I woke up this morning to the sad news that Gil Scott Heron had died yesterday.
I was first introduced to his music by a friend whose dad was a big jazz fan and I was instantly captivated by the wonderful mixture (dare I say fusion?) of jazz, soul, rap, poetry and even – yes! – pop in his work. His warmth, humour, passion and sincerity shone out from everything he did. It’s a huge shame that we will hear no more from the great man.
His live double album Tales of Gil Scott Heron is never too far from my iPod’s play list and I think I’ll spend most of today listening to it. Here a few highlights from Gil Scott Heron’s long and varied career.
I hope you all know the most surprising piece of Gil Scott Heron trivia: his father played for Celtic.
Thanks TB. It’s difficult not to understate or not appear to overstate the influence Gil had on me as a writer, a performance poet, a fan of the styles of music you mention (and more – the African rhythms of The Bottle, the blues that drenched the I’m Not Here album, and he drew from folk the way Dylan drew from blues, both making that distinction unimportant), as someone shaped by class politics and a Black identity, as a son and a father, as someone who’s been on the dole, who’s been in love, who’s known the camaraderie of fellow artists that’s expressed in songs like Hello Sunday Hello Road – he had something to say to me in every one of these aspects of life. This planet’s just got a bit lonelier.
I should have left this post to you, may. You put it so much more eloquently than I could ever manage.
shocking news – elegantly expressed you two.
Nah, don’t worry, TB – I’m planning a reflection later on over on my own blog so I’m just happy to have this thread here to celebrate the music. And having heard that R4 described him as “the black Bob Dylan” this morning, which is so reductive (and not just to Gil – what does it make Bob? The Jewish GSH?), I’m not about to start drawing lines of demarcation around who can and can’t pay tribute to him. And I’m really glad you mentioned pop – for a good couple of years before I got deeply into him in my late teens, I’d known Gil for Johannesberg and loved it for the politics, yes, but chiefly as a great pop record.
For those like me who lived through and couldn’t really believe it all when Reagan was elected, this was a strong dose of reality in a time of madness.
I was planning to do something also, perhaps later.
Pass on that B Movie version above, it’s been edited and I didn’t check it before posting it, this is the full version.
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Just to let you all know that I’ve blogged about GSH over HERE – do stop by.
But this is the place to spend some time with the music so here’s a contribution. All else aside, this is fantastic to dance to:
May, wish you’d told us about your blog long ago, it looks great, I’ll be back to read everything there.
Toffee, I knew his father played for Celtic, he was originally from Jamaica and I met Gil there once and he told me about the family history.
Thanks gf – I didn’t start it that long ago, to be honest. I’d been coming to the conclusion that I ought to start one and then, feeling low one night after being knocked back for a job I didn’t particularly want but would have would have stopped the rat biting my sister Nell, as Gil might have put it, I started it up. Now getting into the habit of doing it and the necessity of pushing it, so all support is very much appreciated – hope you enjoy the read.
Another thing, gf, my pint with Graham Norton gets flatter by the week with each new revelation of the greats you’ve had a chinwag with!
As Hibs fans in the 1950s, my mum and dad saw Gil Heron playing for Celtic a number of times. He must have been a good ‘keeper to overcome the prejudices of the times and turn out for a top Scottish team. I think he was the first black player to play for Celtic.
May – the blog looks great and the piece on Gil Scott-Heron is beautifully written.
I only discovered Gil Scott Heron recently, so I am really sad he is no longer in this world.
I think he was much better than the one or two poems that people always seem to talk about..
Also for me music is always much more important than words and in the very short time I have been listening to him I grew to admire the musician much more than the poet.
I actually think the “Revolution Will Not be Televised” was not his best, (also it showed a negative view of women rights activist at the time who were also fighting a battle for rights and freedoms)
“There will be no highlights on the eleven o’clock
news and no pictures of hairy armed women
liberationists”
(Oh well…he would not be the first or last to say that…..maybe it is not important anyway)
I actually think he was a much better musician than many people recognised.
It is sad he has passed away
My Favourite is his song Lovely Day
I hope he finds the peace now that he seemed not to have in this life.
I don’t think he’s necessarily knocking libbers, perhaps more just poking fun at how they were portrayed, or chose to portray themselves, on TV… no-one is sacred in this rhyme, though, as Shoey says below… in other songs, such as Message for the messengers, GSH clearly criticizes misogynist views.
(Still, perhaps you prefer this tribute version…)
RIP, GSH.
Thank you for posting the tribute version. I did not understand all of it as there are some references I do not get, but i did understand most of it and the theme.
I did not really want to critic Gil Scot Heron in my post, it was just that for me The Revolution Will Not Be Televised was not my favourite of his, and those words jarred me when I heard them. But maybe i did not understand the context, and in this later work like Message for the Messenger he did critic rap artists for their attitudes to women.
But I like his music more than the poems, Lovely Day is fantastic and also Grandma’s Hands is really great. I really can imagine him playing as kid when i hear that and I the line at the end when he sings
“when I get to heaven I will look for Grandma’s hands…”
I hope her hands will find him in the next world.
The music was important & carefully crafted, but for me it was all about the words. He was never afraid to skewer the difficult targets – even the militancy within the civil rights movement; or champion the unpopular causes, such as gay rights, a “don’t go there” issue for black activists, back in the day. Honest, often angry, but never posturing, the trap most “protest” singers fall into, managed to avoid that with wit & skill.
Will be greatly missed, especially now we need a voice & perspective like Gil’s more than ever.
I can only echo the sentiments written previously. I had the privilege of seeing him live a couple of times and if you go to never enough rhodes there are live bootlegs of a superlative quality of the man in his prime. It was always his world and I am grateful he shared it with us :
Check the piece by Dorian Lynskey today at:
http://33revolutionsperminute.wordpress.com/
I hope this doesn’t sound trite, but GSH was cool, then not cool, then cool, etc. In the last couple of years people who hadn’t uttered his name in years, maybe decades, began effusing about their lifelong blah blah blah blah.
What I hope younger musicians will learn from him is do your own thing and don’t worry about staying in sync with the world ’cause you’re time will always come.