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Nina + Field of Cops and the Power of the Greats
- myra dodd
- 1 day ago
- 4 min read
Whether it be because it's just that good or just that loud, "Nina + Field of Cops" is a definite standout on Cameron Winter's 2024 solo album Heavy Metal. It's one of my favorites and stops me in my tracks more often than not.
"Nina + Field of Cops" is a hard song to begin to unpack. It's long, fast, and often nonsensical. I asked two of my friends and they both came to almost completely different interpretations from each other and from my own. I believe that "Nina + Field of Cops" is about Cameron trying to find his identity as an artist, in a field with so many greats before him, while navigating the demands of society and the industry.
There are three characters referred too throughout the song. The narrator Cameron, you, and Nina. Throughout the song I believe that "you" refers not to a specific person but to society as a whole. Specifically, people in the music industry pushing decisions one way or the other. Nina, I believe is Nina Simone, famed American singer and activist who is often credited as being one of the most gifted vocalists of all time.
The start of the song is startling, and it marks quite the departure from the rest of the record. It opens in a whirlwind talking about experiences of being new in the modern music industry. People are distrusting of new faces. So many emerging artists are immediately dubbed as industry plants or torn down for inexplicable reasons. "You're suspicious of treasures and plastic covers." Even if there is not an inherent reason to dislike someone, one will be found. "The oven is open and the kitchen is lying," I believe could be in reference to often nonsensical rumors circulating within the industry. It doesn't really make sense. Everyone has an opinion, and it gets confusing. How and why would a kitchen lie? It doesn't really matter why if the voice is already out there.
Cameron places a great emphasis placed on names. Names are extremely important in the music industry. "Names are donuts in the sea," they can protect you; they can make you, they are your lifeline. Names are what make people pay attention or they "bid you to beg for trash." Without power behind his name Cameron has to fight for himself. He will "talk to every crowded room" and "go to the great carnivals of pain." In order to make it, he has to make people pay attention to him. He is making his own name.
The titular character of the song, Nina Simone herself, is put on a pedestal. She is what Cameron is inspired to be and also what is holding him back. Nina doesn't listen to any of the noise because she doesn't have to. She has it all figured out above the constraints of the crowds. She is the one that created much of the path that Cameron feels unworthy to follow. She makes people feel seen. Her music is so powerful that she transcends what should be possible with the medium, as her music "breaks the window." The figure of Nina stands above all others. She has watched "all the good pigeon-like people shot down, and bones be kicked to powder by the insane wild horses." Countless have tried to mimic the success that she has achieved only to be brought down to reality. Cameron is okay with this; he supports her and even bends to her power.
To me, much of this song is Cameron reflecting on his own identity as an artist. Before you truly find your artistic voice, you're but a combination of all those who have inspired you. Cameron walks on everything that is already established, "Sunglasses in the rain, tire tracks in the cave." His vision is built upon the backs of others. In the music industry the path has already been paved a thousand times over. Not to mention the names that did it. You can create something that may be your best, only to be reminded someone else can do it a hundred times better. "Nina, I'm not nothing, but when you lie on the piano I am reminded I am stupid." Cameron feels insignificant in the face of all that came before him.
As I mentioned before, this song is very loud. Everything and everyone create a lot of noise.
(Reminds me a bit of "I'm trying to talk over all the people in the world" from "Getting Killed") As an artist there is a lot going on in his head, but there's also a lot to talk over and getting an audience to listen is hard. The latter half of this song feels kinda like an unregulated stream of consciousness to me. It becomes overwhelming as it begins to speed up leaving a myriad of nonsensical imagery in its wake.
Obviously, none of this is definitive and truthfully, I haven't even properly look up if Cameron has talked in depth about the song. One of my friends said that to them, Nina was a girl that Cameron put on a pedestal. He takes it as more of a love song about immature and exaggerated feelings. A kind of love that makes you burst at the seams with adoration before the other person has to bring you back down to earth. My other friend took a more cynical approach, viewing the song talking more to society as a whole. Which fits pretty well with most of Getting Killed's subject matter. I kinda love it anyway you look at it.
"Nina + Field of Cops" is an extremely honest look at artistic perspective and finding one's voice. Not to boost Cameron Winters ego too much but compared to a lot of his contemporaries I think he is doing a pretty fantastic job. Not that there is ever a reason to compare them, but I listened to Sombr's debut album last week and the whole time was thinking about this song. Sombr you're not nothing but compared to Cameron Winter you are stupid.
I had a lot of trouble writing this one because Nina is not the type of song you can easily write while listening too. At the same time, listening to the song is the only way to truly feel it.
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