H20 Gate Blues

Annotation

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 Vietnam War - "Comment # 1" (1970), "H20 Gate Blues" (1974), "Pardon Our Analysis (We Beg Your Pardon)" (1975), and "Bicentennial Blues" (1976). He also mentioned the war in the soul tracks "Did You Hear What They Said?" (1972) and "Waiting for the Axe to Fall" (1980).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…

Annotation by Justin A. Brummer

Annotation — 1968 Chicago Seven / Eight Songs

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 Vietnam War - "Comment # 1" (1970), "H20 Gate Blues" (1974), "Pardon Our Analysis (We Beg Your Pardon)" (1975), and "Bicentennial Blues" (1976). He also mentioned the war in the soul tracks "Did You Hear What They Said?" (1972) and "Waiting for the Axe to Fall"(1980).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…

Annotation by Justin A. Brummer

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]

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 · Civil Rights Songs · Soul, Gospel, & Funk Songs