Gil Scott-Heron

[fox69]

"New York Is Killing Me"

"New York Is Killing Me"


Yeah the doctors don't know, but New York was killing me,
Bunch of doctors coming round, they don't know
That New York is killing me
Yeah I need to go home and take it slow in Jackson, Tennessee

Let me tell ya fast city ain't living all
It's cracked up to be
Fast city living it all
It's cracked up to be
Yes seem I need to go home
And slow down in Jackson, Tennessee

Yes I lay down, I lay down
The doctor: "Try to take it all in"
Yeah lay down, lay down
To try to take it all in
(Take it all in)

Yeah you got 8 million people
And I didn't have a single friend
Don't you know, don't you know
New York was killing me
Yes, I was standing nearly dying here
New York was killing me
Seems like I need to start over
And move back home in Jackson, Tennessee

Lord have mercy, mercy on me
Yeah Lord have mercy, have mercy on me
Tell him to bury my body back home in Jackson, Tennessee
Yeah Lord have mercy, have mercy on me

Yeah I need to be back home, need to be back home,
Need to be back home, need to be back home yeah
Born in Chicago but I go home Tennessee
Yeah I born in Chicago but I...

 

[fox69]

"No Knock"

"No Knock"


You explained it to me I must admit
But just for the record you were talkin' shit
Y'all rap about no knock bein' legislated
For the people you've always hated
In this hell hole you, we, call home

No knock, the man will say
To keep that man from beating his wife
No knock, the man will say
To protect people from themselves

No knockin', head-rockin', inter-shockin'
Shootin', cussin', killin', cryin', lyin'
And bein' white
No knock

No knocked on my brother Fred Hampton
Bullet holes all over the place
No knocked on my brother Michael Harris
And jammed a shotgun against his skull

For my protection?
Who's gonna protect me from you?
The likes of you?
The nerve of you?
Your tomato face deadpan
Your dead hands ending another freedom fan

No knockin', head rockin', inter-shockin'
Shootin', cussin', killin', cryin', lyin'
And bein' white

But if you're wise, no knocker
You'll tell your no-knockin' lackeys
Ha!
No knock on my brother's head
No knock on my sister's head
No knock on my brother's head
No knock on my sister's head

And double lock your door
Because soon someone may be no-knockin'
Ha, ha!
For you

 

[fox69]

"Offering"

"Offering"


We have something to offer you
We have music to offer you

Spirits may come into view
We have spirits to offer you

Seasons my change
And feelings may change
But music remains

Seasons may change
And feelings may change
But music remains and it fills you

We have something to offer you
We have new love to offer you
And music to offer you
And spirits to offer you
And new love and music to offer you

We have

 

[fox69]

"Omen"

"Omen"


A giant eye zapped across the screen,
With tentacle type feeler type thin roots,
Reaching for someone maybe me,
With large black block letters,
Chiseled into the white around the pupils screaming,
R e v o l u t i o n,
Revolution,
And as the eye giant and green,
Sort of oozed with no obvious locomotion,
Closer and closer until it was like this on my screen,
It split and blood flowed down each side of the street,
Washing away things that we didn't need to see,
Just like beer cans peanut shells and copies of the daily news,
And then laying there, bleeding like a stuck pig,
Was a stuck pig,
Get the point?

 

[fox69]

"On Coming From A Broken Home (Pt. 1)"

"On Coming From A Broken Home (Pt. 1)"


I want to make this a special tribute
To a family that contradicts the concepts
Heard the rules but wouldn't accept
In addition, women-folk raised me
In addition, I was full grown before I knew
I came from a broken home

Sent to live with my grandma down south
When my uncles was leaving
And my grandfather had just left for heaven
They said and as every-ologist would certainly note
I had no strong male figure right?

But lily Scott was absolutely not your mail order room service type cast black grandmother
I was moved in with her; temporarily, just until things were patched,
'Til this was patched and 'til that was patched
Until I became at 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10
The patch that held lily Scott who held me and like them 4
I became one more and I loved her from the absolute marrow of my bones
And we was holdin' on,
I come from a broken home

She had more than the five senses
She knew more than books could teach
And raised everyone she touched just a little bit higher
And all around her there was a natural sense
As though she sensed what the stars say what the birds say
What the wind and the clouds say
A sensual soul and self that African sense

And she raised me like she raised 4 of her own
And I was hurt and scared and shocked when lily Scott left suddenly one night
And they sent a limousine from heaven to take her to god, if there is one.
So I knew she had gone
And I came from a broken home

 

[fox69]

"On Coming From A Broken Home (Pt. 2)"

"On Coming From A Broken Home (Pt. 2)"


And so my life has been guided
All the love I needed was provided
And through my mothers sacrifices I saw where her life went
To give more than birth to me, but life to me
And this ain’t one of the clichés about black women being strong
Cause hell if you’re weak, you’re gone
But life courage determined to do more than just survive
And too many homes have a missing woman or man
Without the feeling of missing love
Maybe they are homes that are hurt
But they are no real lives that hurt without reach
But not broken
Unless the homes of soldiers – stationed overseas
Or lost in battles or broken
Unless the homes of firemen, policemen, construction workers,
seamen, railroad men, truckers, pilots
Who lost their lives – but not what their lives stood for...
Because men die, men lose, they are lost and they leave
And so do women ...
I came from what they called "a broken home"
But they ever really called it "a house"
They would have known how wrong they were
We were working on our lives and our homes
Dealing with what we had, not what we didn’t have
My life has been guided by women
But because of them – I am the man.
God bless you mama – and thank you.

 

[fox69]

"Or Down You Fall"

"Or Down You Fall"


I sail out on my paper ship
The sea is made of fire
I ride my horse of nuts and bolts
We made to never tire

The world is just a simple circle
I've got to keep on turning, yeah
I've got to keep on turning
'Til I fall

Down to the top of a mountain
Inside a hollow stone
I pretend that I'm an iron man, yeah
Instead of flesh and bone

The world is just a simple circle
And it keep on turning, yeah
And it keep on turning
You've got to

Go away
I can't stand to see your face
Cause you've seen the weakest me
And now you know I'm only human
Instead of all the things I'd like to be

The world is just a simple circle
You've got to keep on turning, yeah
You've got to keep on turning
Or down you fall

 

[fox69]

"Paint It Black"

"Paint It Black"


Picture a man of nearly thirty
Who seems twice as old with clothes torn and dirty
Give him a job shining shoes
Or cleaning out toilets with bus station crews
Give him six children with nothing to eat
Expose them to life on a ghetto street
Tie an old rag around his wife's head
And have her pregnant and lying in bed
Stuff them all in a Harlem house
And then tell them how bad things are down South.

 

[fox69]

"Parents (Interlude)"

"Parents (Interlude)"


I believe that the spirits are your parents
And their parents and their parents and their parents
And they are in your bloodstream
And they run through your body constantly
Because they want you to live on
Because they want to live on
And they are trying all the time to tell you shit
And if you just spend a few minutes with yourself
You would hear them
(You would hear them
You would hear them)

 

[fox69]

"Peace Go With You, Brother (As-Salaam-Alaikum)"

"Peace Go With You, Brother (As-Salaam-Alaikum)"


Peace go with you, brother
Though I ain't so proud anymore
Peace go with you brother
Recognition don't come cheap anymore
You're my lawyer, you're my doctor
Yea, but somehow you've forgot about me
And now, now when I see you
All I can say is: Peace go with you brother

Peace to you, brother
Don't seem to matter much now what I say
Peace go with you brother
You the kind of man that think he's got to have his own way
You're my father, you're my uncle and my cousin and my son
But sometimes, sometimes I wish you were not
But I manage to smile and I say: Peace go with you brother

Peace go with you brother
Don't make no sense for us to be arguing now
Time is right up on us now brother
Don't make no sense for us to be arguing now
All of your children and all of my children are gonna have pay for our mistakes someday
Yes - and until then may peace guide your way
Peace go with you brother; wherever you go
Peace go with you brother