Gil Scott-Heron Album

Watching players dealing in the fast lane
Set your camera shutters for the fast frames
Like Charlie Chaplin movies that go so quick
Fending off a stampede is no easy trick
Pulses pounding, people rounding dead ends
At this pace you'll never hold your old friends
Try to build relations that just won't stick
Examining the options you take your pick
Moving too fast?
That's a question only you can answer
Losing your grip!
Are your palms a little bit slippery, huh?
If you crash
Crash landings always got the captain to blame
But you're the captain driving in the fast lane

Losers there to see you in the fast lane
Misery loves company so they claim
Excitement is the currency we deal in
Nursing your casualties so healing
If you want to major in distraction
Too bad if you're not pleased with my reaction
But I've seen so much out here that it is real plain
That nothing last for long out in the fast lane

I don't want to come off like a preacher
But I swear it's not too late to return
Somehow square and hip got put in reverse
Putting things in fifth gear made it much worse
None of this may influence your direction
But I hope you can still take suggestions
There's a woman out there calling your name
Hope that you don't blow it in the fast lane

Moving too fast!
We're all praying that somehow you don't crash

Symbols of democracy, pinned up against the coast
Outhouse of bureaucracy, surrounded by a moat
Citizens of poverty are barely out of sight
Overlords escape in the evening with people of the night
Morning brings the tourists, peering eyes and rubber necks
To catch a glimpse of the cowboy making the world a nervous wreck
It's a mass of irony for all the world to see
It's the nation's capital, it's Washington D.C.

It's the nation's capital
It's the nation's capital
It's the nation's capital, it's Washington D.C.
(mmmm-hmmm)

May not have the glitter or the glamour of L.A.
May not have the history or the intrigue of Pompeii
But when it comes to making music, and sure enough making news
People who just don't make sense and people making do
Seems a ball of contradictions, pulling different ways
Between the folks who come and go, and one's who've got to stay
It's a mass of irony for all the world to see
It's the nation's capital, it's Washington D.C.

It's the nation's capital
It's the nation's capital
It's the nation's capital, it's Washington D.C.

Seems to me, it's still in light time people knifed up on 14th street
Makes me feel it's always the right time for them people showing up and coming clean
Did make the one seem kind of numb

It's the nation's capital
It's the nation's capital
It's the nation's capital, it's Washington D.C.
(mmmm-hmmm)

Symbols of democracy, pinned up against the coast
Outhouse of bureaucracy, surrounded by a moat
Citizens of poverty are barely out of sight
Overlords escape in the evening with people of the night
Morning come and bring the tourists, craning rubber necks
Catch a glimpse of the cowboy making the world a nervous wreck
It's a mass of irony for all the world to see
It's the nation's capital, it's Washington D.C.

It's the nation's capital
It's the nation's capital
It's the nation's capital, it's Washington D.C.
It's the nation's capital
Got you feeling capital
Punishment is capital in Washington D.C.

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I was wondering about our yesterdays,
and starting digging through the rubble
and to say, at least somebody went
through a hell of a lot of trouble
to make sure that when we looked things up
we wouldn't fair too well
and that we would come up with totally unreliable
portraits of ourselves.
But I compiled what few facts I could,
I mean, such as they are
to see if we could shed a little bit of light
and this is what I got so far:
First, white folks discovered Africa
and they claimed it fair and square.
Cecil Rhodes couldn't have been robbing nobody
'cause he said there was nobody there.
White folks brought all the civilization,
since there wasn't none around.
They said 'how could these folks be civilized
when you never see nobody writing nothing down?'
And just to prove all their suspicions,
it didn't take too long.
They found out there were whole groups of people, in plain sight,
running around with no clothes on. That's right!
The women, the men, the young and old,
righteous white folks covered their eyes.
So no time was spent considering the environment.
Hell no! This here, this just wasn't civilized!
And another piece of information they had,
or at least this how we were taught
is that 'unlike the very civilized people of Europe'
these tribal units actually fought!
And yes, there was some rather crude implements
and yes, there was primitive art
and yes they were masters of hunting and fishing
and courtesy came from the heart.
And yes there was medicine, love and religion,
intertribal communication by drum.
But no paper and pencils and other utensils
and hell, these folks never even heard of a gun.
And this is why the colonies came
to stabilize the land.
Because the Dark Continent had copper and gold
and the discoverers had themselves a plan.
They would discover all the places with promise.
You didn't need no titles or deeds.
You could just appoint people to make everything legal,
to sanction the trickery and greed.
And back in the jungle when the natives got restless
they would call that 'guerrilla attack'
and they would never describe that the folks finally got wise
and decided they would fight back.
And still we are victims of word games,
semantics is always a bitch:
places once referred to as under-developed
are now called 'mineral rich.'
And the game goes on eternally
unity kept just beyond reach
Egypt and Libya used to be in Africa,
they've been moved to the Middle East.
There are examples galore I assure you,
but if interpreting were left up to me
I'd be sure every time folks knew this version wasn't mine
which is why it is called 'His story'.