LISTEN! – THE TRACKS OF OUR TEARS –
March 24, 2021 – We wanted to look at two songs from the 1970s that dove deeply into the morass of drug addiction. The first is “Home is Where the Hatred Is,” a Gil Scott-Heron composition. It appeared on Scott-Heron’s first studio album, Pieces of a Man, and second recording (the live Small Talk at 125th and Lenox marked his debut). It was also the first of his collaborations with pianist Brian Jackson. The group included Scott Heron, guitar, piano, vocals; Hubert Laws, flute, saxophone; Brian Jackson, piano; Burt Jones, electric guitar; Ron Carter, bass; and Bernard ‘Pretty’ drums. … The other is “King Heroin” by James Brown. Manny Rosen wrote the poem from the point of view of the drug. Brown added an intro and a concluding paragraph, and he, his arranger David Matthews, and his manager Charles Bobbit wrote the music for the track.
