Description
Label Review.
1982 album with 3 bonus tracks. Also available on vinyl.
Our Overview.
Recorded in 1982, not long after she moved to Paris, ‘Fodder On My Wings’ was one of Nina Simone’s personal favourites of her own albums and yet has remained one of her most obscure. Originally recorded for a small French label and only sporadically available since its initial release. The album is one of Simone’s most introspective and personal works, with songs about her father’s death and her (not always pleasant) stay in Liberia, Trinidad and Switzerland.
‘Fodder On My Wings’ also features similarly personal and autobiographical songs such as “I Was Just A Stupid Dog To Them” and a searing lyrical improvisation about the death of her father, on a remake of Gilbert O’Sullivan’s “Alone Again (Naturally)”. Simone’s loneliness at the time of her Parisian stay exacerbated her mental illness, and her family life was fractured. From her despair, the near-title track “Fodder On Her Wings” was forged.
Pitchfork, in their analysis of Simone’s most memorable work, said that the song “Fodder On Her Wings” “captured with startling intimacy the pain of this period, and she returned to it frequently through the next decade, cutting another studio version three years later (the synth-heavy take on ‘Nina’s Back!’) and including it on several live albums, including an awe-inspiring performance on 1987’s ‘Let It Be Me’. Simone’s vocal makes a song of weariness and defeat carry an air of defiance, a wise word from someone who survived to tell the tale.”
Tracklisting: I Sing Just to Know That I’m Alive / Fodder in Her Wings / Vous Etes Seuls, Mais Je Désire / Etre Avec Vous / Il Y a Un Baume À Gilead / Liberian Calypso / Alone Again Naturally / I Was Just a Stupid Dog to Them / Color Is a Beautiful Thing / Le Peuple En Suisse / Heaven Belongs to You / Thandewye / Stop / They Took My Hand