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Ain't No New Thing (breakdown take) - Gil Scott-Heron



     
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Ain't No New Thing (breakdown take) Lyrics


We'd like to go into a thing called, uh, "Ain't No New Thing"
It's, um, based on, um
The fact that white people continue to rip off black artists,
They continue to uh, steal their material, their styles,
The very cultural elements that make the black artist the outstanding artist,
The master of music that he has been
Um, and, it ain't no new thing, to tell the truth
That these things are going on
We point out, very expressly the fact that uh,
Stanley Crouch comments on his album Ain't No Ambulances for No Niggers Tonight,
That uh, Chuck Berry was doing like a very heavy thing
A very rock and roll thing, the king of rock and roll as a matter of fact
But um, like, white people couldn't dig having their daughters go to no shows
And cream over no black man wiggling on the stage
So consequently, they invented Elvis Presley and let him do it.
So we gonna get into that, call it 'It Ain't No New Thing' and talk about some people.
Cultural rape and no geographical boundaries on white hate
And bizarre scarcely-concealed attempts to eliminate

Black generators of sun-heat feeling.
Ain't no new thing to to see demon fangs curling out from under squeezed-tight, too-thin lips
And leaping at jugular veins and burning black throats that either blow or sing or cry or scream.Ain't no new thing to see the bubbling envy flashing from the depths of soulless eyes
As still another link with God is created
We used to having white people try to rob us.
Why don't they try stealing some of this poverty?
Ain't no new thing.
Anything they can't understand, they try to destroy
Anything they can't understand, they try to control
In 1896, black men picked up brass instruments and began to evoke and conjure
Entice and struggle with black spirits
Rhythmic spirits of blues, work songs,
Gospel songs, freedom songs
And songs of love and mother night
Screaming rhythm, juju rhythm, black, black magic
That calls back to lost worlds and lost lifestyles
Calling back to lost peace and peace of mind
Calling back to Genesis
Calling back to the drum
Calling back to the drum
Calling back to the first song/chant, song/chant, song/chant
That original man created.In 1896 this new spasm was called "Ass"
But the "Ass" would not be kicked
So it was copied in an attempt to control it
And then it was called "Jazz."
We used to having black innovators copied and sent back to us.
What about the Osmond Brothers?
What about Elvis Presley?
What about Tom Jones?
We used to havin' people try to rob us,
It ain't no new thing.They use the media to project their jazz idols
Tommy Dorsey and Jimmy Dorsey
And Harry James and Benny Goodman
And I suppose one day Lawrence Welk will join that elite group
And then there was sweet Bessie Smith, laying on the blood-soaked backseat of that broken-down jalopy
With a tattered quilt wrapped around her shoulders
Waiting for someone to come to her aid on a rainy Mississippi night
While a white hospital would not accept her right across the street.Ain't no new thing;
Fats Navarro screaming through tormenting dreams
Frustration ripping at his mind and bowels
Over a hundred pounds melted from his frame as he battled that white powder mountain
Ain't no new thing.Cultural rape and no geographical boundaries on white hate
Hired black musicians away in funky smoke-filled nightclubs
The chitlin' circuit.
Saturate their world with two-bit punks, washed-out, baggy-face white whores
Weasel-face, yellow-skin junkies
And cutthroat white managers
Producers, agents, owners
And on and on and on
We used to havin' white people try to rob us
Ain't no new thing, we have dug his game.Charlie Parker will live on
John Coltrane will live on
Eric Dolphy will live on
Billie Holiday will live on
Jimi Hendrix and Clipper Brown and Lee Morgan will live on
And on in the sunshine of their accomplishments
The glory of the dimensions that they added to our lives.
We declare war on Eric Burdon!
We discredit the talents of Janis Joplin and Rare Earth!
We urge that the next blue-eyed soul group include Melvyn Layer, Lyndon Johnson, Nixon and Spearhead Agnew
And be called As the Stomach Turns.We urge that the album John Wayne Sings the Blues be released!
Release the album, J. Edgar Hoover Sings James Brown!
Release the album, Wallace and Maddox sing Sam and Dave!
Why not?
We hear Tony the Tiger saying "Right on, Tiger!"
We heard Nixon talking about "Power to the people"It ain't no new thing, it ain't no new thing
It ain't no new thing, it ain't no new thing
America is always the same old shit!
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Gil Scott-Heron (born April 1, 1949 in Chicago, died May 27, 2011 in New York City) was an American poet and musician, known primarily for his late 1960s and early 1970s work as a spoken word performer, associated with African American militant activists. Heron is perhaps most well known for his poems/songs "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised" and "What's the Word - Johannesburg" a movement hit during the 1980's South Africa college and national divestment movement in the United States of America.

He began recording in 1970 with the LP Small Talk At 125Th And Lenox with the assistance of Bob Thiele Flying Dutchman Records, co-writer Brian Jackson, Hubert Laws, Bernard Purdie (who later recorded "Delights of the Garden" with The Last Poets), Charlie Saunders, Eddie Knowles, Ron Carter and Bert Jones, all jazz musicians (see 1970 in music). The album included the aggressive diatribe against white-owned corporate media and middle-class America's ignorance of the problems of inner cities in songs such as Whitey on the Moon.

The 1971 Pieces of a Man used more conventional song structures than the loose, spoken word feel of his first, though he didn't reach the charts until 1975 with "Johannesburg". His biggest hit was 1978's "The Bottle", produced by Heron and longtime partner Brian Jackson, which peaked at #15 on the R&B charts (see 1978 in music).

In 2001, Gil Scott-Heron was sentenced to one to three years' imprisonment in New York State for possession of cocaine. While out of jail in 2002, he appeared on the Blazing Arrow album by Blackalicious. He was released on parole in 2003. On July 5, 2006, Scott-Heron was sentenced to two to four years in a New York State prison for violating a plea deal on a drug-possession charge by leaving a drug rehabilitation center. Scott-Heron's sentence was to run until July 13, 2009. He was paroled on May 23, 2007. The reason given for the violation of his plea was that the clinic refused to supply Scott-Heron with HIV medication. This story led to the presumption that the artist is HIV positive.

After his release, Scott-Heron began performing live again, starting with a show at SOBs in New York on September 13, 2007. On stage, he stated that he and his musicians were working on a new album and that he had resumed writing a book titled The Last Holiday, previously on long-term hiatus, about Stevie Wonder and his successful attempt to have the birthday of Martin Luther King Jr. declared a federally recognized holiday in the United States.

He was arrested October 10, 2007, the day before a scheduled (but ultimately cancelled) second SOBs performance, on felony possession of cocaine charges. However, he has continued to make live appearances at various US venues during the course of 2008 and 2009, including further appearances at SOBs in New York. He has also stated in interviews that work is continuing on his new album, which will consist mainly of new versions of some of his classic songs plus some cover versions of other artists' work.

Having originally planned to publish The Last Holiday in 2003, before it was put on hold, Canongate Books now tentatively intend to issue it in January, 2011. The book was due to be previewed via a website set to be launched on April 1, 2009, but this did not appear.

Mark T. Watson, a student of Scott-Heron's work, dedicated a collection of poetry to Gil titled Ordinary Guy that contained a foreword by Jalal Mansur Nuriddin of The Last Poets. The book was published in the UK in 2004 by Fore-Word Press Ltd. Scott-Heron recorded one of the poems in Watson's book Black & Blue due for release in 2008 as part of the album Rhythms of the Diaspora by Malik & the OG's on the record label CPR Recordings.

Gil Scott-Heron released his new album I'm New Here on independent label XL Recordings on February 9, 2010. Produced by XL label owner Richard Russell, 'I'm New Here' is Scott-Heron's first album in thirteen years.The pair started recording the album in 2007, with the majority of the record being recorded over the last twelve months with engineer Lawson White at Clinton Studios in New York. In 2009, a new Gil Scott-Heron website, www.gilscottheron.net , was launched with a brand new track 'Where Did The Night Go' made available as a free download from the site.

In 2011, Scott-Heron released "We're New Here" a remix album which was a collaboration with Jamie xx, a member of the British indie band The xx. Scott-Heron died in New York City on May 27, 2011.

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Gil Scott-heron