Een desolate beschrijving van het leven in het ghetto en het effect daarvan op de bewoners. Gil Scott-Heron is bekend geworden met het klassieke The revolution will not be televised, maar het revolutionaire sentiment uit die song is hier volledig afwezig. Het leven in het ghetto is deprimerend en de bewoners – ook de revolutionairen van gisteren – hebben alle hoop verloren: Home is where I live inside my white powder dreams/Home was once an empty vacuum that’s filled now with my silent screams/Home is where the needle marks/Tried to heal my broken heart. De song is deels autobiografisch. Scott-Heron zocht uiteindelijk zelf eveneens zijn toevlucht tot heroïne (en alcohol).
Ook de cover van Esther Phillips mag er overigens zijn. Triest detail: Phillips overleed aan een overdosis:
A junkie walking through the twilight
I’m on my way home
I left three days ago
But no one seems to know I’m gone
Home is where the hatred is
Home is filled with pain and it
Might not be such a bad idea if I never
Never went home again
Stand as far away from me as you can
And ask me, “Why?”
Hang on to your rosary beads
Close your eyes to watch me die
You keep saying, “Kick it, quit it, kick it, quit it.”
God, but did you ever try?
To turn your sick soul inside-out
So that the world, so that the world can watch you die?
Home is where I live inside my white powder dreams
Home was once an empty vacuum that’s filled now with my silent screams
Home is where the needle marks
Tried to heal my broken heart
And it might not be such a bad idea if I never
If I never went home again, home again, home again, home again
Kick it, quit it, kick it, quit it, kick it, quit it, kick it
Can’t go home again, home again, home again
You know I can’t go home again
Uitgelichte afbeelding: By mikael altemark from STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN – Gil Scott-HeronUploaded by calliopejen1, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=15329784
