Gil Scott-Heron: Message To Rappers - DailyKos

[WillyT]

Gil Scott-Heron: Message To Rappers
by Cabbage Rabbit - DailyKos
SAT MAY 28, 2011 AT 07:39 AM PDT

<snip>

Gil Scott Heron was there first. A poet, novelist and songwriter known for mining Marshall McLuhan's media-centric philosophy and applying it to 1970s radicalism in "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised," Heron was equal parts social commentator, freedom fighter and pop star. Known as the Godfather of Rap, a title he vehemently denied in an interview I had with him in 1994, he none-the-less influenced generations of rappers and was sampled dozens of times. Most rappers ignored his plea to "not lean so heavily on rhyme and concentrate on the message" (and he meant the socio-political message). None of that mattered to those of us who were his fans. His message, born in the social upheaval of the 1960s, came through loud and clear.

Born in Chicago, raised in Tennessee and schooled in the Bronx, Scott-Heron spoke to all of us from his uniquely black experience. He was both literate and musical, collecting his first volume of poetry at 13 and wrote an underground novel, The Vulture, after dropping out from college. In the early, '70s, his association with the great jazz producer Bob Thiele brought his poetry to the turntable, aided by such top-shelf musicians as flutist Hubert Laws and bassist Ron Carter. Along with "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised," Johannesburg" ("we all need to be strugglin'/if we're going to be free...."), "Whitey On the Moon" ("I can't pay my doctor bills, but whitey's on the moon...")and other, often angry political tracts, Scott-Heron was capable of sweet melodies and affection. His "Save the Children" was one of the era's most melodic pleas for care and education, and "Lady Day and John Coltrane"was a soulful witness to the power of music and musicians in our lives. His singing voice -- a honey-toned tenor -- was as captivating as his spoken voice.

When I talked to Scott-Heron that first time, he had just ended 12 years of recording silence with Spirits. The opening track, "Message To the Messengers" ("if you gonna be teachin' folks, you gotta know what you're sayin'...") is a message of peace and realism ("they're glad we're out there killin' each other...") as well as respect and generational brotherhood. It's also a call to action : "what we did was to tell our generation to get busy/because it wasn't going to be televised." Knowing that the revolution has not and will not be televised is as appropriate today as it was 15-plus years ago and in 1972: the media is not our message but theirs, we are in this together but not everyone is together with us. " have to know they're not going through anything new" he told me, "it's the same stuff I went through back then. They've got to remember it's not about them. It's about community and the people."

<snip>

Link: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/05/28/980084/-Gil-Scott-Heron:-Message-To-Rappers?via=spotlight

:kick:

[stevedeshazer]

1. The guy was way ahead of his time.

+1

[Gabi Hayes]

2. amen....just in case:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BS3QOtbW4m0

[stevedeshazer]

3. +1

:thumbsup:

[Gregorian]

4. Genius must stem from humility. Gil was a man who should have been widely known.

His loss is underestimated. No self promotion or hype from this man. Vision combined with a keen ability to present it with a brevity and passion and style like none other. He was no fashion idol, or status symbol. Their pain was his pain. And it killed him just like it's killing them.

I loved this man. Somehow when I heard his music and lyrics I felt like it was coming from my own head. Whitey on the Moon. A warning that we have business at home to take care of. Had we listened to this man we'd have a nation.

[whathehell]

5. Agreed.

I guess he was best known for "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised"

but did you ever hear "The Bottle"?...or "Winter in America"?

He should definitely have been more well known...Great lyrics

and an absolutely beautiful voice.

[Gregorian]

13. Almost everything he did has keen insight. So much regarding social and political.

Inner City Blues.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=drTjTE8MCBU&playnext=1&list=PLF161EDC5363B69A2

On another forum, some guys in London were in a bar recently, and there was Gil playing pool, so drunk he could hardly stand up. They went to his show, and they said he was a different man on stage, brilliant and alive.

A friend told me today of her experience at one of this shows in the early 70's, and how it blew her away like nothing she's ever seen.

I saw James Brown, but I'd have died to see Gil. Even Miles was good, but I just get a deeper gut feeling with Gil. I don't know. It's one of those things that's hard to describe.

[whathehell]

15. Yes

to everything except exchanging death for the experience of his performance.B-)

As to those who saw him drunk in the bar, it seems he did have

a substance abuse problem...It may be where he got the inspiration

for "The Bottle".

I know it's a romantic cliche, but the idea of gifted people

tending to emotional problems seems to bear out.

I loved him too...Right after reading these posts I went on Amazon

and bought an album of his...I noticed there seemed to be a "run"

on them, as many were sold out.

[Scuba]

16. A rat bit my sister Nell....

...with Whitey on the moon.

[whathehell]

17. I must admit that

I do not know what that means.

Do you have an interpretation?

[Gregorian]

18. We're spending money to go to the moon, while

there are people without health care, and basic needs on earth.

No one was listening. Look at the mess we have. Get sick, go broke. Lose your job, live on the sidewalks.

[whathehell]

20. I agree with that sentiment and I think the very FACT of homelessness in

the richest country in the world is a disgrace.

Some of us actually remember when there was no "homeless problem"

It didn't become a "phenomenon" until the early eighties..Those of

us who were adults at the time though it was a temproary abberation

which would be resolved by the government..or something.

This really is NOT the America I grew up in, that of the

Sixties, Seventies, and early eighties..We boomers could

not have even imagined how far right the country would go.

[Gregorian]

21. As a child I remember "hobos" living under bridges in San Francisco.

But the term hobo means homeward bound. As in soldiers returning from war. At least that's what I think. Things have never been good for the poor. And there have always been lots of poor people. Population has increased. So that's part of what we see. And prices for housing have gone up. You used to be able to find places to live no matter how poor. My father's family were searching for food, and had no money, yet they lived in a house. Being non-white usually makes matters even worse. You probably knew all of that though.

[Scuba]

19. It a Scott-Heron line. ...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e5smPcN8AoE

[Luminous Animal]

6. What a wonderful tribute to a remarkable man.

[classysassy]

7. I still have his tapes

He never became main stream because the establishment will not allow the truth be told to the public who just might understand, we are just the source of money for the people that exploit the ill informed.( The messengers of truth must not be heard).

[malaise]

8. Nice read

Rec

He was the original rapper

[cascadiance]

9. And for tomorrow's holiday, we should especially play his piece "Work for Peace" far and wide!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hPqpV9olIlw

"Work for Peace"

Back when Eisenhower was the President,
Golf courses was where most of his time was spent.
So I never really listened to what the President said,
Because in general I believed that the General was politically dead.
But he always seemed to know when the muscles were about to be flexed,
Because I remember him saying something, mumbling something about a Military
Industrial Complex.
Americans no longer fight to keep their shores safe,
Just to keep the jobs going in the arms making workplace.
Then they pretend to be gripped by some sort of political reflex,
But all they're doing is paying dues to the Military Industrial Complex.
The Military and the Monetary,
The Military and the Monetary,
The Military and the Monetary.
The Military and the Monetary,
get together whenever they think its necessary,
They turn our brothers and sisters into mercenaries, they are turning the
planet into a cemetery.
The Military and the Monetary, use the media as intermediaries,
they are determined to keep the citizens secondary, they make so many
decisions that are arbitrary.
We're marching behind a commander in chief,
who is standing under a spotlight shaking like a leaf.
but the ship of state had landed on an economic reef,
so we knew he was going to bring us messages of grief.
The Military and the Monetary,
were shielded by January and went storming into February,
Brought us pot bellied generals as luminaries,
two weeks ago I hadn't heard of the son of a bitch,
now all of a sudden he's legendary.
They took the honour from the honourary,
they took the dignity from the dignitaries,
they took the secrets from the secretary,
but they left the bitch an obituary.
The Military and the Monetary,
from thousands of miles away in a Saudi Arabian sanctuary,
had us all scrambling for our dictionaries,
cause we couldn't understand the fuckin vocabulary.
Yeah, there was some smart bombs,
but there was some dumb ones as well,
scared the hell out of CNN in that Baghdad hotel.
The Military and the Monetary,
they get together whenever they think its necessary,
War in the desert sometimes sure is scary,
but they beamed out the war to all their subsidiaries.
Tried to make So Damn Insane a worthy adversary,
keeping the citizens secondary,
scaring old folks into coronaries.
The Military and the Monetary,
from thousands of miles in a Saudi Arabian sanctuary,
kept us all wondering if all of this was really truely, necessary.
We've got to work for Peace,
Peace ain't coming this way.
If we only work for Peace,
If everyone believed in Peace the way they say they do,
we'd have Peace.
The only thing wrong with Peace,
is that you can't make no money from it.
The Military and the Monetary,
they get together whenever they think its necessary,
they've turned our brothers and sisters into mercenaries,
they are turning the planet, into a cemetery.
Got to work for Peace,
Peace ain't coming this way.
We should not allow ourselves to be mislead,
by talk of entering a time of Peace,
Peace is not the absence of war,
it is the absence of the rules of war and the threats of war and the
preparation for war.
Peace is not the absence of war,
it is the time when we will all bring ourselves closer to each other,
closer to building a structure that is unique within ourselves
because we have finally come to Peace within ourselves.
The Military and the Monetary,
The Military and the Monetary,
The Military and the Monetary.
Get together whenever they think its necessary,
they've turned our brothers and sisters into mercenaries,
they are turning parts of the planet, into a cemetery.
The Military and the Monetary,
The Military and the Monetary,
We hounded the Ayatollah religiously,
Bombed Libya and killed Quadafi's son hideously.
We turned our back on our allies the Panamanians,
and saw Ollie North selling guns to the Iranians.
Watched Gorbachev slaughtering Lithuanians,
We better warn the Amish,
they may bomb the Pennsylvanians.
The Military and the Monetary,
get together whenever they think its necessary,
they have turned our brothers and sisters into mercenaries,
they are turning the planet, into a cemetery.
I don't want to sound like no late night commercial,
but its a matter of fact that there are thousands of children all over the
world in Asia and Africa and in South America who need our help.
When they start talking about 55 cents a day and 70 cents a day,
I know a lot of folks feel as though that,
thats not really any kind of contribution to make,
but we had to give up a dollar and a half just to get in the subway
nowadays.
So this is a song about tomorrow and about how tomorrow can be better. if we
all, "Each one reach one, Each one try to teach one".
Nobody can do everything,
but everybody can do something,
everyone must play a part,
everyone got to go to work, Work for Peace.
Spirit Say Work, Work for Peace
If you believe the things you say, go to work.
If you believe in Peace, time to go to work.
Cant be wavin your head no more, go to work.

[stranger81]

10. Here's another moving tribute to Gil, from the Guardian

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2011/may/29/gil-scott-heron-appreciation-jamie-byng

We lost a great spirit when Gil left us this week.

RIP.

[Bennyboy]

11. Michael Franti and SPERAHEAD

Make Gil Scott Heron proud.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hpxnRj0P-gc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lzJEpLNTnsY

[Gregorian]

14. Yeah.

Franti is my sig line. You can bomb the world to pieces, but you can't bomb it into peace. Another great great man.

[Blue_Tires]

12. kick