Gil Scott-Heron

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Gil Scott-Heron was a person.

References

2016

  • (Wikipedia, 2016) ⇒ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gil_Scott-Heron Retrieved:2016-1-9.
    • Gilbert "Gil" Scott-Heron (April 1, 1949 – May 27, 2011) [1] was an American soul and jazz poet,[2] [3] musician, and author, known primarily for his work as a spoken word performer in the 1970s and 1980s. His collaborative efforts with musician Brian Jackson featured a musical fusion of jazz, blues, and soul, as well as lyrical content concerning social and political issues of the time, delivered in both rapping and melismatic vocal styles by Scott-Heron. His own term for himself was "bluesologist",[4] which he defined as "a scientist who is concerned with the origin of the blues".[5] [6] His music, most notably on Pieces of a Man and Winter in America in the early 1970s, influenced and helped engender later African-American music genres such as hip hop and neo soul. Scott-Heron remained active until his death, and in 2010 released his first new album in 16 years, entitled I'm New Here. A memoir he had been working on for years up to the time of his death, The Last Holiday, was published, posthumously in January 2012.

      His recording work received much critical acclaim, especially one of his best-known compositions “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised”.

  1. ↑ Gil Scott-Heron, Poet And Musician, Has Died Daoud Tyler-Ameen, NPR.org
  2. ↑ Kot, Greg (May 26, 2011). Turn It Up: Gil Scott-Heron, soul poet, dead at 62. Chicago Tribune. Retrieved on June 6, 2011.
  3. ↑ Preston, Rohan B (September 20, 1994). Scott-heron's Jazz Poetry Rich In Soul – Chicago Tribune. Chicago Tribune. Retrieved on June 6, 2011.
  4. ↑ Ben Sisario, "Gil Scott-Heron, Voice of Black Protest Culture, Dies at 62" The New York Times (May 28, 2011). Retrieved May 29, 2011
  5. ↑ Note: Onstage at the Black Wax Club in Washington, D.C. in 1982, Scott-Heron cited Harlem Renaissance writer Langston Hughes, Sterling Brown, Jean Toomer, Countee Cullen and Claude McKay as among those who had "taken the blues as a poetry form" in the 1920s and "fine-tuned it" into a "remarkable art form".
  6. ↑ Gil Scott-Heron in a live performance in 1982 with the Amnesia Express at the Black Wax Club, Washington, D.C. Black Wax (DVD) Directed by Robert Mugge.

2014a

… we wrote the Watergate blues, and some 17 months later, then-President Nixon resigned
But the story didn't end there, so we didn't stop there
We have prepared a sequel, and it's called, and it's called "We Beg Your Pardon America"
We beg your pardon because the pardon you gave this time, was not yours to give
...
Somebody said "brother-man gonna break a window, gonna steal a hubcap, gonna smoke a joint, brother man gonna go to jail"
The man who tried to steal America is not in jail
...
And America was "shocked"
America leads the world in shocks
Unfortunately, America does not lead the world in deciphering the cause of shock
...
Anytime you find someone who has been in Congress for 25 years and no one ever heard of him,
You've got Oatmeal Man
...
Seven out of every ten black men never went to the ninth grade
Didn't have 50 dollars and hadn't had 100 for a month when they went to jail
So the poor and the ignorant go to jail while the rich go to San Clemente
 …

2014b

  You will not be able to stay home, brother.
  You will not be able to plug in, turn on and cop out.
  You will not be able to lose yourself on skag and
  skip out for beer during commercials,
  Because the revolution will not be televised.

  The revolution will not be televised.
  The revolution will not be brought to you by Xerox
  In 4 parts without commercial interruptions.
  The revolution will not show you pictures of Nixon
  blowing a bugle and leading a charge by John
  Mitchell, General Abrams and Mendel Rivers to eat
  hog maws confiscated from a Harlem sanctuary.

  The revolution will not be televised.
  The revolution will not be brought to you by the
  Schaefer Award Theatre and will not star Natalie
  Woods and Steve McQueen or Bullwinkle and Julia.
  The revolution will not give your mouth sex appeal.
  The revolution will not get rid of the nubs.
  The revolution will not make you look five pounds
  thinner, the revolution will not be televised, Brother.

  There will be no pictures of you and Willie Mays
  pushing that shopping cart down the block on the dead run,
  or trying to slide that color television into a stolen ambulance.
  NBC will not be able predict the winner at 8:32
  on reports from 29 districts.
  The revolution will not be televised.

  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
  Wilkens strolling through Watts in a Red, Black and
  Green liberation jumpsuit that he had been saving
  For just the right occasion.

  Green Acres, The Beverly Hillbillies, and Hooterville
  Junction will no longer be so god damned relevant, and
  women will not care if Dick finally screwed
  Jane on Search for Tomorrow because Black people
  will be in the street looking for a brighter day.
  The revolution will not be televised.

  There will be no highlights on the eleven o'clock
  news and no pictures of hairy armed women
  liberationists and Jackie Onassis blowing her nose.
  The theme song will not be written by Jim Webb or
  Francis Scott Key, nor sung by Glen Campbell, Tom
  Jones, Johnny Cash or Englebert Humperdink.
  The revolution will not be televised.

  The revolution will not be right back
  after a message about a white tornado, white lightning, or white people.
  You will not have to worry about a dove in your
  bedroom, a tiger in your tank, or the giant in your toilet bowl.
  The revolution will not go better with Coke.
  The revolution will not fight the germs that may cause bad breath.
  The revolution will put you in the driver's seat.

  The revolution will not be televised, will not be televised,
  will not be televised, will not be televised.
  The revolution will be no re-run brothers;
  The revolution will be live.

2014c

Because I always feel like running
Not away, because there is no such place
Because, if there was I would have found it by now
Because it's easier to run,
Easier than staying and finding out you're the only one...who didn't run
Because running will be the way your life and mine will be described
As in "the long run"
Or as in having given someone a "run for his money"
Or as in "running out of time"
Because running makes me look like everyone else, though I hope there will ever be cause for that
Because I will be running in the other direction, not running for cover
Because if I knew where cover was, I would stay there and never have to run for it
Not running for my life, because I have to be running for something of more value to be running and not in fear
Because the thing I fear cannot be escaped, eluded, avoided, hidden from, protected from, gotten away from,
Not without showing the fear as I see it now
Because closer, clearer, no sir, nearer
Because of you and because of that nice
That you quietly, quickly be causing
And because you're going to see me run soon and because you're going to know why I'm running then
You'll know then
Because I'm not going to tell you now
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