Lyrics to
Did You Hear What They Said?

This version of Did You Hear What They Said? was released by Gil Scott-Heron in 1972.

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Did you hear what they said,
Did you hear what they said,
Did you hear what they said,
They said another brother’s dead,
They said he’s dead…but he can’t be buried,
They said he’s dead…but he can’t be buried,
Come on, come on,come on,come on
this can’t be real.

Did you hear what they said,
Did you hear what they said,
Did you hear what they said,
They said,they shot him in his head,
a shot in the head to save his country,
a shot in the head to save his country,
Come on, come on,come on,come on
this can’t be real.

Did you hear what they said,
Yeah did you hear what they said,
Did you hear what they said,
About his mother and how she cried,
They said she cried,’cause her only son was dead
They said she cried,’cause her only son was dead
Woman,could you imagine if your only son was dead
And somebody told you,he couldn’t be buried,
hey,hey,come on,come on,come on,come on
this can’t be real.

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Gil Scott-Heron has released many songs over the years besides Did You Hear What They Said?. 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 1972 or the 1970s overall, you've come to the right place!

About Lyrics and Did You Hear What They Said? by Gil Scott-Heron

When you decide to study the lyrics to Did You Hear What They Said?, you're looking at the words, verses and background chorus from the 1972 song by Gil Scott-Heron. Some of the lyrics to Did You Hear What They Said? 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 Did You Hear What They Said? 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 Did You Hear What They Said?" means the words set to the music of Did You Hear What They Said?, 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 Did You Hear What They Said? and the lyrics to Did You Hear What They Said? 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 Did You Hear What They Said?, but we feel it is still fun to learn what's behind commonly used words and lyrics in songs.

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