"My end goal, besides integrating all the disparate elements as smoothly as possible, was to capture the stark, somber beauty of I’m New Here—a challenge because the album was so uniquely a piece of its own, an emotional open wound sonically unlike anything he’d recorded before. But I thought it came out well. As it so happened the mix wound up getting lost in the sauce in the run-up to I’m New Here's release. With yesterday’s heart-breaking news of Gil Scott-Heron’s passing, I thought I’d post it up here to share, a brief homage to this legendary artist/activist/thinker, and his brilliant final project."
—If you're looking to listen to some Gil Scott-Heron (always a good idea, but particularly so today) you could do much worse than this mix that ego trip's Chairman Mao made for XL Records last year. The Soul Sides site rounds up a few other tributes, too. It's really a great, great loss.
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
5
Am I allowed to do this here? Tacky I know.
I hate to be a pompous twat, but in the spirit of owing the dead only honesty, and because in dozens of obits noone seems to have mentioned it, let's not forget this classic: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O92981dskK4
Not sure why it bugs me so much that it has gone unmentioned everywhere, and maybe there's a point I'm missing, but to me it shows a really ugly side to him: not just what he's saying, but the nasty, hate-filled, tone. Maybe it's changing morals, maybe he's being ironic somehow and I am not getting it, but the first time I heard that it pissed me off so much that I couldn't listen to him for years after.
Hmmmm, I don't know, maybe I just need to enjoy the good stuff and ignore the bad stuff.
@AnonymousHoward You're not wrong to point it out. I don't see any point or irony to it - just plain ugly. I'd be willing to write it off as being young and dumb if he'd ever disavowed it, but I don't think he ever did. I don't think the answer is to ignore the bad stuff - I think you can hate the bad stuff, and hate that part of him, while still loving what was great about him, which was a lot.
GSH was a restless motherfucker and his business is unfinished. So it's nice to see that nobody here is pulling any of that RIP bullshit.
@AnonymousHoward You ain't gotta enjoy shit. Culture is not dictatorial. So take my advice.
He went to my high school, just 3 years ahead of me. Everybody knew him and liked him. I am looking at his senior picture in the yearbook right now. That faggots thing, that was done just 3 years out of high school in a different age. I would cut him some slack.