H2Ogate Blues

[Intro: Gil Scott-Heron]
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 I-ain't-got-me-no-money Blues
There is the I-ain't-got-me-no-woman Blues
There is the I-ain't-got-me-no-money-and-I-ain'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

[Interlude 1: Gil Scott-Heron]
*Click! Whirrr! Click!*
"I am sorry, the government you have elected is inoperative
Click. Inoperative"

[Verse 1: Gil Scott-Heron]
Just how blind will America be?
The world is on the edge of its seat
Defeat on the horizon. Very surprising
That we all could see the plot
And still could not...
Let me do that part again

[Verse 2: Gil Scott-Heron]
Just how blind will America be?
(There ain't no telling)
The world is on the edge of its seat
Defeat on the horizon. Very surprising
That we all could see the plot
And claimed that we could not...
(All right)

[Verse 3: Gil Scott-Heron]
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?

[Verse 4: Gil Scott-Heron]
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!

[Verse 5: Gil Scott-Heron]
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

[Verse 6: Gil Scott-Heron]
Afraid of shoeless, undernourished Cambodians
While we strike big wheat bargains with Russia
Our nuclear enemy. Just how blind, America?

[Verse 7: Gil Scott-Heron]
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!)

[Verse 8: Gil Scott-Heron]
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

[Verse 9: Gil Scott-Heron]
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!)

[Verse 10: Gil Scott-Heron]
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 C.I.A. 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!

[Verse 11: Gil Scott-Heron]
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

[Verse 12: Gil Scott-Heron]
We leave America to ponder the image
Of justice from its new wave of leaders:
Frank Rizzo, the high school graduate
Mayor of Philadelphia, whose ignorance
Is surpassed only by those who voted for him;
(Hahahaha)
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!)

[Verse 13: Gil Scott-Heron]
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

[Verse 14: Gil Scott-Heron]
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

[Verse 15: Gil Scott-Heron]
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

[Outro: Gil Scott-Heron]
Four more years
Four more years
Four more years
Four more years of that?!?