Brian Jackson, Gil Scott-Heron - We Beg Your Pardon (Pardon Our Analysis) lyrics

Hi we'd like to do, um
An idea for you that was related to the
"H2O-G-A T-E, Watergate Blues" In March of
1973, we wrote the "Watergate Blues
" and some 17 months
Later, then-President Nixon resigned but the
Story didn't end there
And so we didn't stop there
We have prepared a sequel, and it's called
And it's called "We Beg Your Pardon
America" We beg your pardon
Because the pardon you
Gave this time was not yours to give

They call it "due process" and
Some people are overdue
We beg your pardon, America
Somebody said, "Brotherman gonna
Break a window, gonna
Steal a hubcap, gonna smoke a joint
A brotherman gonna go to jail"


The man who tried to steal
America is not in jail
"Get caught with a nickel bag, brotherman
Get caught with a nickel bag
" sisterlady on your way to
Get your hair fixed
"You'll do Big Ben, and Big Ben is time"
But a man who tried to fix
America will not do time

Said they're gonna slap his wrists
Gonna retire him with 850 thousand dollars
And America was "shocked"
America leads the world in shocks
Unfortunately, America does not
Lead the world
In deciphering the cause of shock
"850 thousand dollars, " they said, and the
People protested, so they said, "Alright
We'll give him 200 thousand dollars"
Everybody said, "OK, that's better"
I'd like to retire with
200 thousand dollars someday
San Quentin, not San Clemente
Do not pass go, go directly to jail
Do not collect 200 thousand dollars

We beg your pardon, America
We beg your pardon because, somehow
The pardon did not sit correctly
What were the
What were the causes for this pardon?
Well now, they had "flea bite us"
Rats bite us no pardon in the ghetto
They had national security
But do you feel secure with the man who tried
To steal America back on the streets again?
What are the results of this pardon, though?
Because, remember, when there's
Causes, there's results
And the results is always deeper still
We now have Oatmeal Man

Anytime you find someone in the middle
Anytime you find someone who is tepid
Anytime you find someone who is lukewarm
Anytime you find someone who has
Been in Congress for
25 years and no one ever heard of him
You've got Oatmeal Man
Oatmeal Man, straddling uncomfortably
Yards and feet of barbed wire
It's hard to live in the middle all the time
Oatmeal Man
The man who said you could fit all
Of his black friends in the
Trunk of his car and still have
Room for the Republican elephant oatmeal Man
But there was no crime committed
Oatmeal Man says that "America, in 1975
Your president will be a 1913 Ford"
Regressive circle up the wagons to defend
Yourself from nuclear attack
Oatmeal Man, reminiscent of 1964's AuH2O
Gold Water thank God he didn't win but
Oatmeal man didn't win
Did you vote for him? I didn't vote for him

But that's the first results
And the second would be the Dred Rockefeller
Doubtlessly being promoted for the job
He did at Attica
43 dead and millions of Americans
Once again in shock
Doubtlessly being promoted for the job he did
On the streets of New York City
Where the pushers sell the drugs that
The government allows in the country
And then they do time
They do life, and death or life
And death behind bars while
William Saxbe says he
Is going to dismiss the
Lorton Furlough program
And brother Richard X of Buffalo
New York faces 13
Hundred-and-65 did he say, "One
Thousand, three hundred
And sixty-five years?" behind bars
For participating in Attica
And Rockefeller faces being the Vice
President of this country
And all is calm and quiet along
The white sands at San Clemente

We beg your pardon
America we beg your pardon once again
Because we found out that seven out of
Every ten black men behind jail
And most of the men behind jail are black
Seven out of every ten black men
Never went to the ninth grade
Didn't have 50 dollars and
Hadn't had 100 for
A month when they went to jail
So the poor and the ignorant go to jail
While the rich go to San Clemente

We beg your pardon, America
Because we understand now much more
Deeply than we understood before
But we don't want to take the pardon
Back we want to issue some more
Pardon brother Frank Willis
The Watergate security guard he was
Only doing his job
Pardon H rap Brown it was only burglary
Pardon Robert Vesco it was only embezzlement
Pardon Charles Manson it was only mass murder
And pardon us while we get sick
Because they pardoned William Calley 22
Dead and America in shock

And we understand all the more deeply
And we beg your pardon
As unemployment spirals toward 7 percent
And it seems like 70
Percent in my neighborhood
As unemployment spirals and as we
Watch cattlemen on TV
Shoot cows in the head and kick ‘em in
The graves while millions are
Starving in the Sahel
And in Honduras and maybe even next door
We understand all the more deeply
As Boston becomes Birmingham
Becomes Little Rock, becomes Selma
Becomes Philadelphia, Mississippi
Becomes yesterday all over again
We understand and we beg your pardon

We beg your pardon, America
Because we have an understanding of karma
What goes around comes around
And we beg your pardon for all of the lives
And all of the people who've been ruined
And who look forward to
Next year because they
Cannot stand to look at this one
We beg your pardon, America
Because the pardon you gave this time
Was not yours to give

Thank you very much thank you very
Much thank you very much