Why do they spare that one?

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Trying to pick a song from Nina Simone’s catalog to feature is a fun challenge. There are so many wonderful albums and styles to pick from it takes a while just to narrow a search down to a dozen songs, let alone one. In the end I have to go with her live rendition of “Pirate Jenny” from 1964’s Nine Simone In Concert. It’s six plus minutes of theater, music and tension. The sparse arrangement is haunting and as she pounds her piano you can almost HEAR the sparks dance off her fingers and reflect the gleam in her eyes. When she sings “There’s a ship - the black freighter” the hair on my arms still goes up and I look over my shoulder to make sure there’s nothing stalking me from a dark corner. I can only imagine how powerful it mist have been to be in the audience when she performed this song.