Fodder on My Wings

Fodder on My Wings is an album by singer/pianist/songwriter Nina Simone. It is part of her later works, and can be regarded alongside Baltimore (1978) as one of her better achievements of that period ^[2]. It is however a rather obscure album and not widely distributed. The album is one of Dr. Simone's most introspective and personal works, with songs about her father's death and her (not always pleasant) stay in Liberia, Trinidad and Switzerland. There is some confusion about the actual title of the album and the song with almost the same title on the album, being called "Fodder On My Wings", "Fodder In My Wings", "Fodder In her Wings" interchangeably.

Information about songs on this album

• "I Sing Just To Know That I'm Alive", with this song Nina Simone 'closes' the year 1981 and welcomes herself in Trinidad, referring to it as her home country (she is in fact originally American).
• "Fodder In Her Wings ", In her later years Nina often performed this song live, it also features on the albums Live At Ronnie Scott's (1987) and some of her later albums. In the live versions of the song she often refers to her own fleeing to countries all over the world, naming them one by one. This song was covered by Vic Chesnutt on his album North Star Deserter.
• "Il Y A Un Baume A Gilead", Nina had already sung this song on Baltimore (1978) in an English version "There is a Balm in Gilead". It is in fact, as Nina states on this album, an African song.
• "Liberian Calypso", on this track Nina sings about an experience she had while she was in Liberia, where she went to a Disco and got so happy about the music that she danced on the tables naked for hours on end. This episode was later further described in Dr. Simone's autobiography I Put A Spell On You (1991).
• "Le Peuple En Suisse", on this track Nina talks about the people in Switzerland, where she lived for several years. This was not a happy time for her, and Nina found the people in Switzerland very empty and unloving ^[3].
• "Alone Again Naturally", on this track (based on a song by Gilbert O'Sullivan but with new lyrics) Nina talks about the October 1972 death of her father.
• In the additional track "Stop", Simone expresses her dislike for the song "Send in the Clowns".

Cover art

The album cover shows a painting made by Gabriel Jarnier.

Track listing

All compositions by Nina Simone except as indicated

Original LP

1. "I Sing Just To Know That I'm Alive" - 2:23
2. "Fodder in Her Wings " - 5:34
3. "Vous Êtes Seul, Mais Je Désire Être Avec Vous" - 5:30
4. "Il Y A Un Baume A Gilead" - 2:21
5. "Heaven Belongs To You (Le Ciel T'appartiendra)" - 3:38
6. "Liberian Calypso" - 2:59
7. "Thandewye" - 5:31
8. "I Was Just A Stupid Dog To Them" - 2:25
9. "Color Is A Beautiful Thing" - 1:03
10. "There Is No Returning (Le Peuple En Suisse)" - 4:58

Additional CD tracks

1. "Alone Again Naturally" (Gilbert O'Sullivan) - 6:27
2. "Stop" - 2:19
3. "They Took My Hand" - 0:34

These tracks only feature on the CY Records compact disc version of the album. The order of the CD varies somewhat from the LP-album.

1. ^ Allmusic Review
2. ^ Review of Baltimore and Fodder On My Wings on Allaboutjazz.com
3. ^ Simone, Nina; Cleary, Stephen. I Put A Spell On You, 1992 (Da Capo Press), ISBN 0679410686