Lyrics to
Bottle

This version of Bottle was released by Gil Scott-Heron in 1974.

Our About Gil Scott-Heron page at Decade Lyrics includes the lyrics for Bottle from 1974 as well as all of the other lyrics from Gil Scott-Heron that we have in our lyrics database.

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See that black boy over there runnin’ scared
His old man in a bottle
He done quit his 9 to 5
He drink full time and now he’s livin’ in a bottle

See that black boy over there runnin’ scared
His old man got a problem
And it’s a bad one
He done pawned off damn near everything,
His old woman’s weddin’ ring for a bottle

And don’t you think it’s a crime when
Time after time after time
People in the bottle
There’s people livin’ in the bottle

Listen to me
See that sister, sho’ was fine
Before she started drinkin’ wine in a bottle
She told me her old man committed a crime
He’s doin’ time and now she’s hangin’ in a bottle
I seen her out there on the avenue
All by herself, she sho’ need help from the bottle
I seen a preacherman try to help her out
She cussed him out and hit him in the head with a bottle
They turn to me, and they ask me, Gil,

Don’t you think it’s a crime the way
Time after time after time
People in the bottle
There’s people sho’ nuff in the bottle

I’ll give you another good example

You see that gent in the wrinkled suit
He done damn near blown his cool to the bottle
He was a doctor helpin’ young girls along
If they wasn’t too far gone in her problems
But defenders of the dollar eagle said,
“What you doin, man, ain’t legal”
Now he’s in the bottle
And now we watch him everyday
He’s tryin’ to chase the prisons away from the bottle
He turned to me and he said to me, hey now

Don’t you think it’s a crime the way
Time after time
Friends of mine in the bottle
There’s people sho nuff in the bottle

Come on, hit me the lick one time, stick
Uuh

I’ll tell you a little secret
If you ever come lookin’ for me
You know where I’m bound to be,
In the bottle
Turn around
Look around on any corner
If you see some brother lookin’ like a goner
It’s gonna be me
Sing the song
Na na na na na na na na na
na na na na na na na na na

A dollar nine or a bottle of wine
A dollar nine, get a bottle of wine
A dollar nine, get a bottle of wine
A dollar nine, get a bottle of wine
The bottle

All that I’m concerned about is a bottle
It can turn me inside out for the bottle
All I want
Said all I want
Said all I want
Said all I want since I’m livin in the bottle
A bottle

Sho nuff
Sho nuff
Sho nuff
Sho nuff sho nuff sho nuff sho nuff
Sho nuff

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Want more lyrics and songs by Gil Scott-Heron?

Gil Scott-Heron has released many songs over the years besides Bottle. Gil Scott-Heron released songs from 1970 to 2005 spanning across albums like Small Talk At 125th And Lenox, Pieces Of A Man, Free Will, Winter In America, The First Minute Of A New Day, It's Your World, From South Africa To South Carolina, Bridges, Secrets, The Mind Of Gil Scott-Heron, 1980, Real Eyes, Reflections, Moving Target, Spirits, and Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson - Messages (Anthology). Decade Lyrics has over lyrics & songs by Gil Scott-Heron.

If you're a fan of 1970s songs looking for more songs from 1974 or the 1970s overall, you've come to the right place!

About Lyrics and Bottle by Gil Scott-Heron

When you decide to study the lyrics to Bottle, you're looking at the words, verses and background chorus from the 1974 song by Gil Scott-Heron. Some of the lyrics to Bottle have clear meanings and some contain metaphorical references. Like most songs, only Gil Scott-Heron and their collaborators know the full story behind any of the their songs.

You can understand the lyrics to Bottle if you take apart the structure of the words. The word "lyric" itself derives from the Latin word lyricus, with the actual English word lyrics applied to the definition "words set to music" listed in Stainer and Barrett's 1876 Dictionary of Musical Terms. Continuing the chain, the Latin word lyricus derives from the Greek word λυρικός or lyrikós. This somewhat means "poetry accompanied by the lyre" or "words set to music." You can easily see that by looking at the background of the word lyric, that the "lyrics to Bottle" means the words set to the music of Bottle, or poetry accompanied by the lyre played by Gil Scott-Heron. The singular form "lyric" is still used to mean the complete words to a song. However, the singular form lyric is also commonly used to refer to a specific line (or phrase) within a song's lyrics. Hence, by this analysis of word structure, you could say that the lyric to Bottle and the lyrics to Bottle are both one and the same thing. None of this talk about the word Lyrics is really relevant to fans of Gil Scott-Heron who came here looking just for the lyrics to Bottle, but we feel it is still fun to learn what's behind commonly used words and lyrics in songs.

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