Customer Reviews
You will not be able to stay home brother - By: Merry Terry, 26 Sep 2006 
Soul-jazz legend Gil Scott-Heron delivers a fine album here with some of the best tracks of his career.
"The Revolution Will Not Be Televised" is mesmeric, sharp, intelligent & innovative. "I Think I'll Call It Morning" is charming, sweet & soulful. "Home Is Where The Hatred Is" is socially aware & tight & the title track is moving & thoughtful.
"Lady Day And John Coltrane" is a sublime peice of tight funky jazz (as opposed to jazz funk know what i mean?).
A very good album. Worth exploring the man's back catalogue.
Intelligent, excellent, soulful music.
Breathtaking - By: J. E. Davidson, 25 Feb 2005 
Gil Scott-Heron is one of the great recording artists of the 20th century; it is a shame that he is relatively unknown. His work is always interesting & I would recommend (almost) all of his albums. Pieces of a Man is one of his best, if not the best, albums.
Gil Scott-Heron draws on a wide range of influences: the music of John Coltrane, the blues, the oral traditions of the American South & many others to create fantastic musicin a variety of different styles from spoken word/rap to (almost) soul. He is perhaps best known for his searing political (and personal) lyrics that are often so good that they can be read as poetry. However, he is also an excellent musician & the music always complements his lyrics. Musically this album is wonderful, interesting & varied, at times it is simply beautiful. As with much of Gil Scott Heron's best work a lot of credit must go to Brian Jackson his long time & best collaborator.
'Pieces of a Man' finds GSH at his most perceptive & penetrating, both politically & personally.
'The Revolution Will Not Be Televised' is probably his most famous song - remarkably it works almost as well as poetry as it does as a song. Some of the references may now be a little obscure but it is an amazing, powerful piece of work that has lost little, if any, of its bite or relevance. 'Save the Children' is a beautiful, uplifting plea to care for & nurture the next generation. 'Lady Day & John Coltrane' is simply beautiful & a personal favourite. 'Home is where the hatred is' is haunting & wonderful, it is particularly poignant if you know anything about his personal life.
I could go on but it is almost a shame to highlight individual tracks because there isn't a bad track here & the album deserves, almost demands, to be listened toin its entirety.
GSH is unique: he combines a penetrating intellect with wit & wisdom & a talent conveying emotion & pain succinctly, often beautifully. A righteous anger permeates his work but he never descends into bitterness or becomes overly preachy. His work is tempered with optimism & a desire for change. It is this combination that defines his work & sets him apart for all others.
This album is GSH at the peak of his powers & should be a part of everybody's collection.
Buy it & treasure it
WOW!! - By: , 05 Jun 2003 In an effort to be succint & convey my true feelings for this album I plumped for the title 'Wow!!' This truely is a stunning work of art that is completely free of self-conscious playing to the gallery (which has marred so much Black Music) & pretension. There is an extraordinary depth & breath of emotion, lyrical subject matter & musical structure on this album. Gil Scott-Heron's 'The Revolution Will Not Be Televised' is one of the great political statements & even though some of its content may seem dated the sentiment & passion that conveys it is just as profound today as it was then. There are so many great songs here, often juxtaposing the personal & the political to such effect that the listener is unable to resist pressing the repeat button & taking the day off work..it's that good! I think what makes this such a special album for me is that this is intensely personal music from an intense, beautiful & angry soul & yet it never driftsin to that self-indulgent whinning that characterises so much of the so-called 'personal' heavy rock of today (aka 'bedwetter rock'..Linkin Park Etc). It posseses that wonderful quality of being both cerebral & uplifting (qualities not harvested by many of Gil Scott-Heron's present day rap followers.) There is not one bad track on the album & it is wonderfully sequenced taking the listener on a journey that is varied lyrically, musically & emotionally & still manages to retain the sense that the songs are part of a larger piece of work. Since to see this review you are alreay on the right page just BUY THE ALBUM AND HEAR FOR YOURSELF. A TRUE MASTERPIECE.
best tracks: ALL OF THEM! I can't praise this album enough.
The Classic Gil album by which all others are measured - By: acid_win, 17 May 2003 Where do I begin on what to me is perhaps the best GSH album? This album as with all GSH albums is very biting, evocative but above all else it is musically brilliant. The lyrics can be very muchin your face but at the same time they can be quite subtle & you understand them through the frustrations that you have felt trying to get someone to understand your point of view or just for the joys that we all hope for. For example,in the track "The Needles Eye" when GSH speaks about going to see his father who didn't want to answer him you immediately empathise & get drawn into the song. "Save the Children" immediately makes you want to do the best, as we should for the next generation & to give them the best tools to take on our rolein life/society.
Others may argue that "Winterin America" or "From South Africa to South Carolina" are better but Pieces of a Man has a broader spectrum of topics & at times it is quite dispairing, especially when you consider that it was releasedin the early 70's melting pot of America but there are enough songs that counterbalance this. Uplifting songs such as "I'll think I'll call it morning", "Save the children" & "When you are who you are". If you were to pick up a best of GSH you would undoubtedly find many of the tracks from this album on it.
To single out a few tracks from this album however, doesn't do justice to the quality of the album as a whole. This is definitely one of those albums that you would pick up putin your CD player & just listen to from start to beginning.
Brian Jackson should also be given credit as he was collaborating with Gil on this & many of his seminal albums. Make no mistake the Brian Jackson GSH partnership is what makes this & much of his early work exceptional.
