Small Talk at 125th and Lenox

Released in 1971 Small Talk At 125th and Lenox was the start of Gil Scott-Heron’s distinguished forty-year recording career but this album is his simplest and most hard-hitting. For the most part it features him with three percussionists performing his poetry. The rhythmic backdrop and the style of the delivery makes it more than a spoken word album. It is a classic that stands head and shoulders above similar albums of the same date. It laid the basis for Scott-Heron’s emergence as one of the leading figures of the black radical movement. Here is the original of ‘The Revolution Will Not Be Televised’ a FM radio hit which prompted the recording of the full band version better known today. The album also includes the renowned ‘Whitey On The Moon’ and the much-sampled ‘Brother’. Here are Gil Scott-Heron’s first three recordings as a singer, including the beautiful ‘Who’ll Pay Reparations On My Soul’. CD – From new 24-96 transfers and has never sounded better. The original album artwork is presented with its stark Charles Stewart photographs and the booklet contains a new essay on the album by compiler Dean Rudland.