Real Eyes
{{Infobox album
| name = Real Eyes
| type = studio
| artist = Gil Scott-Heron
| cover = Real Eyes.jpg
| alt =
| released = 1980
| recorded =
| venue =
| studio =
| length =
| label = Arista
| producer = Gil Scott-Heron, Malcolm Cecil
| prev_title = 1980
| prev_year = 1980
| next_title = Reflections
| next_year = 1981
}}
Real Eyes is an album by the American poet and musician Gil Scott-Heron, released in 1980.{{Cite web|url=https://exclaim.ca/music/article/gil_scott-heron-pioneering_poet|title=Gil Scott-Heron Pioneering Poet|website=Exclaim!|access-date=2021-09-27|archive-date=2021-09-27|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210927202843/https://exclaim.ca/music/article/gil_scott-heron-pioneering_poet|url-status=live}}{{cite news |last1=Snowden |first1=Don |title=Gil Scott-Heron Has Staying Power |work=Los Angeles Times |date=21 Jan 1981}} It was Scott-Heron's first album since 1970 to be made without input from his musical collaborator Brian Jackson.{{cite news |last1=Maycock |first1=James |title=Gil Scott-Heron |work=The Independent |date=30 May 2011 |department=Viewspaper |page=8}}
The album peaked at No. 159 on the Billboard 200.{{Cite web|url=https://www.billboard.com/artist/gil-scott-heron/chart-history/tlp/|title=Gil Scott-Heron|website=Billboard|access-date=2021-09-27|archive-date=2021-09-27|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210927203338/https://www.billboard.com/music/gil-scott-heron/chart-history/TLP/song/313683|url-status=live}}
Production
Real Eyes was produced by Scott-Heron and Malcolm Cecil.{{cite magazine |title=Top Album Picks |magazine=Billboard |date=Dec 6, 1980 |volume=92 |issue=49 |page=45}} A photograph of Scott-Heron and his daughter Gia appears on the album cover; the album's closing track is dedicated to her.{{cite news |last1=Blackistone |first1=Kevin B. |title=A Voice for Change |work=The Boston Globe |date=8 Oct 1981 |department=Calendar |page=1}} "A Legend in His Own Mind" was inspired by the boasting of a friend.{{cite news |last1=Richmond |first1=Dick |title=Rock |work=St. Louis Post-Dispatch |date=24 Nov 1980 |page=4D}} "Not Needed" is about the concerns of older, poorer citizens.{{cite news |last1=Boyd |first1=Gail |title=Scott-Heron uses voice of conviction |work=The Jackson Sun |date=21 Dec 1980 |page=16B}}
Critical reception
{{album ratings
|rev1 = AllMusic
|rev2 = Robert Christgau
|rev3 = The Encyclopedia of Popular Music
|rev3score = {{rating|3|5}}{{cite book |last1=Larkin |first1=Colin |title=The Encyclopedia of Popular Music |date=2006 |publisher=MUZE |volume=7 |page=305}}
|rev4 = The Rolling Stone Album Guide
|rev4score = {{rating|3|5}}{{cite book |title=The Rolling Stone Album Guide |date=1992 |publisher=Random House |page=622}}
}}
Robert Christgau wrote that "the switch from Brian Jackson's supportive groove to Carl Cornwell's elliptical horn charts adds intellectual and historical weight to the songs that merely say good things as well as those that put them pungently." The Boston Globe thought that "Scott-Heron has shaken off the pop coating and built his arrangements carefully, usually around one dominant instrument."{{cite news |last1=Flanagan |first1=Bill |title=Reviews/Records Gil Scott-Heron Real Eyes |work=The Boston Globe |date=12 Mar 1981 |department=Calendar |page=1}} Billboard opined that "Carl Cornwell's sax and flute work is top notch." The Citizens' Voice called Real Eyes "a powerful statement by one of today's most significant performers."{{cite news |last1=Kishbaugh |first1=Jerry |title=Scott-Heron, Musical Muckraker Extraordinaire |work=The Citizens' Voice |date=19 Dec 1980 |department=Weekend |page=30}}
AllMusic wrote: "Scott-Heron's love of jazz serves him well on 'A Legend in His Own Mind' and the smoky 'Combinations', but make no mistake: Real Eyes is an R&B album more than anything." In a retrospective article, The Wire thought that "much of it sounds like outtakes from Stevie Wonder's albums of the period—even words seem to desert [Scott-Heron], falling away into disengaged rhetoric or weak personal concerns."{{Cite magazine|url=https://www.thewire.co.uk/in-writing/essays/gil-scott-heron_pieces-ofa-man|title=Gil Scott-Heron: Pieces of a Man|magazine=The Wire|access-date=2021-09-27|archive-date=2021-09-27|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210927202847/https://www.thewire.co.uk/in-writing/essays/gil-scott-heron_pieces-ofa-man|url-status=live}}
Track listing
{{Track listing
| all_writing =
| title1 = The Train from Washington
| length1 = 4:46
| title2 = Not Needed
| length2 = 3:55
| title3 = Waiting for the Axe to Fall
| length3 = 4:47
| title4 = Combinations
| length4 = 3:37
| title5 = A Legend in His Own Mind
| length5 = 3:40
| title6 = You Could Be My Brother
| length6 = 6:21
| title7 = The Klan
| length7 = 4:48
| title8 = Your Daddy Loves You (For Gia Louise)
| length8 = 3:18
| total_length =
}}