Fugazi was touring Australia in 1996 when Ian MacKaye caught pneumonia. As he relayed to the Washington Post, the illness collapsed one of his lungs, and he landed in the hospital for 19 days. It nearly killed him. To keep his sanity, he listened to CDs, one of which had the song "Compensation," by Nina Simone. "I listened to this and it just pulled me through. ... I kept hearing the music like it was speaking to me in a way that made me happy, made me feel like it's worth fighting through this thing."
The song is both ethereal and minimal, and the lyrics pack a punch, especially for someone confronting their own mortality. The last lines in the song are (via Genius): "... Sung with such faltering breath / Oh, oh, oh, the Master in His infinite mercy / Offers the boon of death." Pretty relatable for an ethics-driven musician fighting for his life in a hospital far from home.
MacKaye also related to Simone's dedication to doing her music strictly on her terms. "She's such a badass," he said.
MacKaye was a guest host at 2009's Maryland Film Festival in Baltimore. Carrying his love of Simone forward, he told the Baltimore Sun that he had chosen to present a short 1992 documentary about her called "Nina Simone: La Legende." He said he had been thinking of something more brutal and antiwar but instead opted for a celebration of "humanity, creativity, life!"
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