Nina Simone’s Fodder On My Wings was initially recorded not long after she moved to Paris in 1982. Simone always loved the album, but it remained rather obscure as it was recorded for a small French label and was often in and out of print. It is now being reissued in CD and LP formats with three bonus tracks from a French reissue in 1988. You may have already heard audio or videos for the jubilant “I Sing Just to Know I’m Alive” or “Liberian Calypso.”
This is not the rebellious Nina of “Mississippi Goddam” or even the jazzy “My Baby Just Cares For Me.” Yet, her signature powerful crescendos (“Thandewye”) and shimmering piano flourishes (“Le Peuple En Suisse”) are all over the album which is anything but even. These are deeply personal songs, including the aforementioned, “I Sing Just To Know That I’m Alive” and “I Was Just A Stupid Dog To Them,” as well a searing lyrical improvisation about the death of her father on “Alone Again (Naturally).”
At the time she recorded the album, Simone was living in France and was extremely lonely; her mental illness was increasing, and her family life was fractured. It’s this despair that spawned one of the many album standouts, the near title track “Fodder In Her Wings. “A top music outlet wrote that, the composition “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, continuing, “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.”
Over the years, the album has been reevaluated and has received its due as a significant work in Simone’s prolific catalog. In a 2005 review of the album, Jazz Times hailed the record and especially her emotional performance on “Alone Again (Naturally),” writing: “At the core of the album is a rare, powerful example of Simone with all masks stripped away: Her personal pain explodes to the surface as she reworks Gilbert O’Sullivan’s “Alone Again (Naturally)” into a diatribe about her dying father that bravely progresses from venomously embittered to cautiously conciliatory.” In addition to having written the music and lyrics for all but one of the 13 songs, the back cover proudly states that she “arranged, conducted and conceived” all of them.
Understand that in the 1980s, Nina’s recordings, particularly those cut in the studio, tended to be a bit erratic, as is this one although it remains mostly rewarding. Simone is joined by a rhythm section and occasionally a pair of unidentified horns (trumpet and tenor), an organ, and background singers. The use of background singers on “Heaven Belongs to You,” which she cites as an African song in her intro, is quite similar in some respects to Paul Simon’s employ Of Ladysmith Black Mambazo on “Graceland,” which came four years later.
Standout tracks other than those already mentioned are the quiet ballad “Il Y a un Baume a Gilhead,” and a brief satirical “Color Is a Beautiful Thing.” There are also singalongs, brief throwaways, and aching ballads. There are enough strong moments to make this set of interest to Nina Simone fans, but it’s not the first place to start for non-fans.
Recorded at a time when Simone was feeling rejuvenated by her surroundings and by the African musicians she met in her newly adopted France, Fodder On My Wings is an essential Simone album that is making a long-overdue reappearance.
