hypersongs

Black Gold

A live album recorded at Philharmonic Hall in New York on October 26, 1969.
Nina Simone, 1970

Black Gold was recorded live at Philharmonic Hall in New York, now David Geffen Hall, on October 26, 1969, and issued by RCA Victor in January 1970 (LSP 4248 in the US, SF 8142 in the UK). Andrew Stroud produced it through Stroud Productions. Simone played piano and sang and arranged; Emile Latimer and Tom Smith played guitar, Weldon Irvine organ, Don Alias drums and percussion and Jumma Santos congas and percussion, with Ed Begley engineering. It reached 149 on the Billboard 200 and 21 on the Hot R&B LPs chart, and earned a Grammy nomination in 1971 for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance, which went to Aretha Franklin's "Don't Play That Song".

It holds an early live version of "To Be Young, Gifted and Black", written with Weldon Irvine. A companion record, Come Together with Nina Simone, an interview, was issued alongside it, and a calypso "Suzanne" played that night was left off. Track times differ between sources: Wikipedia lists "Who Knows Where the Time Goes?" as 8:09 and Mainly Norfolk as 8:08.

Track listing

  1. Black Is the Colour (Of My True Love's Hair)5:58
  2. Black Is the Color of My True Love's Hair4:00
  3. Ain't Got No, I Got Life5:28
  4. Westwind9:30
  5. Who Knows Where the Time Goes?8:09
  6. The Assignment Sequence6:57
  7. To Be Young, Gifted and Black9:34

More from Nina Simone

Little Girl Blue (1959), The Amazing Nina Simone (1959), Nina Simone At Town Hall (1959), Nina At Newport (1960), Forbidden Fruit (1961), At The Village Gate (1962), Nina Simone Sings Ellington (1962), Nina Simone At Carnegie Hall (1963), Folksy Nina (1964), Broadway - Blues - Ballads (1964), I Put a Spell on You (1965), Let It All Out (1965), Pastel Blues (1965), Nina Simone With Strings (1966), Wild Is The Wind (1966), Silk & Soul (1967), High Priestess Of Soul (1967), Nina Simone Sings The Blues (1967), 'Nuff Said! (1968), Nina Simone And Piano! (1969), To Love Somebody (1969), Gifted & Black (1970), Here Comes The Sun (1971), Nina Simone (1971), Right On! (1972), Nina Simone Sings Billie Holiday (1972), Gospel According To Nina Simone (1973), It Is Finished (1974), Lamentations (1977), In Paris (1978), Baltimore (1978), A Very Rare Evening (1979), Fodder On My Wings (1982), Nina's Back! (1985), Let It Be Me (1987), A Single Woman (1993), The Montreux Years (2021), You've Got To Learn (2023)

Sources

  1. Black Gold (Nina Simone album), Wikipedia
  2. Nina Simone, Mainly Norfolk