Gilbert Scott-Heron, born April 1, 1949, was an American soul & jazz musician, a poet, and an author...known primarily for his work as a spoken-word performer in the 1970s and 1980s. A majority of his work featured a musical fusion of jazz, blues, and soul as well as lyrical content concerning social and political issues of the time. His delivery in both rapping and melismatic vocal style was unique in its time. He often refered to himself as a "bluesologist", which he defined as "a scientist who is concerned with the origin of the blues".

In a spoken-word poem off his debut album Small Talk at 125th and Lenox, called "Comment #1" Scott-Heron takes aim at the predominantly white student activist group of that time (Students for a Democratic Society) and its claim to represent “radical” change. He douses the idea that there could be a meaningful alliance between the white New Left and radical organizations of color, because middle-class and upper-class whites are simply incapable of understanding the struggles of the poor and disadvantaged.

Kanye West sampled this song on his 5th studio album "My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy" on the song "Who Will Survive In America" ending the album with the same message as Scott-Heron did.

Comment #1
Poem here says, Comment #1 uh Comment #2 is dynamite but Comment #1 is the one we decided to use here this evening because it makes a comment if you listen closely on what is now being advertised in East Harlem as the Rainbow Conspiracy a combination of the Students For A Democratic Society, the Black Panthers, and the Young Lords and this is my particular comment about that conspiracy, Comment #1.

The time is in the street you know. Us living as we do upside down. And the new word to have is revolution. People don't even want to hear the preacher spill or spiel because God's whole card has been thoroughly piqued. And America is now blood and tears instead of milk and honey. The youngsters who were programmed to continue fucking up woke up one night digging Paul Revere and Nat Turner as the good guys. America stripped for bed and we had not all yet closed our eyes. The signs of Truth were tattooed across our open ended vagina. We learned to our amazement untold tale of scandal. Two long centuries buried in the musty vault, hosed down daily with a gagging perfume. America was a bastard the illegitimate daughter of the mother country whose legs were then spread around the world and a rapist known as freedom, free doom. Democracy, liberty, and justice were revolutionary code names that preceded the bubbling bubbling bubbling bubbling bubbling in the mother country's crotch and behold a baby girl was born, nurtured by slave holders and whitey racists it grew and grew and grew screwing indiscriminately like mother like daughter everything unplagued by her madame mother. The present mocks us, good Black people with keen memories set fire to the bastards who ask us in a whisper to melt and integrate. Young, very young, teeny bopping revolt on weekend young dig by proxy what a mental ass kicking they receive through institutionalized everything and vomit up slogans to stay out of Vietnam. They seek to hide their relationship with the world's prostitute alienating themselves from everything except dirt and money with long hair, grime, and dope to camo-hide the things that cannot be hidden. They become runaway children to walk the streets downtown with everyday Black people sitting on the curb crying because we know that they will go back home with a clear conscience and a college degree. The irony of it all, of course, is when a pale face SDS motherfucker dares look hurt when I tell him to go find his own revolution. He wonders why I tell him that America's revolution will not be the melting pot but the toilet bowl. He is fighting for legalized smoke, or lower voting age, less lip from his generation gap and fucking in the street. Where is my parallel to that? All I want is a good home and a wife and a children and some food to feed them every night. Back goes pale face to basics. Does Little Orphan Annie have a natural? Do Sluggos kings make him a refugee from Mandingo? What does Webster say about soul? I say you silly chipe motherfucker, your great grandfather tied a ball and chain to my balls and bounced me through a cotton field while I lived in an unflushable toilet bowl and now you want me to help you overthrow what? The only Truth that can be delivered to a four year revolutionary with a whole card i.e. skin is this: fuck up what you can in the name of Piggy Wallace, Dickless Nixon, and Spiro Agnew. Leave brother Cleaver and Brother Malcolm alone please. After all is said and done build a new route to China if they'll have you.

Who will survive in America?
Who will survive in America?
Who will survive in America?
Who will survive in America?

Interpretation
Scott-Heron starts off introducing his work and saying "Comment #2 is dynamite...but Comment #1 is the one we decided to use here this evening" I thnk that could speak to one of two things...that Comment #2 is also an amazing written work or that what follows Comment #1 is inevitably an explosive revolution. The theme of the piece is Scott-Heron's deep skepticism about the possibility of an alliance between white students (SDS) and radical black and hispanic advocacy groups. He feels the privelege of the white students won't allow themm to fathom the struggles of the poor and marginalized. He speaks on America's transition from a land of "milk and honey" to "blood and tears", presenting the viewpoint of conventional youth movements and their attack on conventional American history. I think that this correlates to issues of today in many ways. Currently, we are seeing the same type of attack on "conventional American history". Our land of milk honey has long spoiled and the overstatement of American righteousness is being taken to trial in front of the whole world.

"He wonders why l tell him that America's revolution will not be the melting pot but the toilet bowl. He is fighting for legalized smoke, or lower voting age, less lip from his generation gap and fucking in the street. Where is my parallel to that? All I want is a good home and a wife and a children and some food to feed them every night."

Rather than the superficial reforms the mostly white students are protesting for, Scott-Heron and other black activists simply want to allowed to live. I correlate this to the Black Lives Matter movement of this past decade. We're not shouting that "only Black Lives Matter"...we just want to matter.

"I say you silly trite motherfucker, your great grandfather tied a ball and chain to my balls and bounced me through a cotton field while i lived in an unflushable toiletbowl and now you wanr me to help you overthrow what?"


In this, the song's culminating punchline, he speaks to the legacy of racism...the asymmetries of power and wealth that it has created, will prevent any real alliances for change from taking effect. Put simply (for today and yesteryear), black people don’t trust young white activists to actually understand their struggles, and suspect that their commitment to black civil rights (black lives matters is only a passing fancy or a temporary cultural fad. 

Below you'll find a link to Gil Scott-Heron reading his work, Comment #1
https://youtu.be/8B6DVdCzwy0