Gil Scott-Heron
Posted by: El Guapo on 15 January 2010
I heard the new Gil Scott-Heron single today. The first new studio recording for close to 20 years I think. Of course it was rubbish but it's good to hear that he's back and he's trying new sounds. In fact it's good to hear that he's still alive. He sounds drunk on the recording or as if he's had a stroke. Shame becaue he used to have a fabulous voice
Posted on: 15 January 2010 by Simon Drake
yes. been looking forward to this. where did you hear it? i didn't think the album was out yet?!
Posted on: 15 January 2010 by Sister E.
Glad to hear he's back. One of the most articulate voices of black America.I'm not surprised he sounds "off".. I understand he's suffering from numerous serious health issues which have been well documented.
Sister xx
Sister xx
Posted on: 15 January 2010 by Kevin-W
quote:Originally posted by El Guapo:
I heard the new Gil Scott-Heron single today. The first new studio recording for close to 20 years I think. Of course it was rubbish but it's good to hear that he's back and he's trying new sounds. In fact it's good to hear that he's still alive. He sounds drunk on the recording or as if he's had a stroke. Shame becaue he used to have a fabulous voice
Haven't heard it, but why is it rubbish Guapo? That's a real pity...
Posted on: 16 January 2010 by El Guapo
I heard the single on the Robert Elms show. Surprising he's a huge fan of Gil but he made no comments other than that it's good to hear that he's still around - probably didn't want to say what he really thought. I've also heard that Zane Low on radio 1 is playing it a lot.
Musically it sounds a lot like some of the Dizee Rascal songs. Lyrically there's nothing to indicate that it's Gil.
I've always been a huge fan of Gil. In fact I have every other album he's made. But his main strengths are the words and the voice. Here the words are just nothing in any way memorable, apart from their banality and the voice is just gone. I felt voyeuristic and a little sick listening to it. OK I'm immensely pleased that he's still alive but I don't want to hear him sounding drunk or suffering from a stroke. I know it's all been self inflicted with crack - ironic when you think of how many songs he wrote against substance abuse - but when you remember how good he was it seems a little sick listening to a pale shadow of what he once was. Obviously I wouldn't begrudge anyone trying to make a living but I think he should stick to writing the book he's supposed to be working on.
Musically it sounds a lot like some of the Dizee Rascal songs. Lyrically there's nothing to indicate that it's Gil.
I've always been a huge fan of Gil. In fact I have every other album he's made. But his main strengths are the words and the voice. Here the words are just nothing in any way memorable, apart from their banality and the voice is just gone. I felt voyeuristic and a little sick listening to it. OK I'm immensely pleased that he's still alive but I don't want to hear him sounding drunk or suffering from a stroke. I know it's all been self inflicted with crack - ironic when you think of how many songs he wrote against substance abuse - but when you remember how good he was it seems a little sick listening to a pale shadow of what he once was. Obviously I wouldn't begrudge anyone trying to make a living but I think he should stick to writing the book he's supposed to be working on.
Posted on: 16 January 2010 by Voltaire
I am a huge fan and I do not want to be dissapointed.
Posted on: 19 January 2010 by hungryhalibut
B Movie has got to be one of the best tracks ever. It would certainly be one of my Desert Island discs.
Nigel
Nigel
Posted on: 21 January 2010 by Simon Drake
where can we hear full tracks online, anyone?!
Posted on: 21 January 2010 by hungryhalibut
Simon
Just buy 'Reflections' as a starter. It's a great album.
Nigel
Just buy 'Reflections' as a starter. It's a great album.
Nigel
Posted on: 21 January 2010 by Simon Drake
agree, but i wanted to hear the new single now (just being impatient) before new album drops next month
guess i'll have to wait until it comes on the radio then!
guess i'll have to wait until it comes on the radio then!
Posted on: 22 January 2010 by Hot Rats
I would also highly recommend 'It's Your World'
It was released on Arista vinyl but only in the USA back in the 1970s and the CD reissue has also gone. Both formats seem to be fetching good money.
It's a mostly live album with a couple of studio tracks. It has great live versions of '17th Street' and 'The Bottle'
Well worth hunting down!
It was released on Arista vinyl but only in the USA back in the 1970s and the CD reissue has also gone. Both formats seem to be fetching good money.
It's a mostly live album with a couple of studio tracks. It has great live versions of '17th Street' and 'The Bottle'
Well worth hunting down!
Posted on: 22 January 2010 by Voltaire
quote:Originally posted by Simon Drake:
where can we hear full tracks online, anyone?!
I'm not sure if this has full audio because I don't have speakers on my pc at work but I think it is the full version.
here (official)
Scroll down to the youtube section
Gordon
Posted on: 23 January 2010 by Voltaire
I heard some tracks today at my dealers and I can't wait for the album. Gil's voice is weak with age and nicotine but his intelligence and wit are sharper than ever. Imagine Grumpy Old Men as poets with talent... 
Posted on: 24 January 2010 by El Guapo
Nicotine. Is that the latest euphamism for crack?
Maybe the single is bot very representative of the album?
Maybe the single is bot very representative of the album?
Posted on: 24 January 2010 by Lontano
New album - 4 stars in today's Observer
In 1994, a record producer/label executive coaxed a down-on-his-luck legend back into the studio. The resultant record of dark and sombre tones marked a change of direction, introduced the ageing artist to a new generation and prepped his career for a glorious Indian summer.
But enough about Johnny Cash. Gil Scott-Heron, perhaps the most influential American poet of the past four decades, last released an album, Spirits, that same year. Since then he has spent more of the past 16 years behind bars than making music. It was on Rikers Island – where he was serving time for cocaine possession, a victim of his own addictions, just like those laid bare on his anthems The Bottle and Home is Where the Hatred Is – that he was approached by Richard Russell, boss of the XL label, who was keen to sign him once he was released. Russell also acts as the project's producer, a Rick Rubin figure to Scott-Heron's Johnny Cash, and, impressively, has steered I'm New Here away from those areas – hip-hop, acid jazz – where his charge's influence is greatest.
Instead, Scott-Heron is placed in a variety of sparse acoustic and electronic settings.
Russell – who charted himself in 1992 with novelty rave hit The Bouncer – has clearly been absorbing Burial's bleak chic and I'm New Here makes maximum use of Scott-Heron's raw, ravaged vocals. A cover of Bobby Bland's beautiful I'll Take Care of You sounds like desperate pleading through the bottom of a glass; Robert Johnson's Me and the Devil is rendered as horror-flick collision of dubstep and primitive electro. The title track, a cover of American alt-rocker Smog, is all slurred words and biographical resonance ("no matter how far wrong you've gone/ you can always turn around"). However Scott-Heron filled the pages of his prison diaries, it wasn't writing new songs. Four covers (one of his own, The Vulture), four short poems and a handful of interludes stack up to a slender 28-minute album. The only time he takes his own prose well beyond two minutes, the result is the brilliant New York is Killing Me, a finger-clicking, bass-humming lament for the simpler pleasures of the south. I'm New Here might turn out to be a footnote rather than an American Recordings-style new chapter, but this is as striking a return as we're likely to hear all year.
In 1994, a record producer/label executive coaxed a down-on-his-luck legend back into the studio. The resultant record of dark and sombre tones marked a change of direction, introduced the ageing artist to a new generation and prepped his career for a glorious Indian summer.
But enough about Johnny Cash. Gil Scott-Heron, perhaps the most influential American poet of the past four decades, last released an album, Spirits, that same year. Since then he has spent more of the past 16 years behind bars than making music. It was on Rikers Island – where he was serving time for cocaine possession, a victim of his own addictions, just like those laid bare on his anthems The Bottle and Home is Where the Hatred Is – that he was approached by Richard Russell, boss of the XL label, who was keen to sign him once he was released. Russell also acts as the project's producer, a Rick Rubin figure to Scott-Heron's Johnny Cash, and, impressively, has steered I'm New Here away from those areas – hip-hop, acid jazz – where his charge's influence is greatest.
Instead, Scott-Heron is placed in a variety of sparse acoustic and electronic settings.
Russell – who charted himself in 1992 with novelty rave hit The Bouncer – has clearly been absorbing Burial's bleak chic and I'm New Here makes maximum use of Scott-Heron's raw, ravaged vocals. A cover of Bobby Bland's beautiful I'll Take Care of You sounds like desperate pleading through the bottom of a glass; Robert Johnson's Me and the Devil is rendered as horror-flick collision of dubstep and primitive electro. The title track, a cover of American alt-rocker Smog, is all slurred words and biographical resonance ("no matter how far wrong you've gone/ you can always turn around"). However Scott-Heron filled the pages of his prison diaries, it wasn't writing new songs. Four covers (one of his own, The Vulture), four short poems and a handful of interludes stack up to a slender 28-minute album. The only time he takes his own prose well beyond two minutes, the result is the brilliant New York is Killing Me, a finger-clicking, bass-humming lament for the simpler pleasures of the south. I'm New Here might turn out to be a footnote rather than an American Recordings-style new chapter, but this is as striking a return as we're likely to hear all year.
Posted on: 25 January 2010 by Simon Drake
thanks for the link to the vid.
am disappointed. its a bit massive attack.
i was looking forward to a live band accompaniment. some of the instrumental arrangements on his old work are incredible
fair play for feeling the need to 'get with the times' I suppose Gil. On this occassion I'd rather he didn't tho!
am disappointed. its a bit massive attack.
i was looking forward to a live band accompaniment. some of the instrumental arrangements on his old work are incredible
fair play for feeling the need to 'get with the times' I suppose Gil. On this occassion I'd rather he didn't tho!
Posted on: 25 January 2010 by Pigeon_Fancier
Don't want to judge too harshly until I've heard it properly but I fear Simon (if not El Guapo) is right. Looks / feels very slick, stylish production etc and not a whole lot of Gil. The last I heard of Gil was the Jez Nelson documentary for BBC3 a good few years back (the series featuring some of 20C's greatest musical caners like John Martyn, Robert Wyatt etc). Great documentary but ended on a sour note as I recall. Relapse, prison etc.