The spoken word emphasis of Small Talk At 125th & Lenox, Gil Scott-Heron's 1970 debut, was followed by a move in to more conventional song structures for the follow-ups, Pieces Of A Man and Free Will. These albums saw the evolution of Scott-Heron from politicised poet to soulful singer, with each album's melodic content improving and expanding due to the influence of pianist/flutist Brian Jackson.
The deep tenor of Scott-Heron's voice reached a maturity on 1974's Winter In America, a record which saw his voice adapt with ease and effect to songs about love, fatherhood, freedom, alcoholism, and the dark cloud of Watergate.
Peace Go With You Brother
The album opens with 'Peace Go With You Brother', introducing itself with a haunting and sparse Fender Rhodes melody, which recalls In A Silent Way-era Miles Davis. Scott-Heron's voice is inflected with the blues throughout the track, criticising people for forgetting their common humanity. There is sarcasm to his claims for peace to follow his brother, as he notes the future is bleak, but obviously that is of little importance to the selfishness of certain members of his generation.
'Rivers Of My Fathers' follows the same unhurried tempo, allowing Brian Jackson to play his piano and allow the piece to establish itself before Scott-Heron brings his impassioned vocal to an introspective and searching lyric.
The concept of Gil Scott-Heron as angry and militant poet is furthered disproved by 'A Very Precious Time', a sweet love song, perfectly balancing the uplifting timbre of Jackson's flute with Scott-Heron's reminiscent and joyful singing. As he recalls his first love, painting a vivid picture of each scene, his voice is expressive enough to give you the clear impression that he is smiling whilst he is singing.
The Bottle
The tempo picks up dramatically with the opening vamp for the next track, 'Back Home'. The song recalls again the concept of family, and the pleasures derived from them, a theme which finds its way through several of Scott-Heron's songs. 'The Bottle' follows this, one of the artist's most popular tracks, and as close to a dancefloor hit as he ever managed.
Propelled by the dexterity and exuberance of Brian Jackson's flute playing, the dynamite bass playing and a Fender Rhodes line which insists on being danced to, the lyrics act as a slick and not always noticed counterpoint, decrying the plight of alcoholics and those who have to live with and cope with them. Despite this, the song became a live favourite.
H20 Gate Blues
'Song For Bobby Smith' features one of Scott-Heron's frequent, scene-setting, spoken word intros, establishing a return to the slow, soul-fuelled, call-to-arms-message-song of the opening tracks. 'Your Daddy Loves You', which also appears in a different take on 1980's Real Eyes, is a ballad for his daughter, but in true Scott-Heron fashion he points out he only has the courage to proclaim his love and apologise for his behaviour whilst she sleeps. The unusual degree of honesty in his lyrics sets the artist apart from the rap artists he has been said to influence.
'H2O Gate Blues' is a return to the spoken word style which first announced Scott-Heron to the world. His fascination with the blues, as evidenced throughout his entire body of work, evolves in to an attack on Nixon, Spiro Agnew, and the many politicians who were caught up in the Watergate scandal, which had yet to reach its historical conclusion when the track was recorded. The poem moves from humour to scathing diatribes on the protagonists, but done with a love of wordplay and performance which gives it the same flavour as Stevie Wonder's concurrent number one anti-Nixon single, 'You Haven't Done Nothin'.
The return of the refrain from 'Peace Go With You Brother' adds a sense of wholeness to end the record, an idea that the album has travelled through Gil Scott-Heron's worries, fears, pleasures, hopes, and finally, his pronounced disliking of Richard Nixon, before returning to the opening statement, in the hopes that the record may have made that selfish brother think more about his world and those in it, instead of moving along in a self-imposed bubble.
 |
