1980 (album)


1980 is a studio album by American vocalist Gil Scott-Heron and keyboardist Brian Jackson. It was recorded from August to October 1979 and released in February 1980 by Arista Records.
Scott-Heron and Jackson produced 1980 with Malcolm Cecil and performed with a host of studio musicians, including drummer Harvey Mason, guitarist Marlo Henderson, and trombonist Bill Watrous. They incorporated sounds from contemporary pop music, such as disco, dance, and new wave, into their established jazz-funk style. Jackson played a number of instruments, including the T.O.N.T.O. synthesizer, which was featured in the album's cover photo. Scott-Heron wrote the lyrics to all the songs, which explored societal themes, pressures in life, and fear of the future.
The album charted at number 82 on the Billboard 200 while also impacting the R&B and jazz charts. A critical success, it received praise for its musical qualities and Scott-Heron's subject matter. 1980 was Scott-Heron and Jackson's last album together.

Recording and production

Scott-Heron and Jackson recorded the album from August to October 1979. Scott-Heron composed most of the songs, while Jackson arranged them all. Both musicians produced the album, alongside co-producer Malcolm Cecil. They were accompanied by a team of musicians that included drummer Harvey Mason, guitarist Marlo Henderson, and trombonist Bill Watrous.
"Late Last Night" and "Shah MOT " were recorded with Jackson playing the T.O.N.T.O. synthesizer. Created by Cecil, the instrument combined vintage and custom modular synthesizers, and produced warm timbres and sub-bass tones. "Corners" was the last song Scott-Heron composed with Jackson.

Musical style

According to The Quietus journalist Tristan Bath, 1980 and its predecessor Secrets departed from the jazz chords, faint keyboard, and Afrocentric themes of Scott-Heron and Jackson's previous recordings together in favor of "disco and futurist dance music tropes". In the opinion of Exclaim!s David Dacks, 1980 features "a more overtly synthetic sound" than before for Scott-Heron, who showed he could "incorporate changing musical trends into his earthy jazz funk". On "Corners", the wah-wah guitar and heavy bass riffs from 1970s funk are fused with the "spacey" synthesizers that would characterize 1980s new wave music. Nate Patrin from Pitchfork said albums like 1980 and Secrets find Scott-Heron adopting contemporary music's "synthesized, dancefloor-driven" trends and "funky, disco-beat" settings for "pop-friendly protest songs".

Themes

"Shut 'Um Down" features an anti-nuclear message, while "Alien " details the plight of illegal Mexican immigrants in California. "Push Comes to Shove" and "Willing" describe Scott-Heron's philosophy to pressures in life. "Late Last Night" was inspired by his touring life and the process of writing music, featuring an account of waking up in a hotel room with an idea for a song but being unable to find a paper or instrument to compose. The narrative finds him fighting with staff to use the hotel's lounge piano and, in the distraction, losing memory of the song's melody and lyrics. "1980" voices feelings of alienation and disillusionment with the future while reflecting on the past, including the exploitation and eventual discarding of African-American cultural innovations.
Scott-Heron's lyrics throughout the album were described by Alex Suskind in Wax Poetics as "fearful of what the future holds, but conscious of the effort we as individuals need to make in order to keep society functioning for all." On "Corners", Scott-Heron "signals an impending sense of doom for the upcoming decade", according to Suskind, who cited the lyrics: "The turning of the decade like a marker hung in space / is a man-made definition like the bending of a page". Robert Christgau said 1980s "subjects include compromise, 'surviving', aliens, the shah, the road, and the future."

Cover photo

For the album's front cover, Scott-Heron and Jackson were photographed sitting alongside each other and in front of the T.O.N.T.O. synthesizer. Commenting on the photo in retrospect, Mark Sinker from The Wire said the two musicians appeared "foolish" wearing "Star Trek boots and Gary Numan overalls, posing in front of banks of computer technology". But he extended his interpretation of the photo to the creative "rut" Scott-Heron and Jackson might have been in during this period: "Their worship at the shrine of the small, warm and private, and a unified acoustic space in real time, has worked for them; but it must have begun to seem retro – they want to move on."

Release and reception

1980 was released on LP by Arista Records in February 1980. "Shut 'Um Down" and "Willing" were released as singles in March and May, respectively, with the former reaching the number 68 position on the R&B singles chart. The album proved to be Scott-Heron and Jackson's last together, as Jackson left the partnership that year to pursue other musical projects in New Jersey. Reviewing the album in March for The Village Voice, Christgau named it his "pick hit" for the month and their best record yet. He applauded the lyrics and said, while "the melodies are only functional", "the rhythms are seductive and the singing is warm." Geoff Brown from Black Music & Jazz Review said Scott-Heron's songs were one of the few remedies for alleviating the "creeping suspicion which must afflict us all from time to time, that black artists can only write convincingly these days about the topics of love and dancing." At the end of 1980, Christgau ranked it as the 32nd best record of the year in a list accompanying the annual Pazz & Jop critics poll.
The album was reissued in CD format by Soul Brother Records on November 17, 2009. In a retrospective review, AllMusic's Jeff Schwachter found it abundant with "perceptive and poignant observations on the state of America as it advanced into a new and uncertain decade". In Schwachter's opinion, the music retained past styles amidst exceptional arrangements of synthesizers, horns, and background vocals, all of which gave the record "a quality that matched the aura of the period", especially on "Alien ". On April 26, 2011, in commemoration of the Chernobyl disaster's 25th anniversary, The Nation published a list of the ten best anti-nuclear songs, ranking "Shut 'Um Down" at number one.

Track listing

All songs were written and composed by Gil Scott-Heron, except where noted.
;Side one
  1. "Shut 'Um Down" – 5:28
  2. "Alien " – 4:09
  3. "Willing" – 4:16
  4. "Corners" – 4:47
;Side two
  1. "1980" – 6:20
  2. "Push Comes to Shove" – 3:37
  3. "Shah MOT " – 4:04
  4. "Late Last Night" – 4:25
Credits are adapted from the album's liner notes.