Gil Scott-Heron

I've been listening to some old records tonight that I haven't dug out since I needed daily political hits to get me through the shitfest that was the preamble to America's invasion of Iraq. Most mornings would start with a blast of Gil's "Work for Peace", or "B-Movie", where he compares the Reagan administration to a 50s black and white classic.

Even without his status as a progenitor of rap music, and one of America's most high profile black musicians, there's no doubt he's a fine poet, able to make you think and laugh in the same breath. So here's a quick sample of some of my favourite lines. Sadly as relevant now as in the past decades when they appeared.

"The Military and the Monetary,
get together whenever they think it's necessary,
they turn our brothers and sisters into mercenaries,
they are turning the planet into a cemetery.

They took the honour from the honorary,
they took the dignity from the dignitaries,
they took the secrets from the secretary,
but they left the bitch in obituary.

The Military and the Monetary,
from thousands of miles away in a Saudi Arabian sanctuary,
had us all scrambling for our dictionaries,
cause we couldn't understand the fuckin' vocabulary.

Yeah, there was some smart bombs,
but there was some dumb ones as well.

The only thing wrong with Peace,
is that you can't make no money from it.

We hounded the Ayatollah religiously,
bombed Libya and killed Gaddafi's son hideously.
we turned our back on our allies the Panamanians,
and saw Ollie North selling guns to the Iranians.
watched Gorbachev slaughtering Lithuanians,
we better warn the Amish,
they may bomb the Pennsylvanians."

- "Work for Peace" (1994).

"A rat done bit my sister Nell
with Whitey on the moon
Her face and arm began to swell
but Whitey's on the moon
Was all that money I made last year
for Whitey on the moon?
How come there ain't no money here?
Hmm! Whitey's on the moon."

- "Whitey on the Moon" (1970).

"What has happened is that in the last 20 years,
America has changed from a producer to a consumer.
And all consumers know that when the producer names the tune,
the consumer has got to dance.
That's the way it is.

The idea concerns the fact that this country wants nostalgia.
They want to go back as far as they can
even if it's only as far as last week.
Not to face now or tomorrow, but to face backwards.
And yesterday was the day of our cinema heroes riding to the rescue at the last possible moment.
The day of the man in the white hat or the man on the white horse
or the man who always came to save America at the last moment
- someone always came to save America at the last moment -
especially in B-movies.

And when America found itself having a hard time facing the future,
they looked for people like John Wayne.
But since John Wayne was no longer available,
they settled for Ronald Ray-Gun,
and it has placed us in a situation that we can only look at
like a B-movie.

Come with us back to those inglorious days
when heroes weren't zeros.
Before fair was square.
When the cavalry came straight away
and all-American men were like Hemingway.
To the days of the wondrous B-movie.

As Wall Street goes, so goes the nation.
And here's a look at the closing numbers -
racism's up, human rights are down, peace is shaky,
war items are hot - the House claims all ties.
Jobs are down, money is scarce,
and common sense is at an all-time low on heavy trading.
Movies were looking better than ever and now no one is looking,
because we're starring in a B-movie.

And we would've rather had John Wayne."

- "B-Movie" (1981).

Mod out.