Wednesday, June 1, 2011

H2O Gate Blues


I really love this blues piece on Watergate, LBJ, J. Edgar Hoover, the slaughter of Attica, George Wallace, Kent State, Bobby Seale and Vietnam by Gil Scott-Heron.
I love that Scott-Heron mimics the sound of an old school telephone.  I love Scott-Heron's voice, which is perfectly for delivering poetry: with swagger but epic, enunciating every word like a news reader.
I love that he draws a parallel between Richard Nixon and two Shakespearean kinds, MacBeth and Richard III. 
There are so many great lines.  "The election was sabotaged by...trickery and greed."  "The water buggers in the Watergate buggers was no news."  "Spy movies with the same name and a cast of a thousand."  I love how Scott-Heron keeps asking "How blind, America?"  Indeed.
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2 comments:

  1. TONYJune 2, 2011 at 1:01 AM

    We have been celebrating the life and career of Gil Scott Heron over here in a series of
    BBC Radio 1 programmes.

    Here's a link.Hope it works.

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/console/b011j001/Gilles_Peterson_Gil_Scott_Heron_Tribute_Mix_and_Michael_Kiwanuka

    All the best,
    Tony

    ReplyDelete
  2. Eliza MartinJune 2, 2011 at 11:41 AM

    Thanks for the link Tony. I'm listening to it right now.

    ReplyDelete

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