Lyrics to
The Needle’s Eye

This version of The Needle’S Eye was released by Gil Scott-Heron in 1971.

Our About Gil Scott-Heron page at Decade Lyrics includes the lyrics for The Needle’S Eye from 1971 as well as all of the other lyrics from Gil Scott-Heron that we have in our lyrics database.

Here's more interesting things in songs and lyrics tied to Gil Scott-Heron or about the 1970s in general.

A circle spinning faster
And getting larger all the time
A whirlpool spelled disaster
For all the people who don’t rhyme

Him who don’t fit through the needle’s eye
Him who just don’t understand
Understand, understand, understand

A brand new sense of freedom
A brand new sense of time
Him may go and stand alone now
And leave the hate and fear behind

All the millions spent for killing
Seems the whole world must be dying
All the children who go hungry
How much food we could be buying

Him who don’t fit through the needle’s eye
Him who just don’t understand
Understand, understand, understand

A brand new sense of freedom
A brand new sense of time
Him may go and stand alone now
And the leave the hate and fear behind

People wake up every morning
And simply push their lives aside
They seem to carry all their feelings
Crushed and crumbled up inside
Inside, inside, inside

Him who don’t fit through the needle’s eye
Him who just don’t understand

So I went to see my father
Many questions on my mind
But he didn’t want to answer me
God, the whole world must be blind

Him who don’t fit through the needle’s eye
Him may someday go insane
Insane, insane, insane

Without a brand new sense of freedom
A brand new sense of time
Him may go and stand alone now
And leave the hate and fear behind, yeah, behind

---

Want more lyrics and songs by Gil Scott-Heron?

Gil Scott-Heron has released many songs over the years besides The Needle’S Eye. 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 lyrics from 1970s songs looking for more songs from 1971 or the 1970s overall, you've come to the right place!

About Lyrics and The Needle’S Eye by Gil Scott-Heron

When you decide to study the lyrics to The Needle’S Eye, you're looking at the words, verses and background chorus from the 1971 song by Gil Scott-Heron. Some of the lyrics to The Needle’S Eye 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 The Needle’S Eye 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 The Needle’S Eye" means the words set to the music of The Needle’S Eye, 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 The Needle’S Eye and the lyrics to The Needle’S Eye 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 The Needle’S Eye, but we feel it is still fun to learn what's behind commonly used words and lyrics in songs.

More Songs & Lyrics by Gil Scott-Heron

Visit our Gil Scott-Heron profile for more Gil Scott-Heron songs, lyrics & info!

)