Full Album Appreciation 10/27
This morning’s album:
Gil Scott Heron – I’m New Here
This was the final release of Gil Scott heron after 28 years of silence. It came out only a year before he died.
Since it was a rather short album, the show started off with select tracks from Gil Scott Heron’s first album, Pieces of a Man, as listed below:
- The Revolution Will Not be Televised
- Save the Children
- Lady Day and John Coltrane
- Home is Where the Hatred is
- Pieces of a Man
- I Think I’ll Call it Morning
- Chains
- A Toast to the People
Gil Scott Heron was an extremely influential musician who talked about real important stuff. Having grown up in a broken home and coming of age during the prime of the civil rights movement, his first album centers around large scale social struggles as seen from a very personal perspective.
While his first album was funky and jazzy and soulful with traditional instruments (the man himself featured on piano), his final release, I’m New Here, made large use of more modern electronic sounds and if possible, had even more soul than the first. It focused more on his personal life from the perspective of his final days after having suffered through oppression, prison, drug addiction and having been diagnosed with HIV AIDS. His use of spoken word and dark, harsh rhythms is way haunting. 10/10 would recommend.