HOME IS WHERE THE HATRED IS- GIL OR ESTHER?

Phill_MostPhill_Most 4,594 Posts
edited August 2005 in Strut Central
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


  • edpowersedpowers 4,437 Posts
    Gil

  • dCastillodCastillo 1,963 Posts
    Gil

  • Gil.

    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.

  • SoulOnIceSoulOnIce 13,027 Posts
    Gil

  • VagabondVagabond 417 Posts
    Theres no fuckin' way I can choose one. Both damnit.

  • dayday 9,612 Posts
    Gil

    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.

  • Big_StacksBig_Stacks "I don't worry about hittin' power, cause I don't give 'em nuttin' to hit." 4,670 Posts
    Hey Phill,

    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

  • I'm taking Gil in a photo finish, but like you, Esther held the title for a minute.

  • flunkflunk 230 Posts
    shit that's easy........both

  • esther. woman vocals always hit harder to me. peace, stein. . .

  • can't choose, the live version on It's your world is dope too

  • ESTHER.

  • pickwick33pickwick33 8,946 Posts
    Both versions. Gil wrote it, but Esther LIVED it - hard drugs sidetracked her career for years on end.

    Too bad Gil has had a hard time trying to "kick it - quit it - kick it - quit it" in recent times...

  • im stuck on esthers version.. gil's is fresh though no doubt.. i like esthers sound better (on that song that is)

  • CosmoCosmo 9,768 Posts
    Groovy Monster's version (with Espo on vocals.)


  • Phill_MostPhill_Most 4,594 Posts
    Both versions. Gil wrote it, but Esther LIVED it - hard drugs sidetracked her career for years on end.

    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).

  • FlomotionFlomotion 2,390 Posts
    It sure as hell isn't the Carleen Anderson version.



    Esther.

  • BlowFlyBlowFly 89 Posts
    Esther Phillips - shes just got a plain old bad ass voice.
    Personally I don't think Gil sings that well.

  • ESTHER.

  • drewnicedrewnice 5,465 Posts
    Errmm...I gotta go with the Gil version. Got more of a feeling to it, for me.
    It almost pains me to listen to the slowed down way that Kanye used it though.

  • mrpekmrpek 627 Posts
    I got to say I like the music on Esthers more but I wish Gil was singing on it. I wouldn't normally choose Gil but there are certain songs "Home is where the hatred is", "ALmost lost Detroit", where the fact that his voice isn't all the smooth adds to the sound....but damn Esthers band on the record was killin it

  • both are great pieces of work but i gotta go with esther.

  • BamboucheBambouche 1,484 Posts
    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.





    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!



























  • asprinasprin 1,765 Posts
    Both renditions are painful and touch my soul, fo sho!!!!

    Esther was it a few months back but right now gil is back on top

  • pickwick33pickwick33 8,946 Posts
    i think its interesting that you guys compare the backup bands on gil and esther's respective versions - IIRC they both had jazz men who doubled as session guys (or vice versa). im not home to check my record collection, but i wouldnt be surprised if both versions had some of the same folks playing backup (bernard purdie? he was gettin' a lot of work back then).

  • mrpekmrpek 627 Posts
    (bernard purdie? he was gettin' a lot of work back then).

    I don't have the records to check right now. But I do believe he is playing on both.

  • Gil

    both are on point, but Gil's just captured way more emotionally
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