Blog: Loft And Lost

The sad news was announced today of Gil Scott-Heron, the famed and grizzled jazz-poet, after a short illness. He was a hugely influential musician, with everyone from Public Enemy to Kanye West via Usher singing his praises over the years. His magnificent voice, whether singing on "The Bottle" or darkly intoning his rage on "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised", grabbed you by the balls and forced you to listen. After what could be termed hard times, with cocaine addiction and prison, in recent years he'd found his way back to something approaching normal life, recording "I'm [...]

• Gil Scott-Heron - The Bottle