Small Talk at 125th & Lenox

Gil Scott-Heron | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (May 23, 1995)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: RCA
• ASIN: B000005MLX
• Also Available in: MP3 Music
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #229,989 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Intro

2. The Revolution Will Not Be Televised

3. Omen

4. Brother

5. Comment #1

6. Small Talk At 125th And Lenox

7. The Subject Was Faggots

8. Evolution (And Flashback)

9. Plastic Pattern People

10. Whitey On The Moon

11. The Vulture

12. Enough

13. Paint It Black

14. Everyday

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Twenty-one-year-old Gil Scott-Heron had yet to make the full transition from poet to musician when he recorded his provocative 1970 debut, Small Talk at 125th and Lenox. His words, though--his gleaming anger, his brutal honesty, and his shocking wit--fill in the soundtrack on their own, chattering and dancing like the simple but persuasive percussion that drives most of the album. Scott-Heron paints the black experience of his time in bold strokes--by turns ironic ("Whitey on the Moon"), critical ("Brother"), and solemn (appropriately enough on the quiet "Paint It Black"). Unfortunately, on the disappointing, inflammatory "The Subject Was Faggots," Scott-Heron becomes the very name-calling oppressor he speaks out against throughout the rest of Small Talk. --Michael Ruby

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars the fountainhead October 19, 2001

By A Customer

Format:Audio CD

There are only three essential records for the formation of rap: "The Last Poets"-The Last Poets, "Sex Machine"- James Brown, and this one. It is his best work, probably because it's so raw and informed, but still believable. Though released a generation ago, he still packs a punch talking about issues that have plagued America since the days of William Lloyd Garrison. His politics are gritty to anyone who isn't black, but that is the point. It takes brains to appreciate art and wit. It takes none to be offended by them.
Sonically, it's even more current. The sessions are basically off-the-cuff numbers with his piano, vocals, and some congero friends of his. As much as you might call him a provocateur, he forces you to look at the problems we would otherwise sweep under the rug.
Rap groups like Public Enemy are descended from this work, but they don't have the originality of this. Personally, I think rap has been dead since 1989 with De La Soul's "3 Feet High and Rising". You be the judge and review these. However, I shall always miss the days when rap really was something and not just the watery disco and cliche' samples that today's groups call rap/hip-hop.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Political spoken word. June 3, 2005

By Michael Stack VINE™ VOICE

Format:Audio CD

In 1970, Gil Scott-Heron was a young man, expressing his frustration in the most honest means he knew-- his poetry. He performed it live, backed on this particular record mostly by two percussionists (with three tracks featuring his piano playing a couple of those with another vocalist). The words are of the period, and of the age he was, and they range from brilliant ("The Revolution Will Not Be Televised") to amusing ("Whitey on the Moon") to somewhat embarassing ("The Subject Was F*****s") social commentary. I suspect Scott-Heron would be somewhat embarassed by at least some of this material, but it is largely brilliant.

Musically it is straightforward, with simple hand percussion rhythms set up behind him, Scott-Heron let's forth his words in a suitably dramatic fashion. Honestly, I think his words speak best for him, so I'll quote a few pieces:

"Martin is dead. With Martin as our leader, we prayed and marched and marched and prayed. Things were changing, things were getting better, but things were not together.

"With Malcolm as our leader, we learned and thought and thought we had learned. Things were changing, things were getting better, but things were not together.

"And now it is your turn: we are tired of praying and marchign and thinking and learning. Brothers want to start cutting and shooting and stealing and burning. You are 300 years ahead in equality, but next summer may be too late".

The above quote is from "Evolution (and Flashback)". If it appeals to you, check this record out, the truly great material on the album is like this.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars He sure is and was one the last poets August 2, 2005

By Improta Fabio

Format:Audio CD

A blues poet even if the only sound you hear, apart for the last two tracks, is his voice and bongos. But this is the scheme and the inner seed of blues. He uses terms Robert Johnson was not allowed, the rage of someone who doesn't want to be in an underdog position and his attack to the systems has names and faces.

At the same time he makes you laugh teasing and fooling the central power in Washington D.C. Ok it was many years ago but this sort of modern "call and response" (all by hisself) can still scare.

The music in the end arrives with "Who'll pay repairation on my soul": same political and social topic but, hey, that's pure soul.

A big applause.