Songs That Make Books Better

by Tee Tate

“Some of These Days” — Ethel Waters (found in Nausea by Jean-Paul Sartre)

Listening to this after reading Sartre’s novel is kind of deeply creepy for me in some ways, just because it’s actually so easy to imagine his introspective, prototypically existential character sitting down to listen to it at the jukebox before pondering suicide, or something like that. There are a bunch of different versions of this tune, but I’m pretty sure that Sartre was actually referring to Ethel Waters’ take on it in Nausea — because of both its publication date and the fact that his protagonist mentions being enraptured by the “negress” singing the song.

Related Posts

1 comment

JustBrowsing 6 July, 2012 - 11:15 am

Sensational! Loved the chance to actually hear the music and make the connection with you. This is a special treat!

Comments are closed.