The Encyclopedia of Dead Rock Stars (414 page)

‘The most important drummer that this country has produced.’

Jamaican journalist Herbie Miller, on Lloyd Knibb

See also
Don Drummond (
May 1969); Jackie Mittoo (
December 1990); Tommy McCook (
Golden Oldies #6); Roland Alphonso (
Golden Oldies #8). Former Skatalites Jackie Opel, Vic Taylor, Jah Jerry Haynes and Johnny ‘Dizzy’ Moore have all also passed on. Count Ossie died in 1976.

Friday 27

Gil Scott-Heron

(Gilbert Scott-Heron - Chicago, Illinois, 1 April 1949)

One track above all others finds itself regularly placed as direct inspiration for a generation of rap artists, and one man given the distinction of ‘Godfather’ status to the movement. ‘The Revolution Will Not Be Televised’ is the track and Gil Scott-Heron, the man – a self-motivated poet and spokesman to whom music was the only real outlet for his rage and ideals.

Scott-Heron’s parents made for an interesting mix: his mother was an accomplished opera singer, while his father – who also loved music – was a Jamaican soccer star who’d played for Glasgow Celtic. However, their early separation necessitated his relocation to Tennessee where Gil lived with his grandmother. No matter, the nascent musician picked up a wide variety of influences on his journey from Illinois (his birthplace), via Tennessee (the home of his upbringing), Philadelphia (the place of his education) and finally back east to New York (the city where he reached manhood and made his name). But despite his many accomplishments as a musician, it proved to be the power of his words that was to set the man on his way and earn him the most attention. Scott-Heron – who was later to describe himself as a ‘bluesologist’ – quickly earned a reputation as a writer, publishing two novels prior to his career in music.

Gil Scott-Heron met and began recording with college pal, pianist Brian Jackson (initially under the name The Black & Blues); the duo in no small way inspired by the work of The Last Poets. Scott-Heron was then signed to Flying Dutchman who helped fund and produce a debut,
Small Talk at 129
^th
and Lenox
(1970), which was the first of many collaborations with Jackson. This startling opener featured, of course, the aforementioned sardonic rant ‘The Revolution Will Not Be Televised’ (1970) – a track centred on the crass, disposable nature of seventies mass media, which pulled together an angered opinion of the treatment of black America with some wittily chosen TV commercial catchphrases. The largely spoken piece was clearly to influence motivated rap acts such as Public Enemy, NWA and Michael Franti in the years to come. (Since such a tag did not yet exist, Scott-Heron was generally categorised as a jazz poet.) His follow-up
Pieces of a Man
(1971) was also highly praised, showing as it did a more melodic side to Scott-Heron’s work. Nevertheless, the production of songs like the infectious homage ‘Lady Day and John Coltrane’ made little attempt to disguise the apparent fragility of the man’s voice. (His subject matter, and the limitations of Scott-Heron’s range drew some into forming comparisons with Bob Dylan at this time.) Further recordings, such as the apartheid-bashing
From South Africa to South Carolina
(1976) – which contained a further incendiary standard in ‘Johannesburg’ – kept Scott-Heron (and Jackson) at the cutting-edge throughout the seventies. The writer consistently displayed a satirical edge not always prevalent within the work of conscience-driven contemporaries such as Marvin Gaye, Isaac Hayes or Curtis Mayfield.

Scott-Heron was eventually dropped by his second label, Arista – a little uncharitably, given that he could take much credit for a black music scene by now blossoming about him. With no small irony, the artist was in fact quick to criticize the hip-hop community, suggesting that rap lacked a sense of humour and that its protagonists might do well to do as he did and study music first. (There were, however,
many
younger artists with whom he held an affinity, including the Sacramento duo Blackalicious, who booked him for recording in 2002.)

During the early part of the millennium, Scott-Heron was jailed twice for cocaine possession, a charge that also obliged him to seek rehabilitation. Out of prison in 2007, the artist continued to play live (mainly in a spoken-word capacity), although by now his health was clearly beginning to decline. While touring
I’m New Here
(XL, 2010) – his first new album in sixteen years – Scott-Heron fell gravely ill in Europe. Sadly, the record that it was hoped might presage a comeback, proved to be his last: Scott-Heron had disclosed in 2008 that he was suffering from HIV He died after admission into a hospital upon returning to New York. There’s little doubt that the man’s work lives and breathes to this day – and indeed that most hip-hop fans possess more of it than they realise …

Gil Scott-Heron: He blew our troubles away

JUNE

Friday 3

Andrew Gold

(Burbank, California, 2 August 1951)

Linda Ronstadt

Wax

(Bryndle)

Andrew Gold was, of course, born on a summer’s day, 1951 – but what he
didn’t
tell us was that he was the latest in a fine tradition of musicians and singers: his mother Marni Nixon could lay claim to having voiced Audrey Hepburn and Natalie Wood in major movies, while his father Ernest Gold had won an Oscar for his soundtrack to the film
Exodus.
Gold, however, fancied something a little more contemporary, and joined the folk/rock band Bryndle (alongside ex-Stone Poney Kenny Edwards) in 1970. This band enjoyed only modest success but it placed Gold in a position to work with artists such as Linda Ronstadt, for whom he played guitar on several recordings, including her 1975 US number one, ‘You’re No Good’.

Gold never topped the chart under his own steam, but he started to enjoy a decent level of solo success within a couple of years of this. His first song to impact was the catchy, autobiographical ‘Lonely Boy’ (1977, US Top Ten; UK Top Twenty) – a song reflecting Gold’s own childhood that became a sizeable hit on several international markets. His work sitting comfortably within the boundaries of 1970s AMrock, the artist followed this with further chart entries ‘How Can This Be Love?’ (1978, UK Top Twenty), ‘Thank You For Being a Friend’ (1978, US Top Forty – later the enduring theme tune to TV sitcom
The Golden Girls),
and his best-known British hit, ‘Never Let Her Slip Away’ (1978, US Hot 100; UK Top Five). ‘ Gold had also maintained his relationship with Ronstadt and is considered a key component in her seventies success.