From Morgan :
Hi Myles,
We could do with some more Gils too.
The only trouble with peace, says Gil, is that we can’t make no money from it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y7vSEBR_T5o&feature=youtu.be
From Morgan : Ian Wright and Gil
http://youtu.be/xQ_MaGEFH8g
You’re a busy man and this is no ‘clip’, I’m sorry.
I stumbled across it and finding myself in a nostalgic mood was sufficiently moved to share it.
I reckon Wrighty scored over a hundred goals for the Arsenal while over the age of 30. That is extraordinary.
Thanks for sharing that Gil Scott Heron clip btw.
He was a real hero of mine. I was fortunate enough to see him live a number of times between 1996 and 2001 including a particularly memorable, magical night in Camden’s pre-smoking ban Jazz Cafe.
I realized that night how important Brian Jackson was to the GSH sound.
Gil was the poet, charming, wry but also dark and cerebral; Brian was the musician, a flautist, a pianist, just light enough, playful enough to keep Gil buoyed and let us in. We were all let in that night and I will never forget it.
Gil was a crack addict. It is a painful irony that his special, didactic gift for seeing and sharing truth (The Bottle is arguably the great song about alcoholism) that has no doubt helped so many others was of no use to him in his personal battle with addiction. He died in 2011, HIV positive and having spent several years of his last decade alive in prison on drug possession charges.
I got to see him one last time, in Edinburgh in 2010.
Did you know his dad played for Celtic?
Myles says:
We saw Ian Wright’s rage to win and now we know where his rage came from.
He didn’t write about his poverty and his pain in his book.
And he didn’t open up about his father and step-father.
It’s very moving to hear about all that.