Gil Scott-Heron - Inner City Blues (Make Me Wanna Holler)
From the email:
So given my week has been bland and a little sad, nothing really made an impact on me musically. Which of course makes SOTW hard to pick. Probably the only album I really remember enjoying was Glory : The Best of Gil Scott-Heron. Last week I watched a doco on the man. It was about his early days in college as a radical poet on campus who hung out with Langston Hughes and about his prison term for cocaine.
So, given that I have had yearnings for the radical spirit of the late 60s, early 70s, I choose a radical song - Inner City Blues (Make Me Wanna Holler). The name is a nod to the Marvin Gaye song, but this is not a cover. This is a sustained rant on the state of the United States in the 70s under "Ray-gun" and the frustration of the people.
Set to a nice jazzy brass riff or three with a bass line that grooves, Heron 'raps' about poverty, hunger, drugs and Mark Essex who killed 9 people from a rooftop with a rifle in 1973; something Heron refers to as fighting the Inner City Blues. Quite out there politically really. They don't write songs that dangerous anymore.
"The poster says Uncle Sam Wants You... for target practiceEnjoy the tune brothers. Right on. :)
No comments:
Post a Comment