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
Angel dust won't go away. Somefolks who were smoking it were going away.
Womenfolk raised me and I was full-grown before I knew I came from a broken home
I try not to take people who haven't really thought out what they're doing too seriously. I try not to let them get in the way of what I feel I need to do.
Colour is not the issue in America; class is.
Oftentimes, the way it seems to be is that our artists in particular point themselves out as spokesmen for a certain constituency in a community, and thereby place themselves in that vulnerable position.
When we were doing the "Angel Dust" thing we got information from the National Institute of Drug Abuse because we knew that if we went out and said something about angel dust people were going to ask questions about it and we wanted to be sure we had all the information to deal with it when those questions came up. So it's all a question of being as prepared as possible out front, so that if you are going to deal with information it'll be correct. A lot of people won't check it out but some people will.
If we meet somebody who has never made a mistake, lets help them start a religion. Until then, were just going to meet other humans and help to make each other better.
The revolution will be no re-run brothers, The revolution will be live.
I don't mind being criticized. I enjoy being criticized personally, not by rumor.
I've always had questions about what it meant to be a protester, to be in the minority. Are the people who are trying to find peace, who are trying to have the Constitution apply to everybody, are they really the radicals? We're not protesting from the outside. We're inside.
America .. the international Jekyll and Hyde ... the land of a thousand disguises, sneaks up on you but rarely surprises
A good poet feels what his community feels. Like if you stub your toe, the rest of your body hurts.
The way you get to know yourself is by the expressions on other people's faces, because that's the only thing that you can see, unless you carry a mirror about.
Man is a complex being: he makes deserts bloom - and lakes die.