Gil Scott-Heron 1949--2011

The original rapper -- well, one of them, anyway -- has passed.

An interesting guy. I can't say I was a huge fan -- although I saw him live once, at a concert for Arista Records, in which he shared the stage with Patti Smith and Barry Manilow (I am not making this up) -- but his 1977 anti-nuke "We Almost Lost Detroit" is obviously even more relevant than ever.

And I really rather like his cover of that Bill Callahan song we argued about last week (from his most recent album)



Like I said, an interesting guy. Although after seeing that video and learning that Scott-Heron was two years younger than me, I have to admit I'm rather pleased at how I'm holding up.