Nina Simone's Gum

by Warren Ellis, Nick Cave (Introduction)

'Warren has turned this memento, snatched from his idol's piano in a moment of rapture, into a genuine religious artefact.' Nick Cave

On Thursday 1 July, 1999, Dr Nina Simone gave a rare performance as part of Nick Cave's Meltdown Festival. After the show, in a state of awe, Warren Ellis crept onto the stage, took Dr Simone's piece of chewed gum from the piano, wrapped it in her stage towel and put it in a Tower Records bag. The gum remained with him for twenty years; a sacred totem, his creative muse, growing in significance with every passing year.

In 2019, Cave - his collaborator and great friend - asked Warren if there was anything he could contribute to display in his Stranger Than Kindness exhibition. Warren realised the time had come to release the gum. Together they agreed it should be housed in a glass case like a holy relic. Worrying the gum would be damaged or lost, Warren decided to first have it cast in silver and gold, sparking a chain of events that no one could have predicted, one that would take him back to his childhood and his relationship to found objects.

Nina Simone's Gum is about how something so small can form beautiful connections between people. It is a story about the meaning we place on things, on experiences, and how they become imbued with spirituality. It is a celebration of artistic process, friendship, understanding and love.

Genres: Music, Nonfiction, Memoir, Biography, Art, Audiobook, Autobiography

208 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 2, 2021

About the author

Librarian note:
There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name

Warren Ellis is an Australian musician and composer. He is a member of the rock groups Dirty Three and Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds.
(source: Wikipedia)

Reviews

[julieta · Rating 5 out of 5]

I wish everyone would read this book. It shows how the world is full of magic, of possibilities, not just by music and expression, but by the symbolism that we can place in something, and make it become important. Like a piece of gum. But not any piece of gum, its not just that. Or the fact that Dr. Simone chewed it and left it on the stage during a show all those years ago. It is also about Warren Ellis, and what he made of that, its about connection, music, art, and the possibilities of seeing someone who changes your life. Beautiful.

[Bruno · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had really low expectations for this book. Not only was it overhyped, but what the hell is there to write about a piece of chewing gum. I could not have been more wrong.

This book completely overwhelmed me. The love and devotion surrounding Doctor Nina Simone's piece of gum that Ellis appropriated and took care of for twenty years is beyond words. I wanted to weep with every page I turned. Not from sadness --at least not the sadness that brings you down, but one that finds its origin in an uplifting, longing feeling of... melancholy perhaps (Weltschmerz) that often lies at the foundation of treasured memories.

There is not one single negative connotation in this book. There is a completely natural focus on love and respect, without the ethereal superfluousness that is all too often observed to accompany these emotions. It is without a doubt one of the best books I have read this year.

[SIMON B · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a sweet, engaging and endearing book. Nina Simone‘s Gum - and the way Warren collects, cares for and curates it - as a metaphor for the devotion that fanatics feel for the “divine relic”, provides a centre point to the story of Ellis’s life and connection with music and “things”. Not material “things” of great intrinsic value, but collectibles, artefacts and cast-offs. The well-known story of Warren’s own interest being sparked by a discarded Hohner piano-accordion he found on a rubbish dump is just one way in which the randomness of thrown away items can provide new meaning, life or inspiration. There are many more in this delightful book - as there are in life when one stops to think about it.

[Alfredo Rottenmeier · Rating 3 out of 5]

Me gusta Nina Simone
Me gustan Dirty Three, Nick Cave, Grinderman...
Me gustan los libros de música que se salen de las hagiografías comunes.

Y me gustó leer este libro. Pero me ha decepcionado por dos razones:
- De una parte la ausencia de una escritura vibrante y cautivadora. Todo se fía a la anécdota, al hecho que cuenta.
- De otra parte la desestructurada y diría que improvisada ordenación de acontecimientos, con escaso sentido a la hora de hacer una narración atractiva.

Es un documento bien editado, con numerosas fotografías, con instantes imperdibles para fans de los citados. Pero creo que equivoca el formato: un documental de 50 minutos o una página web hubieran bastado para contar una historia (eso no se pone en duda) increíble y digna de ser contada.

[Burak · Rating 4 out of 5]

Warren Ellis'i (Bad Seeds'ten dolayı) çok severim ama ne yalan söyleyeyim bu kitaba başlarken çok büyük beklentilerim yoktu. Kurguyu gerçeğe her zaman tercih ederim zaten, doğrudan gerçeği ilgi çekici bir şekilde anlatmak için ise gerçekten iyi bir anlatıcı olmak gerekiyor (bknz. Patti Smith). Sadece enstrümantal becerileriyle tanıdığımız Ellis'ten böyle bir başarı beklemek biraz da haksızlık olacaktı bence. Ancak ne mutlu bana ki yanılmışım.

Kitabın beni en çok şaşırtan tarafı gerçekten de merkezinde Nina Simone'un sakızının olması. 1999'da Nick Cave'in küratörlüğünü üstlendiği bir festivalde sahne alır Nina Simone. Sahneye çıkarken ağzında bir sakız vardır, piyanosunun başına oturunca bu sakızı da çıkarıp piyanonun alt tarafına yapıştırır. Konser herkesi büyüler. Simone sahneden indikten sonra da Warren Ellis gidip sakızı yine Simone'un terini sildiği ve piyanonun üstünde bıraktığı havlunun arasına alarak çantasına atar. Okuyunca kulağa saçma gelmiyor mu sizce de? Takıntı yaptığı ünlünün saç telini ebay'den satın almak için servet harcayan birinden bekleyeceğimiz bir davranış sanki bu. Kitabın devamında ise Nina Simone'un teriyle muhafaza edilen bu sakızın nasıl karşılaştığı herkesi bir şekilde etkisi altına alan bir kutsal nesneye dönüştüğünü okuyoruz ki kitabın büyüsü de burada yatıyor; bunları Ellis'in ağzından, onun geçmişiyle ve deneyimleriyle iç içe okuduğunuzda her şey anlam kazanıyor.

Aslında "şey"lerin taşıdığı değerin fiziksel varlıklarından öte bizim onlara yüklediğimiz anlamdan geldiğini biliyoruz hepimiz. Yolda bulduğumuz şekli güzel bir taş bazen uğur nesnesi oluyor bizim için ve aylarca cebimizde dolaşıyor, çocukken taktığımız künye annemizin çekmecesinde sonraki nesillere aktarılmayı bekleyen bir andaca dönüşüyor, başka zaman görsek dikkatimizi dahi çekmeyecek nesneler arkadaşlarımızın elinde, onların sözleriyle karşımıza çıkınca kutsal emanetler gibi değer kazanıyor birden. Bu değer vermenin insanlar arasında paylaşılabilen, o nesnenin zamanla bir nevi "müritler" oluşturmasına olanak sağlayan toplumsal bir hadiseye dönüşmesi Nina Simone's Gum'ın da temel meselelerinden birisi. Ellis kendinden başlayarak 20 sene elinde tuttuğu, gezdirdiği, sakladığı bir sakız parçasının birçok insanı nasıl etkileyebildiğini, taşıdığı anlamın zamanla ve insanla çoğalarak müzede yüksek güvenlik önlemleri alınmış bir cam fanusta sergilenecek, ölçüleri alınıp mücevhere dönüştürülecek, belki insanların önünde buluşacağı heykeli yapılacak bir "eser"e nasıl dönüşebildiğini anlatıyor.

Ellis başka şeylerden de bahsediyor tabi. Çocukluğunu, müziğe nasıl başladığını, Yunan sanatçı Arleta ya da sonradan kendisinin en büyük işbirlikçilerinden biri olacak Nick Cave gibi yolunun kesiştiği birçok insanla olan ilişkisini kitap boyunca okuyoruz. Tüm bunlar -insanlar, deneyimler- bir yandan da sakızın yolculuğuna anlam kazandırıyor. Kitap boyunca birçok fotoğrafla da hikayeyi somutlaştırıyor Ellis. Zaten projenin en başında sadece sakızın süreç boyunca çekilmiş fotoğraflarından oluşan bir kitap varmış Ellis'in aklında ama neyse ki hayat karşısına onu doğru tarafa yönlendirebilecek insanları çıkarmış da hem Nina Simone'un sakızına daha fazla anlam katan hem de sakızdan aldığı anlamı çoğaltarak kendi başına değerli bir nesneye dönüşen bu anlatıyı okuyabiliyoruz okurlar olarak.

Ellis yazmaya devam eder mi bilmiyorum. Kitabın bir yerinde "bir hatırattan daha can sıkıcı bir şey düşünemediğini" söylüyor. Gelgelelim Nina Simone's Gum bırakın sıkıcı olmayı her sayfasında tutkuyla dolu hissettiren harika bir metin. Çok sevdim ben. Umarım Warren Ellis'in ağzından daha fazla hikaye dinleme fırsatımız olur.

[Janelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a really lovely memoir by musician Warren Ellis. After a Nina Simone performance in 1999 Warren climbed on the stage and collected the gum that she had taken out just as she started and put in her towel at the side of her piano. About twenty years later the gum which Warren has kept in various locations (he really treasured it!) is going to be put on display at a Nick Cave exhibition. This book follows not only the journey of the gum but also shows the various inspirations for artists and performers and also some of Warren’s life. It made me smile.

[Kathleen · Rating 5 out of 5]

My review for the Los Angeles Review of Books: https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/i...

EVERYBODY HAS THEIR celebrity stories: chance encounters with the very famous in which somebody regular sees somebody renowned, recasting the day with a patina of enchantment.

In the summer of 2017, my spouse and I were visiting friends in Japan when we spotted the Australian musician Warren Ellis — best known for his work with Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, but also with the Dirty Three and Grinderman, not to mention as a composer of film scores — from afar on a quiet street in Kyoto. There he stood in the hot and muggy air, cicadas buzzing in the trees, with his wife and sons, his lanky frame and lengthy beard unmistakable, his shirt three buttons unbuttoned, looking like some kind of hypnotic shaman.

What a thrill to see a person whose work gives a little extra beauty and meaning to our lives casually inhabiting the same physical space! Visiting shrines, hanging out with his family, just being so normal — an elevated person down on the same ground. We didn’t try to approach, not wanting to bother him on his own vacation, nor did I sneak off with any of his discarded detritus, but I think of that distant encounter semi-often: a gold nugget we stored away whose shine brightens our brains when recollected.

So when the editor asked me to review this book, it felt like the moment I’d been waiting for without knowing I was waiting, the time to share this small story of an artist I don’t know but appreciate a lot. Here’s why:

In 1999, four years before her death at age 70, Eunice Kathleen Waymon — better known as Nina Simone — gave a performance at the Nick Cave–curated Meltdown Festival in London. After that show, Ellis snuck onto the stage and grabbed Simone’s blob of used gum from her Steinway. He bundled it in the towel she used to wipe her brow, wrapped that in a Tower Records bag, and proceeded to keep it with him for the next two decades. As befits a memento of an exalted performer called the High Priestess of Soul, Ellis imbued the discarded bit of formless material with a respect and a reverence that befits a holy relic.

In his completely charming and joyful memoir Nina Simone’s Gum, Ellis tells the story of his acquisition and stewardship of this magical keepsake, but also of vocation, understanding, interconnectedness, and the power of artistic communities to support and sustain their members and fans.

Nick Cave provides an introduction, written on the occasion of the installation of the gum in the Hallway of Gratitude, part of his Stranger Than Kindness exhibition at the Royal Danish Library in Copenhagen, commemorating the moment when “the chief conservator places the little piece of grey gum on the plinth.” Thanks to Ellis’s willingness to share his revered item with the world, Simone’s gum provides an occasion for visitors to “marvel at the significance of this most ordinary and disposable of things,” as well as “how it could transform, through an infusion of love and attention, into an object of devotion, consecrated by Warren’s unrestrained worship, not just of the great Nina Simone, but of the transcendent power of music itself.”

Ellis’s dedication for the book reads “For Our Teachers.” He spares no praise for the mentors who have encouraged him along his way, from his aspiring musician father in Ballarat, Australia, to a guy in Scotland named Charlie who helped him level up his violin busking game in Inverness in the late 1980s, cluing him into playing folk tunes to please pedestrians and giving him “one of the first real, communal experiences that I’d had playing music.”

Arguably the most important teacher he pays tribute to is Mick Geyer, the guy who introduced him both to the music of Nina Simone at a time when “you couldn’t just look up ‘Nina Simone live in ’69’ on YouTube” and to Nick Cave in person in 1994, a meeting that would change both musicians’ lives. Ellis’s description of Geyer and his influence testifies to the miracle of being in the presence of a natural educator, someone enthusiastic and inclusive who aims to inspire and succeeds:

People like Mick, the aficionados who had that immense kind of knowledge, who were generous enough to pass it on to you, were really invaluable to someone like me, because they seemingly spent their lifetimes reading books, watching films, listening to music. Observing. Refining. Drawing threads together. They had this incredible radar for greatness. Mick was that guy. […] Mick was a walking Wikipedia with soul.

Mick, he continues, “would make you step up to the plate in conversation, always playful and curious.” Ellis’s book gives a similar sensation — that you are in the company of a person with immense joie de vivre, combined with great intelligence and vitality, who wants to pass some of it on to you.

Ellis weaves what he learned from Nina Simone, her fearless music and defiant life, throughout the book as well, including recollections from other people who were present at the show at which he nabbed the gum, creating an informal oral history. Although by that late date Simone was unwell and in considerable physical and mental pain, Ellis documents the way she was buoyed by the audience’s “screams and adulation,” and how she began “tapping into the genius that had defined her all her life,” ultimately “[s]ummoning herself to her own rescue.”


Over the course of plumbing his fellow attendees’ impressions, Ellis contacted the photographer Bleddyn Butcher to see if he’d captured any images of the performance. Ellis includes seven of them, one after another, each powerful on its own but gaining in poignancy as they accumulate. Moving in their intensity, the photos show an indelible artist at the end of her career, but so too are they striking for their rarity. As Ellis notes, the entire experience of the show grows all the more wonderful when you consider that “its witnessing wasn’t a twenty-first-century phenomenon, loaded with iPhones and furious texting while the performance was taking place. From the stage Nina Simone would have only seen the people’s faces.”

Yet Nina Simone’s Gum is not merely an extended version of its title. From the eponymous gum, Ellis radiates backward and forward in time, including saturated detail from his imaginative childhood, charting the development of his superstitious nature and somewhat mystical way of looking at the world, which persists to this day. As he does so, he weaves in ardent anecdotes about artists he’s admired, including the Greek musician Arleta, the jazz composer Alice Coltrane, and the poet Emily Dickinson.

The latter comes up during a project he embarks on in advance of donating the original gum to the museum: having it cast in metal, the better to retain a permanent monument lest something befall the thing itself. He compares his urge to have that effort documented to Dickinson’s Herbarium of flowers and plants which she collected and preserved over the years.

So too is Ellis’s memoir a polyvocal pastiche or collage. Ellis interleaves letters, emails, text messages, and ephemera from his friends and collaborators. Particularly illuminating is a reminiscence by the London jeweler Hannah Upritchard about the time she spent working with Ellis to figure out how to cast the gum in metal without destroying it. “It was fun,” she writes, “meeting Warren for the first time and unexpectedly wandering into his history like this. He was eager and alive and his stories were full of humour and love and nostalgia.” Her words might apply equally to his writing.

Touching briefly on some of the expected tropes of the rock star genre, including the rigors of touring and the ravages of substance abuse, Ellis refreshingly refuses to dwell on any glorification of bad-boy anti-social behavior, instead favoring wholesome sincerity and unrestrained love, exploring the huge questions of “finding the right people to work with,” asking, “How does that happen? What draws us to people? Or them to us? This trust that is needed for collaborations to exist. This beautiful fragile moment each creation has to pass.”

The outcome of this eclectic approach is a glorious testament to “the metaphysical made physical” and to art as not a product, not as a solitarily made end result, but rather as a practice and a community, as well as an occasion — or a self-perpetuating series of occasions — for contact and connection among an array of thoughtful people.

At one point during the casting of the gum into a limited series of metal pendants, Ellis notes that he feels “overwhelmed by Hannah’s care.” By the time I finished reading, I felt as though I could say the same about him — the astonishing care he has for music, for the belief we place in other people and have placed upon us, for “[p]eople following their best intentions,” and for the way “[o]ur actions have repercussions whether immediate or years later.” I hope that someday, if I’m ever lucky enough to spot Ellis again out on the street somewhere, I’ll have the courage this time to say hi, hi and thanks.

[Suzy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't know quite how to rate this! My interest waned half-way through the first 100 pages and then picked up. The last 100 were stellar! My one-sentence review:

Musician, composer, band member and obsessive collector of things, Warren Ellis, creates a loving community through a piece of gum chewed by Nina Simone at one of her last live concerts. (ok I need another sentence) That concert transformed him in ways he could never have predicted.

Nina Simone's gum is included in a museum exhibit by friend and frequent collaborator Nick Cave called Stranger than Kindness. You can read more about it in this great article. Currently on exhibit in Montreal through August, 2022.

Why I'm reading this: Honestly, I'm not sure why I put this on hold at the library, but I love Nina Simone and the reviews here on GR are mainly stellar. I was expecting a novel, but I see it's non-fiction so now I'm really intrigued.

[Patricija || book.duo · Rating 5 out of 5]

5/5

Nuostabaus grožio knyga, kurią skaitydamas, jausdamas tą spinduliuojančią meilę gyvenimui, jo ypatingumui, sutiktų žmonių reikšmingumui, negali ir pats nesišypsoti iki ausų. Žinojau, kad Warrenas – ypatingas, kažkoks truputį pusdievis, neabejotinai ir truputį išprotėjęs genijus, galintis prakalbinti bet kurį instrumentą, bet ši knyga įrodo, kad jis dar ir traukia panašius į save – jautrius ir ypatingus, galinčius suprasti, kuo dviejų dešimtmečių senumo gumos gabaliukas yra vertas ne menkesnės pagarbos, nei koks Monet originalas. Toji guma, nors seniai iškramtyta, čia sulipdo žmones ir likimus, tįsta per metus ir mėnesius, o ir žmonių elgesys su ja, mano manymu, labiausiai atspindi mūsų elgesį su kitų jausmais. Kuo labiau kitas apsinuogina, kuo labiau pasako, kad rūpi, kad skauda, kad neramu, tinkamas partneris – gyvenimo, draugystės, profesijos – gali ne tik suprasti, bet ir atliepti, papildyti emociją, ją įgalinti ir patvirtinti jos reikšmingumą, net jei pats norėtum numenkinti. Nepagalvokit, kad šneku apie kažkokias aukštas materijas ar kad čia kažkokia savigalbos knyga. Čia patys ypatingiausi, nuraučiausi, jautriausi memuarai, kuriuos yra tekę skaityti.

Nežinau, kam negalėčiau šios knygos rekomenduoti. Ne tik dėl milžiniško tikėjimo žmonijos gerumu užtaiso, bet ir dėl to, kad istorija neeilinė, o ir apie ją dar išgirsime. Net jei nelabai žinot kas tas Ellis, net jei nelabai žinot su kuo valgoma ta Simone (ir jos guma), vis tiek visa širdimi rekomenduoju – turbūt viena geriausiai nuteikiančių per gyvenimą skaitytų knygų, o guma yra jos saulė, visus nušviečianti ir net šešėlių nepaliekanti.

[Damian Burford · Rating 5 out of 5]

On my days off from work, I like to lay in bed and just take my sweet time getting ready to join the rest of the world. I love to dream and I think dreams are full of magic. It was there in that place of being half-awake/half-dreaming that I clicked on an email from a record store, that was hawking music books as early christmas gifts. Scrolling through that list, a book with such an "obsurd" title jumped right out of me, "NINA SIMONE'S GUM." Written By Warren Ellis. Was it the comic book author Warren Ellis, or the Nick Cave collaborator and composer? That curiosity in that absurd book lead to one of my all time favorite book discoveries, a book about MAGIC, ART, and things having a life of their own.

I found this book in the moments between sleep and awake, and bought it then and there and I found that each and every time I picked up the book, I was transported back to that magical place. This is a magical book about a magical artifact that Ellis took for his own and kept secret and kept safe for many years, Nina Simone's Gum. But the book is about so much more than that, it's about art, magic and how if you let it... The universe will guide you and these objects of intense meaning into your life and sometimes they are for you, and sometimes they are for the world.

This book is Ellis' exploration of magic in found object, such as his first Accordion, a thing he found in the garbage; or the magic his first violin held, and continues to hold inside it and how that magic took him to a place where he could preserve a strange little bit of the Almighty Nina Simone's magic.

My girlfriend thinks I'm a hoarder, but I collect and keep things that have this magical kind of powers about them and this book... I felt like Ellis was a kindred spirit. We both get and understand the power that can be left in objects. I have so many silly little things from silly little important days in my life that litter my home and cover our bookshelves. Things that matter to me and make me smile when I look at them. This book was a beautiful reminder of why we collect these items and of the magic they can hold within them.

I read the majority of this book in one sitting, and could have finished it there, but instead I put it down for a few weeks, because I didn't want it to end. I wanted that magic of the story of Nina Simone's Gum and it's impact on the author and every one who came into contact with this silly little artifact.

I knew very little of Nina Simone going in to read this book, but now I understand the obsession. I have listened to her music. Watched performances and documentaries. She was a force not long for this world, and a force that was otherworldly. She was a goddess brought to Earth from the energy that we call the Heaven's, and we're lucky she left so much magic behind. We're lucky that Warren Ellis saved this piece of gum, and shared that piece of gum and it's magic with the rest of us.

I can't recommend this book enough. It was absolutely fantastic and will be something I look back on and cherish for many years.

Thank you Rough Trade Recrords for that email, that one sleepy afternoon. Thank you universe for allowing this thing to come out of my dreams and become a reality. Thank you Nina Simone.

[Eduardo Higueras · Rating 5 out of 5]

Si mi pasión no fuera la música, si no fuera admirador de Warren Ellis, de Nick Cave y de los Bad Seeds, si no adorara a Nina Simone, todavía le daría las cinco estrellas a este libro porque, además, comparto con el autor la manía o la locura de tomar algunos objetos absurdos no solo como recuerdos, sino como seres animados capaces de sentir, acompañar y generar. Warren Ellis ha dado forma de poema en prosa e imágenes la historia de un chicle convertido en reliquia. Si se piensa el frío, todo el libro está construido sobre una enorme sandez. Es mejor no pensarlo y dejarse llevar por la pasión, la sinceridad y la devoción de un creador increíble, un músico que ha creado un culto particular a sus propias divinidades. Y está en todo su derecho. Pero además me ha descubierto la música de Arleta. Eso no tiene precio.

[Korcan Derinsu · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bayıldım! Nina Simone'un sakızı üzerinden eşyalara, yaratıcılığa, tutkuya, takıntılara ve hayata dair çok şey anlatıyor. Üstelik bunu da son derece yalın bir dil ve anlatımla yapıyor. Basit gibi görünen şeylerin aynı zamanda nasıl derin olabileceğine inanıyorsanız kitabı sevmemeniz imkansız. Nick Cave'in önsözü ve ara ara kitapta belirlemesi gibi hoşluklar da cabası üstelik.

[Katrin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Prachtig!

[Eavan · Rating 3 out of 5]

*3.5

This is a difficult book to review as I do not usually read music biographies (despite my love of music) as this is an ARC read. I liked the energy of Ellis—I’d love to sit and hang out with him, to hear more about his youth. I appreciate that he was able to write this as a artistic mark in his career, and I understand that insanity surrounding the musicians you love. He seems like a gentle soul. I also have a new love of listening to Arleta.

My main issue was precisely the music elbow rubbing music autobiographies tend to be. It felt like it was written for a cohort of friends and acquaintances that I am not a part of. If I went and saw this exhibit I’d buy a copy and probably rate it higher. I also have a big discontent with spirituality, and I’d probably appreciate it more if I like, believed in God still. It’s not a bad book, or story—it can actually be quite beautiful—but it just wasn’t for me, a random 21-year old with no knowledge of the people in it beside Simone.

Would pay $20 to see Nina Simone’s reaction to this though. I can’t believe she’d be the nicest about it.

[Prince Mendax · Rating 4 out of 5]

ja, när warren ellis spelar fiol så händer det obeskrivliga saker i min bröstkorg.
så himla fint att få läsa text av honom också. OCH det fina i hur ett litet ting som ett tuggummi kan skapa sådana känslor hos alla som är i närheten av det.
BOKTIPS till alla som gillar warren, samlande, nina simone och emotioner.

[Kevin Craig · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm calling it! THIS is my favourite read of 2022! It's magical. I did not realize how deeply it would hit! I had tears so many times I lost track. Every so often a book comes along that you just want to buy a hundred copies and give them to your friends. This is that book. READ THIS BOOK!

[Dan · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

The story of Nina Simone's gum is definitely original and the writing is pretty good. Ellis's obsession just didn't land with me, it felt privileged and unimportant but I can see how people might like it.

[Anusha Siobhan · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wanted to like this more than I did…

[Frankie · Rating 2 out of 5]

High on their own supply

[Kaat Van Der Haegen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nina’s muziek kende ik vaag.
Warren Ellis kende ik niet eerder. Nu een beetje. Hij is muzikant en speelt vooral viool. Maar hij is vooral gekend als rechterhand van Nick Cave. Hij schrijft ook muziek voor film en dans. En met Nina’s kauwgom heeft hij nu ook een boek op zijn palmares.
Het verhaal van dit boek begint op 1 juli 1999 wanneer Warren een concert van Nina Simone op het Meltdown Festival, georganiseerd door Nick Cave, in Londen bijwoont. Na het optreden klimt Warren het podium op, plukt er de kauwgom die Nina net voor het optreden onder haar piano kleefde weg en wikkelt hem in haar handdoek.
Warren houdt, als een schatbewaarder, de kauwgom twintig jaar bij. Tot Nick Cave voor een tentoonstelling in Denemarken spullen zoekt en Warren hem wil helpen. In een sms-gesprek laat hij Nick weten: ‘And I have Nina Simone’s chewing gum as well.’
‘Pure religion’ antwoordt Nick Cave een paar berichten verder.
Die kauwgom zet de verbeelding van Warren aan het werk.
De kauwgom ondergaat een transformatie. Van de platgekauwde gum wordt een afgietsel gemaakt. Hij wordt verzilverd en Ann Demeulemeester maakt er een ring van. Op een marmeren sokkel krijgt hij een plaats in een overzichtstentoonstelling van Cave.
De kauwgom wordt zwaar verzekerd en bij transport wordt voor de viool van Warren en de kauwgom een extra zetel op het vliegtuig gereserveerd.
Kortom: de kauwgom wordt bijna een heilig, spiritueel voorwerp.
Ik moet bekennen: er zijn momenten geweest waarop ik mij afvroeg of het niet decadent is om al die aandacht aan een kauwgom te geven. Maar hoe verder ik in het boek vorderde hoe meer ik genoot en hoe meer waardevols ik uit het verhaal kon halen.
Zo is er het besef dat Nina’s kauwgom enkel het hoofdpersonage van een boek kon worden omdat Warren nooit had nagedacht waarom hij de kauwgom plukte en bewaarde. Voor Warren was de kauwgom iets persoonlijks, iets wat voor hem betekenis had en dat hij bij andere symbolen plaatste die hem vooruithielpen als hij het niet meer zag zitten. Het soort symbolen dat verhalen oproept en daarom de moeite is om te bewaren.
Geleidelijk aan begon ik ook in te zien hoe Warren overdonderd werd door de grote verantwoordelijkheid en de zorg die dit kleine voorwerp met zich meebracht.
Nina Simone’s Gum is een metafoor voor de passie waarmee iemand kleine onbeduidende dingen in bescherming kan nemen en tot iets heel groot kan verheffen.
In het laatste hoofdstuk oppert Warren de idee om een beeld van de kauwgom te maken en zo Nina’s energie in de wereld te verspreiden.

Meer dan ooit hebben we Nina Simone nodig: haar stem, haar kracht en haar vastberadenheid. Haar opstandigheid, haar moed, haar onverschrokkenheid. Stel je voor: de kauwgom van Nina Simone ter grootte van een hart in het Vrijheidsbeeld op Ellis Island.

Het zou mooi zijn… alleen vrees ik dat dit in deze tijden een droom blijft.

[Raganų kraujo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nuostabi! Tiesiog stebuklinga istorija, kurią kuria stebuklingi žmonės.
Ir kaip neįtikėtina, bet gera, kai ateina suvokimas, jog tavo dievai lygiai taip pat turi savuosius.

[Macey · Rating 5 out of 5]

actually really good
makes hero-worshipping seem not that weird.

i'll write a proper review later

[later]

(I'm not sure what counts as a spoiler as there's not a whole load of plot but I talk about stuff from the end of the book, so spoilers)

(this is a weird review apologies in advance)

having read this book again, I can affirm that it's the most quietly odd memoir I've yet read, and actually so so good.

I walked into English reading this and my teacher said 'oh cool, I love Nina Simone' and I replied that it's not really about Nina Simone it's more about hero worship, this guy from Nick Cave's band stole her used gum off her piano and got it cast in silver and put in a museum. And my teacher looked pretty confused. And then she said it would make a good connections text if the theme was how fame inspires people do weird things.

I'm not a dedicated fan of either the Bad Seeds or Nina Simone, but with the premise it's got I couldn't not read it. But I was struck by how... normal it was. I sort of expected it to be some manic fan's undying devotion but it was actually very peaceful and respectful, like people hushing when someone important starts talking.

Obviously Ellis loves Nina Simone, but it's in a very reverential way - he literally put the gum on a marble plinth, was awe inspired enough to climb onstage after her show to take it in the first place. When he says how he didn't look at it for years at a time, went to great lengths to hide it in his house in case someone broke in and for some reason decided to steal an old bag with a towel in it, or if a cleaner threw it out by accident, his anxiety when it's being tweezered off the towel, it all feels totally reasonable and a measured response. Someone compares it to a religious relic, which is exactly what it is - instead of the hair of a saint in a frame in a chapel somewhere, it's the chewing gum of a musical icon (the word icon invoking religion anyways) in a frame in an art exhibition. They use the same museum preservation techniques they use for 18th century manuscripts for the gum to ensure it doesn't degrade while in the Stranger Than Kindness exhibition. At some point they're setting up the plinth for the gum and Nick stuck a bit of his gum on it as a model. And they talk about getting a bit of Bowie's gum and putting that on a plinth too. And there are definitely people who would go to an exhibition that had Bowie's gum or Nick Cave's gum or Nina's gum. I know people who would go, I probably would too (maybe not if it were just the gum but you get the idea). And the longer I think about it, it gets both more and less bizarre at the same time. Probably if you read the book you'll think that's not that weird either, it's just that kind of book. Fame inspires people to do weird things.

It sort of reminded me of Patti Smith's books a little (I know I said this about The Sick Bag Song too, but I'm not just trying to relate everything to Patti Smith I promise), not just because of the hero worship but because of the guardianship of things that the author's personal icons used to own. Patti writes about the pages of a poet, the shoes of a ballerina, being able to photograph the bed of a painter - Warren Ellis writes about the chewing gum of a musician. A bit stranger yes, but the same idea. The reverential custodianship of relics of gone artists. Nina Simone is such a powerful figure and yet gum is so mundane, it's a strange balance.

I really liked the parts about Ellis's youth as well - finding an old accordion in a dump, the box of collected things under the bed, the Australian summerness nostalgia. The violin that he carved all over and played for thirty years until it broke. The shrine of things in his attic window. The most disconcerting part was not the stealing of used gum but the pictures of texts between Warren and Nick Cave, for some reason I can't picture them using phones. Their music is so gothic cell phones seem anachronistic.

It was cool. If you like odd books and artistic people doing strange things, you will like this book.

(edit - I bought the paperback edition with the afterword, and the day Warren and Nick go to Nina's birthplace was exactly a year ago. crazy things happen.)

[Stagger Lee · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is just a fucking delight. Ellis is a natural story teller, a Romantic, a humble mystic. The absurd yet perfect story of the gum reaching back into his life and then involving dozens of people who got the power in that little clump of stuff. Cameos from surprising people, moments that are genuinely moving. And yet are about some gum.

[Genevieve · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very intriguing and beautiful little book. At points I worried it would stray into "celeb memoir" mode and start basically being a long list of names I didn't know, but it turned into much more than that. I felt genuinely moved by the end. In a world where it's so easy to be apathetic and defeatist about things, I found it heartening that Warren Ellis still cares (and genuinely believes in) the magic and significance between different people, connections, emotions, moments, memories and objects. He seems like a person who goes about the world in a state of wonder, that he seems so grateful for the life he leads. A beautifully produced books with loads of photos, well done Warren.

[Gert van der Horst · Rating 5 out of 5]

Misschien wel het beste boek dat ik dit jaar gelezen heb. En dat is niet omdat hij de muzikale rechterhand van Nick Cave is. Hoe iets banaals -een stukje kauwgom- tot iets verhevens kan opstijgen. Door de taal die we hebben. En onze fantasie.

[Kimley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tosh and I discuss this with special guest Andrea Tetrick on our Book Musik podcast.

Warren Ellis is a multi-instrumentalist and frequent collaborator with Nick Cave as well as a member of The Bad Seeds and the trio Dirty Three among other music projects. He now adds talented writer to his resume with this new book which is part memoir but also an homage to art and artists and their power to inspire and lift us up. When Ellis takes Nina Simone’s gum from her piano after a transcendent performance, it takes him on an epic adventure while he contemplates the meaning and importance of these precious objects that we carry with us.

[Tosh · Rating 5 out of 5]

We discuss this excellent book on our Book Musik podcast. You can hear it here: Book Musik podcast

[Jo Coleman · Rating 5 out of 5]

A lovely little book about how collected objects can turn into magical totems, about observing and participating in art, and about how these things can bring out great care and kindness in people. I felt like a better person for a few hours while I was reading it.

[Casey Walsh · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was not expecting to be so moved by a book about a piece of stolen chewing gum.

[Katie · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Nina Simone's gum is a lovely example of how things can carry a meaning much larger than the thing itself." (p.165)

What a special book.

I loved the format of this. Similar to Jarvis Cocker's 'Good Pop, Bad Pop', in short chapters/ vignettes? (love that word, don't know if I'm using it correctly) it tells the story of important objects, people and moments in Warren's life. I really appreciated the inclusion of photos as a visual guide to what he was talking about. The book is just gorgeous to hold and read with its lovely thick pages.

Most of all I loved Warren's earnestness and rawness. He is a true artist that sees beauty and depth in what other people consider rubbish, and he sees it in the modern world. It makes you realise that artful things are all around us, they're not just expensive paintings hanging in international galleries. They can be in an iMessage, they can be the contents of an old suitcase, they can be in an old piece of gum. The value we assign to items becomes their value. I really love how he explains everything in plain language, not flowery or big words. It feels so inclusive and real.

The only reason I give this 4 and not 5 stars is entirely my own fault. Some parts dragged a bit for me because I was lacking context to care about them. I think if I was more familiar with Warren Ellis and knew more of his music going into it I would've liked it even more.