Sunday, May 29, 2011

Rest with God Gil Scott-Heron

            Gil Scott Heron - Message to the Messengers





"It’s not much fun being a prophet. Sure, you get to speak truth to power, but inevitably you wind up getting popped in the kisser for your trouble. Then you go crazy and nobody listens anyway, until it’s too late. You’re essentially doomed. "

Gil Scott-Heron

Gil Scott-Heron was known for work that reflected the reality of black America in the post-civil rights era and also spoke to the social and political disparities in this country.You could hear the truth in his poetry and music. His words touched my life with fire and understanding.


Gil Scott-Heron was born in Chicago, Illinois, (April 01,1949 ) Gil's mother Bobbie Scott-Heron sang with the New York Oratorial Society, a college-graduate who worked as a librarian.. Scott-Heron's father, Giles "Gil" Heron of Jamaican descent, nicknamed "The Black Arrow" was a football (soccer) player who, in the 1950s, became the first black athlete to play for
Glasgow's Celtic Football Club. His parents divorced early in his life, and Gil Scott-Heron was sent to live with his grandmother .

Gil spent his early childhood in the home of his maternal grandmother Lillie Scott in Lincoln,Tennessee. Learning musical and literary instruction from her. Scott-Heron also learned about prejudice firsthand, as he was one of three children picked to integrate an elementary school in nearby Jackson,Tn. The abuse proved to much to bear . Though Scott-Heron's experiences in Tennessee must have been difficult, they proved to be the seed of his writing career, as his first volume of poetry was written around that time.

When Gil Scott-Heron was 13 years old, his grandmother died and he moved to his mother in the Bronx in New York City, where he enrolled in DeWitt Clinton High School. He later transferred to The Fieldston School after one of his teachers, a Fieldston graduate, showed one of his writings to the head of the English department there and he was granted a full scholarship.

Click here for more of Gil's story





           Gil Scott-Heron: We Beg Your Pardon



  Gil Scott Heron "Winter In America" (1974)

        Gil Scott-Heron - The Revolution Will Not Be Televised

        Gil Scott-Heron - The Bottle

        Gil Scott-Heron | We Almost Lost Detroit

       Gil Scott-Heron - 'I'm New Here' 

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