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Forums > Music: Non-Prince > Gil Scott-Heron/Brian Jackson (Winter in America)
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Thread started 01/14/18 8:05am

mikemike13

Gil Scott-Heron/Brian Jackson (Winter in America)

For Gil, the metaphor of “Winter in America” was something he’d been thinking about since he watched the president of the United States assassinated on television when he was 14 years old. “The day that John Kennedy was killed is the day I’ve pinpointed as the day that started the Winter in America,” Gil told Mojo magazine in 2003. “The deaths of Robert Kennedy, Malcolm X, and Martin Luther King were all part of that.”

Ten years later, America hadn’t changed so much as it continued to buckle. Richard Nixon (one of Gil’s favorite political villains) stood in the White House, broken men returned from the Vietnam War, drugs flooded the streets, and racism showed its ugly face when it came to schooling, housing, and job security. Black leaders, including Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, were dead and surrogate saviors came in guise of badass movie Mack’s wah-wah walking through Harlem on the silver screen as they headed somewhere to “stick it to the man.”

However, Gil’s material wasn’t simply about entertaining the masses, he wanted to make a difference. His NYC blues ideology became his specialty and Winter in America—with its heavy Fender Rhodes presence (played by both Jackson and Gil), soulful flute, and intimate resonance in the recording that sometimes sounded like rough demos—was the perfect balance.

https://pitchfork.com/rev...in-america

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Reply #1 posted 01/14/18 8:33am

deebee

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Great song - and, my word, how relevant it still is, all these years on.

Edit: Ooops! The article's about the album. Well, that's good, too! lol

[Edited 1/14/18 8:39am]

"Not everything that is faced can be changed; but nothing can be changed until it is faced." - James Baldwin
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Reply #2 posted 01/14/18 1:50pm

babynoz

Brilliant song. cool

Prince, in you I found a kindred spirit...Rest In Paradise.
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Reply #3 posted 01/14/18 5:15pm

purplethunder3
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One of the best...

"Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination and life to everything." --Plato

https://youtu.be/CVwv9LZMah0
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Forums > Music: Non-Prince > Gil Scott-Heron/Brian Jackson (Winter in America)