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Sunday, May 29, 2011

Scornful Brillance

I suppose everyone knows by now that Gil Scott-Heron died a couple of days ago. This is from the New Yorker:
"He had been a prodigy of a kind; before he left college, he had published two novels and a book of poems and made two records. Instead of promoting them, he became a college English teacher. He took a leave of absence to go on his first tour, assuming he would return once the interest in his work played out. Something went wrong for him, however, during the eighties—his mother said it was the result of his making too much money—and he began taking drugs. Crack is what he preferred, and he went to prison for it twice and another two times for parole violations."         Read more 

4 comments:

reverend dick said...

Bummer. This is the 1st I heard of it.

He told the Truth.

Gunnar Berg said...

Yeah. I liked his work. A lot.

Chad B, Austin MN said...

I was given the compilation "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised" in college - floored me. Wasn't crazy about his recent stuff, but thought it was great another generation might hear his earlier recordings.

Unrelated to Gil Scott-Heron, did you ever get into Bill Withers? Find myself interested in him/his music recently.

Gunnar Berg said...

Chad,
Ain't No Sunshine is just a killer!