Saturday, May 28, 2011

Who Will Tell the Truth Now that Gil Scott-Heron Is Gone?


Gil Scott-Heron had a way with words; a way with the truth.

Some people think that America invented the blues
And few people doubt that America is home of the blues

The blues has grown
by the country has not
The blues remembers everything the country forgot

America has got the blues
It's got the blues because of partial deification
of partial accomplishments
over partial periods of time
Halfway justice
Halfway liberty
Halfway equality
It's a half-assed year
And we would be silly in all our knowledge
In all our self-righteous knowledge to acknowledge anything less than the truth
About this bicentennial year
And the truth relates to 200 years of people and ideas getting by

It got by George Washington
slave-owner general

It got by Gerald Ford
Oatmeal man

Ronald Reagan, it got by him
Hollyweird
Acted like a actor
Acted like a liberal
Acted like General Franco when he acted like governor of California
And he acts like somebody might vote for him for president

It got by Henry Kissinger
The international godfather of peace
A piece of Vietnam
A piece of Laos
A piece of Angola
A piece of Cuba

The blues is in the street
America has got the blues
But don't let it get by us
(Bicentennial Blues, 1976)

He had a complete vision of the way things were. He wasn't afraid to take the symbolism of America head-on. He knew the history and the facts, and he knew what it was like to experience the reality of racism, violence and hypocrisy. He knew how much life costs.

And now democracy is a ragtime on the corner
Hoping for some rain
It looks like he's hoping, hoping for some rain
And I see the robins perched in barren treetops
Watching last-ditch racists marching across the floor
Just like the peace signs that that vanished in our dreams
Never had a chance to grow
And now it's winter
Winter in America

(Winter in America, 1975)


He was pissed off. And found a way to express it clearer than any. He channeled bitterness into lyric beauty. Here he is on the pardoning of Richard Nixon.

We beg your pardon because the pardon you gave this time was not yours to give.
They call it due process and some people are overdue.
We beg your pardon America.
Somebody said 'brother-man gonna break a window, gonna steal a hubcap, gonna smoke a joint, brother man gonna go to jail.'
The main who tried to steal America is not in jail....
We beg your pardon America because we understand now much more deeply than we understood before
But we don't want to take the pardon back, we want to issue some more
Pardon brother Frank Willis, the Watergate security guard, he was only doing his job
Pardon H. Rap Brown, it was only burglary
Pardon Robert Vesco, it was only embezzlement
Pardon Charles Manson, it was only mass murder
And pardon us while we get sick
Because they pardoned William Calley, 22 dead, and America in shock....
We beg your pardon America because we have an understanding of karma
What goes around, comes around
And we beg your pardon for all of the lies and all of the people who've been ruined and who look forward to next year because they can't stand to look at this one.
We beg your pardon America because the pardon you gave this time was not yours to give.
(Pardon Our Analysis, 1975)

But Gil Scott-Heron knew how to laugh through tears. His poems — his songs — were witty and expressive and moving, but they also expressed a wry sense of humor. Mixed with outrage, for sure, and brilliance, but deadly funny.

There will be no pictures of pigs shooting down
brothers in the instant replay.
There will be no pictures of pigs shooting down
brothers in the instant replay.
There will be no pictures of Whitney Young being
run out of Harlem on a rail with a brand new process.
There will be no slow motion or still life of Roy
Wilkins strolling through Watts in a Red, Black and
Green liberation jumpsuit that he had been saving
For just the proper occasion.

Green Acres, The Beverly Hillbillies, and Hooterville
Junction will no longer be so damned relevant, and
women will not care if Dick finally gets down with
Jane on Search for Tomorrow because Black people
will be in the street looking for a brighter day.
The revolution will not be televised.
(The Revolution Will Not Be Televised, 1971)

He was not always an optimistic man. His outlook could be bleak: he knew what the odds were, the strength of what he was — we are — up against.

So you cry like a baby
Or you go out and get high
But there ain't no peace on Earth, man
Maybe peace when you die
(A Sign of the Ages, 1971)


There's a sense of duty and obligation in his lyrics too. He knew what he had to do. Even as he fought his inner demons he couldn't set down his weapons in the battle for justice. I think it made him weary. But he was never able to stop, completely.

We want to be free
Yet we have no idea
Why we are struggling here
Faced with our every fear
Just to survive
We've heard the sound
And come around
To listening

(Beginnings/First Minute of a New Day, 1975)


He cut many great albums in the 1970s and some adequate ones in the 1980s. I had the sense that his tragic miscalculation about Ronald Reagan — indeed the tragic miscalculation about all of us on the left that America would actually vote a person like that into the presidency — haunted him, and dulled the certainty of his vision.

As Wall Street goes, so goes the nation
And here's a look at the closing numbers: Racism's up, human rights are down.
Peace is shaky, war items are hot — the house claims all ties.
Jobs are down, money is scarce and common sense is at an all-time low on heavy trading. Movies are looking better than ever and no one is looking because we're starring in a B-movie.
You don't need to be in no hurry
You ain't never really got to worry.
Just keep repeating that none of this is real.
This ain't really your life,
Ain't really your life,
Ain't really nothing but a movie.
(B-movie, 1981)

Gil Scott-Heron was, to all appearances, an anguished soul. He fought drug addiction his whole life, and lived that side of his life in the lyrics of his songs, openly sharing his pain. His last two records were full of the hard toll on his life. His honesty is almost painful to listen to.

Life is like a circle and you end up where you started
If you end up where you started ain't no other side
Yeah but if like is like a curtain then I'm 90% certain that I'm looking through at something
Yes I'm almost touching something on the other side
If life is like a mirror than the nearer you get clearer
You can see it so much clearer
Feel like you know about the other side
My friends all swear they know
What I should do with my life
How I should run my life
What should be happening with my life
They're on the other side
They're on the outside
I'm on the inside

(The Other Side, 1994)


Gil Scott-Heron is gone now, way too soon, at the age of 62. I'm happy for the legacy he left behind, the music; but I can't believe I never got to see him, and I can't believe there will be no more.

Early this morning
when you knocked upon my door
and I said, Hello Satan, I believe it's time to go
Me and the Devil walkin side by side
Say I don't see why you keep on dogging me around
You may bury my body down by the highway side
So my old evil spirit the Greyhound bus can ride
(I'm New Here, 2010)


Who will tell the truth now that Gil Scott-Heron is gone? Peace go with you, Brother.

Straddling the darkness
he controlled the bucking thrusts and rode on
into the emptiness that he alone would try to fill
into the middle to try to be the bridge between spirits
EXPAND he screamed
the vacuum was aroused, suspicious and alarmed
who would dare? but on he rode...

(And then he wrote Meditations, 1972)


(All italics are lyrics by Gil Scott-Heron).

UPDATE: Here's an audio tribute from my friend Blackclassical.

23 comments:

  1. R.I.P.

    Thank you for this wonderful post. Gave it a mention here: http://uzine.posterous.com/rip-gil-scott-heron

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  2. thanks for the shoutout Uzine.

    what a loss!

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  3. Great post...RIP Gil. He was and will remain at the very top of my list of all time favorite artists. A supreme truth teller.

    As his comeback began in 2010 this article in the New Yorker
    http://tiny.cc/orgq6
    made me incredibly sad and now that he's gone it seems to be pretty prescient. Not to mention his last record which seemed like a good bye to me.
    The doctors don't know that New York is killing me,
    Bunch of doctors come around they don't know New York is killing me.
    You know what, I need to go home and take it slow
    In Jackson, Tenesssee
    Let me tell you, city living ain't all that it's cracked up to be.

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  4. Thanks for that link Cody. I had just heard of that profile and I was gonna track it down. You've saved me the trouble. I didn't love that new album when I first heard it but it's been growing on me a lot.

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  5. and wow that article is sort of devastating.

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  6. He wrote these words in 1981 - Are you sure it wasn't 2011???

    As Wall Street goes, so goes the nation
    And here's a look at the closing numbers: Racism's up, human rights are down.
    Peace is shaky, war items are hot — the house claims all ties.
    Jobs are down, money is scarce and common sense is at an all-time low on heavy trading. Movies are looking better than ever and no one is looking because we're starring in a B-movie.
    You don't need to be in no hurry
    You ain't never really got to worry.
    Just keep repeating that none of this is real.
    This ain't really your life,
    Ain't really your life,
    Ain't really nothing but a movie.
    (B-movie, 1981)

    Thanks, ish.

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  7. @Levi...thanks

    @Annie...right? He was amazing.

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  8. Great piece Ish. Seems to be getting around - seen it linked from a few FB friends without any prompting from me. And yes, that New Yorker piece is devastating ...

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  9. My first encounter with Gil Scott-Heron came while I was still a student at the University of Michigan. Every Sunday morning I listened to a political program aired on a black owned and operated radio station out of Detroit. It was there back in 1970/71 that Scott-Heron was being interviewed. I was duly impressed with his command of language, his flair for poetics, his earnestness, his honesty, and of course his music.

    My next encounter with Scott-Heron came just shortly thereafter when I relocated to Berkeley, CA and began DJing for a West Coast black owned and operated radio facility called, KRE AM/FM. Gil's recording became a fixture in our programming with Gil himself a frequent and welcomed guest.

    My last encounter with Scott-Heron came when KRE's liscence was sold out from under us. Gil stepped up to the plate and offered to do a benefit concert to help raise awareness and funds to battle the sale.

    He was a handsome, articulate, compassionate, and gallant man filled with humor, heart and soul who spoke the truth and encouraged all to take a stand for their beliefs.

    I will miss you, Gil. Thanks for always telling it like it was, and I will always cherish your wonderful poetry and music.

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  10. Thanks for this great post ... the man speaking through his own words. Linked to it at http://saulwalker.blogspot.com

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  11. Thanks @Ian, Simon, Saul. Putting this together it was really rewarding to pay this much attention to his lyrics...different than just listening to his songs.

    @Miles well said.

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  12. Or worse yet implying that you don't really know...
    That's the same thing they said about us...a long time ago
    Young rappers, one more suggestion before I get out of your way
    But I appreciate the respect you give me and what you got to say
    I'm sayin' protect your community and spread that respect around
    Tell brothas and sistas they gotta calm that bullshit down
    Cause we're terrorizin' our old folks and brought fear into our homes
    And they ain't got to hang out with the senior citizens
    Just tell them, “Dammit...leave the old folks alone”
    And we know who rippin' off the neighborhood, tell them, “That BS has got to stop!”
    Tell them you're sorry they can't handle it out there
    But they got to take the crime off the block
    And if they look at you like you're insane
    And they start callin' you scarecrow and say you ain't got no brain
    Or start tellin' folks that you suddenly gone lame
    Or that white folks had finally co-opted your game
    Or worse yet saying that you really don't know...
    That's the same thing they said about me a long time ago
    And if they tell folks that you finally lost your nerve
    That's the same thing they said about us, when we said, “Johannesburg”
    But I think the young folks need to know, that things don't go both ways
    You can't talk respect on every other song or just every other day
    What I'm speakin' on now is the raps about the women folks
    On one song she's your African Queen on the next one she's a joke
    And you ain't said no words that I haven't heard, but that ain't no compliment
    It only insults eight people out of ten and questions your intelligence
    Four letter words or four syllable words won't make you important
    It'll only magnify how shallow you are and let everybody know it
    And if they look at you like they think you insane
    Or they call you scarecrow thinkin' you ain't got no brain
    Or start tellin' folks that you suddenly gone lame
    Or that white folks have finally co-opted your game
    Or you really don't know...They said that about me a long time ago
    If they finally start to tell people that you lost your nerve
    That's what they said about Johannesburg
    You ain't insane...you have got a brain
    You haven't gone lame; you have got your game
    Remember...keep the nerve
    Keep the nerve
    Keep the nerve
    Keep the nerve
    ...I'm talkin' about peace

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  13. where is the mix? i've been listening to it for days completely moved...

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  14. Culpa Nova, not sure what happened there. I'll ask blackclassical. Mixcloud stuff might not be permanent...

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  15. Great work, as always. An excellent tribute. Thank you for this.
    -Jennifuh Leathuh

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  16. Came here via neverenoughrhodes.blogspot.com.

    Just a short comment to add to the chorus - a beautiful tribute Ish, letting Gil speak through his own words.

    One regret I have is never seeing the man even though he played a few times in my town. He will be sorely missed and as you say, who will tell the truth now that he has gone?

    Although no-one can fill the void of a man in a league of his own, one step down we do still have the likes of Michael Franti (closest I can think of a contemporary successor and I'm dangerously sticking my head out over the parapet here).

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  17. Thanks Globalism.

    I haven't heard Michael Franti in years...a friend of mine used to love Spearhead.

    Another candidate might be Ursula Rucker...do you know her? She's out of Philly.

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  18. Gil Scott Heron
    George Carlin
    Howard Zinn
    Truth tellers indeed...

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  19. That's a nice comparison Swboy. Three different traditions but one message.

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  20. Thx !! I post your tribute on this site http://www.scoop.it/t/gil-scott-heron

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  21. There is no way to express the full value of this warrior for truth, Gil Scott Heron. He deeply effected the music industry and all of us as who
    "got it". I dare say he was a prodigy, a genius from his youth and losing him does beg the question Who will tell the truth now? Peace. Wonderful blog, wonderful posts.

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