On Coming From A Broken Home(pt.1)
TWitter users have a popular hashtag designation when they want to “tweet” about music they are listening to. They type #MM for ‘music Monday’. It’s silly groupthink (we’ll talk about this later) similar to the #FF (follow Friday) hashtag, but at the end of the day the internets is a bastion for silly groupthink memes.
Maybe that’s why I bought two(2) vinyl copies of Gil Scott-Heron’s latest album ‘I’m New Here’. Maybe I thought I could zig while the rest of the world zags. I suppose the idea of trying to be an individual is also groupthink on some level. I like the vinyl edition mostly because of the art that was issued inside of the album jacket.
Gil Scott-Heron is an amazingly honest artist. In the sense that what you see is what you get and the pretense is removed and thrown away. His greatest characteristic in his music is his frailty, his vulnerability. I think Gil Scott-Heron’s honesty with this characteristic is what makes him so great. He sits before you naked [ll], yet unafraid. There is nothing that you can steal from him that he won’t just give you of his own volition.
Editor’s note: Our good friend Willis Still Sunsweet forwarded this review he posted online elsewhere…
Had Gil Scott-Heron’s (b. 1949) superb I’m New Here not come out recently, this might have been a threnody. Sixteen years had passed since Heron’s previous album, 1994’s invigorating Spirits; more than a decade lay between that and its predecessor, Moving Target. In the interim he’d been adduced “proto-rap”— reductive praise for America’s greatest living blues singer but that doesn’t get it all either; Heron’s brilliance is too vast to summarize.
Gil Scott-Heron’s 1970 debut, Small Talk At Lenox & 125th, set the lyrical tone, a black Phil Ochs via Langston Hughes, “Whitey On The Moon” with spare percussion grooves. His 1971 follow-up, Pieces Of A Man, was the musical future, with pianist/composer Brian Jackson’s avant soul-jazz arrangements allowing Heron to speak and increasingly sing of everything: “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised,” “Home Is Where The Hatred Is,” “Who’ll Pay Reparations On My Soul,” “We Almost Lost Detroit,” “B-Movie,” an epic evisceration of Ronald Reagan and more. Then darkness veiled his eyes.
In November 2001, as New York State prisoner number 01R5191, Heron began serving eighteen months for “Crim Poss Contr Substance 5th.” In July 2006, as 06R3165, twenty-six months more; again, possession of cocaine. Which travails make I’m New Here all the more staggering. He stares down Robert Johnson and Bobby “Blue” Bland, tries to write a letter but can’t get past “Dear Baby, how are you?” He triumphs anyway. Welcome back, brother.
‘I’m New Here‘ is unlike any R & B we are accustomed to because the ‘B’ that normally represents the shallow themes of selfish bullshit has been supplanted with the spiritual ‘B’ that belongs to blues music. The blues isn’t supposed to make you feel bad either. The blues should make you reflect on what you can do to make your soul complete. The blues is your humanity and everything that you love. I’ll cherish my memory of Gil Scott-Heron as the most honest, real artist I ever listened to and I thank him for reminding me of my great-grandma.
On Coming From A Broken Home(pt.2)
“at the end of the day the internets is a bastion for silly groupthink memes.”
A Gil Scott Heron CD goes perfect with a Sunday morning or Wednesday afternoon-and I’m not at work- just chilling and reflecting on the past, present and future.
The fact that he is still doing his own music on his own terms is really great.
“Lady Day and John Coltrane”
Pieces of a Man – 1971
“The blues isn’t supposed to make you feel bad either. The blues should make you reflect on what you can do to make your soul complete.”
Chuuuch! The blues have always been about exposing your ailments then prescibing that perfect elixir.
if it weren’t for memes, i wouldn’t feel human. the idea that there are groups of people who think lolcats or shit are funny is proof of universal conciousness. its kinda like when ur high and whoever ur smoking with says something that was in your head precisely. its that thing that makes me feel like a human, and not a robot.
He’ll be in town in a couple o’ weeks so I’ll see what the deal is live before I cop the project (IIjic).
@fredMS . . . lolcats is funny.
#youevernotice
#justinbeiber
#whatsreallyghetto
#ninjaplease
. . . etc is just some silly sh*t. I can’t see how so many people are harping about Beiber -probably serious fake viral campaign- or half the celeb bs
Make no mistake, this album is a must cop.
from the very first time I saw the m.e.t.h.o.d. man video…I noticed that meth is gonna look just like GSH when he gets older….
LOL @ get…
Thanks, DP.
$yk, I’d recommend “I’m New Here” and Gil live as two distinct, and hopefully great, things; the album definitely is, albeit a little short. I was at the Gil show here in BK this Friday (as was Jean Grae, Jeffrey Wright, Talib Kweli’s parents etc) but due to an unforeseen scheduling fuckup, I missed Gil’s set… which like the album, seems like it was on the short side but everyone seemed pleased with what they heard.
Here are the two versions of “I’ll Take Care of You,” btw. OG Bobby Bland, who’s one of my favorites (probably bigger down south than up north because he was always very bluesy)–
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5jDezN6ZudU
Gil–
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ADoCh8HfdKM
First, Major props to Dallas for posting this, second major props to Gil Scott Heron for making a raw, naked, powerful and deeply human album like this. Most of you know I use most CD’s to prevent coffee stains on my table. Stale ass, recycled, wanna be hipster shit gets thrown out an open window faster than Kanye can put his foot in his mouth, this CD stopped me dead in my tracks and reminded me why I love music and why I became an artist/photographer. He lets us know it’s alright to feel, to think to even dare I say it-Be original. No the Television will not be Revolutionized nor will folks stop LIVING IN THE BOTTLE but we are still human and as long as we are alive we can try to act human.
Bland’s version sounds like a RZA beat waiting to happen
Gil’s version sounds like a lil’ Ike Hayes is in there.
Either way I’m amped for the show.
(II)