Moving Target (Gil Scott-Heron album)
{{Use mdy dates|date=May 2025}}
{{Infobox album
| name = Moving Target
| type = studio
| artist = Gil Scott-Heron
| cover =Moving Target (Gil Scott-Heron album).jpg
| alt =
| released = September 1982
| recorded = March–June 1982
| venue =
| studio =
| genre =
| length = 37:33
| label = Arista
| producer = Malcolm Cecil, Gil Scott-Heron
| prev_title = Reflections
| prev_year = 1981
| next_title = Spirits
| next_year = 1994
}}
{{Music ratings
| rev1 = Sounds
| rev1Score = {{Rating|4|5}}{{Cite magazine |last=Burkham |first=Chris |date=2 October 1982 |title=Gil Scott-Heron: Moving Target |magazine=Sounds |page=30}}
}}
Moving Target is a studio album by American spoken-word poet and blues musician Gil Scott-Heron.
Background, production, release
The album, released on Arista in 1982, was to be his last for more than a decade. On Moving Target, Scott-Heron and his "Midnight Band" recorded their "typical, tastefully jazzy R&B and funk grooves", though flavored with "more exotic sounds" and influenced by reggae (there are echoes of Bob Marley in some songs). The final song, the almost ten-minute long "Black History/The World", is in part a spoken-word performance by Scott-Heron ending with a "plea for peace and world change".{{cite book|last=Bogdanov|first=Vladimir|title=All Music Guide to Soul: The Definitive Guide to R&B and Soul|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=o552g5xRRiwC&pg=PA604|year=2003|publisher=Backbeat|isbn=9780879307448|page=604}}
The album, co-produced by Malcolm Cecil, was released in September 1982 on LP (#204921), and issued as a CD in February 1997, under the same number.{{cite book|last=Strong|first=Martin Charles|title=The Great Rock Discography|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DE9qW3YfHG4C&pg=PA141-IA151|year=2002|publisher=Canongate|isbn=9781841953120|page=141}} Robert Christgau gave the album a B.{{cite web|url=http://www.robertchristgau.com/get_artist.php?name=Gil+Scott-Heron|title=CG: Gil Scott-Heron|last=Christgau|first=Robert|accessdate=26 January 2014}}
Track listing
All tracks composed by Gil Scott-Heron; except where indicated
- "Fast Lane" (lyrics: Scott-Heron; music: Robbie Gordon) – 4:55
- "Washington D.C." – 4:13
- "No Exit" – 4:08
- "Blue Collar" – 5:18
- "Explanations" – 4:12
- "Ready or Not" (lyrics: Scott-Heron; music: Larry McDonald) – 4:33
- "Black History/The World" – 9:42
Personnel
- Gil Scott-Heron – vocals; electric piano on "Washington D.C."
- Vernon James – alto saxophone; flute on "Ready or Not"
- Robbie Gordon – bass
- Kenny Powell – drums
- Ed Brady – guitar
- Glen Turner – keyboards
- Carl Cornwell – tenor saxophone (tracks 2, 3, 7)
- Ron Holloway – tenor saxophone
- Kenny Sheffield – trumpet
- Larry McDonald – percussion
- "High Note" Harry Kim – trumpet on "Washington D.C."
- Malcolm Cecil – horn arrangement on "Fast Lane"
=Technical personnel=
- Malcolm Cecil - engineer, co-producer
- Alan Douglas - second engineer
- Richard Mannering - second engineer
- Denis Heron - coordinator, production assistant
- Bob Carboni - mastering
- Donn Davenport - artwork
- John Ford - photography
- Recorded at Bias Studio, Springfield, Virginia (March 25–27 and May 28–29, 1982); Townhouse Studios, London (April 9–12, 1982); The Manor Studio, Oxford (April 19–21, 1982); and Record Plant, Los Angeles (June 7–17, 1982). Mixed at Record Plant. Mastered at A&M Studios, Los Angeles (July 1982).
References
{{Reflist}}
{{Gil Scott-Heron}}
{{Authority control}}
Category:Gil Scott-Heron albums
Category:Albums produced by Malcolm Cecil