Brian Jackson, Gil Scott-Heron - H2Ogate Blues lyrics
[Brian Jackson, Gil Scott-Heron - H2Ogate Blues lyrics]
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
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?!