Gil Scott-Heron
Album: 1980
Rating: * * * *
Release Date: Aug - Oct 1979
Label: Arista

Tracklist: (CD von 1992 - BMG Music) 
1. Shut 'um Down 			 5:13 
2. Alien (Hold On To Your Dreams) 	 3:25
3. Willing 				 4:00
4. Corners 				 4:50
5. 1980 				 6:00
6. Push Comes To Shove 			 3:34
7. Shah Mot (The Shah Is Dead/Checkmate) 4:04
8. Late Last Night 			 4:25

Tracklist: (abweichende Reihenfolge) (Original Release?)
1. Late Last Night
2. Shah Mot (The Shah Is Dead/Checkmate)
3. Push Comes To Shove
4. Corners
5. 1980
6. Shut Um Down
7. Willing
8. Alien (Hold On To Your Dream)

AMG Review by Jeff Schwachter
1980 can be viewed as a precursor for the venomous rants Gil Scott-Heron would unleash on the 
eventual Reagan-led White House. Loaded with perceptive and poignant observations on the state 
of America as it advanced into a new and uncertain decade, 1980 is a powerful final album of the 
1970s for Scott-Heron and his partner Brian Jackson. 
Amazingly, Scott-Heron's focus at the close of the decade is strikingly similar to his focus on 
his 1970 debut, Small Talk at 125th and Lennox; namely that social and political change has yet 
to come to many Americans, despite the advancements in technology and other seemingly less 
significant realms. 
The enemies are the same: nuclear power and big business ("Shut Um Down"), oppressive governments 
("Shah Mot"), and racism ("Willing"). On the title track, Scott-Heron's gaze is set on the future 
with an eye on the past as well. When he sings, "Boogie-Woogie's somewhere in the lost and found," 
he's not only speaking of the changes in music, but also in popular culture. 
There is a hint of resentment on his part that this musical style, like other revolutionary 
African-American innovations, has been progressively stolen, mined, sterilized, and eventually discarded. 
This is not to say that the music throughout the album is marked by regret or sorrow. 
The spacey synthesizers, background vocals, and use of horns, along with Jackson's always-extraordinary 
arrangements, give the album a quality that matches the aura of the period without forgetting past 
musical styles. The descriptive "Alien (Hold on to Your Dreams)" is the album's most enduring song, 
vividly portraying the plight of Mexican illegal aliens living in Los Angeles and offering an uplifting 
refrain. Sadly, this album is hard to find in CD format, but vinyl versions turn up now and then in the 
"miscellaneous" sections of used record stores.

Credits:
Ed Brady 		Guitar
Carl Cornwell 		Flute, Saxophone
Gordon Goodwin 		Horn
Marlo Henderson 	Guitar
Brian Jackson 		Synthesizer, Bass, Piano, Arranger, Piano (Electric)
Harvey Mason, Sr. 	Drums
Marti McCall 		Vocals (bckgr)
Gil Scott-Heron 	Guitar, Piano, Vocals, Producer
Denis Sirias 		Horn
Julia Tillman Waters 	Vocals (bckgr)
Maxine Waters 		Vocals (bckgr)
Bill Watrous 		Horn

Charts (Billboard)
Album:
1980	1980	 	Black Albums	22
1980	1980	 	Jazz Albums	 7
1980	1980	 	Pop Albums	82
Singles:
1980	Shut 'Um Down	Black Singles	68