1980 (album)

Scott-Heron, photographed in 1986

Scott-Heron and Jackson recorded the album from August to October 1979.[1] Scott-Heron composed most of the songs, while Jackson arranged them all. Both musicians produced the album, alongside co-producer Malcolm Cecil.[2] They were accompanied by a team of musicians that included drummer Harvey Mason, guitarist Marlo Henderson, and trombonist Bill Watrous.[3]

"Late Last Night" and "Shah MOT (The Shah Is Dead/Checkmate)" 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.[4]

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".[5] 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".[6] 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.[4] 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".[7]

"Shut 'Um Down" features an anti-nuclear message,[8] while "Alien (Hold On to Your Dreams)" details the plight of illegal Mexican immigrants in California.[3] "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.[3] "1980" voices feelings of alienation and disillusionment with the future while reflecting on the past,[3] including the exploitation and eventual discarding of African-American cultural innovations ("Boogie-Woogie's somewhere in the lost and found").[9]

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".[4] Robert Christgau said 1980's "subjects include compromise (necessary), 'surviving' (cop-out), aliens (surviving), the shah (dead), the road (long), and the future (here)."[10]

Malcolm Cecil with the T.O.N.T.O. synthesizer in 2015

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.[4] 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".[11] 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."[11]

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[9]
Black Music & Jazz Review	[3]
The Great Rock Discography	6/10[12]
The New Rolling Stone Record Guide	[13]
The Village Voice	A–[10]

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,[12] with the former reaching the number 68 position on the R&B singles chart.[14] 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.[11]

Reviewing the album in March 1980 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."[10] 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."[3] 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.[15]

The album was reissued in CD format by Soul Brother Records on November 17, 2009.[16] 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".[9] 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 (Hold On to Your Dreams)".[9] 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.[8]

All songs were written and composed by Gil Scott-Heron, except where noted.[2]

Side one

1. "Shut 'Um Down" – 5:28
2. "Alien (Hold On to Your Dreams)" – 4:09
3. "Willing" – 4:16
4. "Corners" (lyrics by Scott-Heron; music by Brian Jackson) – 4:47

Side two

1. "1980" – 6:20
2. "Push Comes to Shove" – 3:37
3. "Shah MOT (The Shah Is Dead/Checkmate)" – 4:04
4. "Late Last Night" – 4:25

• Sides one and two were combined as tracks 1–8 on the CD reissue.[16]

Credits are adapted from the album's liner notes.[2]

• Ed Brady – guitar (side two: tracks 1 and 2)
• Malcolm Cecil – engineering, mixing, production, production assistance
• Carl Cornwell – flute, saxophone (side two: tracks 1 and 2)
• Donn Davenport – art direction
• John Ford – cover photo
• Gordon Goodwin – horns
• Marlo Henderson – guitar (side one: tracks 1, 2, 4; side two: track 4)
• Brian Jackson – acoustic piano, arrangements, backing vocals (side one: track 1), drums (side one: track 1), electric piano, kettle drums (side two: track 3), keyboard bass, production, synthesizer, T.O.N.T.O. synthesizer (side two: track 3)
• Ron Kellum – art direction
• Harvey Mason – drums (side one: tracks 2 to 4; side two: tracks 1 to 4)
• Marti McCall – backing vocals
• Gil Scott-Heron – production, vocals
• Denis Sirias – horns
• Julia Waters – backing vocals
• Maxine Waters Waddell – backing vocals
• Bill Watrous – horns

• Anon. (April 23, 1980). "Coping". Umoja Sasa. Retrieved March 4, 2019 – via Google Books. A review of 1980 published by an African-American campus newspaper.

• 1980 at Discogs (list of releases)