I'm New Here - Gil Scott-Heron

How do you still remember? My mind and memories young I want you January to December Another trip around the sun A lifetime of sunshine Enough time to know that you're You're keeping your eyes on me Keeping your eyes on me, no doubt Dressing my wounds for me Giving me courage if I fall down Keeping you close to me I know you'll be here when I look 'round Keeping your eyes on me These fears, no longer weapons These tears are just tears Not longing for direction Now that I'm here When my shadow finds perfection Only then you're truly mine Every day 'til then I'll have questions Must be a fault in my design A lifetime, a lifeline Enough time to know that you're You're keeping your eyes on me Keeping your eyes on me, no doubt Dressing my wounds for me Giving me courage if I fall down Keeping you close to me I know you'll be here when I look round Keeping your eyes on me These fears, no longer weapons These tears are just tears Not longing for direction Now that I'm here

I remember the shag carpet growing higher than the trees And the orange brown and yellow couch that I used to sleep on A trailer in the middle of a field of wheat A cavity digging in my teeth I remember the boys who used to holler day and night I was only 8, but my body wasn't mine I decided to be a boy, scare the other boys away And I haven't been the same since that day I remember being 13 and being oh so confused Who's the man in the relationship, why do we have to choose That's when I got my heart broken, felt quiet and small In my mind I still felt like something was wrong So I got with my current partner, the only one I'll ever have He helped me realize why my whole life I've been feeling really mad I was myself for the first time in forever I can't wait to be with you for forever I'm here, I'm queer "My election, gave somebody else, one more person, hope. And that's what it's about. It's not about personal Gain, not about ego, not about power, it's about giving those young people out there, the Altoona Pennsylvanias, hope. Gotta give 'em hope"

Those steps which seem to take a lifetime When eyes just turn and stare The day begins, collapsing without warning You fade from sight - there's nothing there All hope allowed, it calls in answer daily The questions are on your side Deeply moved, beyond all consolation You felt the pulse now and the cry In my mind, thoughts are becoming clearer I'm watching every move you make Counting time spent in observation A single blow a false mistake Then you revealed to me All that I need to know now (The close went down to times Too, too much behind us) Then please don't turn away, Why can't I talk to you now? (The number of forgotten years Where my honor isn't deepest Grows the deepest feeling and it Grieved for safety and despair) There's nowhere left to go Where is this taking her and how? (The torish threats forevermore Over our natural favor And us and he's and I'll fall Far in it, and it sees enough In our failures and it's not time.) There's nothing more I want To know beyond your trust now (I missed his promised time again For my friend) Don't throw our joy away Why must you just you leave now? (Has God forgotten to approach us? Has He remembered to not despise us?) Memories are all that's left I need you near to me now (There, now, now, don't come to mind my deeds And call out in defiance of times gone by)

Here I am After so many years Hounded by hatred And trapped by fear I'm in a box I've got no place to go If I follow my mind I know I'll slaughter my own Help me I'm the prisoner Won't you hear my plea I need somebody Yeah, to listen to me I beg you Brothers and sisters I'm counting on you (yeah) Black babies in the womb Are shackled and bound Chained by the caveman Who keeps beauty down Smacked on the ass When they're squalling and wet Heir to a spineless man who Never forgets Never forgets that he's a prisoner Can't you hear my plea 'Cause I need somebody Lord knows, to listen to me I'm a stranger to my son who wonders Why his daddy runs, yeah... On my way to work in the morning When I don't give a damn Can't nobody, can't nobody, can't nobody Can't nobody see just who in hell I am? Hemmed in by a suit Yes, all choked up in a tie Ain't no wonder sometimes near morning I hear my woman cry She knows her man is a prisoner Won't you hear my plea Yeah, 'cause I need somebody Woah, to listen to me My woman she don't say But she hates to see her man Chained this way, yeah Help me, I'm the prisoner Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah... I'm the prisoner

Because I always feel like running Not away, because there is no such place Because, if there was I would have found it by now Because it's easier to run Easier than staying and finding out you're the only one Who didn't run Because running will be the way your life and mine Will be described As in "the long run" Or as in having given someone "A run for his money" Or as in "running out of time" (Time, time, time, time, time) Because running makes me look like everyone else Though I hope there will ever because for that Because I will be running in the other direction Not running for cover Because if I knew where cover was I would stay there and never have to run for it Because the thing I fear cannot be escaped Eluded, avoided, hidden from, protected from, gotten away from Not without showing the fear as I see it now Because closer, clearer, no sir, nearer Because of you and because of that nice That you quietly, quickly be causing (Because I always feel like running) And because you're going to see me run soon And because you're going to know why I'm running then You'll know then Because I'm not going to tell you now (Because I always feel like running)

This is called The Vulture And a lot of people think it's a poem And after they hear me sing it they're sure it's a poem But, uh We're gonna take a shot at it anyway Remember this is a feel like thing Do whatever you feel like If you feel like clapping your hands You can do that Standing in the ruins Oh, of another black man's life Or flying through the valley There, separating day and night "I am death", cried the vulture "Yes, for the people of the light" Charon brought his raft Then came from a sea that sails on souls I saw the scavenger departing Oh, taking warm hearts to the cold He knew the ghetto was a haven For the meanest creature ever known In a wilderness of heartbreak Yes and a desert of despair Evil's clarion of justice Oh, shrieks a cry of naked terror He's taking babies from their mamas And leaving grief beyond compare You see the vulture coming And he's flying circles in your mind There'll be no escaping For he will follow close behind Only promised me a battle Yeah, a battle for your soul and mine Your soul and mine He's taking babies from their mamas And he's leaving Leaving Leaving Leaving Leaving Thank you, that's called The Vulture

And from the Indians who welcomed the pilgrims And to the buffalos who one ruled the plain Like the vultures circling beneath the dark clouds Looking for the rain Looking for the rain Just like the cities staggered on the coastline Livin' in a nation that just can't take much more Like the forest buried beneath the highway Never had a chance to grow Never had a chance to grow And now It's winter Seem like winter in America The time when all of the healers done been killed Or they been betrayed But the people know All of the them know it's winter Seem like winter in America And ain't nobody fighting, Because nobody knows what to save Save your soul Lord know it's winter in America The Constitution, a noble piece of paper would free society, It struggled but then died in vain And now Democracy is ragtime on the corner Hoping for rain It's been hoping for some rain And I see the robins perched in barren treetops They're watching last-ditch racists marching across the floor And may peace sign that vanished in our dreams Never had a chance to grow Never had a chance to grow And somebody won't know till it's winter It's cold as like winter in America This the time when all of the healers done been killed Or they been betrayed People know, all the people know it's winter Yeah, it feel like winter in America The truth is there ain't nobody fighting Because nobody know what to save Winter in America It's winter, It's cold as like winter in America This the time when all of the healers done been killed Or they been betrayed People know, some know It's winter Yeah, it seem like winter in America The truth is there ain't nobody fighting, Because nobody know what to save Nobody fighting, nobody fighting Nobody knows, nobody knows What to do, what to do The truth is there ain't nobody fighting, Because nobody knows what to save

Thank you for the song, for your accomodation capital The accomodation that we come throughout a song it's called, Washington D.C. And just as you think, you heard it all that come with a little bit force When you hear this, soon i'll keep improve, say Symbols of democracy, pinned up against the coast Outhouse of bureaucracy, surrounded by a moat Citizens of poverty are barely out of sight Overlords escape their evening with brothers of the night Morning come and bring the tourists, craning rubber necks Catch a glimpse of the cowboy making the world a nervous wreck It's a mass of irony for all the world to see It's the nation's capital, it's Washington D.C. It's the nation's capital It's the nation's capital It's the nation's capital, it's Washington D.C. (Mmmh) May not have the glitter or the glamour of L.A. May not have the history or the intrigue of Pompeii But when it comes to making music, and sure enough making news People who just don't make sense and people making do It's a ball of contradictions, pulling different ways Between the folks who come and go, and one's who've got to stay It's a mass of irony for all the world to see It's the nation's capital, it's Washington D.C. It's the nation's capital It's the nation's capital I'm talking about the capital, it's Washington D.C. Seems to me, it's still in light time people knifed up on 14th street Makes me feel it's always the right time for them people Showing up and coming clean Did make the one seem kind of numb Again, it's the nation's capital It's the nation's capital I'm talking about the capital, it's Washington D.C. (Mmh) Symbols of democracy, pinned up against the coast Outhouse of bureaucracy, surrounded by a moat Citizens of poverty are barely out of sight Overlords escape here in the brothers of the night Morning come and bring the tourists, craning rubber necks Catch a glimpse of the cowboy making the world a nervous wreck It's a mass of irony for all the world to see It's the nation's capital, it's Washington D.C. It's the nation's capital It's the nation's capital I'm talking about the capital, it's Washington D.C. It's the nation's capital I'm talking about the capital, feel anything the capital It's Washington D.C. It's the biggest capital, sure and I'm sing it's the capital The punishment is capital in Washington D.C. Say, somebody say, somebody say Where you going?, what you do? It's the nation's capital, sure you don't feel the capital? I'm talking about the capital, a-aha-aha Say, yeah, go about but, I don't care but Washington D.C. Thank very much, thank you, thank you very much appreciated