HOME IS WHERE THE HATRED IS- GIL OR ESTHER?
Phill_Most
4,594 Posts
Since hearing the Common... uh, I mean Kanye... uhhhh... well, since hearing the song "Home" on Kanye's "Late Registration" album I've been listening to that Gil Scott-Heron OG version a LOT lately (good, something finally knocked the Smokey Robinson song that Drewn put me up on out of constant rotation). I always prefered Esther Phillip's remake (see Soulman's Crate Classics cd) better, but now I dunno... Gil can't really sing a lick but he's got that sound to his shit that reaches down into your sick soul and turns it inside out. So who's version y'all folls think is better, Gil's or esthers? Or are there some other nice versions out there that shit on both of them? I'm not doing an official poll on this (I'm not even sure how ya do that), but if somebody else wants to that would be cool. This Theraflu (and 1/2 bottle of Tussin) is finally starting to kick in, so I'm gonna try to get my sick soul to go the fuck to sleep. NIGHT-NIGHT, BATCHES. 
Comments
I just got finished watching Gil's Black Wax/Is that Jazz? DVD.
I don't know, maybe I'm totally tone deaf, but he sure seems to be able to sing.
B-Movie is
I get sad when I think about what he's doing now.
The musicianship on both is equal i'd say, maybe leaning a little more towards Esther. But like you said, Gil has that pain in his voice that's undeniable and it just hits you in a heavier way.
I feel Gil's version more, but I can fuck wit Esther's too. Both renditions are painful and touch my soul, fo sho!!!!
Peace,
Big Stacks from Kakalak
Too bad Gil has had a hard time trying to "kick it - quit it - kick it - quit it" in recent times...
Yeah, I think they both lived it. I remember reading somewhere that Esther felt that song so much and told Gil something to the effect of "damn, you had to really KNOW what you were talking about to have written that song." As they say, the greatest music comes from extreme joy or extreme pain, and that song is beautiful pain (if that even makes any sense).
Esther.
Personally I don't think Gil sings that well.
It almost pains me to listen to the slowed down way that Kanye used it though.
I'm torn, and I think I go back and forth between whose version I like better. Last year it was Esther. Perhaps this year I will return to favoring Gil.
I realize he's not of perfect pitch, but damn, "Rivers of My Fathers" makes me tingle; it is so crushingly beautiful. And "The Vulture" is one of those songs that makes me stop what I'm doing whenever it comes on. The lyrics to "Madison Avenue" creep into my daily life because I work on Madison Avenue and that shit is so on point it hurts.
With Gil it's all about the lyrics. He is genuis. Listen to the way he says locked in the bowels of a floating shithouse. When he asks the listener to imagine him coming into their home and raping their mothers and daughter? This is the stuff they should be playing at those "Kill Whitey" parties, no?
I hope you do not think that a vote for John Kennedy took you off my shitlist.
Because in the streets there will only be black and white.
There will be no Democrats, Republicans, Liberals, Conservatives, Moderates,
Or any of the rest of that shit you have used to make me forget to hate
There ain't no enough, There ain't no surrender!
There is only plot and plan, move and groove... Kill!
There is no promise land, There is only the promise!
The promise is my vow that until we have been nerve-gassed, shot down, and murdered--
Or done some of the same ourselves
LOOK OVER YOUR SHOULDER MOTHERFUCKER, I AM COMING!
Esther was it a few months back but right now gil is back on top
I don't have the records to check right now. But I do believe he is playing on both.
both are on point, but Gil's just captured way more emotionally