Gil Scott-Heron
Gil Scott-Heron
Gilbert "Gil" Scott-Heron was an American soul and jazz poet, musician, and author, known primarily for his work as a spoken-word performer in the 1970s and 1980s. His collaborative efforts with musician Brian Jackson featured a musical fusion of jazz, blues, and soul, as well as lyrical content concerning social and political issues of the time, delivered in both rapping and melismatic vocal styles by Scott-Heron. His own term for himself was "bluesologist", which he defined as "a scientist who...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionPoet
Date of Birth1 April 1949
CityChicago, IL
CountryUnited States of America
We understand what the difference is between what we understand and what the community understands about what we're doing because they have supported us long enough for me to stay out here, while other people who are doing other things have not. A lot of people have trouble pinning down what it is we do and how. But we don't have any trouble with that. As long as that's their problem, it's their problem.
You can have a poem like "B-Movie" and sum up thirty conversations that people have had on the subject, but I wrote it down, and other people didn't.
A lot of folks are so busy trying to get their groceries together that they don't have time to do research. I have time. Maybe that's the main difference.
I was one of the first three black students to go to an all-white school in Tennessee.
I cannot afford to watch Fox News.
Every once in a while, you live long enough to get the respect that people didn't want to give while you were trying to become a senior citizen.
Schedule? I have no schedule. There is no hurry. I work when I want to.
You should be able to do anything you can afford as an adult.
Our accomplishments show what kind of people we are.
As for money - when I have it, it's great. When I don't, I go get some. I've been a dishwasher, a gardener, a cleaner.
The truth is that in this country you here you're more likely to be harassed, hurt, or killed if you're a minister speaking about progress for Black people than if you are a sure enough revolutionary.
The revolution will not be televised.
I find it not just strange but almost ridiculous that people could take a song like the one I was doing and interpret it is corroding anything. Folks have the feeling that oftentimes if you don't talk about something it will go away.
I think that the more people who speak out, and say things and take stands on positions that will better our community, the better off each and every other individual artist or otherwise, will be.