"See-Line Woman" (Nina Simone)

It's hard not to love Nina Simone.  Uncompromising, inventive, intelligent.  No one else sounded like her.
She was born Eunice Waymon in Tryon, NC, in 1933 and grew up playing piano by ear in her mother's church (her mother, Mary Kate, was a strict Methodist preacher).  As a pre-teen, she studied classical piano, developing a love for the music of J.S. Bach.  Seeing that she had true, budding talent, the townspeople of Tryon raised enough money for her to attend the Allen School, a private high school for African American girls located in Asheville.  
While in Asheville, she continued her music studies and dreamt of becoming America's first famed black concert pianist.  However, that dream didn't come to pass after Philadelphia's prestigious Curtis Institute of Music rejected her bid for admission—an incident that she felt was motivated by racial prejudice, which cut her deeply.  
To make a living, she began teaching music by day and performing in jazz clubs by night.  And because no preacher's daughter would be caught dead singing in a nightclub, she adopted the stage name "Nina Simone" (the "Nina" came from a pet name given to her by a boyfriend; the "Simone" came from the name of French actress, Simone Signoret).
One of her best known songs is her rendition of "See-Line Woman" from the 1965 album Broadway-Blues-Ballads.
The song (which sometimes is printed as "Sea Lion Woman," or "C-line Woman," or "See Lyin' Woman") is actually an old folk song, often sung by children to keep rhythm while jumping rope.  The first taped performance of the song dates to 1939, when Library of Congress field researcher Herbert Halpert recorded two sisters, Christine and Katherine Shipp, singing the song at their home in rural Mississippi.  But the song itself probably dates back to the 19th century.
So, what is a "see-line woman?"
There's no definitive answer.  As with any folk song like this, it gets passed down, and each person/locality/generation puts its own stank and spin on it.  Including Simone.
According to KCRW Public Radio DJ Tom Schnabel, Simone's take is decidedly adult: it's about women of the night, waiting for sailors to come into port.  Which I think is feasible (considering lyrics like for $1000 she'll wail and she'll moan...).  
Whatever its meaning, and however old the song really is, Simone's track sounds like it could have been recorded yesterday.  I still have a hard time believing it was cut in 1965 because it sounds so far ahead of its time.
Her drummer, Bobby Hamilton, puts down an unfaltering pattern on the hi-hat and kick drum that would put a Roland 808 to shame, setting the foundation for the (nearly) a cappella funk that Simone churns out.  In fact, the only real instrumentation is the soulful flute line that weaves in and out of Simone's husky vocals and the hypnotic, near-chanted see-line backing vocals.
The whole track is just under three minutes in length.  But it's three minutes that will make you want to seek out everything this brilliant woman ever put to tape.