Now and Then by Gil Scott Heron Read Free Book Online Page A

two boys killed a man
    Â Â Â Â  And had to leave town
    Â Â Â Â  White woman gave
    Â Â Â Â Â Â Â  Birth to two Black sons
    And remember, remember the days
    She looked to us for help
    And we all turned away
    Pray for Becky
    Buried down near the trains
    Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â  Deep in the cane
    Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â  Deep in the cane 

WE ALMOST LOST DETROIT
    Â It stands out on the highway
    Like a creature from another time
    It inspires the baby’s question (‘Mama, what’s that?’)
    They ask their mothers as they ride.
    But no one stops to think about the babies
    Or how they would survive
    And we almost lost Detroit this time
    How would we ever get over losing our minds? 
    Â Just 30 miles from Detroit
    Stands a giant power station
    That ticks each night as the city sleeps
    Just seconds from annihilation
    But no one stops to think about the people
    On how they would survive
    And we almost lost Detroit this time
    How would we ever get over losing our minds? 
    Â The Sheriff of Monroe County
    Had (sho’ ’nuff) disasters on his mind
    And what would Karen Silkwood say to you
    If she was still alive?
    That when it comes to people’s safety
    Money wins out every time
    And we almost lost Detroit this time
    How would we ever get over losing our minds?

I THINK I'LL CALL IT MORNING
    I’m gonna take myself a piece of sunshine
    and paint it all over my sky.
    Be no rain. Be no rain.
    I’m gonna take the song from every bird
    and make them sing it just for me.
    Be no rain.
    And I think I’ll call it morning from now on.
    Why should I survive on sadness
    convince myself I’ve got to be alone?
    Why should I subscribe to this world’s
    Â Â Â  madness
    knowing that I’ve got to live on? 
    I think I’ll call it morning from now on.
    I’m gonna take myself a piece of sunshine
    and paint it all over my sky.
    Be no rain. Be no rain.
    I’m gonna take the song from every bird
    and make them sing it just for me.
    Why should I hang my head?
    Why should I let tears fall from my eyes
    when I’ve seen everything that there is to see
    and I know that there ain’t no sense in crying!
    Â Â Â Â Â Â Â  I know that there ain’t no sense in crying!
    I think I’ll call it morning from now on. 

A LOVELY DAY
    On a bright spring morning
    Not a cloud in the sky;
    Got me out here walkin’, wavin’ to the ladies
    As they stroll by.
    And I ain’t forgot for a moment
    All the things I need to do,
    But when I see that old sun shinin’
    It makes me think that I can make it too.
    All I really want to say
    Is that problems come and go
    But the sunshine seems to stay.
    Just look around, I think we’ve found
    A lovely day. 
    Flowers woke up bloomin’,
    Put on a color show just for me.
    Shadows dark and gloomy
    I tell them all to stay the hell away from me.
    Because I don’t feel like believin’
    Everything I do got to turn out wrong
    When vibrations I’m receivin’
    Say hold on brother! Just you be strong.
    All I really want to say
    Is that problems come and go
    But the sunshine remains. 
    Just look around, I think we’ve found
    A lovely day. 
    Sometimes it rains and I feel kind of strange.
    Because it seems that my problems begin
    Without the sunshine on which I depend. 

BEGINNINGS (The First Minute of a New Day)
    We’re sliding through completely new
    beginnings.
    We’re searching out our every doubt
    and winning.
    We want to be free
    and yet we have no idea
    why we are struggling here
    faced with our every fear
    just to survive. 
    We’ve heard the sound and come around
    to listening.
    We’ve touched the vibes time after time
    insisting that we know what life means;
    still we can’t break away
    from dues we’ve got to pay
    we hope will somehow say
    that we’re alive. 

NO KNOCK ( to be slipped into John Mitchell's