Gil Scott-Heron, once more

Good obituary of GSH in the Guardian today. I learned, amongst other things, that if you're British and ever watched TV, you'll have heard him: in one of his lowest periods, he provided the voice for the Tango fizzy drink ads: 'You Know When You've Been Tangoed'.

What a sad but also fascinating story story: going from poet to (excellent) novelist to musician to ad-whore, and back to music before dying at 62.

Here's a little more contrasting examples of his work: the seminal 'Johannesburg', and the controversial ad, which led to a moral panic…

His passing WILL be televised

Gil Scott-Heron died today: the man who invented rap by merging jazz, poetry, socialism and civil rights. I could post some obscure tracks by him or his first outfit, The Last Poets, to show how cool I am, but nothing's cooler, more searching, more angry and more politically spot on than his most famous track.

Unfortunately, nothing could be more wrong either: capitalism has appropriated every subversive impulse in popular culture, most glaringly in the African-American genres which inherited Scott-Heron's music.

Art and Politics meet

Here's Gil Scott-Heron and the Last Poets singing 'Who'll Pay Reparations?', from 1970: perhaps the most beautiful political song I know - even taking Strange Fruit into account.