Track Listing
1. Revolution Will Not Be Televised, The
2. Save the Children
3. Lady Day and John Coltrane
4. Home Is Where the Hatred Is
5. When You Are Who You Are
6. I Think I'll Call It Morning
7. Pieces of a Man
8. Sign of the Ages, A
9. Or Down You Fall
10. Needle's Eye, The
11. Prisoner, The
| Details | | Contributing Artists: | Bernard Purdie, Brian Jackson, Hubert Laws, Ron Carter | | Producer: | Bob Thiele | | Distributor: | BMG (distributor) | | Recording Type: | Studio | | Recording Mode: | Stereo | | SPAR Code: | n/a |
Album Notes
Personnel: Gil Scott-Heron (vocals); Johnny Pale (conductor); Hubert Laws (saxophone, flute); Brian Jackson (acoustic & electric pianos); Burt Jones (electric guitar); Ron Carter (acoustic & electric basses); Bernard "Pretty" Purdie (drums).
Recorded on April 19 & 20, 1971. Includes liner notes by Gil Scott-Heron.
Gil Scott-Heron's debut album presented a groundbreaking young poet of the streets, prefiguring hip-hop and bearing few precedents. While that record focused on vocal recitations and percussion, though, Scott-Heron's second album, PIECES OF A MAN, brought things to another level. Here Scott-Heron emerges as an affecting singer and melodist. With his musical aide-de-camp Brian Jackson, he proffers fully fleshed-out musical arrangements that encompass blues, jazz, and R&B. The striking ballad "Lady Day and John Coltrane" makes a particularly compelling case for Scott-Heron and Jackson's jazzier inclinations. At the same time, Scott-Heron's urgent proto-rapping is still present, as is his powerful social message, most notably on the rabble-rousing "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised," which would become one of his signature songs. While his first album was an unforgettable bolt from the blue, PIECES OF A MAN is where Scott-Heron truly came into his own.
Editorial Reviews
...Here is an album that needs discovering. It's strong, deeply soulful and possessed of that rare and wonderful quality in this time of hollow and obligatory `relevance'...
Rolling Stone (07/20/1972)
...Here is an album that needs discovering. It's strong, deeply soulful and possessed of that rare and wonderful quality in this time of hollow and obligatory `relevance'...
Rolling Stone (07/20/1972)
4 stars out of 5 - [H]is phrasing is movingly beautiful.
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