10 Essential Gil Scott-Heron Albums

The 20-year-old Gil Scott-Heron first showcased his provocative writing and lyrical style with his murder mystery novel, The Vulture, and a volume of poetry, Small Talk at 125th and Lenox. These poems were the basis of his first recording of the same name under the guidance of jazz luminary and producer Bob Thiele. Contrary to the album’s claim that it was taped at a New York nightclub on the corner of 125th and Lenox Avenue (known as the heart of the Harlem Renaissance in the ’30s), Scott-Heron later insisted that it was recorded before a small audience in a studio.

Boasting 11 poems and three songs, the spoken word pieces found him backed by a small, stripped-down crew of conga players, David Barnes, Eddie Knowles, and Charlie Saunders from his first group, Black & Blues. Evoking the intellectualism of Malcolm X and the radical fire of the Black Power Movement, Scott-Heron’s voice burned with rage, touching everything from the destructive legacy of slavery and oppression on “Enough” and “Evolution (And Flashback)” to his experiences as a Black man in New York City. Aside from a homophobic misstep, his satire aimed at mass consumerism and racism, “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised” and the critique of government neglect towards Black people, “Whitey on the Moon,” remain two of Scott-Heron’s most biting pieces.

Scott-Heron’s studio debut, Pieces of a Man is one of the most impactful albums to emerge in the ’70s. His second Thiele production, this album moved away from the spoken word poetry of Small Talk at 125th and Lenox and used more traditional song structures. It also marked Scott-Heron’s growing interest in incorporating jazz, blues, funk, and R&B styles into his work. The album’s personnel credits read like a dream Black music supergroup: Chicago soul composer Johnny Pate, who was best known for his lush arrangement work for The Impressions and Curtis Mayfield, legendary jazz bassist Ron Carter, funk pocket drummer Bernard “Pretty” Purdie, flutist Hubert Laws, and Scott-Heron’s longtime collaborator and pianist Brian Jackson.

Here, Scott-Heron’s blends political awareness with the personal, in the vein of other early ’70s protest landmarks like Marvin Gaye’s What’s Going On,  Curtis Mayfield’s Curtis, and Donny Hathaway’s Everything is Everything. Traces of his influence on alternative hip-hop are all over the jazz-funk re-recording of “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised.” But this seminal classic is more than its famous standout: the harrowing “Home is Where the Hatred Is” laments Black urban life and drug addiction, the galvanizing power of jazz music is saluted in the Billie Holiday and John Coltrane homage “Lady Day and John Coltrane,” while lighthearted songs “I Think I’ll Call It Morning” and “Save the Children” celebrate Black joy and freedom. The album’s most poignant moment is its title track, a chilling first-hand account of a son witnessing his father’s downward spiral after losing a job.

Scott-Heron’s third and final offering for the Flying Dutchman label, 1972’s Free Will, is as righteous as his first two albums. Bridging the searing militant poetry of Small Talk at 125th and Lenox with the soul-jazz revels of Black life in Pieces of a Man, the synergy between Scott-Heron, flutist Hubert Laws, and Jackson’s stirring piano work powers Free Will.

Although it boasts vitriolic proto-raps that tackle several social and political issues of the early ’70s, from poverty to institutional racism and police brutality, Scott-Heron and collaborator Jackson dabbled further with blues music in pieces like “The Get Out the Ghetto Blues” and the poignant “Speed Kills,” an ode to the plight of drug addiction. Its gripping centerpiece, “Did You Hear What They Said?” explores the horrors Black veterans faced in the Vietnam War, shifting from a poetic exposition on the disproportionate number of men who lost their lives in the war to a heart wrenching critique of the war itself.

Scott-Heron and Brian Jackson searched for a new label home after leaving Flying Dutchman Records, finding creative refuge at D&B Sound Studios in the autumn of 1973, near Howard University’s campus in Silver Spring, Maryland. There, they laid the groundwork for their third collaborative work (and Scott-Heron’s fourth album), Winter in America. Originally conceived as a concept album called Supernatural Corner, which intended to expose the dark truths of a Black soldier returning home from the Vietnam War to a world indifferent to his experiences and race, Winter in America largely plays as a soul-searching meditation shaped around the spirit and humanity of the Black experience.

Released in May 1974 on the New York-based jazz label Strata-East Records, the album, the first to be credited to both Scott-Heron and Jackson, is strikingly low-key and reflective in tone. Accompanied by drummer/percussionist Bob Adams and bassist Danny Bowens, Scott-Heron’s emotive, resonating baritone illuminates Jackson’s jazz-rooted arrangements. Together, the tight combo weaves soul, gritty funk, and blues touches into a distinct sound that predicts alternative hip-hop and neo-soul. This album is best known for its crossover hit, “The Bottle,” an Afro Latin-flavored funk groove commenting on the plight of alcohol abuse, alongside other issues. The album’s most caustic moment, “H2O Blues” finds Scott-Heron in his no-nonsense poet mode, satirically aiming at U.S. foreign policy and the fallout of the Watergate scandal.

The underground success of “The Bottle” caught the attention of Clive Davis. A music impresario known for having “golden ears” in the music business, Davis saw the commercial potential of Scott-Heron and Jackson’s intelligent blend of wide-ranging music and social commentary. So, he signed Scott-Heron as the first act on his newly launched Arista Records in 1975, a ten-year partnership that produced nine albums before ending in 1985. Scott-Heron’s first album for the label, The First Minute of a New Day toned down the fiery polemics of his earlier work, but it’s no less intense. 

Crackling with rich, agile rhythms from Scott-Heron’s eight-piece band, The Midnight Band, this visionary affair explores themes of freedom, revolution, and spirituality. Whether Scott-Heron tackles Black struggle in the deep funk of “The Liberation Song (Red, Black and Green)” and “Must Be Something,” exposes America’s failed promises in the mournful blues of “Winter in America,” or speaks truth to power in his indictment of American politics and its injustice towards Blacks in “Pardon Our Analysis (We Beg Your Pardon),” this is a profound album-length statement that nestles political thought with some of the jazziest funk grooves ever committed to tape.

You could always count on Scott-Heron and Jackson to bridge their timely social messages with strong Afrocentric overtones. The duo’s fifth collaboration (and second Arista Records release), From South Africa to South Carolina more than delivered on that front. More akin musically to the duo’s 1974 masterpiece, Winter in America, there’s a heavier jazz influence this time around. Whether it’s Midnight Band vocalist Victor Brown adding his soaring vocals to the moving ode to fallen social rights leaders, “A Toast to the People” or Scott-Heron showcasing his baritone crooning on the pretty “A Lovely Day,” Jackson always provides the perfect accompaniment.

Although Scott-Heron has no spoken word showcase, his political focus remains strong as ever on the album’s centerpieces, “Johannesburg” and the down-home funk of “South Carolina (Barnwell),” which aimed at apartheid in South Africa and tensions around nuclear waste that arose in Barnwell, South Carolina at the time. “Essex” is the album’s most ambitious track, bouncing from free-form jazz à la Pharoah Sanders and John Coltrane to a swinging R&B groove before shifting to its original theme. Another highlight is the hard funk of “Summer of ’42,” which features great vocal interplay from Scott-Heron and Victor Brown as well as a memorable electric piano line that’s similar to Stevie Wonder’s work of the time.

As America celebrated its Bicentennial year in 1976, Scott-Heron and Jackson continued to drive their post-Watergate observations home. This double album, It’s Your World is unquestionably one of the most thrilling live recordings ever made. Highlighted by scorching performances that were captured before a live audience at Paul’s Mall club in Boston on July 2-6, 1976, Scott-Heron and the Midnight Band stretches out classics like “Home is Where the Hatred Is,” “Must Be Something,” and “The Bottle” with a spontaneous, jazz fusion flair that’s in the same cosmos as War, Doug Carn, and Gary Bartz NTU Troop.

True to his poetry genius, Scott-Heron delivers one of his most arresting pieces with “Bicentennial Blues,” where he nominates 1976 as “a year of hysterical importance,” while dissecting America’s history with corruption and injustice. Several equally stunning studio cuts fill out this masterful live set — the sprawling “New York City” is a multi-layered and poignant evocation of love for the city, while the bouncy funk of its title track champions the strides and freedom of Black people.

One of Scott-Heron and Jackson’s all-time greatest works, 1977’s Bridges was the first to feature production assistance from synth whiz and engineer Malcolm Cecil with his studio-sized TONTO synthesizer. Like previous offerings, Jackson’s gorgeous Rhodes piano motifs, alongside the Midnight Band’s jazzy musicianship, provide the foundation. Yet, Cecil’s TONTO programming adds to the overall musical picture with varied electronic textures, futuristic tones and bass lines.

As always, Scott-Heron brings this classic together with myriad thought-provoking topics. There’s his deeply mournful expression on the 1966 nuclear meltdown near Detroit, (“We Almost Lost Detroit”), an interlude on the Tuskegee syphilis experiments (“Tuskeegee #626”), and a reflection of his ancestry back to the Mississippi cotton fields (“Delta Man (Where I’m Coming From)”). Bridges is a true soul masterpiece capturing two masters at the peak of their powers.

With 1978’s Secrets, there’s less reliance on politics and more of a commercial sheen to the sound, largely indicative of disco’s growing takeover in Black pop by that point. Secrets is best known for its brooding opener and lead single, “Angel Dust,” a cautionary tale about drug use that’s all the more compelling and sad when considering the tragic end Scott-Heron met. The record’s moments swing between hard-edged, upbeat funk (“Madison Avenue,” “Third World Revolution”) and downbeat, bass-heavy grooves (“Cane,” “Angola, Louisiana”), which presages the music of hip-hop in ways that complement Gil’s spoken word beginnings.  

Don’t let the campy space-age cover fool you — the duo closed out the ’70s taking a hard gaze at the new decade with their final joint offering, 1980, an often overlooked, yet stellar entry in their canon. Politics and social commentary may have taken a back seat in Black pop at the tail end of the ’70s, but Scott-Heron’s sharp, prescient truths on the state of the world raged on.

Predicting the reactionary policies of the Reagan era and beyond, Scott-Heron aims at immigration rights in “Alien (Hold on to Your Dreams),” governmental oppression in “Shah MOT (The Shah is Dead/Checkmate),” the withering of Black leaders in “When Push Comes to Shove,” and nuclear power corruption in “Shut ‘Um Down.” While Gil Scott-Heron released a few great albums after this one (1980’s Real Eyes, 1981’s Reflections, and his mid-’90s comeback, Spirits are ripe for reappraisal), this underrated classic capped a brilliant period of unparalleled social thought and musical vision.