Tonight’s song is a lament. In April 1968, Martin Luther King, the great leader of the civil rights movement, was killed. Three days later, Nina Simone sang this song in a concert hall in New York.
Learn from Songs · Unit 3: Questions · B1–B2
Why? (The King of Love Is Dead)
Nina Simone’s song for Martin Luther King, sung three days after his death: wh- questions (Why…? What will happen…? Who will…?), subject and object questions (Who helped? / Who did he help?), and questions about the future, with Philo, Sophia, Marcos and Demetria.
SOPHIA
DEMETRIA
Three days? When did she write it?
SOPHIA
Her bass player wrote it the day after. The song is full of questions: why did this happen, and what will happen now?
PHILO
The oldest questions there are.
Before you listen: the song
Westbury, New York, 7 April 1968
Nina Simone trained as a classical pianist and became one of the great singers of jazz, blues and soul. In the 1960s she gave her voice to the civil rights movement, which fought to end racial segregation in America.
Martin Luther King led that movement with speeches, marches and non-violence. He was killed on 4 April 1968. Nina Simone’s bass player, Gene Taylor, wrote this song at once, and on 7 April she sang it at the Westbury Music Fair. The live recording was released later that year on the album ’Nuff Said!.
In the song, she asks what will happen now that the king of love is dead. She remembers what he did, and she asks the audience what they will do.
The questions we ask after a loss show what we loved.
Listen: the questions
PHILO
Listen once. How many questions can you hear? Which question does she ask most?
SOPHIA
It is a live recording. Listen to the audience, too. Then answer Section A.
🕊️ Listen to the song: “Why? (The King of Love Is Dead)” (Gene Taylor, 1968), sung by Nina Simone.Find the recording →
📜 Read the words while you listen: “Why? (The King of Love Is Dead)”, Nina Simone.Read the lyrics →
Wh- questions
MARCOS
Why did it happen? What will we do now? Where are we going? How can we go on?
SOPHIA
Question word + auxiliary (do, does, did, will, can, be) + subject + verb: Why did he die? What will happen?
Subject and object questions
DEMETRIA
Who helped him? (Someone helped him.) Who did he help? (He helped millions.)
SOPHIA
When who or what is the subject, there is no do / did: Who wrote the song? What happened? When it is the object, use do / did: Who did she sing for? What did he say?
Questions about the future
PHILO
What will happen now? Who’s going to lead us? Will anyone listen?
SOPHIA
will for predictions and the unknown future, going to for plans and things we can already see coming. What are you going to do? asks about a plan.
Sophia’s comparison: How long?
PHILO
The psalmist asks God: How long will you forget me? How long will you hide your face? And Lamentations begins with a question: How lonely sits the city that was full of people!
SOPHIA
When Socrates drank the hemlock, his friends cried and asked: what will we do without him? He told them to keep asking questions. That, he said, was the best way to remember him.
Sophia’s summary
| Words and forms | Use | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Why / What / Where / How + did / will / can… | wh- questions | Why did it happen? |
| Who / What + verb (no do) | subject questions | Who wrote the song? |
| Who / What + did + subject + verb | object questions | Who did he help? |
| What will…? | prediction, the unknown | What will happen now? |
| What are you going to…? | plans | What are you going to do? |
Practice
Listen to the song for Section A, then do the rest. Press “Check my answers” at the end. You can try again as many times as you like.
A · Listen: the song
Listen to the song and choose the best answer.
1. Who was Martin Luther King?
2. When did Nina Simone sing the song?
3. Who wrote the song?
4. What kind of recording is it?
5. What is the song full of?
6. What did Nina Simone train as?
B · Grammar and vocabulary
Write the missing word or words.
7. Why it happen?
8. What happen now? (prediction)
9. Who the song? (write; subject question)
10. Who he help? (object question)
11. What are you going do?
12. can we go on? (in what way)
C · Right or wrong?
Is the sentence correct English?
13. “Who did write the song?”
14. “What will happen now?”
15. “Why he died?”
16. “Who did she sing for?”
Talk and write
Discussion and writing
Interview. Imagine you were at the concert in 1968. Your partner is a journalist. Answer six wh- questions: Where were you? What did she sing? How did the audience feel?
Discuss. 1. Why do people ask “why?” when someone dies, even when there is no answer? 2. Can a song help a country to grieve? 3. Who is a peacemaker you admire?
Write (120–150 words). Questions for a hero. Write eight questions you would like to ask a person you admire (living or from history), mixing subject and object questions. Then answer three of them as you think they would.
Now play the gamebook: the peacemaker is gone. What will happen now?Play the gamebook →