Gil Scott Heron Appreciation.
- Thread starter Cosmo
- Start date
Haha! Weren't they, though?
Golden shower era trickle down. Drink a cup of Gatorade and call me.
Golden shower era trickle down. Drink a cup of Gatorade and call me.
i see nothing wrong with the music or the message...matter of fact, that is the only other hit SINGLE (besides 1975's "Johannesburg") that GSH had. i think both were the only songs of his to make the top 40 soul charts. i used to hear this bumping from black radio stations all the time.
(strangely enough, WLS - at one time THE big Top 40 white station in Chicago - had this song on their playlist for a MINUTE, before they let it die.)
great interview. thanks for posting this.
i just want to say that all this hypocrisy talk is nonsense. the reason songs like "the bottle" and "home is where the hatred is" are so potent is because they are coming from a man who knows what he's talking about...
writing a song about cocaine when you've never done a line in your life... now that would be hypocritical. his songs never said, "don't do this" or "i've never done this".. they're just putting things out there the way they are... the audience is invited to draw their own conclusions.
anyway, just look at the interview and listen to the man himself. despite his troubles, which is what everybody wants to focus on, the man is extremely sharp and insightful.
Thanks for starting the thread, AI. It goes without saying in these quarters, but Gil's music is beyond important to many of us here. That music has so much heart and heartbreak it is almost beyond description, and certainly beyond genre.
I have seen Gil twice(would have been 3 but that time he ditched,and the sight of Brian Jackson and the rest of his band just sitting at the bar waiting for him at Blues Alley in DC was heartbreaking). The first time he had Brian Jackson in tow as well as some serious percussionist and it was a beautiful night. He was in great form(although the physical difference between him and Jackson is startling---Jackson looks like a health nut and barely looks like he is beyond 35--sadly Gil looks his age and a healthy dose more). Magical. The next time was after his prison stay, and it was very much what AI's friend described....a few noticable shakes and a slight lisp due to lost teeth, but it all melted away the minute he began playing. Even his monologues were funny, and scathingly on point. But you could tell that it was all for the moment, and the weight of his life would soon be back on him.
I hope he can get better, I am sure in times like these he woul have plenty to say if he could find his way to it.
I have seen Gil twice(would have been 3 but that time he ditched,and the sight of Brian Jackson and the rest of his band just sitting at the bar waiting for him at Blues Alley in DC was heartbreaking). The first time he had Brian Jackson in tow as well as some serious percussionist and it was a beautiful night. He was in great form(although the physical difference between him and Jackson is startling---Jackson looks like a health nut and barely looks like he is beyond 35--sadly Gil looks his age and a healthy dose more). Magical. The next time was after his prison stay, and it was very much what AI's friend described....a few noticable shakes and a slight lisp due to lost teeth, but it all melted away the minute he began playing. Even his monologues were funny, and scathingly on point. But you could tell that it was all for the moment, and the weight of his life would soon be back on him.
I hope he can get better, I am sure in times like these he woul have plenty to say if he could find his way to it.
A great, of course.
I have most of his output but the stuff with Brian Jackson involved is musically stronger IMHO. Nothing beats that version of HIWTHI on "It's Your World". The solos are next level. I think I know those parts note-for-note. I definitely spent a few days just listening to Bilal's sax solo over and over. The end is, as I think I mentioned last time, used for MAW's "Moonshine".
"They don't really love you, brother."
I've seen Gil 3 or 4 times, but never with Brian Jackson. Nobody has rocked the Rhodes like that, despite the modern bands always being tight. Robbie Gordon on bass was/is good value, I don't know if he's still in the band. But some show started 2 hours late. Like the taxi story, people had left and yes, he was probably copping. Frustrating.
Re: "Can't believe he succumbed to drugs after penning those tunes" - Can folks not see dude was in too deep before he wrote them? I am amazed he's still alive. I don't think I could bear to see him again, even with Brian. I've seen that interview before and I detected no snot either. It might be just our accents that are always interpreted as snotty?
I have most of his output but the stuff with Brian Jackson involved is musically stronger IMHO. Nothing beats that version of HIWTHI on "It's Your World". The solos are next level. I think I know those parts note-for-note. I definitely spent a few days just listening to Bilal's sax solo over and over. The end is, as I think I mentioned last time, used for MAW's "Moonshine".
"They don't really love you, brother."
I've seen Gil 3 or 4 times, but never with Brian Jackson. Nobody has rocked the Rhodes like that, despite the modern bands always being tight. Robbie Gordon on bass was/is good value, I don't know if he's still in the band. But some show started 2 hours late. Like the taxi story, people had left and yes, he was probably copping. Frustrating.
Re: "Can't believe he succumbed to drugs after penning those tunes" - Can folks not see dude was in too deep before he wrote them? I am amazed he's still alive. I don't think I could bear to see him again, even with Brian. I've seen that interview before and I detected no snot either. It might be just our accents that are always interpreted as snotty?
I remember Moving Target having one strong track.
I think his political messages were too overt in the 80s, though, unlike his earlier albums where he was able to get the point across in a creative way.
i kinda get what you mean, but to be fair, the 80's made a lot of artists in all fields respond the same way, that is to say not so subtlely... it wasn't the 70's, yunno?
Great post, AI.
The one and only time I saw GSH perform was in June 1986 in Manchester, where I was living at the time. The '86 World Cup in Mexico was taking place, and a few of us were round at my boy's house in the late afternoon/early evening watching the classic France-Brazil quarter-final, which is still one of the greatest games I've ever seen. Several beers after the game had finished, someone says, "Hold up, Gil Scott-Heron's doing the International II tonight!" The immediate and unanimous decision was to roll up posse-deep in the hope the show wasn't sold out, which it thankfully wasn't. although the place was a good three-quarters full by the time Gil came on. He was on tremendous form, cracking sardonic jokes throughout, and had a truly commanding presence. An extended, unaccompanied version of "Space Shuttle", which was a new tune then, turned into a coruscatingly funny monologue on the (literal) fallout from the Chernobyl disaster affecting Europe, still a big news story. He didn't have a record out at the time, or even a label, so the material was a decent balance between the then-recent Arista output ("Gun", "B-Movie", "Washington DC", "Shut 'Em Down"), earlier classics ("Winter In America", "Johannesburg", "Lady Day & John Coltrane" and a gorgeous version of "Your Daddy Loves You"), and a few newer songs. I remember he actually had a Mancunian guitar-player in his band at the time, which went down particularly well with the crowd. It was a fantastic evening all round. The perception of Gil at the time by a lot of people in the UK was of someone rather worthy and earnest, whose music you listened to out of a sense of duty rather than for pleasure. Anyone who went to that show could have testified what an arse-backwards assessment that was. It's still one of the best and most memorable shows I've ever been to, and that's even after getting drunk as fuck and dancing until two in the morning at the club after Gil's set finished.
It's been heart-breaking to witness his decline over the last decade or so. To see such a giant of an artist brought down by the very ills he warned against is beyond depressing. I hope he manages to find his way back, because the world would be a smaller place without him in it.
The one and only time I saw GSH perform was in June 1986 in Manchester, where I was living at the time. The '86 World Cup in Mexico was taking place, and a few of us were round at my boy's house in the late afternoon/early evening watching the classic France-Brazil quarter-final, which is still one of the greatest games I've ever seen. Several beers after the game had finished, someone says, "Hold up, Gil Scott-Heron's doing the International II tonight!" The immediate and unanimous decision was to roll up posse-deep in the hope the show wasn't sold out, which it thankfully wasn't. although the place was a good three-quarters full by the time Gil came on. He was on tremendous form, cracking sardonic jokes throughout, and had a truly commanding presence. An extended, unaccompanied version of "Space Shuttle", which was a new tune then, turned into a coruscatingly funny monologue on the (literal) fallout from the Chernobyl disaster affecting Europe, still a big news story. He didn't have a record out at the time, or even a label, so the material was a decent balance between the then-recent Arista output ("Gun", "B-Movie", "Washington DC", "Shut 'Em Down"), earlier classics ("Winter In America", "Johannesburg", "Lady Day & John Coltrane" and a gorgeous version of "Your Daddy Loves You"), and a few newer songs. I remember he actually had a Mancunian guitar-player in his band at the time, which went down particularly well with the crowd. It was a fantastic evening all round. The perception of Gil at the time by a lot of people in the UK was of someone rather worthy and earnest, whose music you listened to out of a sense of duty rather than for pleasure. Anyone who went to that show could have testified what an arse-backwards assessment that was. It's still one of the best and most memorable shows I've ever been to, and that's even after getting drunk as fuck and dancing until two in the morning at the club after Gil's set finished.
It's been heart-breaking to witness his decline over the last decade or so. To see such a giant of an artist brought down by the very ills he warned against is beyond depressing. I hope he manages to find his way back, because the world would be a smaller place without him in it.
Amazing poet and musician! Actually I think he's the greatest singing lyricist of our time! I just got HIWTHI on 45 and played it last weekend, plan to do the same this Saturday. Still need the Esther Philips version on 45, never see it around.
The points he makes on that interview about contemporary hiphop should hit a note with a few members on this board. Brilliant man!
The points he makes on that interview about contemporary hiphop should hit a note with a few members on this board. Brilliant man!
I saw GSH at SOBs in NYC about 4 years ago, it was a great show, and Denzel Washington was in the audience with his whole family.
Major cosign on Gil being the absolute MAN. Every song of his affects on some level or another.
Re: his 80s releases...Reflections is a pretty deep album. "Gun" and "Grandmas Hands" being a couple of my top tracks.
I would give my left nut for the opportunity to see him perform live.
Re: his 80s releases...Reflections is a pretty deep album. "Gun" and "Grandmas Hands" being a couple of my top tracks.
I would give my left nut for the opportunity to see him perform live.
This was the GSH album that got me started. Oh, I'd heard different songs here and there (that episode of Saturday Night Live he was on w/Richard Pryor was rerun constantly in the '80s, and I recall seeing the Black Wax documentary on public TV), but the first time I went to the (used) store with the intent of buying one of his albums, that was the one I saw in the racks, and it's still a fave of mine today. Cosign on "Gun," but can't forget "B-Movie" ("the first thing I wanna say is...mandate, my ass!") and his remake of "Inner City Blues."
A while back I started a thread on what artist do we have the most of in our collections; for me, even though James Brown comes in ahead of everybody else (28 albums), Gil is definitely in the "10-or-more LP's" club.
I've probably told the story here before about the one time I saw him in concert...it was nine years ago, and the drugs were kicking in HARD by this time. I was greatly disappointed that he didn't do any of his monologues (like in the documentary), he just shuffled out there and did his best-known songs, then had his band members take extended solos while he went back in the wings and took a quick nap. No, this was not one of the greatest concert experiences ever, but it still doesn't taint my interest in the man and his music.
Great post AI
I Cosine on everything expressed so far
When you put that esther phillip and the og into perspective you get a window into GSH work
His later material like all his music reflects where he was at in life and I love those last lines in grandma's hands
"and molding me..and calling me!"
I Cosine on everything expressed so far
When you put that esther phillip and the og into perspective you get a window into GSH work
His later material like all his music reflects where he was at in life and I love those last lines in grandma's hands
"and molding me..and calling me!"
Similar threads
