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“I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel to Be Free”: Nina Simone and the Redefining of the Freedom Song of the 1960s

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 July 2008

TAMMY L. KERNODLE
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Abstract

This article explores the work of pianist/vocalist Nina Simone as the catalyst for a new type of freedom song in the black freedom movement during the 1960s. It examines the lyrical content and structure of Simone's music, which reflects the rhetorical and geographical shift of the transition from King's nonviolent, southern-based civil rights movement of the late 1950s to the mid-1960s to the militant black power nationalist movement of the late 1960s. Curtis Mayfield's Chicago soul style is also referenced as marking an important shift in mid-1960s R&B, which had largely avoided overt political statements.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of the Society for American Music , Volume 2 , Issue 3 , August 2008 , pp. 295 - 317
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for American Music 2008

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References

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