Ain't No New Thing

We'd like to go into a thing called, uh, "Ain't No New Thing"

It's, um, based on, um

The fact that white people continue to rip off black artists

They continue to uh, steal their material, their styles

The very cultural elements that make

The black artist the outstanding artist

The master of music that he has been

Um, and, it ain't no new thing, to tell the truth

That these things are going on

We point out, very expressly the fact that

Stanley Crouch comments on his album

"Ain't No Ambulances for No Niggers Tonight"

That, uh, Chuck Berry was doing like a very heavy thing

A very rock and roll thing

The king of rock and roll as a matter of fact but, um, like

White people couldn't dig having their daughters go to no shows

And cream over no black man wiggling on the stage

So consequently, they invented Elvis Presley and let him do it

So we gonna get into that

Call it "Ain't No New Thing" and talk about some people

Cultural rape and no geographical boundaries on white hate

And bizarre scarcely-concealed attempts to eliminate

Black generators of sun-heat feeling

Ain't no new thing to to see demon fangs

Curling out from under squeezed-tight, too-thin lips

And leaping at jugular veins and burning black throats

That either blow or sing or cry or scream

Ain't no new thing to see the bubbling envy

Flashing from the depths of soulless eyes

As still another link with God is created

We used to having white people try to rob us

Why don't they try stealing some of this poverty?

Ain't no new thing

Anything they can't understand, they try to destroy

Anything they can't understand, they try to control

In 1896, black men picked up brass instruments and began to evoke and conjure

Entice and struggle with black spirits

Rhythmic spirits of blues, work songs

Gospel songs, freedom songs and songs of love and mother night

Screaming rhythm, juju rhythm, voodoo rhythm, black, black magic

That calls back to lost worlds and lost lifestyles

Calling back to lost peace and peace of mind

Calling back to Genesis, calling back to the drum

Calling back to the drum, calling back to the first song chant

Song chant, song chant that original man created

In 1896 this new spasm was called "Ass"

But the "Ass" would not be kicked

So it was copied in an attempt to control it

And then it was called "Jazz"

We used to having black innovators copied and sent back to us

What about the Osmond Brothers?

What about Elvis Presley, what about Tom Jones?

We used to havin' people try to rob us

It ain't no new thing

They use the media to project their jazz idols

Tommy Dorsey and Jimmy Dorsey

And Harry James and Benny Goodman

And I suppose someday Lawrence Welk will join that elite group

And then there was sweet Bessie Smith

Laying on the blood-soaked backseat of that broken-down jalopy

With a tattered quilt wrapped around her shoulders

Waiting for someone to come to her aid on a rainy Mississippi night

While a white hospital would not accept her right across the street

Ain't no new thing

Fats Navarro screaming through tormenting dreams

Frustration ripping at his mind and bowels

Over a hundred pounds melted from his frame

As he battled that white powder mountain

Ain't no new thing

Cultural rape and no geographical boundaries on white hate

Hired black musicians away in funky smoke-filled nightclubs

The chitlin' circuit saturate their world with two-bit punks

Washed-out, baggy-face white whores

Weasel-face, yellow-skin junkies and cutthroat white managers

Producers, agents, owners and on and on and on

We used to havin' white people try to rob us

Ain't no new thing, we have dug his game

Charlie Parker will live on, John Coltrane will live on

Eric Dolphy will live on, Billie Holiday will live on

Jimi Hendrix and Clipper Brown and Lee Morgan will live on

And on in the sunshine of their accomplishments

The glory of the dimensions that they added to our lives

We declare war on Eric Burdon

We discredit the talents of Janis Joplin and Rare Earth

We urge that the next blue-eyed soul group include

Melvyn Layer, Lyndon Johnson, Nixon and Spearhead Agnew

And be called "As the Stomach Turns"

We urge that the album "John Wayne Sings the Blues" be released

Release the album, "J. Edgar Hoover Sings James Brown"

Release the album, "Wallace and Maddox sing Sam and Dave"

Why not?

We hear Tony the Tiger saying "Right on, Tiger"

We heard Nixon talking about "Power to the people"

It ain't no new thing, it ain't no new thing

It ain't no new thing, it ain't no new thing

America is always the same old shit