great loves and is enlightening as to Nina Simone's musical genius. After reading, I feel I have not only a deeper understanding of Nina's music, but also feel closer to the woman herself through having read of so many of her most intimate experiences. I recommend this book whole-heartedly.

Loved this book, at the end, I felt I knew Nina Simone

Nina Simone wrote this book. There might have been a little bit of help fromStephen Cleary but it's Nina's words that shine through.Throughout the book there is a sense of anger, innocence and sometimes desolation but for those of us who listen to Nina as she sings there's no surprise there.Sometimes she's a petulant child, sometimes pampered, othertimes not getting her own way. Throughout though she makes powerful statements about how she feels.The book reads exactly as anyone who knows her singing career should expect - enjoy it and feel her truth.

I found myself being very surprised all the way through this book when you see Nina on a TV program singing, or being interviewed Nina comes across as being quite ordinary but some how different; the same when you hear her songs on the radio theres something about her voice the tone, the resonance the delivery, there is something quite fascinating and curious. The thing that you cannot quite put your finger on is behind the face and voice was a very talented and unusally gifted child protege, an exquisite ear for music, classical, the piano, reading and writing music and a benefactor in the form of a well to do white lady who dispite the climate of segregation saw her talent and nurtured it with free classical lessons and tuition, she became part of the family. This also took her away from her community which was the other side of the tracks most black families worked for white households communting to a side of town they only went to for work; Ninas parents were no different they worked very hard, her father turning his hand to anything to keep a roof over the familys heads even though he fell ill and could no longer work, times were very hard but they managed. Of course the inevitable happened when it came time to gain entrance to a prestigious school of Music she failed the exam not because she did not do well, but rather the school did not want her kind and certainly not one with that much talent. Some parts of the book are very funny Nina would play the worst dives, clubs and dance halls frequented by people of the night and she would turn up in full regalier long dress bows and feathers the drunk at the end of the bar would look and wonder what planet she was on.. then she would launch into a Beethoven concerto or sonata the punters thought she was nuts, but they kept coming night after night to hear this strange women she never let the venue or crowd comprise her standards and ethics. The marriages and men in her life; there was one constant she always had to work because when she finally looked into her finances she owed the tax man thousands, her money had been squandard by those she trusted so she always had to tour and go back on the road. The book is a very good read but you do get the impression that she holds back on some level as when you hear other people talking about Nina she definitley has a wild side, you get glimpes of this in the book. She handles the ups and downs with grace and goodness. I am pretty sure millions of black people especially during that time had dreams that would never be realised no matter how gifted they were. Nina is a wonderful example of not letting life get you down she had an immense gift and talent which dispite the obsticles she managed to share with millions the world over.

Stepdad loved it..great book.

It's one of the best autobiographies I've ever had the pleasure of reading! couldn't put it down. powerful,chilling and unbelievably heartfelt, nina was a force to be reckoned with!

Bought I Put A Spell on You Autobiography as a gift

Great book… who new all the details

This was a gift for my girlfriend - she is a huge Nina Simone fan! I did read the first few chapters and this is definitely the one book to read if you want to know about this incredible human's growth into a phenomenon and the struggles that shaped her, both personally and professionally. Love in how much detail she has described childhood memories and the hope she carries. The delivery came in slightly late, a day or so after her birthday. But it was a such a good read, that I almost forgive them for it.

This is an amazing read to start understanding the life of this wonderful musician and human being. IT is quite a page turner.

What can you say about a star whose legacy is so great that there is virtually no one not knowing a Nina-Simone-song though lots of people don't know that they're hers. And that is basically what the book is about: Standing in the shadows because your black, because you're a woman and because you weren't willing to fall into line.You will like this book if you're interested in the civil rights movement and Liberia. Also, if you already liked Josephine Baker finding a home for herself in France and you probably will like it, if you're interested in what the world can do to someone not being able or not willing to do what was required of them.You'll hate it, if you hated Marlene Dietrich in her daughters book and want mothers to be nurturing.You'll hate it, if you're fed up with a female point of view.You'll hate it, if you need clarity and reason and look down on people who take drugs.You'll hate it, if you think feminism is a waste of time.I loved her even more after reading the book, although it gets messy and confusing at times (maybe due to her drug intake).

In this autobiography Nina Simone speaks most eloquently. Much like her songs, she tells the truth, warts and all.Her life and times are given some shine, and yet not enough to ever bore or mislead the reader. In fact, it is quite the opposite. Her story of not-quite-rags-to not-quite-full-of-riches is a fascinating one.This reader came away knowing more about her, after years of assumptions-- many of which are put to rest.For example: because of her creations, her songs, and her pro-black activism, one is left to assume that Simone didn't like or trust whites. This was not the case. In fact, her adored first music teachers were white, her closest musical soulmate was a young white musician; as was her first husband, a white man.And while she counted among her friends the creme de la creme in the arts and literary worlds (Lorraine "A Raisin in the Sun" Hansbury and the writer James Baldwin-- among them) along with several of the great thinkers of the time, she was, for the most part, a shy, and somewhat internal woman.And best of all, although many of the essential events of her story are told by her here, she still manages to retain much of her mystique as an artist, activist and woman.Nina Simone was a fantastically misunderstood, highly temperamental, deeply mercurial character, but through it all she was also a trailblazer, a genius, and a uniquely Black-American individual.The music world misses her gift. And after reading her story, you will wish that she was still among us.One Love.