Word: herons
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EVERY ART has its social commentator. Comic strips have Doonesbury and music has Gil Scott-Heron and Brian Jackson. Listening to a Scott-Heron/Jackson album is an educational experience unrivalled by the "education" obtained from such sources as the makers of Dow Bathroom Cleaner, your local Emmy-award-winning eyewitness news team or your favorite daytime game show. It's an experience that gives insight into answers to questions the game show wouldn't ask or events the news team wouldn't cover. It's really a musical eyeglass cleaner...
...Scott-Heron and Jackson have a message for everybody from the junkie in "Angel Dust" to he politicians in "Three Miles Down" in their latest encounter with the real world, Secrets. Secrets is part of a chain of messages that began in the early '70s. An earlier Scott-Heron/Jackson album, The Revolution Will Not Be Televised, first called attention to the artists who sketched a scenario of the world's last revolution. Scott-Heron, who is also a poet, wrote a book of revolutionary verse prior to the release of his first politicized album, Winter in America. The album...
...Scott-Heron and Jackson form a partnership in revolutionizing jazz through perceptual lyrics. Sometimes you may already know the subject and they just relay their opinion. In this partnership, Scott-Heron is more of the lyricist, undeniably an extension of his earlier days as a poet. Jackson, a brilliant flutist, drummer and piano man writes the melody for much of Scott-Heron's news. On the premise that two gifted artists should not be limited in the use of their talent, Scott-Heron and Jackson switch roles, double up and occasionally insert a third party for their creations...
...MISTAKE to only rave about the lyrics and ignore the music. Scott-Heron and Jackson are jazz musicians who complement the atmosphere of the lyrics with the rhythms and acoustics of their songs. In "Three Miles Down," a song to politicians about coal-mining, the music has three distinct beats, each one in a lower key than the one played before. "Angel Dust" includes mellow backup vocals, giving the song a light, hallucinatory effect. All of their productions attempt to incorporate the setting into music, a testimony to the genius of their creators. The result is not a sermon...
...Scott-Heron and Jackson work together but Scott-Heron has received most of the popular acclaim because the most notable tracks feature his music and lyrics. His music has prompted some to conclude that Scott-Heron is "a verbal John Coltrane," undoubtedly a more accurate description than the "Black Bob Dylan" label. The similarity to Coltrane is slightly evident in "A Prayer For Everybody," the album's most instrumental track. Yet Scott-Heron is a duplicate of no one you have heard before. A true artist can do more than sing the I-love-you-you-love-me routine...