SCOTT-HERON, GIL – Pieces Of A Man
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The feelings expressed on Pieces of a Man are those of someone processing grief in real time. Scott-Heron spent his formative years watching the assassinations of Black American liberation fighters. Less than two years before the album was released, the 21-year-old activist and Black Panther Party deputy chairman Fred Hampton was murdered in his sleep by Chicago police. Hampton was just two years older than Scott-Heron and, like the singer, had the heart to not only hold the U.S. accountable for its crimes against its Black citizens in his work, but to take an active part in building the world that he wanted to live in (the message Scott-Heron was pushing in “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised”). Scott-Heron is also grieving the deterioration of the people who are still hanging on here. The influx of soldiers returning home from the Vietnam War to empty promises of upward mobility and new heroin addictions was also taking a toll on Black communities at this time. Years before his own struggles became apparent, tales of addiction were already a fixture in Scott-Heron’s music. The pain-filled melodies in Pieces of a Man are a response to feeling like the world is caving in on you."
- Lawrence Burney, Pitchfork
The Revolution Will Not Be Televised | 2:59 | ||
Save The Children | 4:55 | ||
Lady Day And John Coltrane | 3:10 | ||
Home Is Where The Hatred Is | 3:15 | ||
When You Are Who You Are | 3:01 | ||
I Think I'll Call It Morning | 3:45 | ||
Pieces Of A Man | 4:22 | ||
A Sign Of The Ages | 4:05 | ||
Or Down You Fall | 3:08 | ||
The Needle's Eye | 4:01 | ||
The Prisoner | 8:39 |