A Poet is Gone

You won’t see any breaking news. You probably won’t see it on the news at all. But nonetheless we have lost a brilliant social activist, song writer, musician and intellectual.

Today I learned that Gill Scott-Heron passed away May 27, 2011 at the age of 62 at St. Luke’s Hospital in New York City. Scott was as well known for his music, as he was for his performances of the spoken word. He and his writing partner Brain Jackson wrote some memorable songs.

He said that his influence were wide-ranging from Richie Havens, John Coltrane, Otis Redding , Jose Feliciano, Billie Holiday, Langston Hughes, Malcolm X and his long time collaborator Brian Jackson. Scott never received his undergraduate degree, however in held a Master degree in creative writing.

He had been labeled a black activist because of some of more provocative works such as “The Revolution Will Not be televised,” or "Whitey on the Moon.” I think he did some of his best work in the late 70’s and 80's with his album “Secrets” with song like “Angel Dust” or “shut em’ down” a song about the hazards of nuclear power plants, this is relevant to today’s problems.

Before there was Hip-Hop there with Gill, in the early 1990 he said the regarding Hip-Hop, “They need to study music. I played in several bands before I began my career as a poet. There’s a big difference between putting words over some music, and blending those same words into the music. There’s not a lot of humor. They use a lot of slang and colloquialisms, and you don’t really see inside the person. Instead, you just get a lot of posturing.”

Some did however call him the “Father of RAP.” In his later years he did have what some would call a substance abuse problem, specifically with arrest for cocaine possession. He had a couple of stints in prison but had managed to continue to tour and produce music until very recently.

I found his use of words to be inspiring and thought provoking and as a young man growing up in America Gill Scott-Heron made me appreciate the beauty of words. Rest In Peace!!!