H20 Gate Blues

Annotation

The track "H20 Gate Blues" (Strata-East Records # SES-19742) took an 8 minute plus look at social / political issues in Nixon's America, especially regarding the Watergate scandal as suggested in the title. It also addressed the Vietnam War, arguing that it was an unjustified conflict against a "people determined to be free", involving the unnecessary destruction of the land, and causing starvation amongst the population. He questioned why the US, a nuclear power, was "afraid of shoeless, undernourished Cambodians", and why the US sought to hide "the economics of war" as a motivator. Scott-Heron then referred to several specific episodes. This included the shootings at the Kent and Jackson State protests in May 1970, the bombing of North Vietnam, and the "chaining and gagging" of Bobby Seale (one of the Chicago Eight, arrested outside the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, 1968). Finally, he asked the listener to remember the My Lai massacre: "just how blind America...remember...William Calley's executive interference" - referring to Nixon's presidential pardon.

Annotation by Justin A. Brummer

Lyrics

English: Just how blind, America? / Just as Vietnam exploded in the rice, snap, crackle, and pop (Uh Oh!) / Could not stop people determined to be free / Just how blind will America be? (Yes Sir!) / The shock of a Vietnam defeat sent Republican donkeys scurrying down on Wall Street... / Ask them what we're fighting for and they never mention the economics of war / Ecological Warfare! Above all else destroy the land! / If we can't break the Asian will we'll bomb the dykes and starve the man!... / Plundering the Asian countryside... / Afraid of shoeless, undernourished Cambodians / While we strike big wheat bargains with Russia, our nuclear enemy / Just how blind America?... / Remember...William Calley's executive interference... / Kent State, Jackson State, Southern Louisiana / Hundreds of unauthorized bombing raids / The chaining and gagging of Bobby Seale... / Richard Daley, imperial Napoleonic Mayor of Chicago, who took over from Al Capone

About the artist

Duo of poet-singer Gil Scott-Heron (1949-2011) and keyboardist-flutist Brian Jackson (b. 1952, Brooklyn, New York); they met and began collaborating at Lincoln University, Pennsylvania, around 1969-70, recording together through 1980. [Source: Wikipedia] Gil Scott-Heron (1949-2011), born in Chicago, but mainly based in New York, is well-known as a soul and jazz artist with cutting edge political and social spoken-word recordings, particularly on issues to do with the treatment of African-Americans. He often collaborated with Brian Jackson. Several of these spoken-word tracks referenced the…

Themes

Anti-War · Kent State · Jackson State · Nixon · LBJ · Dow Chemical · Atomic · Anti-Calley · Bobby Seale · My Lai · Chicago Seven

In collections

1968 Chicago Seven / Eight Songs · Jazz Songs · Kent / Jackson State Songs · My Lai & Lt. William Calley Songs · Peace, Protest, & Anti-War Songs [War Years] · Civil Rights Songs · Soul, Gospel, & Funk Songs