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Gil Scott-Heron

Gil Scott-Heron

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Gil Scott-Heron/Brian Jackson: Winter in America (Charly)

Review by Barney Hoskyns, Uncut, August 2005

A MASTERWORK of ghetto melancholia and stark political gravitas, Winter in America showcases Scott-Heron and Jackson at their most witheringly unsentimental but also their most ...

Audio interviews

Gil Scott-Heron (1976)

Interview by Cliff White, Rock's Backpages audio, February 1976

The soulful polemicist talks about his and Brian Jackson's Midnight Band; his diverse influences and the Spirit of the Drum; being a successful musician while doing other work; how he started writing prose as a kid; how black artists and writers are not recognised in the USA; 'Johannesburg' and apartheid; the value of correct information, and 'We Almost Lost Detroit'; writing his first novel and starting to record; 'The Bottle' as message and dance groove, and finally he and Brian Jackson explain how they write together...

File format: mp3; file size: 61.8mb, interview length: 1h 02' 01" sound quality: ****

Gil Scott-Heron (1986)

Interview by Larry Jaffee, Rock's Backpages audio, August 1986

Scott-Heron talks about music and politics, Reron and B Movie, Sun City, Clive Davis and Arista/RCA, and ruminates on favourites old and new.

File format: mp3; file size: 18.1mb, interview length: 19' 42" sound quality: * (phoner)

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Gil Scott-Heron: Pieces Of A Man (Philips 6369 415)

Review by Roger St. Pierre, New Musical Express, 12 May 1973

Heron, with the sound of the black revolution ...

Gil Scott-Heron: Survival Kits on Wax

Profile and Interview by Sheila Weller, Rolling Stone, 2 January 1975

NEW YORK – At the age of 25, he has to his credit two published novels, one published collection of poetry and four albums of ...

Gil Scott-Heron, Donald Byrd & the Blackbyrds: Carnegie Hall, New York NY

Live Review by Ian Dove, The New York Times, 23 February 1975

Gil Scott-Heron, Poet ...

Gil Scott-Heron: Black Interpreter

Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 17 May 1975

NEW YORK: "I hear they're asking Rockefeller to investigate the CIA. Well now, in my opinion that's stupid. Asking Rockefeller what's wrong with the CIA ...

Gil Scott-Heron

Interview by Richard Harrington, Unicorn Times, June 1975

"I'VE BEEN doing what I'm doing for five years on records and for longer in my life," says Gil Scott-Heron, who seems to be approaching ...

Gil Scott-Heron

Profile by Roger St. Pierre, New Musical Express, 2 August 1975

THERE'S NOTHING NEW about black anger. It's run through the whole of black music from the blues onwards, finding perhaps its most forthright expression (in ...

Gil Scott Heron, Brian Jackson: Midnight Band: The First Minute Of A New Day (Arista Arty 103)

Review by Tony Cummings, Black Music, September 1975

THE REVOLUTION will not be televised... but then, neither will it be recorded. Gil Scott-Heron, the singer/composer/poet whose angry eloquence has gradually found the attentive ...

Gil Scott-Heron (1976) [transcript]

Audio transcript of interview by Cliff White, Rock's Backpages transcripts, February 1976

This is a transcript of Cliff's audio interview with Gil. Listen to the audio of this interview. ...

Gil Scott-Heron: "You Will Not Be Able To Plug In, Turn On, Cop Out"

Profile and Interview by Mick Brown, Street Life, 7 February 1976

IT'S A mystifying truism that perhaps the most surprising thing about Gil Scott-Heron is that he is still standing very much in the shadows as ...

Gil Scott-Heron: London

Live Review by Vivien Goldman, Sounds, 28 February 1976

"HEY, BRIAN, it's sold out – there's a line in front of the theatre!" That's one of the Midnight Band's glamorous female entourage calling out ...

Gil Scott-Heron: Manchester University, Manchester

Live Review by Karl Dallas, Melody Maker, 28 February 1976

Gil's the word! ...

Good Evening, Here Is The News on Gil Scott-Heron

Interview by John Abbey, Blues & Soul, 2 March 1976

The 'Jo'burg' man has a reputation for telling it like it is. However, John Abbey had his pre conceived notions of Gil completely and pleasantly ...

Gil Scott-Heron: And now, for a fascinating and demanding dialogue...

Interview by Cliff White, New Musical Express, 6 March 1976

Learn more about yourself and about the problem facing our society today in this week's... GIL SCOTT-HERON LECTURE ...

Gil Scott-Heron: You Won't Be Able to Tune In, Turn On and Cop Out...

Interview by Davitt Sigerson, Black Music, April 1976

Davitt Sigerson goes to New York to rap with the angry poet of revolution, Gil Scott-Heron ...

Gil Scott-Heron

Profile and Interview by Don Snowden, LA Vanguard, 21 May 1976

Gil Scott-Heron is a striking exception to the prevailing opinion in the record industry that music is solely an entertainment medium, a vital counterforce to ...

Gil Scott-Heron: The Fire This Time

Interview by Vernon Gibbs, Playboy, July 1976

Gil Scott-Heron has been called the black Bob Dylan. He doesn't appreciate it. ...

Gil Scott-Heron And Brian Jackson: It's Your World (Arista) ****

Review by Mick Brown, Sounds, 13 November 1976

WITH IT'S Your World – his fourth English but sixth American album – Gil Scott-Heron takes another step in carving out his singular niche as ...

Gil Scott-Heron and Brian Jackson: It's Your World (Arista AL 5001)

Review by Robin Katz, Record Mirror, 27 November 1976

GIL SCOTT Heron is the black Rob Dylan. What he has to say is important, eloquent and unusually effective in making everyone else sound trite. ...

Gil Scott-Heron: Bridges

Review by Paul Rambali, New Musical Express, 7 January 1978

DID THEY really get what they wanted? They being black Americans. Gil Scott-Heron doesn't think so. He thinks that what they got came only on ...

Gil Scott-Heron: Bridges (Arista SPARTY 1031)

Review by John Abbey, Blues & Soul, 31 January 1978

'Hello Sunday, Hello Road'; 'Song Of The Wind'; 'Racetrack In France'; 'Vildgolia'; 'Under The Hammer'; 'We Almost Lost Detroit'; 'Tuskegee'; 'Delta Man'; '95 South'. ...

Gil Scott-Heron has Staying Power

Report and Interview by Don Snowden, Los Angeles Times, 21 January 1981

GIL SCOTT-HERON was widely viewed as a potential superstar in 1974 when he became the first performer signed by Clive Davis at Arista Records. The ...

Gil Scott-Heron: Real Eyes (Arista AL 9540)

Review by Don Snowden, Los Angeles Times, 8 March 1981

REAL EYES, Gil Scott-Heron's eighth Arista album, is noteworthy for a couple of reasons. It's the poet-cum-songwriter's first recording without Brian Jackson, his musical partner ...

Gil Scott-Heron: The Homeland Is Where The Hatred Is

Interview by Lloyd Bradley, New Musical Express, 13 March 1982

JUST ONE CHANGE of buses, and the sound stages of Century City, Ca., where platinum-plated cowboys bite the props department dust, are replaced by the ...

Gil Scott-Heron: The Venue, London

Live Review by Mick Brown, The Guardian, 10 April 1982

THERE CAN surely be few performances in London this year which for intelligence, authority, musical expertise, and sheer style can hope to equal this by ...

Gil Scott-Heron: The Venue, London

Live Review by Richard Williams, The Times, 12 April 1982

Cause for concern ...

Gil Scott-Heron: Moving Target (Arista)

Review by Charles Shaar Murray, New Musical Express, 18 September 1982

GIL SCOTT-HERON is one of the most quietly effective performers currently working in popular music: his cool, firm underplaying makes the listener want to move ...

Gil Scott-Heron: Moving Target (Arista AL 9606)

Review by Don Snowden, Los Angeles Times, 26 September 1982

A WEAK MOVING TARGET ...

Shooting from the Hip: Gil Scott-Heron

Interview by Max Bell, The Face, June 1983

With verse and music slung from his belt, GILSCOTT-HERON is making his stand against the Cowboy. Some people accuse him of being right on. But ...

Gil Scott-Heron/John Cooper Clarke: Brixton Academy, London

Live Review by Penny Reel, New Musical Express, 24 March 1984

SCOTT-HERON OF THE ANTARCTIC ...

Gil Scott-Heron: Beam Me Up (Scotty)

Interview by Lynden Barber, New Musical Express, 24 March 1984

HIS BEARD a jungle of burnt spaghetti and his clothes an apparent assortment of ill-fitting jumble bargains, Gil Scott-Heron cuts a less than (shall we ...

Gil Scott-Heron: Ronnie Scott's, London

Live Review by David Sinclair, The Times, 4 June 1985

ALTHOUGH HE does not like being labelled, particularly as a "protest singer", Gil Scott-Heron may fairly be described as a radical black poet and jazz-funk ...

Gil Scott-Heron, John Cooper Clarke: Greenwich Festival, Borough Hall, Greenwich, London

Live Review by Sean O'Hagan, New Musical Express, 22 June 1985

WORLDLY RAPPING HOODS ...

Gil Scott-Heron: Strange Days

Interview by William Shaw, Blitz, July 1985

GIL SCOTT-HERON'S six-year-old daughter has this phrase she likes to use. She stares and points and says; "Look Daddy! How strange."  ...

Gil Scott-Heron: Hammersmith Odeon, London

Live Review by Frank Owen, Melody Maker, 5 July 1986

NORMALLY, I HATE protest pop, especially the born-again Methodism of the likes of Bragg and Moore with that heavy evangelical tone. So why do I ...

Gil Scott-Heron: Word War Fighter

Report by Len Brown, New Musical Express, 19 July 1986

Prophet, poet and rap pioneer GIL SCOTT-HERON was calling for sanctions against South Africa a decade ago in his hit ‘Johannesburg’. Currently due to appear ...

Gil Scott-Heron: Life After Arista

Profile and Interview by Larry Jaffee, unpublished, August 1986

NOTE: This interview was intended for Tower Records' Pulse!, but was rejected for fear that Arista Records would pull its advertising. ...

Gil Scott-Heron: Jazz poet shuns rap spotlight

Report and Interview by Nicholas Jennings, Toronto Star, 28 January 1993

HE HAS BEEN called the godfather of rap, but Gil Scott-Heron steadfastly refuses to bask in any hip hop glory. ...

Gil Scott-Heron: A Frail Godfather

Profile and Interview by Mark Mordue, Sydney Morning Herald, the, 1 March 1995

GIL SCOTT-HERON greets me genially. He's slightly spidery in his dangled movements, surprisingly slight and aged. At 45 the man oft referred to as The ...

Gil Scott-Heron and Brian Jackson: Where Have All The Good Times Gone?

Retrospective and Interview by James Maycock, MOJO, December 2003

IN THE LATE afternoon of 4th April, 1968, Martin Luther King was shot through the neck on the balcony of Memphis' Lorraine Motel. Pronounced dead ...

Gil Scott-Heron: Chasing The Heron

Report and Interview by James Maycock, The Times, 16 July 2004

"I'M ADDICTED to creating," mutters a grizzled, slightly stoned Gil Scott-Heron. "I use other things from time to time." It's late afternoon on Friday 3rd ...

Gil Scott-Heron: I'm New Here

Review by Jude Rogers, The Guardian, 19 November 2009

Rather than treating them like national treasures, let's hope musicians stretch their prejudices about what older artists can do ...

Gil Scott-Heron: The Vulture

Book Review by Leyla Sanai, Rock's Backpages, 26 January 2010

FATHER OF hip–hop, granddaddy of rap, articulate polemicist and early pioneer of the fusion of black politics with poetry and music, Gil Scott–Heron has been ...

Gil Scott-Heron: I'm New Here

Review by Mick Middles, The Quietus, 15 February 2010

IN PRE Bill Hicks days, Scott-Heron's wit and fearless polemic powered his poetic leanings. He seemed alone, in every sense, for thinking of comparable artists ...

Gil Scott-Heron: An Interview

Interview by Rob Fitzpatrick, Daily Telegraph, 17 February 2010

NOTE: This is the original "director's cut" version of the piece that ran in the Daily Telegraph. ...

Back on Message: Gil Scott-Heron retools for a new generation

Interview by Alan Light, Mother Jones, March 2010

The revolution will not go better with Coke The revolution will not fight the germs that cause bad breath The revolution will put you in ...

Gil Scott-Heron

Profile and Interview by John Lewis, Hotline, April 2010

GIL SCOTT-HERON has long been a regular and popular visitor to the UK's jazz and soul venues. However, by the late 1990s, he'd become an ...

Gil Scott-Heron: 1949-2011

Obituary by James Maycock, The Independent, May 2011

GIL SCOTT-HERON lived a life of two distinct, very different halves – as dissimilar as night and day. Up to his mid-30s, Scott-Heron was a ...

Growing Up With Gil Scott-Heron: In Loving Memory

Memoir by Danny Goldberg, AlterNet, 11 June 2011

GIL SCOTT-HERON'S death last week at the age of 62 stimulated a wave of appreciation from critics and the jazz and hip hop communities who ...

Gil Scott-Heron: Poet, Writer, Singer, Rapper, Pianist, Visionary

Obituary by Daryl Easlea, Record Collector, July 2011

(born April 1, 1949 in Chicago; Died New York City 27th May 2011) ...

Shut 'em Down: Reflections on Ferguson and Gil Scott-Heron

Essay by Michael A. Gonzales, soulhead, 2 December 2014

AFTER THE Michael Brown decision in Ferguson, Missouri last week, amid the expected disgust about the so-called fairness of a legal system that allowed murderous ...

Gil Scott-Heron: The Revolution Lives On

Report and Interview by Paul Lester, The Guardian, 22 February 2015

Political activist, rap pioneer and poet Gil Scott-Heron shaped the sound of today – from Talib Kweli and Kanye West to Kendrick Lamar. His friends ...

Richard Russell: Rich Pickings

Interview by Jamie Atkins, Record Collector, March 2018

As Richard Russell's collaborative album, Everything Is Recorded, is released, RC's Jamie Atkins meets him to talk about the recording and the music that led ...

see also Brian Jackson

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