On February 21st, 1933, singer, classical pianist, songwriter, Civil Rights Activist, mother, composer, arranger, producer, and the creator of the Selma to Montgomery March theme song Mississippi Goddam-Nina Simone (Eunice Kathleen Waymon) was born in Tryon, North Carolina. Nina started playing piano at three years old. The first song she learned was the gospel song God Be With You, Til We Meet Again. She performed in her first classical piano recital when she was just 12 years old. Even at such a young age, despite the south being highly segregated under Jim Crow, Nina refused to play for the recital until her parents were allowed to sit on the front row. This justified act of rebellion set the foundation for her future involvement in The Civil Rights Movement. Nina earned scholarships to attend Allen High School-a special high school for females in Asheville, NC.
Nina enrolled at Julliard in 1950, immediately after she graduated from high school. Her teacher was the classical German pianist Carl Friedberg. She was denied entrance into Philadelphia’s Curtis Institute Of Music; but while in Philly, she landed a gig as a lounge singer at The Midtown Bar & Grill in Atlantic City, NJ. Her boyfriend at the time was a guy named Chico-who often called her 'Nina' (the female word for child in Spanish), and is responsible for her sing the name Nina. She got the ‘Simone’ from the French actress Simone Signoret. She had to use this alias so that her family wouldn’t know she was playing secular music. In 1958 she made her recording debut, on Bethlehem Records, with I Loves You, Porgy. The song was a Top 20 Hit, and set her career in motion. This Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall Of Fame singer and composer was 70 when she died in 2003.
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On February 21st, 1943, philanthropist, record executive, film studio owner, co-founder of Asylum Records, Geffen Records, DCG Records, and the DreamWorks film studio-David (Lawrence) Geffen was born in Brooklyn, NY. Geffen grew up in NYC, and later moved to Los Angeles for college and career aspirations. He believes he had dyslexia, which made being successful in school problematic. Instead of staying in college, and struggling towards a degree, he dropped out and became an extra in films during the early 1960s. He also worked as a mail clerk and talent scout at The William Morris Agency (WMA). Interesting Fact: David lied on his application-claiming that he had graduated from UCLA, and intercepted UCLA's letter that confirmed that he neither attended nor graduated from UCLA.
Geffen made some modifications to the letter, so that it would appear that he had indeed been a student. He left WMA to manage Jackson Browne, and Crosby Stills & Nash-with Elliott Roberts. Geffen & Roberts started Asylum Records in 1970. The name was a play on words, from the difficulties artists they managed faced when attempting to secure a record deal. They signed Browne first, and followed him up with bands like The Eagles, Bob Dylan, Linda Ronstadt, Joni Mitchell, and Warren Zevon. In 1972 they merged with Elektra Records, in 1980 he started Geffen Records, and signed Donna Summer shortly thereafter. In 1986 he started The Geffen Film Company, which led to him forming DreamWorks SKG studio in 1994. David Geffen is now worth nearly nine billion dollars, and turns 76 today...
Lies do pay...js
Lies do pay...js
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…"It’s been a long, a long time coming, but I know, a change gon’ come, oh yes it is!"…
If you’ve seen the Spike Lee film X, then you know the song and the scene I just referenced comes from Sam Cooke's posthumous Change 'Gon Come and Malcolm’s drive to The Audubon Ballroom, for his last day on earth. On February 21st, 1965, the former Nation Of Islam National Spokesman, former pimp, hustler, Black Power innovator, writer, lecturer, teacher, public speaker, father, Pan-Africanist Leader, world traveler-and dear friend to Nina Simone, Ossie Davis, Ruby Dee, Eartha Kitt, Muhammad Ali, Sam Cooke, and Jim Brown: El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz (Malcolm Little aka Malcolm X) was murdered at The Audubon Ballroom in Harlem, NY.
If you’ve seen the Spike Lee film X, then you know the song and the scene I just referenced comes from Sam Cooke's posthumous Change 'Gon Come and Malcolm’s drive to The Audubon Ballroom, for his last day on earth. On February 21st, 1965, the former Nation Of Islam National Spokesman, former pimp, hustler, Black Power innovator, writer, lecturer, teacher, public speaker, father, Pan-Africanist Leader, world traveler-and dear friend to Nina Simone, Ossie Davis, Ruby Dee, Eartha Kitt, Muhammad Ali, Sam Cooke, and Jim Brown: El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz (Malcolm Little aka Malcolm X) was murdered at The Audubon Ballroom in Harlem, NY.
There’s no adequate amount of words that can list all of the contributions Malcolm made to the movement for Black economic, social, and political empowerment worldwide. He spoke for the downtrodden, the inhabitants of ghettos, and poverty stricken people of color in the states and across the pond. His legacy remains, and continues to shape the macro-culture of ethnic relations. There’s several interesting facts and misconceptions that surround this powerful man. Some believed he hated Whites-while others know he did not. Following his pilgrimage to Mecca, and seeing Muslims praying from all colors and corners of the world, he renounced the teachings of Elijah Muhammad that all Whites were devils.
He made it clear that Whites could help him in the pursuit of empowering Blacks on all levels of society, but that they could not join his organization. Others feel he harbored resentment towards Dr. King, which he did not. Yes, at first he was against the non-violent tactics that Dr. King employed-but after his pilgrimage, he also began to try to reach out and unify all people involved in The Civil Rights Movement, regardless of strategy. His stance was that everyone wanted the same thing, and likewise, everyone was headed towards the same destination of equal rights for Blacks. How they got there was not as important as all of them getting there. This is when the Feds, and other leaders upset and afraid of Malcolm’s capabilities, decided to have him murdered. El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz was 39 when he returned home.
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HONORABLE MENTION: On February 21st, the day after what would’ve been Kurt Cobain’s 47th birthday, his hometown of Aberdeen, Washington honored him in two ways. First, they unveiled a statue of the artist with a single tear drop. It's located at The Aberdeen Museum Of History. Second, the then Mayor Bill Simpson made February 21st the official Kurt Cobain Day, which would be celebrated on an annual basis. He was quoted as saying: Aberdeen residents may justifiably take pride in the role our community played in the life of Kurt Cobain, and the international recognition our community has gained from its connections with Kurt Cobain and his artistic achievements…
On February 21st, 2012, the Russian female punk band Pussy Riot were forced to stop performing, by church security at The Cathedral Of Christ in Moscow. The was in the process of making a video called Punk Prayer: Mother of God, Chase Putin Away! They were attempting to stage a protest towards Putin and The Orthodox Russian Church officials who supported him. Harassment from law enforcement ensued shortly after, and led to the arrest three of the five members of the band for hooliganism about a month later. They were convicted, and sentenced to years years in jail for-hooliganism motivated by religious hatred.
On February 21st, 2007, Nina Simone’s hometown of Tryon, North Carolina honored the singer in two ways. First, a sculpture of Nina was given to her town. They placed it in the town square and renamed it Nina Simone Plaza. During the 1960s, she began to sing more about the plight of what Blacks faced in America and abroad. As a result, she was blacklisted for a lot of gigs-much like Eartha Kitt. If Nina were to have flown under the radar, and continued to sing pop tunes, she would’ve had a much more lucrative career. However, the singer stuck to her guns and didn’t falter when it came to speaking her mind through interviews or song. Mad props to Ms Simone!
On February 21st, 2007, on the 63rd birthday of Asylum, Geffen and DCG Records owner David Geffen (r)-his film studio DreamWorks took out a full-page ad in the The Hollywood Reporter and Variety Magazine. The ad apologized for the similarity between Mary Wilson’s Broadway play Dreamgirl: My Life As A Supreme, which told the behind the scenes story of the corruption and exploitation of artists on the Motown imprint during its hey days. However, Geffen didn’t fully admit that he’d bitten her book for his movie Dreamgirls; he just formally apologized. To this day, a lot of people assume that the movie is based off Wilson’s play…it isn’t…even though it really is…
For more information on any musician or event reviewed in posts, or for additional information on The Wandering Eyes Blog overall, use the search bar and search the artist or event using keywords. It’s like a Google search for the site. A myriad of information, covering several topics exists on this site going back to 2013 when it was created. PEACE