Small Talk at 125th & Lenox
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 ofSmall Talk.--Michael Ruby