Gil Scott-Heron Dead at 62

[skyking]

Thanks for posting this.

 

[dawp]

http://www.thenation.com/blog/161022/remembering-gil-scott-heron

there's a number of links to his songs on the nation link and a year old article about him that mother jones reposted after his death

http://motherjones.com/media/2010/02/gil-scott-heron

 

[alkemyst]

edit: also my last post in this thread was "Forget about it"....so I offered to leave, and then get this callout against myself.

Alky, would you PLEASE STFU and stay out of this thread?

Your clumsy, clueless ignorance is really annoying.

First off, he didn't die of heroin, that was a passing joke that went over your head.

No it did not go over my head....hence I put kidding aside as the next line.

Secondly, NO ONE is making this a white vs black thread except you, so, again, shut the fuck up.

Give me a break, Quebert is one of those that is pretty damn anti-white to begin with here. Everyone else knows the intent of the lyrics he posted.

It's funny how most 'white' celebrity deaths get all sorts of crap dropped and here I did no such thing other than question why one selected that particular set of lyrics.

Lastly, just because you're clueless and ignorant about his ground breaking music doesn't mean Gil Scott-Heron was a flash in the pan. You bringing those other artists into this convo out of left fucking field is so hopelessly dumb and beside any legitimate point its just annoying.

Actually I am neither clueless nor ignorant about this artist nor many others than most do not realize were their 'favorites' mentors/inspirations/etc. I have PURCHASED over 2000 albums, tapes and now CDs in my life. My current collection was mostly stolen when my home was robbed. It was implied that since this was a 'black artist' no one cares about them. Sorry if the reverse racism that seems so allowed here gets to me. Michael Jackson was a prime example that a black man's death can be far more impacting than many white peoples.

Are you one of those people that went on to claim that Michael Jackson only got that respect because 'he turned white'?

The guy just died. He was unique, a true artist.

Those of us who knew and enjoyed his music and who KNOW the irreplaceable debt that a whole swath of successors owe him are in this thread mourning his death and extending hm his well deserved artistic due even as we give him our posthumous thanks.

You're coming across like some idiot drunk who barges into a funeral home during a funeral service for someone you never even knew and starts a series of loud, disruptive, and pointless arguments.

Wow, you seriously think what I did was the same as that? I'd take some time and look through all the other celebrity death posts and see that kind of shit and worse and nothing being done about it.

I am absolutely positive that 90% or more of ATOT had no clue who this dude was, but now are on the bandwagon because "hey, this makes me cool to be a part of it".

I did nothing wrong above...you are over reacting.

 

[HeavyD]

The Bottle

See that black boy over there, runnin' scared
his ol' man's in a bottle.
He done quit his 9 to 5 he drink full time
so now he's livin' in the bottle.
See that black boy over there, runnin' scared
his ol' man got a problem and it's a bad one
Pawned off damn near everything, his ol'
woman's weddin' ring for a bottle.
And don't you think it's a crime
when time after time, people in the bottle.

See that sista, sho wuz fine before she
started drinkin' wine
from the bottle.
Said her ol' man committed a crime
and he's doin' time,
so now she's in the bottle.
She's out there on the avenue, all by herself
sho' needs help from the bottle.
Preacherman tried to help her out,
she cussed him out and hit him in the head with a bottle.
And don't you think it's a crime
when time after time, people in the bottle.

See that gent in the wrinkled suit
he done damn near blown his cool
to the bottle
He wuz a doctor helpin' young girls along
if they wuzn't too far gone to have problems.
But defenders of the dollar eagle
Said "What you doin', Doc, it ain't legal,"
and now he's in the bottle.
Now we watch him everyday tryin' to
chase the pigeons away
from the bottle.
And don't you think it's a crime
when time after time, people in the bottle.

 

[Perknose]

One of my personal faves, from back in the day before apartheid was ended, when speaking out mattered: Johannesburg

 

[Zebo]

I am absolutely positive that 90% or more of ATOT had no clue who this dude was

You're in majority for once now STFU.

 

[Turin39789]

RIP

 

[HeavyD]

One of my personal faves, from back in the day before apartheid was ended, when speaking out mattered: Johannesburg

That song is how I found out about Apartheid.

 

[tcsenter]

lmao...

Born in Chicago, the son of a professional soccer player (his father, known as the "Black Arrow," was the first black member of Celtic, a team in Glasgow, Scotland), Scott-Heron was raised in Tennessee. After moving to the Bronx with his mother, he was given a full scholarship to the elite Fieldston School. At Pennsylvania's Lincoln University, he started a band, Black and Blue, with his longtime collaborator, keyboardist Brian Jackson. He dropped out of college after a year...

So let me get this straight. Black dude has a more privileged upbringing than half of the whites I know, gets a full scholarship to an elite prep school (which is one more person than I've ever known to get a full scholarship to an elite prep school), drops out of a university after one year that would have opened many more opportunities for him, so that he can then go on to succeed in writing about how oppressed he was.

Oppression - it sure ain't what it used to be.

 

[lxskllr]

lmao...
So let me get this straight. Black dude has a more privileged upbringing than half of the whites I know, gets a full scholarship to an elite prep school (which is one more person than I've ever known to get a full scholarship to an elite prep school), drops out of a university after one year that would have opened many more opportunities for him, so that he can then go on to succeed in writing about how oppressed he was.

Oppression - it sure ain't what it used to be.

I think the songs were written for people who weren't born with a horseshoe up their ass, and to wake up the people too blind to see the world around them ;^)

 

[tcsenter]

I think the songs were written for people who weren't born with a horseshoe up their ass, and to wake up the people too blind to see the world around them ;^)

Ahh, so he was a crusader against the evils of poverty (on all persons affected it)? Good for him.

 

[Perknose]

lmao...
So let me get this straight. Black dude has a more privileged upbringing than half of the whites I know, gets a full scholarship to an elite prep school (which is one more person than I've ever known to get a full scholarship to an elite prep school), drops out of a university after one year that would have opened many more opportunities for him, so that he can then go on to succeed in writing about how oppressed he was.

Oppression - it sure ain't what it used to be.

He was standing up for all those who were far less fortunate than he was, just like you're carrying the banner for "angry clueless assholes who play the bitterly envious victim card" everywhere, even though there is at least some small possibility that you may not be one yourself.

 

[Perknose]

Ahh, so he was a crusader against the evils of poverty (on all persons affected it)? Good for him.

A black guy had a better life than you, accomplishing far more and being recognized for it.

WAAAAHHHHHHH!

Yeah, I can see why a small-minded loser like you would be so jealous he'd immediately show his true stripes in bitter envy, and then be too dense not to think he wasn't exposing his truly small self in the process.

 

[tcsenter]

Right...like the gangsta and thug's life rappers who have been exposed as having upper-middle up-bringings, went to good schools and/or lived in relatively safe communities, but rap about them having to fight their way to school, having to sell drugs to buy shoes, the man keeping them down, having to run from the po-po, etc.

Its not "fraud", its just some thirdish-person story telling vessel. <wink wink>

 

[Perknose]

Right...like the gangsta and thug's life rappers who have been exposed as having upper-middle up-bringings, went to good schools and/or lived in relatively safe communities, but rap about them having to fight their way to school, having to sell drugs to buy shoes, the man keeping them down, having to run from the po-po, etc.

Its not "fraud", its just some thirdish-person story telling vessel. <wink wink>

Get a fucking clue and go troll the "bitter loser racial envy" that's just oozing out of your pores elsewhere, you tiny-souled twit, we're mourning the passing of a trail-blazing ARTIST here:

Mr. Scott-Heron often bristled at the suggestion that his work had prefigured rap. “I don’t know if I can take the blame for it,” he said in an interview last year with the music Web site The Daily Swarm. He preferred to call himself a “bluesologist,” drawing on the traditions of blues, jazz and Harlem renaissance poetics.

 

[tcsenter]

I was not implying Scott-Heron loved rap, endorsed rap, or wanted credit for rap. I was implying that his righteous indignation and seething racial bitterness was IMPERSONAL on a substantial level and may have even been outright FABRICATED (it wasn't his own personal story, but it sure got him gigs and attention because those were the times).

 

[QueBert]

I was not implying Scott-Heron loved rap, endorsed rap, or wanted credit for rap. I was implying that his righteous indignation and seething racial bitterness was IMPERSONAL on a substantial level and may have even been outright FABRICATED (it wasn't his own personal story, but it sure got him gigs and attention because those were the times).

Some food for thought, he was a 62 year old black man in America, I don't care what neighborhood he grew up in, or what school he got accepted to. This dude encountered A LOT of what he spoke about in his poetry. If you think he went thru life with a golden spoon in his mouth you're crazy. You have absolutely no clue what you're talking about.

He did experience much racism in his life, he did become addicted to Heroin, what he wrote was from his heart. And if it wasn't a poem of him telling his story directly, it was one of him telling a story for those who have no voice. And plenty of his songs spoke on the self destructive nature of black people in America. It wasn't all "fuck whitey" not even close.

 

[Perknose]

I was not implying Scott-Heron loved rap, endorsed rap, or wanted credit for rap. I was implying that his righteous indignation and seething racial bitterness was IMPERSONAL if not outright FABRICATED (it wasn't his own personal story, but it sure got him gigs and attention because those were the times).

Again, you're a small minded troll whose bitter loser, race-based envy is leaking out all over and staining this page.

Did YOU take it PERSONALLY when those planes were flown into the World Trade Center. Probably. I know I did. But, but . . . by your logic, how dare you!!

You don't even know his music and yet you immediately start playing the white race card (the most pathetic race card there is), "implying" that he fabricated stuff as literally his story. He never did, you ignorant troll!

Millions of people of conscience who weren't black and weren't South African took apartheid personally, as an affront to the entire human race.

Your bitter-based "logic" sucks, troll. It exposes you. It's not even remotely factual. Shut up and go away.

 

[tcsenter]

Some food for thought, he was a 62 year old black man in America, I don't care what neighborhood he grew up in, or what school he got accepted to. This dude encountered A LOT of what he spoke about in his poetry. If you think he went thru life with a golden spoon in his mouth you're crazy. You have absolutely no clue what you're talking about.

And yet there are 60-something and older blacks who would and have stated they had a pretty decent life and never experienced racism or discrimination nearly to the degree that others have depending on the region or community where they lived, their own attitudes and family culture (e.g. being raised with a sense of entitlement), and their constitution for meeting the occasional racial slur or bigoted remark that rises more to an offense on their feelings than any substantive harm imposed. I did not suggest he was wealthy or affluent. Most people aren't wealthy or affluent.

 

[tcsenter]

You don't even know his music and yet you immediately start playing the white race card (the most pathetic race card there is), "implying" that he fabricated stuff as literally his story. He never did, you ignorant troll!

I wasn't implying he fabricated any literal elements of his story. Only that his outrage and bitterness "may" have been impersonal, on some level rings hollow, or lacks some credibility (that plenty of other people would have).

In my adult life, I've had to confront the painful realization that a few of my heroes in youth were actually frauds, opportunists who co-opted causes for their own purposes, or at least heavily flawed. I don't know what you hippies were smoking back in the era of free love, but it must have been some good shit because I've never encountered a bigger bunch of Kool-Aid drinkers who so zealously guard and cling to heroes of their drug-fueled youth, abso-fucking-lutely convinced their heroes were "the real deal" and get all bent when anyone DARES question them.

It reminds of an episode of (IIRC) Law and Order, when a sad-sack character from that era continues to justify their radical actions 35 years later, "We really did believe...there really was a revolution, you know." Like Al Bundy and his "I scored four touch downs in a single game for Polk High." Pathetic.

We already selected a "Greatest Generation" by consensus. Your's wasn't it (neither was mine).

 

[alkemyst]

And yet there are 60-something and older blacks who would and have stated they had a pretty decent life and never experienced racism or discrimination nearly to the degree that others have depending on the region or community where they lived, their own attitudes and family culture (e.g. being raised with a sense of entitlement), and their constitution for meeting the occasional racial slur or bigoted remark that rises more to an offense on their feelings than any substantive harm imposed. I did not suggest he was wealthy or affluent. Most people aren't wealthy or affluent.

Not sure what your point is above...during slavery there were some black people never affected as well. You can't say because one was affected they must have had an attitude or entitlement issue.

Saying you had a pretty decent life is one thing, asking those same people how segregation and the like affected them would be different.

 

[Perknose]

I wasn't implying he fabricated any literal elements of his story. Only that his outrage and bitterness "may" have been impersonal, on some level rings hollow, or lacks some credibility (that plenty of other people would have).

In my adult life, I've had to confront the painful realization that a few of my heroes in youth were actually frauds, opportunists who co-opted causes for their own purposes, or at least heavily flawed. I don't know what you hippies were smoking back in the era of free love, but it must have been some good shit because I've never encountered a bigger bunch of Kool-Aid drinkers who so zealously guard and cling to heroes of their drug-fueled youth, abso-fucking-lutely convinced their heroes were "the real deal" and get all bent when anyone DARES question them.

It reminds of an episode of (IIRC) Law and Order, when a sad-sack character from that era continues to justify their radical actions 35 years later, "We really did believe...there really was a revolution, you know." Like Al Bundy and his "I scored four touch downs in a single game for Polk High." Pathetic.

We already selected a "Greatest Generation" by consensus. Your's wasn't it (neither was mine).

Your bitterness and bedrock envy keep shining through, the true mark of a loser.

You come into a memorial thread for an artist YOU KNOW NOTHING ABOUT and immediately play the white race card. That's really revealing, you know.

I'm sorry whatever heroes you may have had let you down; just please stop projecting your bitterness on others.

I really am sorry that, all these years later, YOU remain hurt by the 60's so badly that you have to troll a thread about an artist you know nothing about. Your need to tear down an artist whose work you don't even know on racial and generational grounds just screams BUTTHURT LOSER.

It's sad. Please go get a life.

Maybe the most pitiful thing about you is that you illustrate your life philosophy lessons with excerpts from Law and Order and Married With Children. That's shallow and deeply pathetic.

Let go. Lively up yourself.

You could really use some of what "hippies were smoking back in the era of free love." Sorry you missed out and remain eternally bitter about it all.

Please ask yourself WHY you have needed to troll the death of an artist you don't even know with wildly unsupported allegations and lazy idiot generalizations, none of which actually pertain.

You're bitter and you're envious and you just can't help yourself, that's why. You'd never behave this poorly and this inappropriately otherwise, would you?

I know you can't ever admit this to yourself because to do so would be devastating to your basic self esteem and your view of yourself as an ok and reasonable person, but it shows, Sparky, it shows.

It really, really shows. :'(

 

[tcsenter]

I didn't say I was a scholar of his music or poetry. I sampled several of his noteable songs, read an account of his life from two different (sympathetic) sources, and found some hilarious irony in the fact that someone who was afforded much opportunity and privilege by any standard, goes to an elite prep school, and then opts to squander or give-up a chance to get a first-rate secondary education to pursue his art instead of any number of other promising career paths (probably losing out on a more stable and/or economically gainful livelihood in the process), then becomes the embittered voice for the downtrodden and disenfranchised (much of which racially oriented).

I then not-so-subtly gave his admirers an opportunity to say I was completely wrong or off-the-mark, that he mostly spoke-out against poverty in general or advocated for the downtrodden and disenfranchised without regard for race, and instead of making use of this opportunity to enlighten me, one just opts to personally attack me and my motives (I suspect now, because I may have been spot-on in my observations).

Well done, sir.

 

[Perknose]

Gil Scott-Heron was not embittered. Again, you're projecting.

He didn't squander anything, including his education. It all contributed to his art, with which he was successful on a level you could only dream about.

You keep talking about him like he was an embittered failure. He was a joyful success.

Again, stop projecting.

But, hey, THANKS for continuing to troll his memorial death thread.

Gil Scott-Heron was a black man in American, in the world. It's hardly surprising that some, but not all of what he wrote about and made music about touched on this. That's not racist.

YOU so needing to tear him down here kinda is.

But, hey, doing so was obviously necessary and vital to you. Just ask yourself why.

In an honest moment with yourself, ask yourself why.

 

[tcsenter]

I already explained where I was coming from...while learning about him, I found a bit of hilarious irony about his life. I can't help that was the impression that I developed, it is what it is, and so I basically asked "is this right?" (let me get this straight). Thus far, I've been called lots of names, accused of many things including attributing words to me never said, not much at all in the way of disputing my observation or take-away, and even less than that toward my blatant invitation to set the record straight.

You mad??