Fast city ain't living all it's cracked up to be

September 27, 2010 2:52 PM

Chris Cunningham's video for Gil Scott-Heron's New York Is Killing Me.

The piece accompanies Scott-Heron's recent comeback. "As Cunningham explained, he has been recording train sounds from outside his U.K. apartment for ten years, and for this piece he replaced 90% of Scott-Heron’s musical track with these train sounds and environmental recordings, pitch-shifting and harmonizing them to create a “musique concrete” version of the original composition." (The linked video is a single-screen version of the three-screen original.)

posted by progosk (27 comments total)

"New York Is Killing Me"

MoMAMultimedia lag is killing me.
posted by markkraft at 3:04 PM on September 27, 2010

Gil Scott-Heron is a giant. I'm a big fan of "The Revolution Will Be Televised."
posted by mullingitover at 3:05 PM on September 27, 2010

Looks interesting, but I think I'll wait a bit and watch it when everyone else isn't.
posted by Artw at 3:07 PM on September 27, 2010

His recent album is excellent. Here he is covering Smog.
posted by dobbs at 3:07 PM on September 27, 2010

Low Bandwidth Is Killing My Http Connection
posted by memebake at 3:07 PM on September 27, 2010

What a great version of that song.
posted by eyeballkid at 3:09 PM on September 27, 2010

I am really glad he's coming back. I saw him at a show where he was like an hour late and clearly addled in someway. Hope he's beat his demons.
posted by angrycat at 3:10 PM on September 27, 2010

New York, New York I won't go back / I gave you seven years / what did you give me back?

Oh, wait...

Yeah GSH is fantastic, If you buy the LP you get a MP3 download included.
posted by edgeways at 3:10 PM on September 27, 2010

So is the 3 screen version up at MoMA at the moment?
posted by Artw at 3:12 PM on September 27, 2010

Related
posted by wcfields at 3:30 PM on September 27, 2010

So is the 3 screen version up at MoMA at the moment?

Yes, or at least it played yesterday. Review of that three-screen show here, with mention that Cunningham is taking his show on the road, so to speak.
posted by filthy light thief at 3:42 PM on September 27, 2010

Might pop in on it, seeing as I'll be in town next week.
posted by Artw at 3:47 PM on September 27, 2010

"The Revolution Will Be Televised."

It's actually 'will not be televised.' Had to double check cause I'm referencing it in a piece of writing. Anyway, looking at the lyrics, I was kinda amazed by them -- dense and trippy.

"The revolution will not be televised.
The revolution will not be brought to you by Xerox
In 4 parts without commercial interruptions.
The revolution will not show you pictures of Nixon
blowing a bugle and leading a charge by John
Mitchell, General Abrams and Spiro Agnew to eat
hog maws confiscated from a Harlem sanctuary.
The revolution will not be televised.

The revolution will not be brought to you by the
Schaefer Award Theatre and will not star Natalie
Woods and Steve McQueen or Bullwinkle and Julia.
The revolution will not give your mouth sex appeal.
The revolution will not get rid of the nubs.
The revolution will not make you look five pounds
thinner, because the revolution will not be televised, Brother.

"
posted by angrycat at 4:43 PM on September 27, 2010

What really impressed me the most about I'm New Here (the whole album) was GSH's request for listeners to sit down with some good headphones and listen to it start to finish with absolutely no interruptions. I hadn't done that with an album in a really long time & it was well worth it.

Insofar as the post specific to the visual and video artist working with GSH, I'm always impressed when people take a musical (and/or visual, etc) concept & and make it as coherent as what I found. The ideas seem easy, the creation & follow through (10 years of collecting the sounds!) is impressive.
posted by priested at 5:16 PM on September 27, 2010

This album is the best one he's made in a very long, long time. I'm glad it's getting some of the attention it deserves.
posted by blucevalo at 6:03 PM on September 27, 2010

It seems like yesterday I was young and watching a young Gil Scott-Heron perform "We Almost Lost Detroit".

30 years go by quick.
posted by Benny Andajetz at 7:12 PM on September 27, 2010

Well these two couldn't be better suited for one another (Heron/Cunningham). Two prodigiously talented artists who have disappeared for years at a time with little explanation, only to return, still bringing massive talent.
posted by orville sash at 7:37 PM on September 27, 2010

I've proselytized Heron's latest album pretty hard, especially this track. More love it gets, the better.
posted by klangklangston at 8:12 PM on September 27, 2010

This new Gil Scott-Heron album is really good..
posted by kuatto at 9:14 PM on September 27, 2010

Yes, sweetie, Mommy's heard of Gil Scott-Heron.
posted by Pants McCracky at 9:44 PM on September 27, 2010 [1 favorite]

mullingitover: Gil Scott-Heron is a giant. I'm a big fan of "The Revolution Will Be Televised."

angrycat: It's actually 'will not be televised.' Had to double check cause I'm referencing it in a piece of writing. Anyway, looking at the lyrics, I was kinda amazed by them -- dense and trippy.

Two different songs: The revolution will not be televised by Gil Scott-Heron (lyrics), and Revolverlution by the Kleptones (whose lyrics include the line "The revolution will be televised")
posted by James Scott-Brown at 3:58 AM on September 28, 2010

I wasn't actually bowled over by GSH's nw album, I thought it was a little phoned-in, but whatever, this is a fantastic song, but why doesn't MoMA's website buffer video? I really want to enjoy this version of the song but
posted by fuq at 6:15 AM on September 28, 2010

Grr. I wanna watch the video, but the buffer keeps skipping.
posted by klangklangston at 8:37 AM on September 28, 2010

There's a version up on youtube for those (like me) who lost patience with the original
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 8:41 AM on September 28, 2010

Found a version on youtube for those (like me) who have lost patience with the original not playing.

(musique concrete version of my original post)
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 8:45 AM on September 28, 2010

the revolution will be live.
posted by the aloha at 8:51 AM on September 28, 2010

James Scott-Brown: Two different songs: The revolution will not be televised by Gil Scott-Heron (lyrics), and Revolverlution by the Kleptones (whose lyrics include the line "The revolution will be televised")

Which is itself a remix of Smoove's The Revolution Will Be Televised.
posted by Kattullus at 11:56 AM on September 28, 2010