Kain – I Ain’t Black/Harlem Preacher
Kain – Look Out For The Blue Guerilla
Kain – Black Satin Amazon Fire Engine Cry Baby
Kain – Clouds
Along with Nikki Giovanni, another poet’s work that had been on my mind during the July 4th weekend was that of “original” Last Poets member, Gylan Kain.
While the group that most people associate with the name “The Last Poets,” featured an original collaborator, Abiodune Oyewole, Kain, along with David Nelson and Felipe Luciano comprised the first incarnation of the group (if you’ve never seen their performance film “Right On,” I highly recommend you track it down). Felipe Luciano (who left the Last Poets to form the Young Lords) contributes some liner notes/poetry that like the Nikki Giovanni shared earlier, remains far too relevant for the current moment.
Out of all the poets associated with the group, I’ve been most drawn to the enigma of Kain, particularly after first tracking down this album as reissued CD on the Collectibles record label in the 1990s. Aside from the spoken word, this album sounds nothing like any of the other releases associated with the various “Poets.” “I Ain’t Black/Harlem Preacher,” starts the album off in madcap fashion, as assorted denizens of a neighborhood bar, supposedly in 1925, take turns vilifying an outsider who is not easily classified as Black or White with shouts of “You Black Bastard,” and then “You White Motherfucker,” to which the “Preacher” replies that he ain’t Black or White, as the music shifts effortlessly from Soul to Blues to Avant-Garde Jazz.
Aside from Kain’s manic, guttural, poetry and performance style, it’s the musical accompaniment that really sets this album apart from others released by The Last Poets. I hoped that tracking down an original copy of the record might solve the mystery of who plays on the album, but there’s no breakdown of the musicians. The fact that there are multiple credits from Nile Rodgers makes me think that he might have been involved in the session, even though he would have been only a teenager at the time. With nods to Sly Stone and Duke Pearson (whose “Christo Redentor” serves as the basis for the music for “Clouds”), the band draws on many different threads of contemporary Black music, while always sounding original. They are the perfect compliment to Kain.
Of all the tracks on this unique album, “The Blue Guerilla,” is the one I love the most and have played the most. I even personally edited a censored version so that I could add it to the rotation at Album 88 back when I was a music director there in the mid-1990s. It’s a fascinating song, full of biblical allusions, mixed with revolutionary/apocalyptic themes, where Kain seems to imagine the second coming of Jesus Christ as the titular character, a figure that he repeatedly warns to listener to look out for, with this dark rumbling music that builds and builds and builds through it’s nearly 7 minutes.
“…As God is my witness,
Out from behind one of these rocks,
Came something looking very much like a Blue Guerilla, (You better look out Motherfuckers!)
He had a big apple cap,
He had a M-14 axe at his side,
And he was…hitching a ride.
I said ‘Hey baby, who are you?’
He said ‘Jesus Christ,’
Just like that, he said it,
I said, ‘You know one thing,’
He said, ‘What’s that baby?’
I said, ‘They didn’t accept you two thousand years ago, they’re not gonna accept you now.’
But the Blue Guerilla he just looked at me,
Smiled his heavenly smile,
Grinned his all-knowing grin, (all knowing grin!)
And then he said ‘Kain!’ (Kain!)
When he said my name Kain I knew he had to be God, (who else?)
He said ‘Kain, I don’t want you to worry about a thing,
‘cause you see,’ and then he said these words to me.
He said, ‘life ain’t nothing but a river,
Moving through an empty hand,’
He said, ‘life ain’t nothing but a river,
Just moving through an empty hand,
Well, you can hold on if you want to,
But Lord when the shit hits the fan,
You better look out for the Blue Guerilla.’
You better look out for the Blue Guerilla,
You better look out, Look out!
Look out! Look out! Look out!
Look out! Look out!
Look out for the Blue Guerilla,
Look out… (on your ass motherfucker!)
Good lookin’ out, Good lookin’ out…”
It’s hard not to think of our own current moment, with machine guns seemingly on every block as Kain mentions early in the song, and everything we’ve already gone through in 2020, with a whole ‘nuther half of this insane year to follow, and not feel like this might be a good time to be vigilant for Kain’s Blue Guerilla…