I saw Gil Scott-Heron a bit more than 30 years ago. This was in a little club in a little farm town next to my then-university town. The audience was 99.9 percent white. He introduced one song, "Whitey on the Moon," by saying something like this: "I started thinkin' that if they could send one white guy to the moon, why not send 'em all?"
There was a brief pause before most of us clapped, tentatively at first, then more solidly. Each of us was doubtless thinking that he couldn't be talking about us. We, after all, were cool enough to have come to the show. But we knew at the same time that he was really and absolutely talking about each and every one of us.
It was a great show, by a truly impressive guy. I'm glad I got to see him, and I was sad to learn of his passing.
-- Howard
There was a brief pause before most of us clapped, tentatively at first, then more solidly. Each of us was doubtless thinking that he couldn't be talking about us. We, after all, were cool enough to have come to the show. But we knew at the same time that he was really and absolutely talking about each and every one of us.
It was a great show, by a truly impressive guy. I'm glad I got to see him, and I was sad to learn of his passing.
-- Howard