Customer Reviews

Anthology: Messages [Vinyl]

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I have purchased every Gil Scott-Heron disc I can get my hands on, and although the price of this is steep for a single disc, this one is well worth getting. This anthology contains songs from Gil's long out of print albums "Bridges", "Secrets", and "1980" which were never released on CD. In fact, only six of the songs on this 15 song anthology are available on other Cd's; the other nine are not available anywhere else. I had never heard Gil's work from the 1977-1980 period before and am really glad that some of it is finally available as it is no less important than the rest of his work as it marked the final years of his collaboration with Brian Jackson (who also contributed some of the liner notes for this CD). This collection serves as a great introduction to their work, although I would recommend getting some of Gil's pre-1973 music also such as "Pieces of A Man" or the collection "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised". To me Gil Scott-Heron stands as one of the most important artists of the past thirty years and he remains incredibly underrated. I have never heard anyone blend the blues, funk, R&B, and jazz as seamlessly as Gil Scott-Heron did. If you haven't heard him before or are a fan, this collection is highly recommended.

While Messages sadly fails to represent Gil Scott-Heron's first three albums (Small Talk at 125th and Lennox, Pieces of a Man and Free Will), it does include many of the best songs from his most fertile period -- the mid to late '70s with musical collaborator Brian Jackson. Although Scott-Heron continued to make great music for the rest of his life, it's safe to say he reached a creative peak during the years covered here. Every song on this disc is great, and many -- like "The Bottle," "Johannesburg," "Winter in America" and "We Almost Lost Detroit" -- are essential.

If you're looking for "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised," I would suggest another anthology from 2009 called The Best of Gil Scott-Heron. It, conveniently, covers the periods not covered here. If you follow my advice and buy both anthologies, then you'll have a much bigger problem -- wanting to buy everything Gil Scott-Heron ever recorded. That's a tough assignment, but well worth the effort.

I bought this as a gift for a friend who was very pleased with the quality