The Mind of Gil Scott-Heron (subtitled A Collection of Poetry and Music) is a 1978 album by spoken-word and rap artist Gil Scott-Heron.[1] Like many of Scott-Heron's albums, the album's content primarily addresses political and social issues; however, The Mind of Gil Scott-Heron relies far more on his spoken word delivery than his other albums. Whereas much of the artist's earlier albums contained backup jazz-funk music from Brian Jackson, many of these tracks, which address contemporary issues such as Watergate, the pardon of Richard Nixon and the Attica Prison riot, are either live recordings or studio-recorded songs with little more than sparse drum backing or occasional instrumentation. "Jose Campos Torres" is about Jose Campos Torres, a U.S. Army veteran who was arrested and then murdered and tossed into a bayou by two police officers in Houston in 1978, spurring the Moody Park Riot.[2] Many of the tracks featured were included on previous Gil Scott-Heron albums.[2][3]
Due to the length of some of the pieces – "The Ghetto Code (Dot Dot Dit Dit Dot Dot Dash)" is nearly 13 minutes long, and four other songs are longer than 7 minutes – the album consists of only seven songs.
One of the distinctive characteristics of Heron's poetry on this album is his use of chemical formulas to refer to certain people and events. For example, he refers to Barry Goldwater as "Barry AuH2O" and Watergate as "H2OGaTe".
The original vinyl release of the album contained a 24-page booklet featuring transcriptions of 22 Gil Scott-Heron compositions. The CD release also features a different cover from the original vinyl release.
In 2011, the Chicago Tribune wrote that, "in the lineage of the Last Poets and Oscar Brown Jr., these proto-raps embody Scott-Heron's maxim that 'there are at least 500 shades of the blues.'"[6]
^Aditham, Kiran (24 April 2001). "Gil Scott-Heron". Ink 19. Archived from the original on 21 January 2018. Retrieved 21 January 2018. Much the precursor to the politically motivated poetry of Mos Def and Zack De La Rocha, Gil Scott Heron's long-lost verbal tirades have been rediscovered on this collection.
