Pink Eyed Jim’s Blog

For about a week after switching the main theme on this site from “Scam City” to “Travelogue” (both of which are available to download here) the tagline on this site was “where I talk about what I think you need to know.” Well, this article is in that spirit. A good friend of mine, Kieran (you’ll recognize him if you’ve seen any of my Netherlands posts) introduced me to a wonderful woman while in the Netherlands (no, not that way). Unfortunately, she died about two years ago. Fortunately, her voice survives through the temporal wonder that is modern musical recording. Have you ever thought about how music is really the only art that you can’t stop to examine; it is a slave to the concept of time, yet with our modern method of recording, we have, in essence, managed to transcend that temporal limit, capturing (ideally) perfectly a sound that existed long ago. Well, I suppose that’s not entirely true, since light does travel at a finite speed, then technically viewing a painting (or anything for that matter) is seeing something that was captured (or emitted) a time ago, but somehow it’s not as beautiful to think about as the temporal aspect of sound. Anyhow, I digress - seriously digress.

The wonderful woman of whom I was speaking before I began to rant is Dr. Nina Simone. On the night of our arrival in the Netherlands, Kieran had planned on us all going to a concert, unfortunately Shannon and I were seriously jet-lagged from our red-eye flight (I have yet to ever fall asleep on an airplane) so we didn’t feel up to it, and Kieran went while we slept. This was actually quite lucky for me, as Kieran ended up leaving his iPod on, repeating Nina singing “Suzanne”.

I don’t know if hearing her over and over again while asleep had some sort of subliminal suggestion with me or not, but she has now vaulted herself into my top three sexiest female voices (the others, in no particular order, are Ella Fitzgerald and Janis Joplin). I don’t rank them specifically - it’s not like that. They’re all my favorites. Nina’s voice, is kind of like the perfect compromise between Ella Fitzgerald and Janis Joplin (though politically and socially more like Janis, read the bio), not quite as clear and rich and sweet like honey or bells the way Ella’s voice is, but also not as dirty and raspy and painfully sexual as Janis. Nina has all of that; her tremolos are like bees buzzing, her high notes have the sweetly metallic bell-like quality like Ella. I can literally get lost in her voice.

If you don’t check her out, you’re missing out on one of the most beautiful things you may ever hear. I’m including links to a sample on Amazon, and I’m also including a sample for download from my site.* Enjoy.

1. “Vous Êtes Seuls, Mais Je Désire Être Avec Vous” on Amazon.
2. Suzanne from Pinkeyedjim.com*

*Dear RIAA, please don’t sue me for hosting a teaser on my site, I’m only trying to help spread the word here. And it’s only the first verse.