Gil Scott-Heron

BGP's ongoing packaging of Scott-Heron's hallowed Flying Dutchman period brings forth a jewel that has perhaps a little less immediate luster than titles such as Pieces Of A Man or Small Talk At 125th And Lenox. Nonetheless there is a strong showing in the songwriting department, above all the quite mesmerising ‘Speed Kills’, a haunting jazz ballad in which Hubert Laws' flute weaves enticingly around Scott-Heron's long, wavering verses. As for ‘Did You Hear What They Said?’ it is another tour de force in a similar harmonic vein but with a much more delicate vocal performance that marks an arresting consonance with the heart-rending statement – ‘Woman, could you imagine if your only son was dead and somebody told you he couldn't be buried?’ The second side of the album is the raw, hard-hitting poetry with which Scott-Heron originally made his name, and his verbal assaults on government injustice have much to teach any contemporary rappers interested in keeping it real in what is an increasingly unreal world. As the man himself puts it, ‘America is still the same ole shit’.