Winter in America - Title Significance

Title Significance

The original name of the album was intended to be Supernatural Corner, named after the cover art, but was later changed to Winter in America by Scott-Heron. Both the title and the song "Supernatural Corner" were left off the album, as the name would not be understandable to people who have not seen the house to which the title was alluding to. According to Gil Scott-Heron, the original title referred to what appeared to him to be a haunted house in the Logan Circle neighborhood of Washington, D.C., in which Scott-Heron and Jackson moved into prior to recording in 1973. The cover artwork features a collage-type painting with oriental graphic designs and a small figure version of whom appears to be Brian Jackson. It was created by Eugene Coles, a friend and colleague of Jackson's and Scott-Heron's from the historically black college Morgan State University. Supernatural Corner by Coles was used as the album's cover art, as Scott-Heron had originally commissioned Coles to design the collage.

The revised title of Winter in America was intended to represent Scott-Heron's use of the season of winter as a metaphor and concept of his view of the issues facing society during his time. The title was also meant to represent the urban sociological themes featured on the album, which had surfaced on most of Scott-Heron's previous work. Scott-Heron referred to the title as the "overall atmosphere of the album", as well as the metaphor for the overall theme of the album. Winter was conceived amid social, economic and political issues in the United States during the early 1970s, including stagflation, the 1973 oil crisis that had great effect during the winter, the 1973 stock market crash, the Watergate scandal, and urban decay. He further elaborated on the social concept of winter and Afrocentricism, as it relates to living during times such as these and how the title reflects on the time itself, in the original LP liner notes:

At the end of 360 degrees, Winter is a metaphor: a term not only used to describe the season of ice, but the period of our lives through which we are travelling. In our hearts we feel that spring is just around the corner: a spring of brotherhood and united spirits among people of color. Everyone is moving, searching. There is a restlessness within our souls that keeps us questioning, discovering and struggling against a system that will not allow us space and time for fresh expression. Western iceman have attempted to distort time. Extra months on the calendar and daylight saved what was Eastern Standard. We approach winter the most depressing period in the history of this industrial empire, with threats of oil shortages and energy crises. But we, as Black people, have been a source of endless energy, endless beauty and endless determination. I have many things to tell you about tomorrow’s love and light. We will see you in Spring.

In a February 2009 interview with Jalylah Burrell of Vibe magazine, Gil Scott-Heron discussed the album's concept and title, as well as the social and political atmosphere at the time of Winter in America's recording. In retrospect, he stated "We felt as though we had come across something that people did not understand or did not recognize but that's the season that we were going into, not for three months but for an extended period of time. A lot of the folks who represented summer and spring and fall had been killed and assassinated. The only season left is winter. ...Bobby Kennedy and Dr. King and John Kennedy, those were folks who represented spring and summer, and they killed them. So we wanted to do an album about where we were. And we weren't trying to depress people, hell, they were living it, they already knew but we were trying to describe it and were certainly not alone... we felt as though a part of it was the folks in charge of the political structure. They were snowmen..."