66 min listen
E76: Gil Scott-Heron + Nina Simone + Public Enemy
FromRock's Backpages
ratings:
Length:
66 minutes
Released:
Jun 8, 2020
Format:
Podcast episode
Description
In this week's episode, Mark, Barney and Jasper discuss the role music has played in expressing the pain and rage of Black Americans. Touching on such seminal figures as Nina Simone, Curtis Mayfield and the Last Poets, they listen to clips from a 1976 audio interview with the late Gil Scott-Heron, assessing his militant poetics and the albums he made with Brian Jackson. From there, the RBP team considers interviews with Public Enemy's Chuck D in 1992 and, from 2015, Kendrick Lamar. They also discuss a 1971 piece about James Brown by pioneering Black "rock critic" Vernon Gibbs. Mark talks us through such highlights of the week's new additions to the RBP library — Philip Elwood's live review of Judy Garland at San Carlos' Circle Star, Roy Carr's interview with New Orleans piano great Professor Longhair, Michael Goldberg's salute to New York electro-punk duo Suicide and David Toop's tribute to '60s pop Svengali Larry Parnes. Barney cites a timely 2011 interview with Harry Belafonte, wherein the singer-actor reflects on his civil-rights activism, after which Jasper wraps up matters by looking at pieces about the boundary-pushing Peaches, the return of Neneh Cherry and the bizarre artist known formerly as Terence Trent D'Arby. The Rock's Backpages podcast is part of the Pantheon podcast network.Please consider donating to organisations fighting against racism and injustice, such as Black Lives Matter UK and the NAACP/NAACP Legal Defense Fund.For further resources, readings, and ways to help, please visit https://blacklivesmatters.carrd.co.Pieces discussed: Gil Scott-Heron audio, Nina Simone, Public Enemy, Kendrick Lamar, James Brown, Indie labels, Judy Garland, Professor Longhair, Suicide, Larry Parnes, Depeche Mode, Charles Brown, Harry Belafonte, Peaches, Alicia Keys, Neneh Cherry and Terence Trent D'Arby.
Released:
Jun 8, 2020
Format:
Podcast episode
Titles in the series (100)
E25: Jordan's Story + Goth + Bay City Rollers with Cathi Unsworth: In this week's episode, Mark Pringle and Barney Hoskyns are joined by special guest Cathi Unsworth to discuss collaborating with punk icon Jordan on the autobiographical Defying Gravity: Jordan's Story. They consider the latter's influence on the London punk scene, in which women found a voice and carved out a space for themselves they hadn't previously been afforded. A long piece she wrote about the '80s Goth scene leads Cathi to reminisce about her early days on Sounds and Melody Maker. Her interviews with the late Dick Dale and with Ozzy progeny Kelly Osbourne provide the basis for discussion of Pulp Fiction and The Osbournes. Discussion of the Cranberries and their late singer Dolores O'Riordan precedes a clip from the week's audio interview, with disgraced Bay City Rollers manager Tam Paton. From his bungalow inside a barbed-wire-walled garden, Paton complains that nobody sends him Christmas cards any more and expl by Rock's Backpages