Gil Scott-Heron | The Revolution Will Not Be Televised

[Heidi]

Run time: 03:56 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uTCQSk2l8bc   Posted on YouTube: April 17, 2015 By YouTube Member: YouTube Help Views on YouTube: 6705624   Posted on DU: October 31, 2006 By DU Member: Heidi Views on DU: 863

 
In 1974, American poet Gil Scott-Heron released this poem touching on human rights and the media. In the past 30 years, he has explained that that "the revolution will not be televised" because it's one that must take place first and foremost in individual hearts and minds.

The poem:

The Revolution Will Not Be Televised
By Gil Scott-Heron

You will not be able to stay home, brother.
You will not be able to plug in, turn on and cop out.
You will not be able to lose yourself on skag and skip,
Skip out for beer during commercials,
Because the revolution will not be televised.

The revolution will not be televised.
The revolution will not be brought to you by Xerox
In 4 parts without commercial interruptions.
The revolution will not show you pictures of Nixon
blowing a bugle and leading a charge by John
Mitchell, General Abrams and Spiro Agnew to eat
hog maws confiscated from a Harlem sanctuary.
The revolution will not be televised.

The revolution will not be brought to you by the
Schaefer Award Theatre and will not star Natalie
Woods and Steve McQueen or Bullwinkle and Julia.
The revolution will not give your mouth sex appeal.
The revolution will not get rid of the nubs.
The revolution will not make you look five pounds
thinner, because the revolution will not be televised, Brother.

There will be no pictures of you and Willie May
pushing that shopping cart down the block on the dead run,
or trying to slide that color television into a stolen ambulance.
NBC will not be able predict the winner at 8:32
or report from 29 districts.
The revolution will not be televised.

There will be no pictures of pigs shooting down
brothers in the instant replay.
There will be no pictures of pigs shooting down
brothers in the instant replay.
There will be no pictures of Whitney Young being
run out of Harlem on a rail with a brand new process.
There will be no slow motion or still life of Roy
Wilkens strolling through Watts in a Red, Black and
Green liberation jumpsuit that he had been saving
For just the proper occasion.

Green Acres, The Beverly Hillbillies, and Hooterville
Junction will no longer be so damned relevant, and
women will not care if Dick finally gets down with
Jane on Search for Tomorrow because Black people
will be in the street looking for a brighter day.
The revolution will not be televised.

There will be no highlights on the eleven o'clock
news and no pictures of hairy armed women
liberationists and Jackie Onassis blowing her nose.
The theme song will not be written by Jim Webb,
Francis Scott Key, nor sung by Glen Campbell, Tom
Jones, Johnny Cash, Englebert Humperdink, or the Rare Earth.
The revolution will not be televised.

The revolution will not be right back after a message
bbout a white tornado, white lightning, or white people.
You will not have to worry about a dove in your
bedroom, a tiger in your tank, or the giant in your toilet bowl.
The revolution will not go better with Coke.
The revolution will not fight the germs that may cause bad breath.
The revolution will put you in the driver's seat.

The revolution will not be televised, will not be televised,
will not be televised, will not be televised.
The revolution will be no re-run brothers;
The revolution will be live.


(From the spoken word poetry album, The Revolution Will Not Be Televised, 1974)

[flying_wahini]

1. Still as great today as it was in '74

n/t

[grizmaster]

2. it ain't gonna be podcast neither

"No Knock" should make a comeback with bush throwing out the 4th amendment

[Heidi]

3. Broke my heart that he's serving a prison sentence

on a probation violation, after failing to complete drug treatment that was part of his plea deal. Gil Scott-Heron says he walked out of treatment because he's HIV positive and the treatment center wouldn't provide him with the HIV drugs he'd been taking. The whole thing made me wonder whether he might have been treated differently at sentencing on the probation violation if he had been a middle- or upper-class white businessmen, or if he hadn't been heralded for the past 10 to 15 years as the "godfather of rap and hip-hop."

:rantoff:

[grizmaster]

4. He's been in and out of prison for decades

He just can't seem to kick the needle.


Home is Where the Hatred Is

"Home is where the needle marks
tried to heal my broken heart
and it might not be such bad idea
if I never went home again"



I was lucky enough to see him twice. One of the most powerful perfomers I've ever seen.

[Le Taz Hot]

5. A longtime favorite

(See sig line)

[Gregorian]

6. I just don't have words for this man. GIANT!

Man, this is dragging me back to the old days. Nostalgia. And yet it's more current now than it ever was. How can anyone be so ahead of their time. The vision.

[Heidi]

7. Thank you for giving props where props are due.

Mr. Scott-Heron spoke truth to power, and I see his life as a parallel or mirror of so much that's wrong with our country right now but that I'll spare you my diatribe (ou can PM me for it), as I'm probably preachin' to the choir here.

Thanks for the kick. I think I'll send Mr. Scott-Heron a Christmas card in thanks for his contribution to truth and resistance.