“The Revolution Will Not Be Televised.” song and the album it came from went viral hits decades before Xitter, Facebook, or even the Internet ruined our collective attention spans. But it didn’t get much radio play because the lyrics were, incendiary. Instead, it spread the old fashioned way, through word of mouth. Black neighborhoods across the country, campus coffee shops, nightclubs in West Philly, Harlem, Watts, Chicago’s South Side, Atlanta... this thing was everywhere. Poet Nikki Giovanni remembers seeing Gil perform it at a store in Harlem and thinking, “Damn, this guy’s voice is strong, Black, political, poetic. Is out here shaping minds.” And she wasn’t wrong.
Fast forward, and this song became the anthem of a revolutionary era. It’s ranked as one of the top 20 political songs in history, compared to Allen Ginsberg’s “Howl” and Bob Dylan’s “Subterranean Homesick Blues.” But then, as things tend to, it got twisted. The message became the medium. Slogans on T-shirts and headlines, completely missed the point. Gil himself let it get co opted. In 1994, he agreed to let Nike use it in a TV ad because he was battling drug addiction, desperate for money, and Spike Lee came calling, asking rapper KRS One to turn the lyrics into a basketball ode to sell Air Jordans. Needless to say, Gil regretted it his whole life.
Until his death in 2011, Scott Heron had this love/hate relationship with the song. He was proud of its power and resonance but frustrated by how often its meaning was misunderstood. People took the title literally, like, “Oh, the revolution won’t be on TV? Cool, I’ll just stay here on my couch.” But if you actually listen to the lyrics, it’s clear that Gil meant that you can’t just be a bystander. The revolution isn’t a spectator sport. When it happens, you’ve got to be in the streets. You want change? Get off your ass and do something. You can’t just sit there, remote in hand, waiting for it to pop up between commercials for White Coca Cola and boner pills.
So, yeah, “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised” is more than a song, it’s a call to action. And if you’re still waiting for it to show up on your 4K flat screen, you’ve missed the point entirely. Gil’s message? The revolution is live and you’re not in the audience. You’re in the cast, so go out there and raise your voice, call your representatives, do something... ANYTHING!
Listen to the Song
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 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 four 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 Mae
Pushing that shopping cart down the block on the dead run
Or trying to slide that color TV into a stolen ambulance
NBC will not be able predict the winner
At 8:32 on report from twenty-nine districts
The revolution will not be televised
There will be no pictures of pigs shooting down brothers on the instant replay
There will be no pictures of pigs shooting down brothers on 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 lifes of Roy Wilkins
Strolling through Watts in a red, black, and green liberation jumpsuit
That he has been saving for just the proper occasion
Green Acres, Beverly Hillbillies, and Hooterville Junction
Will no longer be so damn relevant
And women will not care if Dick finally got 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 or Francis Scott Keys
Nor sung by Glen Campbell, Tom Jones, Johnny Cash
Engelbert Humperdinck, or The Rare Earth
The revolution will not be televised
The revolution will not be right back
After a message about a white tornado
White lightning, or white people
You will not have to worry about a dove in your bedroom
The tiger in your tank, or the giant in your toilet bowl
The revolution will not go better with Coke
The revolution will not fight 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