Musician and poet Gill Scott-Heron and Brooklyn born composer/producer Bria… Read Full Bio ↴Musician and poet Gill Scott-Heron and Brooklyn born composer/producer Brian Jackson extensively worked together for a long period in the 1970s producing in that time 7 albums and various EPs.
The collaboration started in 1970 when Jackson began writing songs with a then 20 year old Gil Scott- Heron.
Jackson remembers his first encounter with Gil, "He had this way with words and I thought to myself, 'People have to hear this stuff.' What I had to offer was the music and I figured if we can take his words and make this tribal knowledge rhythmic and musical, we can draw people to hear it."
Their partnership produced some of the most fiercely poignant, politically charged, and significantly soulful albums of the seventies. Pieces of a Man, Free Will, Winter in America, First Minute of a New Day, From South Africa to South Carolina, Bridges, Secrets and 1980 are coveted by collectors and conscious-minded music fans alike. Tracks like The Bottle, Johannesburg, It's Your World, Angel Dust, Willing, and 95 South (All the Places We've Been), while highly relevant back-in-the-day, have taken on heightened new relevance today by serving as an inspirational and musical Rosetta stone for the neo-soul movement.
The collaboration started in 1970 when Jackson began writing songs with a then 20 year old Gil Scott- Heron.
Jackson remembers his first encounter with Gil, "He had this way with words and I thought to myself, 'People have to hear this stuff.' What I had to offer was the music and I figured if we can take his words and make this tribal knowledge rhythmic and musical, we can draw people to hear it."
Their partnership produced some of the most fiercely poignant, politically charged, and significantly soulful albums of the seventies. Pieces of a Man, Free Will, Winter in America, First Minute of a New Day, From South Africa to South Carolina, Bridges, Secrets and 1980 are coveted by collectors and conscious-minded music fans alike. Tracks like The Bottle, Johannesburg, It's Your World, Angel Dust, Willing, and 95 South (All the Places We've Been), while highly relevant back-in-the-day, have taken on heightened new relevance today by serving as an inspirational and musical Rosetta stone for the neo-soul movement.
H2Ogate Blues
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴
Aheh you don't wanna be
Involved in this one, huh?
This here, this is
This is gonna be a blues number but, first
I wanna do a little bit of background on
The Blues and say what it is
Like, there are six cardinal colors
And colors have always come to
Signify more than simply
That particular shade
Like redneck or "got the blues"
That's where you apply colors to
Something else, you know, to come up with
What it is you're trying to say
So, there are six cardinal colors:
Yellow, red, orange, green, blue, and purple
And there are 3, 000 shades
And if you take these 3, 000
Shades and divide them by 6
You will come up with 500
Meaning there are at least 500
Shades of the blues for example
There is the Iain't-got-me no-money Blues
There is the Iain't-got-me no-woman Blues
There is the Iain't-got-me
No-money-and-Iain't-got-me no-woman
Which is the double blues
And for years, it was thought that
That black people
Were the only one who could get the blues
So so the blues hadn't come into
No international type of fame
(Had a corner on the market) but, lately
We done had Frank Rizzo with
The Lie Detector Blues
We done had the United States government
Talking ‘bout the Energy Crisis Blues
And we gonna dedicate this next poem here to
To Spearhead X the Ex-Second in Command in
Terms of this country (He got the blues)
And the poem is called "H2O-G-A T-E Blues"
And if H2O is still water
And G-A T-E is still gate
What we're getting ready to deal
On is the Watergate Blues (Rated X)
Let me see if I can
Dial this number right quick
Click! Whirrr! Click! "I am sorry
The government you have
Elected is inoperative click inoperative"
Just how blind will America be?
The world is on the edge of it's seat
Defeat on the horizon very surprising
That we all could see the plot
And still could not
Let me do that part again
Just how blind will America be?
(There ain't no telling)
The world is on the edge of it's seat
Defeat on the horizon very surprising
That we all could see the plot
And claimed that we could not (All right)
Just how blind, America?
Just as Vietnam exploded in
The rice, snap, crackle, and pop
Could not stop people determined to be free
Just how blind will America be?
The shock of a Vietnam defeat
Sent Republican donkeys
Scurrying down on Wall Street
And when the roll was called it was:
Pepsi-Cola and Phillips 66
Boeing, Dow, and Lockheed
Ask them what they're fighting for
And they'll never mention the
Economics of war
Ecological Warfare above all else
Destroy the land!
If we can't break the Asian will, we'll
Bomb the dykes and starve the man!
America! The international Jekyll and Hyde
The land of a thousand disguises
Sneaks up on you but rarely surprises (yeah)
Plundering the Asian countryside
In the name of Fu Man Tu
Afraid of shoeless, undernourished Cambodians
While we strike big wheat
Bargains with Russia
Our nuclear enemy just how blind, America?
But tell me: who was around
Where Hale Boggs died?
And what was the cause
Of LBJ's untimely demise?
And what really happened to J edgar Hoover?
The king is proud of Patrick Gray
While America's faith is drowning
Beneath that cesspool: Watergate (yeah)
How long will the citizens sit and wait?
It's looking like Europe in '38
Did they move to stop Hitler
Before it was too late? (No)
How long, America, before the consequences of
Keeping the school systems segregated
Allowing the press to be intimidated
Watching the price of everything soar
And hearing complaints ‘cause the
Rich want more? (All right)
It seems that Macbeth, and not his lady
Went mad we've let him eliminate the
Whole middle class
The dollar's the only thing
We can't inflate
While the poor go on without
A new minimum wage
But what really happened to J Edgar Hoover?
The king is proud of Patrick Gray
And there are those who say
America's faith is drowning
Beneath that cesspool: Watergate
How much more evidence do the citizens need
That the election was sabotaged
By trickery and greed? And, if this is so
And who we got didn't win
Let's do the whole goddamn
Election over again! (yeah! yeah! yeah)
The obvious key to the whole charade
Would be to run down all
Of the games they played:
Remember Dita Beard and ITT
The slaughter of Attica
The CIA in Chile knowing nothing
About Allende at this time
In the past, as I recollect, Augusta, Georgia
The nomination of Supreme Court Jesters
To head off the tapes
William Calley's Executive Interference
In the image of John Wayne
Kent State, Jackson State, Southern Louisiana
Hundreds of unauthorized bombing raids
The chaining and gagging of Bobby Seale
Somebody tell these Maryland Governors
To be for real!
We recall all of these events just to prove
(yeah) the Waterbuggers in the Watergate
Wasn't no news!
The thing that seems to justify
All of our fears
Is that all of this went down
In the last five years but tell me
What really happened to J edgar Hoover?
The king is proud of Patrick Gray
While America's faith is drowning
Beneath that cesspool: Watergate
We leave America to ponder the image
Of justice from it's new wave of leaders:
Frank Rizzo, the high school graduate
Mayor of Philadelphia, whose ignorance
Is surpassed only by those who voted for him
(Ha ha haha) richard Daley
Imperial Napoleonic Mayor of Chicago
Who took over from Al Capone and
Continues to implement the same tactics
George Wallace Lester Maddawg
Strom Thurmond Ronald Reagan
An almost endless list that won't be missed
When at last America is purged
(yeah! All right)
And the silent White House with the
James Brothers once in command
But see the sauerkraut Mafia men
Deserting the sinking White House ship and
Their main mindless, megalomaniac Ahab
McCord has blown mitchell has blown
No tap on my telephone
McCord has blown mitchell has blown
No tap on my telephone
Halderman, Ehrlichman, Mitchell, and Dean
It follows a pattern if you dig what I mean
Halderman, Ehrlichman, Mitchell, and Dean
It follows a pattern if you dig what I mean
And what are we left with now?
Bumper stickers that say "Free
The Watergate 500"
Spy movies of the same name
With a cast of thousands
And that ominous phrase that: if Nixon knew
Ag' knew! (Check it out)
But Ag' didn't knew enough to
Stay out of jail
What really happened to J edgar Hoover?
The king is proud of Patrick Gray
And there are those who swear
They've seen King Richard (Who? Who? Who?)
King Richard (Who?) , King Richard (Who?)
King Richard (Who?) , King Richard (Who?)
King Richard
(Who?) , King Richard, King Richard
King Richard (yeah)
Beneath that cesspool: Watergate
Four more years four more years
Four more years four more years of that?!
Involved in this one, huh?
This here, this is
This is gonna be a blues number but, first
I wanna do a little bit of background on
The Blues and say what it is
Like, there are six cardinal colors
And colors have always come to
That particular shade
Like redneck or "got the blues"
That's where you apply colors to
Something else, you know, to come up with
What it is you're trying to say
So, there are six cardinal colors:
Yellow, red, orange, green, blue, and purple
And there are 3, 000 shades
And if you take these 3, 000
Shades and divide them by 6
You will come up with 500
Meaning there are at least 500
Shades of the blues for example
There is the Iain't-got-me no-money Blues
There is the Iain't-got-me no-woman Blues
There is the Iain't-got-me
No-money-and-Iain't-got-me no-woman
Which is the double blues
And for years, it was thought that
That black people
Were the only one who could get the blues
So so the blues hadn't come into
No international type of fame
(Had a corner on the market) but, lately
We done had Frank Rizzo with
The Lie Detector Blues
We done had the United States government
Talking ‘bout the Energy Crisis Blues
And we gonna dedicate this next poem here to
To Spearhead X the Ex-Second in Command in
Terms of this country (He got the blues)
And the poem is called "H2O-G-A T-E Blues"
And if H2O is still water
And G-A T-E is still gate
What we're getting ready to deal
On is the Watergate Blues (Rated X)
Let me see if I can
Dial this number right quick
Click! Whirrr! Click! "I am sorry
The government you have
Elected is inoperative click inoperative"
Just how blind will America be?
The world is on the edge of it's seat
Defeat on the horizon very surprising
That we all could see the plot
And still could not
Let me do that part again
Just how blind will America be?
(There ain't no telling)
The world is on the edge of it's seat
Defeat on the horizon very surprising
That we all could see the plot
And claimed that we could not (All right)
Just how blind, America?
Just as Vietnam exploded in
The rice, snap, crackle, and pop
Could not stop people determined to be free
Just how blind will America be?
The shock of a Vietnam defeat
Sent Republican donkeys
Scurrying down on Wall Street
And when the roll was called it was:
Pepsi-Cola and Phillips 66
Boeing, Dow, and Lockheed
Ask them what they're fighting for
And they'll never mention the
Economics of war
Ecological Warfare above all else
Destroy the land!
If we can't break the Asian will, we'll
Bomb the dykes and starve the man!
America! The international Jekyll and Hyde
The land of a thousand disguises
Sneaks up on you but rarely surprises (yeah)
Plundering the Asian countryside
In the name of Fu Man Tu
Afraid of shoeless, undernourished Cambodians
While we strike big wheat
Bargains with Russia
Our nuclear enemy just how blind, America?
But tell me: who was around
Where Hale Boggs died?
And what was the cause
Of LBJ's untimely demise?
And what really happened to J edgar Hoover?
The king is proud of Patrick Gray
While America's faith is drowning
Beneath that cesspool: Watergate (yeah)
How long will the citizens sit and wait?
It's looking like Europe in '38
Did they move to stop Hitler
Before it was too late? (No)
How long, America, before the consequences of
Keeping the school systems segregated
Allowing the press to be intimidated
Watching the price of everything soar
And hearing complaints ‘cause the
Rich want more? (All right)
It seems that Macbeth, and not his lady
Went mad we've let him eliminate the
Whole middle class
The dollar's the only thing
We can't inflate
While the poor go on without
A new minimum wage
But what really happened to J Edgar Hoover?
The king is proud of Patrick Gray
And there are those who say
America's faith is drowning
Beneath that cesspool: Watergate
How much more evidence do the citizens need
That the election was sabotaged
By trickery and greed? And, if this is so
And who we got didn't win
Let's do the whole goddamn
Election over again! (yeah! yeah! yeah)
The obvious key to the whole charade
Would be to run down all
Of the games they played:
Remember Dita Beard and ITT
The slaughter of Attica
The CIA in Chile knowing nothing
About Allende at this time
In the past, as I recollect, Augusta, Georgia
The nomination of Supreme Court Jesters
To head off the tapes
William Calley's Executive Interference
In the image of John Wayne
Kent State, Jackson State, Southern Louisiana
Hundreds of unauthorized bombing raids
The chaining and gagging of Bobby Seale
Somebody tell these Maryland Governors
To be for real!
We recall all of these events just to prove
(yeah) the Waterbuggers in the Watergate
Wasn't no news!
The thing that seems to justify
All of our fears
Is that all of this went down
In the last five years but tell me
What really happened to J edgar Hoover?
The king is proud of Patrick Gray
While America's faith is drowning
Beneath that cesspool: Watergate
We leave America to ponder the image
Of justice from it's new wave of leaders:
Frank Rizzo, the high school graduate
Mayor of Philadelphia, whose ignorance
Is surpassed only by those who voted for him
(Ha ha haha) richard Daley
Imperial Napoleonic Mayor of Chicago
Who took over from Al Capone and
Continues to implement the same tactics
George Wallace Lester Maddawg
Strom Thurmond Ronald Reagan
An almost endless list that won't be missed
When at last America is purged
(yeah! All right)
And the silent White House with the
James Brothers once in command
But see the sauerkraut Mafia men
Deserting the sinking White House ship and
Their main mindless, megalomaniac Ahab
McCord has blown mitchell has blown
No tap on my telephone
McCord has blown mitchell has blown
No tap on my telephone
Halderman, Ehrlichman, Mitchell, and Dean
It follows a pattern if you dig what I mean
Halderman, Ehrlichman, Mitchell, and Dean
It follows a pattern if you dig what I mean
And what are we left with now?
Bumper stickers that say "Free
The Watergate 500"
Spy movies of the same name
With a cast of thousands
And that ominous phrase that: if Nixon knew
Ag' knew! (Check it out)
But Ag' didn't knew enough to
Stay out of jail
What really happened to J edgar Hoover?
The king is proud of Patrick Gray
And there are those who swear
They've seen King Richard (Who? Who? Who?)
King Richard (Who?) , King Richard (Who?)
King Richard (Who?) , King Richard (Who?)
King Richard
(Who?) , King Richard, King Richard
King Richard (yeah)
Beneath that cesspool: Watergate
Four more years four more years
Four more years four more years of that?!
"H2Ogate Blues" by Gil Scott-Heron is a satirical and critical song that focuses on the political scandal known as the Watergate affair. The song begins with a spoken introduction, where Scott-Heron discusses the concept of the blues and its various shades. He addresses how blues music has traditionally been associated with African Americans, but now there are new shades of blues emerging, including the Watergate Blues.
The lyrics of the song highlight the disillusionment and frustration with the American government and its corruption. Scott-Heron questions the blindness of America to the deceit and manipulations happening within its own system. He references historical events such as the Vietnam War and the bombings in Cambodia, criticizing America's involvement and hypocrisy.
The song also references specific individuals involved in the Watergate scandal, including Richard Nixon and his administration. Scott-Heron suggests that the corruption goes beyond just one person or one incident, but it is a systemic issue that has infiltrated the government and corroded America's faith.
Throughout the song, there is a call for accountability and justice. Scott-Heron calls for a re-evaluation of the election process and a re-examination of the events that led to the Watergate scandal. He laments the state of the nation and the lack of integrity in its leaders.
Overall, "H2Ogate Blues" is a powerful and critical song that uses the context of the Watergate scandal to highlight larger issues of corruption and political disillusionment in America.
Lyrics © O/B/O APRA AMCOS
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
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Michael Coard
A prophet. A prognosticator. A poet. Amazing. Gil Scott-Heron. 🔥💯👊🏾❗️
Christie Campbell
My friends Dad took us to a Red Hot Chili Peppers concert years ago when we must have been no older than 13-14 years old, on the way back he played this in his car and honestly its stuck with me more than the concert itself
Eric Simerly
There are lots of appropriate comments here, but I wish this video had more views. Gil Scott-Heron's voice is needed right now.
Andrew Brunelle
I found this because of KRS-One's Why Is That. He used a sample of this, "The government you have elected in inoperable." This man was brilliant as a poet. I wasn't around during Watergate, born in '85, and of course they didn't teach us about it in school, so I guess the best way to learn is from people who did see it.
David Elman
Powerful and well said Gil!!
Dan Mage
The heavy burden of speaking the truth as a poet killed Gil. But he's a being of light too, his resonance and illumination remains.
LeeBee 1885
We really do fail to learn from our mistakes. Gil SH was a genius btw.
Carolyn Mackie
I bought this in 1978. I had no idea I would be living the same senerio in 2018.
Spacewrld
Preach
Donald Ccunningham
My Mother Brought that album 4 me when i was 13 or 14. He still LIVES ON & HE was on that DOPE but that wasn't who he was that was something he did, as u could HEAR,