I know you are not supposed to post something on the internet that is more than a day old, and this came out way back at Thanksgiving but it makes me so incredibly happy and I thought I might share the love. Again. Cause it’s that good. I never really understood why everyone loved Florence and the Machine so much until I saw this and now I am a total convert. She kills it out of her mind. Hard. So hard, in fact, that she goes crossed eyed for a second towards the end of the video. The crazy thing is this song has been covered so many times- it was originally sung by Bobby Bland, then Gil Scott-Heron, then Jamie xx re-mixed Scott-Heron’s which Drake picked up with Rihanna, which is what is covered here by Florence. Still with me? I included the original version by Bobby Bland and the Jamie xx remixed version just for fun. If you haven’t heard the Drake version, I’m sorry but you live under a rock and you should watch this.

“If you believe in peace, you gotta go to work. If you believe in the things you say, you gotta get to work.” GS-H

Revolutionaries, people dreaming, people dissatisfied and joyless–it’s time to get to work. Gil Scott-Heron is performing two nights at the Blue Note. You missed the first night but tonight he’ll be back on stage for two performances. Make it there. The scene between sets outside his first show, when people were pouring out of the club and masses of people were squeezed into lines on a small sidewalk in the West Village, had that exciting “end of winter, you have a beautiful reason to be out in the cold” electricity. Bringing together a diverse audience, Scott Heron intoxicated us with stories and songs. When he’s called a “storyteller” it’s not only a reference to the cliché artist/songwriter telling stories through songs, he literally weaves back and forth between telling a story and performing a song. The story he told before “Winter Time in America” started off with, “This is a story about when the world began. I heard it from a brother that was there.”

His one-way banter with the crowd had the appeal of a new friend telling you things you really want to know–he talked shit about critics, gave history lessons, called Tupac a genius, took a slight shot at Sarah Palin, and alluded to his drug use which has landed him in jail off-and-on through out his career. The night is about his voice though, a voice that feels rare and magical; he can sing about peace and I don’t feel like it’s trite and empty. Maybe it’s authenticated because he was down in the trenches during the civil rights movement working for the peace and equality he advocates. For one night Scott-Heron prescribed that we have joy, and being in the dark railroad club alone, and receiving his voice I left with a joy that had escaped me all day.

Gil Scott-Heron and Friends will play at the Blue Note in Manhattan Wednesday March 3rd at 8pm & 10:30 pm.

Exhibit B:

Discuss amongst yourselves and comment…