Bicentennial Blues - Gil Scott-Heron, Brian Jackson

Some people think that America invented the blues

And few people doubt that America is the home of the blues

As the bluesicians have gone all over the world carrying the blues message

And the world has snapped its fingers and tapped its feet right along with the

blues folks

But, the blues has always been totally American

As American as apple pie

As American as the blues

As American as apple pie

The question is why?

Why should the blues be so at home here

Well, America provided the atmosphere

America provided the atmosphere for the blues and the blues was born

The blues was born on the American wilderness

The blues was born on the beaches where the slave ships docked

Born on the slave man’s auction block

The blues was born and carried on the howling wind

The blues grew up a slave

The blues grew up as property

The blues grew up in Nat Turner visions

The blues grew up in Harriet Tubman courage

The blues grew up in small town deprivation

The blues grew up in big city isolation

The blues grew up in the nightmares of the white man

The blues grew up in the blues singing of Bessie and Billie and Ma

The blues grew up in Satchmo’s horn, on Duke’s piano and Langston’s poetry,

on Robeson’s baritone

The point is

That the blues has grown

The blues is grown now, full grown

And you can trace the evolution of the blues

On a parallel line with the evolution of this country

From Plymouth Rock to acid-rock

From 13 states to Watergate

The blues is grown

But not the home

The blues is grown

But the country has not

The blues remembers everything the country forgot

It’s a bicentennial year and the blues is celebrating a birthday

And it’s a bicentennial blues

America has got the blues and it’s a bicentennial edition

The blues view might amuse you

But make no mistake, it’s a bicentennial year

A year of hysterical importance

A year of historical importance

Ripped off like donated moments from the past

200 years ago this evening

200 years ago last evening

And what about now?

The blues is now

The blues has grown up and the country has not

The country has been ripped off

Ripped off like the Indians

Ripped off like jazz

Ripped off like nature

Ripped off like Christmas

Man-handled by media overkill

Goosed by aspiring vice presidents

Violated by commercial corporations

A bicentennial year

The year the symbol transformed into the B-U-Y centennial

Buy a car

Buy a flag

Buy a map

Until the public in mass has been bludgeoned into bicentennial submission

Or bicentennial suspicion

I fall into the latter category

It’s a blues year

And America has got the blues

It’s got the blues because of partial deification

Of partial accomplishments

Over partial periods of time

Halfway justice

Halfway liberty

Halfway equality

It’s a half-ass year

And we would be silly in all our knowledge

In all our self-righteous knowledge

When we sit back and laugh and mock the things that happen in our lives

To accept anything less than the truth

About this bicentennial year

And the truth relates to 200 years of people and ideas getting by

It got by George Washington

The ideas of justice, liberty and equality

Got cold by George Washington

Slave-owner general

Ironic that the father of this country

Should be a slave owner

The father of this country a slave-owner

Having got by him

It made it easy to get by his henchman

The creators of this liberty

Who slept in the beds with the captains of slave ships

Fought alongside black freed men in the union army

And left America a legacy of hypocrisy

It’s a blues year

Got by Gerald Ford

Oatmeal man

Has declared himself at odds

With people on welfare, people who get food stamps

Day care children, the elderly, the poor, women

And people who might vote for Ronald Reagan

Ronald Reagan, it got by him

Hollyweird

Acted like a actor

Acted like a liberruuuuuuuulllzz lolz

Acted like General Franco when he acted like governor of California

Now he acts like somebody might vote for him for president

It got by Jimmy Carter

Skippy

Got by Jimmy Carter and got by him and his friend the colonel

The creators of southern-fried triple talk

A blues trio

America got the blues

It got by Henry Kissinger

The international godfather of peace

A piece of Vietnam

A piece of Laos

A piece of Angola

A piece of Cuba

A blues quartet

And America got the blues

The point is that it may get by you

For another 4 years

For another 8 years

You stuck

Playing 2nd fiddle in a blues quartet

Got the blues looking for the first principle

Which was justice

It’s a blues year for justice

It’s a blues year for the San Quentin 6

Looking for justice

It’s a blues year for Gary Tyler

Looking for justice

It’s a blues year for Rev. Ben Chaves

Looking for justice

It’s a blues year for Boston

Looking for justice

It’s a blues year for baby’s on buses

It’s a blues year for mothers and fathers with babies on buses

It’s a blues year for Boston

And it’s a blues year all over this country

America has got the blues

And the blues is in the street looking for the 3 principles

Justice, liberty and equality

We would do well to join the blues looking for justice, liberty and equality

The blues is in the street

America has got the blues

But don’t let it get by us.