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 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #45,158 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #96 in Music > Rap & Hip-Hop > Old School

Customer Reviews

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

This review is from: Small Talk at 125th & Lenox (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.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

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

By 

Michael Stack (North Chelmsford, MA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Small Talk at 125th & Lenox (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.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars EXCELLENT!, June 29, 2010

By 

Sasha Lazarios "MixedTrickBaby" (Philadelphia, PA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Small Talk At 125Th And Lenox (MP3 Download)

I love Gil Scott Heron-I wish he could be president instead of the apologetic, behind kissing cop-out I voted for only not to have Palin. But he would be prophetic if Prophet Muhammed, PBUH, hadn't been the ultimate one in his message. This was made in 1969 and it's still relevant-even moreso now than then. ESPECIALLY Whitey on the Moon (Based on a poem by Kalamu Ya Salaam-a writing mentor of mine and one of my many older brothers who provided guidance)the space program is the biggest waste of all of the above and only devised to colonize other folk's lands because lands are all stolen and vandalized on earth. I hope I get to meet and talk to this bad mutha-shut-yo-mouth before he passes. I hope someday a brother like him can run for president and win, let alone not get killed...it's winter in the penal colony of America