Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson
Pardon Our Analysis (We Beg Your Pardon)
1975 · Arista A 4030 · USA
- Artist
- Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson
- Title
- Pardon Our Analysis (We Beg Your Pardon)
- Release
- The First Minute Of New Day (Midnight Band)
- Year
- 1975
- Label
- Arista # A 4030
- Format
- LP · Album
- Language
- English
- Country
- USA
- Genre
- Soul, Gospel & Funk · Soul Jazz
- Primary theme
- Post-War
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 Scott-Heron track "Pardon Our Analysis (We Beg Your Pardon)" (Arista Records # A 4030), featuring his long-term collaborator Brian Jackson, attacked President Ford for pardoning Nixon after his resignation in 1974. While those who "get caught with a nickel bag...will do big Ben" (i.e. those caught with cannabis will go to jail for ten years), the politician who "tried to fix America" received no prison sentence. He then went on to list others, who Scott-Hero thought were unjustifiably pardoned: "they pardoned William Calley, 22 dead, and America in shock".
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]