Gil Scott-Heron

[fox69]

"Blue Collar"

"Blue Collar"


I been down in Pennsylvania,
Where I was working in the mine.
And I been down in Cincinnati;
They laid me off the assembly line.
Yeah, they got me looking everywhere,
But I ain't too proud of what I found.
And you can't name where I ain't been down.
'Cause there ain't no place I ain't been down.

I was down in Kansas City,
Where even the blues sell by the pound
And I been down in New York City, brother,
And that ain't no place to be down.
Yeah, I'm a-looking at the face of the children;
You see, we're looking for a higher ground,
And you can't name where we ain't been down.
'Cause there ain't no place we ain't been down.

We fell down somewhere
Between the cities and the towns.
We went down, I know,
Between the smiles and the frowns.
And if they call me in the morning,
I mean, I'd recognize the sound,
'Cause you can't name where we ain't been down.
There ain't no place we ain't been down.

Standing in the shadows
It sho'nuff (sure enough) looks like rain.
I see the steel-gray clouds above me
Yeah, well the anguish and the pain.
Yeah, I been looking everywhere for peace,
But I swear, there just ain't none around.
But you can't name where I ain't been down.
'Cause there ain't no place I ain't been down.

We been down
Between the cities and the towns.
Yeah, been down somewhere
Between the smiles and the frowns.
And if they call me in the morning,
I mean, I'd recognize the sound,
'Cause you can't name where I ain't been down.
There ain't no place I ain't been down.

 

[fox69]

"Bottle"

"Bottle"


See that black boy over there runnin' scared
His old man in a bottle
He done quit his 9 to 5
He drink full time and now he's livin' in a bottle

See that black boy over there runnin' scared
His old man got a problem
And it's a bad one
He done pawned off damn near everything,
His old woman's weddin' ring for a bottle

And don't you think it's a crime when
Time after time after time
People in the bottle
There's people livin' in the bottle

Listen to me
See that sister, sho' was fine
Before she started drinkin' wine in a bottle
She told me her old man committed a crime
He's doin' time and now she's hangin' in a bottle
I seen her out there on the avenue
All by herself, she sho' need help from the bottle
I seen a preacherman try to help her out
She cussed him out and hit him in the head with a bottle
They turn to me, and they ask me, Gil,

Don't you think it's a crime the way
Time after time after time
People in the bottle
There's people sho' nuff in the bottle

I'll give you another good example

You see that gent in the wrinkled suit
He done damn near blown his cool to the bottle
He was a doctor helpin' young girls along
If they wasn't too far gone in her problems
But defenders of the dollar eagle said,
“What you doin, man, ain't legal”
Now he's in the bottle
And now we watch him everyday
He's tryin' to chase the prisons away from the bottle
He turned to me and he said to me, hey now

Don't you think it's a crime the way
Time after time
Friends of mine in the bottle
There's people sho nuff in the bottle

Come on, hit me the lick one time, stick
Uuh

I'll tell you a little secret
If you ever come lookin' for me
You know where I'm bound to be,
In the bottle
Turn around
Look around on any corner
If you see some brother lookin' like a goner
It's gonna be me
Sing the song
Na na na na na na na na na
na na na na na na na na na

A dollar nine or a bottle of wine
A dollar nine, get a bottle of wine
A dollar nine, get a bottle of wine
A dollar nine, get a bottle of wine
The bottle

All that I'm concerned about is a bottle
It can turn me inside out for the bottle
All I want
Said all I want
Said all I want
Said all I want since I'm livin in the bottle
A bottle

Sho nuff
Sho nuff
Sho nuff
Sho nuff sho nuff sho nuff sho nuff
Sho nuff

 

[fox69]

"Brother"

"Brother"


We deal in too many externals, brother.
Always afros, handshakes, and dashikis.

Never can a man build a working structure for black capitalism.
Always does the man read Mao or Fanon.

I think I know you would-be black revolutionaries too well.
Standing on a box on a corner, talking about blowing the white boy away.
That's not where it's at, yet, brother.

Calling this man an Uncle Tom,
And telling this woman to get an afro,
But you won't speak to her if she looks like hell, will you, brother?

Some of us been checking you act out kinda closely.
And by now it's looking kinda shaky, the way you been rushing people with your super-black bag.
Jumping down on some black men with both feet because they are after their B.A.
But you're never around when your B.A. is in danger.
I mean your black ASS.

I think it was a little too easy for you to forget that you were a negro before Malcolm.
You drove your white girl through the village every Friday night,
While the grass roots stared in envy and drank wine.
Do you remember?

You need get your memory banks organized, brother.
Show that man you call an Uncle Tom just where he is wrong.
Show that woman that you are a sincere black man.

All we need to do is see you SHUT UP AND BE BLACK.
Help that woman.
Help that man.
That's what brothers are for, brother.

 

[fox69]

"Certain Things (Interlude)"

"Certain Things (Interlude)"


Certain bad things did happen
Make you realize that you been here
A lot longer than a whole bunch of people thought you would

 

[fox69]

"Combinations"

"Combinations"


I've got a feeling
About combinations and how they
Work out so well
It only happens when people don't dwell on

The time or the feeling
And about combinations it's true that
North and south attract
Yes, but forever ain't a fact
To consider like our combination

And you can tear this moment down
And you can make me explain
Every little thing and every situation
But life turns itself around
And all the laughter and the pain
Simply helps us to maintain our combinations

And I know a sister
Who says combinations are created in the stars
Something to do with my Venus and my Mars being in line
To bring about combinations that will mix in my mind
Until I'm never quite satisfied
By any but our combination

 

[fox69]

"Delta Man (Where I'm Comin' From)"

"Delta Man (Where I'm Comin' From)"


This is a song about change, you see
We say many things about the changing aspects of our lives
We say that since change is inevitable, we should direct the change
Rather than simply continue to go through the change
We sing a song of revolution as change
To the brothers in the Caribbean and Africa,
Where I'm Coming from

Early in the mornin' I heard the call of the crow.
He said "C'mon now Brother, I want you to fly with me.
Can't you see, it's time to go?"
I been working on this delta underneath the burnin' sun.
Seem like a Mississippi revolution feel like where I'm coming from.

Brother man run to Nebraska after the Civil War was through.
He worked with his hands, he worked on the land alla his life--
nothin' else he know to do.
Rootin'-tootin', wild-west-shootin'-up Brothers!
Though His story don't teach us none.
Seem like a Wild West Revolution oughta be where I'm comin' from.

Brother man raised on welfare
He live his life in the heart of the city.
Among the junkies and the desperate people
he learned about life without pity.
But he's just been thinkin' and waitin' and thinkin' and waitin',
know his chance was bound to come.
Seem like big city revolution oughta be where I'm comin' from.

The point I'm trying to make, movin' from place to place and time to time
(is that) vibrations that bring on new vibrations
is all that's on peoples minds.
(They tell me) Don't be 'fraid of revolution!
It ain't nothin' but change and change is surely bound to come.
Put a little revolution in your life
and you'll understand where I'm comin' from.

 

[fox69]

"Did You Hear What They Said?"

"Did You Hear What They Said?"


Did you hear what they said,
Did you hear what they said,
Did you hear what they said,
They said another brother's dead,
They said he's dead...but he can't be buried,
They said he's dead...but he can't be buried,
Come on, come on,come on,come on
this can't be real.

Did you hear what they said,
Did you hear what they said,
Did you hear what they said,
They said,they shot him in his head,
a shot in the head to save his country,
a shot in the head to save his country,
Come on, come on,come on,come on
this can't be real.

Did you hear what they said,
Yeah did you hear what they said,
Did you hear what they said,
About his mother and how she cried,
They said she cried,'cause her only son was dead
They said she cried,'cause her only son was dead
Woman,could you imagine if your only son was dead
And somebody told you,he couldn't be buried,
hey,hey,come on,come on,come on,come on
this can't be real.

 

[fox69]

"Don't Give Up"

"Don't Give Up"


Ahh lovely day……

I never really thought of myself as a complex man,
Or as someone who was really that hard to understand.
But it would hardly take a genius to realize
That I’ve always been a lot too arrogant and a little too f$%kin’ wise
That was a combination that made folks feel duty bound,
To do whatever they could to try and shoot me down.
To head off some of the things I might possibly say,
And see if they couldn’t take some of my pride away.
To bring me disappointment and teach me to fear it
Obviously these are folks that just didn’t have no spirit
Spirits say

[Chorus]
Don’t give up (spirits say don’t give up)
Yes it’s time to stop your fallin’
You’ve been down long enough
Can’t you hear the spirits callin’
Yes it’s the spirits
Can’t you hear iiiiiit
Callin’ your name [x2]
Yeah talkin’ bout spiriiiiiiiiiiits heh

There are people whose lives are so far of the track
That what they like best about life is stabbing’ brothers in the back
And I was obviously too blind and probably too weak
To see who was responsible for my losing streak
The best way to explain it is to say simply because
I was looking around outside and the truth is I was
the one. So I got locked into all of the analysis
And found myself locked into a kind of paralysis
And something was calling and I almost didn’t hear it
But I spent a lot of time being blessed by the spirits
They keep saying

[Chorus]

I didn’t matter if it was a child or and adult
There was absolutely no-one that I could not insult.
So that I could isolate myself somewhere off to the side
And continue to juggle all the possible whys
The warmth I wanted to generate so well
Had turned into a frozen hell
And the discouraging injustices I felt
Had pinned me somewhere inside a drug infested cell
Where those who told didn’t know and those who knew didn’t tell
And “I could continue to feel sorry for my self” [echo of “”]
And then I heard

[Chorus]

Ain’t no way overnight to turn your life around
And this ain’t the conversation of someone that never falls back down
But no matter how long you’ve been on trial
With the days and weeks of self denial
And no matter how many times you’ve tried to make it
And found out that right then you just couldn’t take it
If you are looking for a looser who found strength and success
Remember the spirit of Brother Malcolm X
And know that you can leave all your mistakes behind
The day that you “really make up your mind” [echo of “”]
Come on brother… come on up
Stand on up and say…

[Chorus]

 

[fox69]

"Enough"

"Enough"


It was not enough that we were bought and brought to this home as the slave, locked in the bowels of a floating shithouse, watching those we love eaten away by plauge and insanity, flesh falling like strips of bark from a termite-infested tree, bones rotting turning first to brittle ivory then to resin.
that was not enough.
it was not enough that we were chained to leg irons, black on black with a piss stained wall forced to heed nature's call through and inside of tattered rags that strained our privates, and evidently years of slavery did not appease your need to be superior to something like a crazed lion hung up on being the king of his corner of the cage, backs bent under the wieght of being everything and having nothing, minds too like bomerrangs curving back into themselves kicked and carved by the face-straining smiles that saved my life.
that was not enough.
somehow i can not believe that it would be enough for me to melt with you and integrate without the thoughts of rape and murder. i cannot conceive of peace on earth until i have given you a piece of lead or pipe to end your worthless motherfucking exitence. imagine your nightmares of my sneaking into a vieled of satin bedroom and attacking your daughter, wife and mother at once ripping open their bowels sexually like a wishbone. imagine that magnified a million times when you realize that the blinders have been stripped from my eyes and I realize that slavery was no smiling happy-fizzy party. your ancestors raped my foremothers and i will not forget. i will not forget that Yale or Harvard or Princeton or In-Hell because you are on my mind. i see you everytime my woman walks down the street with her ass on her shoulders. i see you everytime i look in the mirror and think about the times that i would pat myself on the back for not being too black afterall. i think of you morning, noon and night and i wonder, "just exactly what in hell is enough?" everytime i see a rope or gun i remember, and to top it all of you ain't through yet. over fifty you have killed in mississippi since 1963. that doesn't even begin to begin all of those you have maimed, hit and run over, blinded, poisoned, starved, or castrated. i hope you do not think that a vote for John Kennedy took you off my shit-list because in the street there will only be black and white. there will be no Democrats, Republicans, Liberals, Conservatives, Moderates, or any other 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 not vowel 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.

 

[fox69]

"Everyday"

"Everyday"


Mmmmm

I can't seem to find
the words to say (to say)

I don't have strength to play the games
you need to play (to play)

Every day I seem to be running from the truth
I ask myself questions but it just ain't no use
'Cause it seems no matter, no matter, what I try to do
I'm still loving and living, lying and losing
Every day (Yeah, every day)

I've got a job
And to say the least
It don't mean a thing (it don't mean a thing)
It don't begin to compare
With the hurt and pair that I've seen (I've seen)
Sometimes I know I can't tell wrong from right
I don't seem to know day from night
It's no wonder that the whole world uptight
They're just loving and living, lying and losing
Every day (Yeah, every day)

Stop on the way home
From work to have a drink
Just to give myself a little time to think
'Cause it seems that more and more I start to realize
That the truth that I wanted
The love that I needed
Has somehow disappeared before my eyes

I can't seem to find the words I need to say (to say)
I can't find strength enough to play the games you need, you need to play (to play)
'Cause every day you got me, got me running from the truth
And no matter, no matter what I try to do
It seems that somehow it just ain't no use
I'm still loving and living, lying and losing
Can't seem to remember
God it's so confusing
I'm still loving and living, lying and losing
Every day (Yeah, every day)