Message from Nina
I have recently discovered a Buffalo institution. It is a place called Sportsmen’s Tavern and is an old neighborhood bar made over into an eclectic music club. There is a regular music schedule there and most of the talent is from this area although they do recruit some lesser-known national performers as well.Every Saturday, Sportsmen’s has a matinée performance starting at 3:30 which is perfect for guys like me who no longer possess the last night stamina of our younger days. A few months ago I discovered a band called The Ron Davis Combo. They are an accumulation of several Buffalo music veterans including a very talented singer named Sue Kincaid. The Combo does mostly cover material but they mix in some originals every now and then. But its the covers and the band’s treatment of them that really get my attention. Just about everything they play has some kind of personal interpretation of the original, a certain Ron Davis Combo twist that makes the song almost their own. You have to hear them to believe them, but when I describe the Beatles classic “Day Tripper” with a bossa nova rhythm or the Bill Withers song “Ain’t No Sunshine” with more soul than he ever imagined, maybe you can get the idea. These guys are good.
Two days ago, I was downtown and not far from Sportsmen’s. I knew the Ron Davis Combo was playing that afternoon so I took a ride over to hear them. I forked over the $3 cover charge and found a front row seat at the bar. I ordered a local draft called “Trainwreck,” sat back and fell into the groove. About halfway through their second set, they introduced a song that I had not heard them play. They said only that it was a Beatles song covered by a woman named Nina Simone and that they were going to play her version of it. Nina Simone is an interesting singer who remains unknown to most people. Her music and voice are both hard to describe but she tends toward blues and soul versions of her original songs and the covers she does. I was somewhat familiar with her and was curious about what I would be hearing.
The opening piano riff was hard to identify, familiar but I wasn’t sure what it was. Then the band joined in and I found myself in the opening of the George Harrison classic “Here Comes the Sun.” Only it wasn’t because it had such a soulful spin to it that it sounded like a brand new song. When Sue Kincaid added her sultry vocal, the song really took off and I sat smiling. Then I heard it. I almost missed it but I was able to rewind a few seconds and get an instant replay of the lyrics she had just sung. Instead of the sticking to the original lyrics “It feels like years since it’s been here,” she sang “It feels like years since you’ve been here.” Once I realized what I heard, I got a chill, I smiled and just shook my head. The song was remarkable and I wish they would have played it again.
That night I went home and dialed up Nina Simone on You Tube and found “Here Comes the Sun.” I played it and it was different from the version I heard earlier in the day. A little slower. I actually liked the live version from the Ron Davis Combo a little better and thought it was interesting how they altered the cover of the cover of the original. But that lyric, the changing of that one word from “it’s” to “you’ve” just kept coming at me. Nina Simone sang it that way every time she got to that line and every time I heard it, I was thinking how long it’s been since Coleen has been here. It does seem like years. And it seems like it’s getting longer all the time.
“Here Comes the Sun” has become an anthem to me and my girls as we heal from Coleen’s death. My daughter hears that song on the radio as a way her mom communicates with her. Our granddaughters hear the “Sun Song” and know the words and sing along. The cellist played it at Coleen’s burial service and everyone smiled. I think of the lyrics and the message of newness the song presents and I can’t help but take it as a personal message to move forward with things that I am wrestling with. And with Nina Simone changing that word to “you’ve,” meaning Coleen to me, I hear that message even louder.
It’s funny how that one song has shown up so frequently in so many different ways since Coleen’s death. It seems that it has been everywhere, playing, encouraging, teaching. No coincidences. With lyrics like “It’s been a long cold lonely winter, It feels like years since you’ve been here,” how can I not take things personally? I am putting a lot of weight on the closing words, “It’s all right.”
Trackback from your site.