Gil Scott-Heron Album

We have something to offer you
We have music to offer you

Spirits may come into view
We have spirits to offer you

Seasons my change
And feelings may change
But music remains

Seasons may change
And feelings may change
But music remains and it fills you

We have something to offer you
We have new love to offer you
And music to offer you
And spirits to offer you
And new love and music to offer you

We have

I've seen the red sun in the autumn
And I've seen the leaves turn to golden brown
I've seen the red sun in the autumn
And I've seen the leaves returning to golden brown
I've seen the red blood of my people
Heard them calling for freedom everywhere
If you've seen the red blood of your people
All you've got to do it
Reach out your hand and we'll take you there
Red stands for liberation
Red

I see the blackness of winter
I see death lurking in the trees
Yeah, I see the blackness of winter
And I see death lurking in the trees
I see the blackness of my people
You know they're calling for freedom everywhere
I've seen the blackness of my people
And all you got to do,
Brothers and sisters, reach out your hands,
We're gonna take you there
Black stands for liberation, yeah, aah

I've seen the green buds in the springtime
And somebody told me that means new life
I've seen the green buds in the springtime
Comin' up through the concrete
Somebody told me they symbolize new life
I've seen the green fields of my homeland
And I've heard people calling for freedom everywhere
It seems to me like if you've seen the green fields of your homeland
Even when you dream it, you can reach out your mind
And someone will take you there, cause
Green stands for liberation
Green

There are three colors on our flag now, brother
One red, one black, and there's one green
There are three colors on our flag now, sister
Can you tell your babies what they mean?
I'm talking ‘bout red and the black and green
Want you to keep on thinking ‘bout red and the black and green
I'm gonna keep on singin' ‘bout red and the black and green
And sooner than you think the whole world's gonna know just what we mean
When we say they stand for liberation
They stand for liberation

Talkin' bout red
Yes, and black
We're talkin' bout green
It's more than a dream if you dig what we mean

It stands for liberation
It stands for a brand new nation
It stands for liberation
It stands for a brand new nation
Yeah

Must be somethin'
Must be somethin' we can do
Must be somethin'
Must be somethin' we can do
We didn't come all this way just to give up
We didn't struggle all this time to say we've had enough
Had enough

Must be somethin'
Must be somethin' we can do
Must be somethin'
Must be somethin' we can do
We didn't come all this way in the dead of night
To give up now that we can see the light
See the light

Just like music
Just like music that we make
Fills the spirit
And helps to see a clearer day

I'll tell you somethin'
I'll tell you somethin' you can do
Keep on movin'
Keep on movin' for what's true

I'll tell you somethin'
I'll tell you somethin' you can do
Keep on movin'
Keep on movin' for what's true

You have understood
The riddles of the ages

Yes and you have understood
The universal nine

You have placed your footprints on
The everlasting sands of time

Yes so tell me why
Can't you understand that there ain't no such thing as a superman?
There ain't no such thing as a superman

You was on the Nile
You went to see great Egypt fall
It fell down to the ground

Yes, and you was out there on the corner
When being cool went blind
Oh, you alone understand that if we gonna win
We've got to get together, stay together, be together, stick together

So tell me why, can't you understand
That there ain't no such thing as a superman
There ain't no such thing as a superman

You alone consider mercy after it seems like all you get is pain
It seem to me that you have found the courage that others could not find
You alone have the wisdom to take this world and make it what it need to be, want to be, will be, someday you'll see
The day, the day you understand
That there ain't no such thing as a superman
There ain't no such thing as a superman

We'd like to do an idea for you that was related to the H2OGaTe, Watergate blues
In March of 1973, we wrote the Watergate blues, and some 17 months later, then-President Nixon resigned
But the story didn't end there, so we didn't stop there
We have prepared a sequel, and it's called, and it's called "We Beg Your Pardon America"
We beg your pardon because the pardon you gave this time, was not yours to give

They call it due process and some people are overdue
We beg your pardon America
Somebody said "brother-man gonna break a window, gonna steal a hubcap, gonna smoke a joint, brother man gonna go to jail"
The man who tried to steal America is not in jail
"Get caught with a nickel bag brother-man, get caught with a nickel bag", says the lady on your way to get your hair fixed
"You'll do Big Ben, and Big Ben is time"
But the man who tried to fix America will not do time

Said they're going to slap his wrists, gonna retire him with 850 thousand dollars
And America was "shocked"
America leads the world in shocks
Unfortunately, America does not lead the world in deciphering the cause of shock
850 thousand dollars they said and the people protested and so they saw it like "we'll give him 200 thousand dollars"
Everybody said "OK, that's better"

I'd like to retire with 200 thousand dollars some day
San Quentin not San Clemente
Do not pass go, go directly to jail, do not collect 200 thousand dollars

We beg your pardon America
We beg your pardon because somehow the pardon did not sit correctly
What were - what were the causes for this pardon?
Well now they had "flea bite us"
Rats bite us, no pardon in the ghetto
They had national security, but do you feel secure with the man who tried to steal America back on the streets again?
What are the results of this pardon though? Because remember, when there's causes, there's results and the results is always deeper still
We now have Oatmeal Man

Anytime you find someone in the middle,
Anytime you find someone who is tepid,
Anytime you find someone who is lukewarm,
Anytime you find someone who has been in Congress for 25 years and no one ever heard of him,
You've got Oatmeal Man
Oatmeal Man, straddling uncomfortably, yards and feet of barbed wire
It's hard to live in the middle all the time

Oatmeal Man, the man who said you could fit all of his black friends in the trunk of his car and still have room for the Republican elephant
Oatmeal Man
But there was no crime committed
Oatmeal Man says that "America, in 1975 your president will be a 1913 Ford"
Regressive
Circle up the wagons to defend yourself from nuclear attack
Oatmeal Man, reminiscent of 1964's AuH2O, Gold Water
Thank god he didn't win, but Oatmeal man didn't win
Did you vote for him? I didn't vote for him

But that's the first results, and the second would be the Dred Rockefeller
Doubtlessly being promoted for the job he did at Attica, 43 dead and millions of Americans once again in shock
Doubtlessly being promoted for the job he did on the streets of New York city where the pushers sell the drugs that the government allows in the country, and then they do time
They do life, and death or life, and death behind bars, while William Saxby(?) says he is going to dismiss the Lorton Furlough program
And brother Richard X of Buffalo New York faces 13 hundred and 65 years - did he say one thousand three hundred and sixty five years? - behind bars for participating in Attica
And Rockefeller faces being the Vice President of this country
And all is calm and quiet along the white sands at San Clemente

We beg your pardon America, we beg your pardon once again
Because we found out that seven out of every ten black men behind jail, and most of the men behind jail are black
Seven out of every ten black men never went to the ninth grade
Didn't have 50 dollars and hadn't had 100 for a month when they went to jail
So the poor and the ignorant go to jail while the rich go to San Clemente

We beg your pardon America because we understand now much more deeply than we understood before
But we don't want to take the pardon back, we want to issue some more
Pardon brother Frank Willis, the Watergate security guard, he was only doing his job
Pardon H. Rap Brown, it was only burglary
Pardon Robert Vesco, it was only embezzlement
Pardon Charles Manson, it was only mass murder
And pardon us while we get sick
Because they pardoned William Calley, 22 dead, and America in shock

And we understand all the more deeply, and we beg your pardon
As unemployment spirals toward 7 percent, and it seems like 70 percent in my neighborhood
As unemployment spirals and as we watch cattlemen on TV shoot cows in the head and kick 'em in the graves while millions are starving in the Sahel(?) and Honduras and maybe even next door
We understand all the more deeply as Boston becomes Birmingham becomes Little Rock becomes Selma becomes Philadelphia, Mississippi, becomes yesterday all over again
We understand and we beg your pardon

We beg your pardon America because we have an understanding of karma
What goes around, comes around
And we beg your pardon for all of the lies and all of the people who've been ruined and who look forward to next year because they can't stand to look at this one
We beg your pardon America because the pardon you gave this time was not yours to give

Thank you very much. Thank you very much.

[No lyrics]

From the Indians who welcomed the pilgrims
And to the buffalo who once ruled the plains
Like the vultures circling beneath the dark clouds
Looking for the rain
Looking for the rain

Just like the cities staggered on the coastline
Living in a nation that just can't stand much more
Like the forest buried beneath the highway
Never had a chance to grow
Never had a chance to grow

And now it's winter
Winter in America
Yes and all of the healers have been killed
Or sent away, yeah
But the people know, the people know
It's winter
Winter in America
And ain't nobody fighting
'Cause nobody knows what to save
Save your soul, Lord knows
From Winter in America

The Constitution
A noble piece of paper
With free society
Struggled but it died in vain
And now Democracy is ragtime on the corner
Hoping for some rain
Looks like it's hoping
Hoping for some rain

And I see the robins
Perched in barren treetops
Watching last-ditch racists marching across the floor
But just like the peace sign that vanished in our dreams
Never had a chance to grow
Never had a chance to grow

And now it's winter
It's winter in America
And all of the healers have been killed
Or been betrayed
Yeah, but the people know, people know
It's winter, Lord knows
It's winter in America
And ain't nobody fighting
Cause nobody knows what to save
Save your souls
From Winter in America

And now it's winter
Winter in America
And all of the healers done been killed or sent away
Yeah, and the people know, people know
It's winter
Winter in America
And ain't nobody fighting
Cause nobody knows what to save
And ain't nobody fighting
Cause nobody knows, nobody knows
And ain't nobody fighting
Cause nobody knows what to save

[No lyrics]

Like the weight he's got to ride on
On the scene he must came in
Like the answers to every question
That's what he needs - They'd understand
Black man come down
And sit beside us
You can share all that we have

And like the stage he's got t play on
Like the road he's pinning down
Life attacts him just like a magnet
Or was that the other way around
Black man come down
Come on down and sit beside us
You are welcomed to all we own

Upside the walls and in the corners
Of the rooms where we live
Love is stronger with every heartbeat
And this love we gladly give
Just come on down
And sit beside us
Can your mind believe your heart
Black man come down
Yea, come on down, down