The Revolution Will Not Be Televised
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"The Revolution Will Not Be Televised" is a poem and song by Gil Scott-Heron, which commented upon the political and social turmoil of late 1960s/early 1970s America.
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[edit] History
[edit] Original versions
It first appeared on the 1970 album Small Talk at 125th and Lenox, on which Scott-Heron recited the piece, accompanied only by congas and bongo drums. A re-recorded version, this time with a full band, appeared on the 1971 album Pieces Of A Man, and on the double A-sided single "Home Is Where The Hatred Is"/"The Revolution Will Not Be Televised". All of these releases were issued on the Flying Dutchman Productions label. The piece's name was also used as the title to Scott-Heron's "Best of" album, issued in 1998 by RCA.
[edit] Covers and allusions
More recently, the song has been covered, sampled and parodied extensively. In the nineties, the words for the poem were memorably sampled by The Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy. The song was also covered by The Last Poets as the title track for one of their albums. Soul Rebels, a house music project created by vocalist Roland Clark, has covered the song in a dance version. British acid jazz group Smoove and dub band Brooklyn Funk Essentials parodied the song with their respective tracks "The Revolution Will Be Televised" and "The Revolution was Postponed Because Of Rain". Hip-hop artist Aesop Rock has also parodied the work, in his song "Coma" from Labor Days, "If the revolution ain't gon' be televised, then, fuck, I'll probably miss it." He later paid homage to the track on his LP "Bazooka Tooth," with the song "We're Famous" and the line, "The revolution will not be apologized for." British funk/jazz group Jamiroquai also claim "the revolution will be televised" in their track "The Kids" from their second album, The Return of the Space Cowboy, with singer Jay Kay adding "Yes, it will, Gil" as an ad lib.
Elvis Costello's song "Invasion Hit Parade" from his 1991 album Mighty Like a Rose contains the lines "Incidentally the revolution will be televised/ With one head for business and another for good looks/Until they started arriving with their rubber aprons and their butcher's hooks" [1], another clear (but opposite) allusion to the song.
The hip-hop group Public Enemy used the phrase "The revolution will not be televised" in the opening to its 1987 album, "It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back," and hip-hop artist Common used the term as an intro to his 2000 single "The 6th Sense" ("The revolution will not be televised; the revolution is here."). Cee-lo Green uses a twist of the phrase on the song "Big Ole Words" [Cee-lo Green and His Perfect Imperfections] when he says: "The powers that be will be beaten into submission And you WILL be able to see my revolution on television." Pop star Prince also made extensive reference to this poem in his 1998 single "The War", a 26 minute noise jam/spoken word piece, in which a chant of "evolution will be colorized" is heard.
The title track of Talib Kweli's "Beautiful Struggle" also contains a reference. The opening verse begins with: "Yo, I heard it's said the revolution won't be televised But in the land of milk and honey there's a date you gotta sell it by". And in its chorus, it's said: "The revolution is here."
The Pulp album This Is Hardcore finishes with the track The Day After The Revolution, which suggests that the revolution will be televised but everyone will miss it ("The revolution was televised / Now it's over, bye bye").
The Sarah Jones song "Your Revolution", a feminist interpretation of the song criticizing misogyny in mainstream hip hop (with the key line "Your revolution will not happen between these thighs"), was banned by the FCC. [2]
The rock band Piebald released an EP called "The Rock Revolution Will Not Be Televised" in 2000. The title track contains the lyrics "Can't you see by the look in our eyes that the rock revolution won't be televised?"
In 1993, the Welsh hip hop and electronica duo Llwybr Llaethog released a Welsh language version called "Fydd y Chwildro ddim ar y Teledu, Cyfaill" together with the poet Ifor ap Glyn. In 2004, the Mexican hip hop and rock group Molotov released a Spanish-language version called "La Revolución".
In 2004, gay cabaret duo Kiki and Herb performed the song as part of a medley called "The Revolution Medley" in their sold-out "farewell" performance at Carnegie Hall. The concert, including the medley, was recorded and released as a double-album in 2005, called Kiki and Herb Will Die for You: Live at Carnegie Hall.
Steve Earle played the Gil Scott-Heron recording immediately before the start of his set on tour dates in support of his 2004 album, The Revolution Starts Now.
In 2006 Pearls Before Swine creator Stephan Pastis parodied the poem's title with a collection of comics entitled "The Ratvolution Will Not Be Televised".
The Revolution Will Not Be Televised, a documentary by Irish filmmakers, chronicles the April 11, 2002 coup against Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez.
The NOFX song The Marxist Brothers (off their EP Never Trust a Hippie and album Wolves in Wolves' Clothing) mocks pseudo-intellectual leftism and vaguely alludes to Scott-Heron's song with the line "The people's revolution is going to be a podcast".
The opening few bars of the 2006 Damian Marley (son of Bob Marley and Cindy Breakspeare) and Bobby Brown song 'Beautiful' include the phrase "the revolution will be televised, feel me"
In the early 1990s, hip-hop/rap artist KRS-One did a re-imagining of the song using different lyrics for a Nike commercial.
In an episode of The Colbert Report, Stephen Colbert stated that "The Revolution Will Not Be Verified," in reference to a revolution replacing facts and reality with "wikiality" by creating a truth by consensus.
Matthew Good's song "21st Century Living" contradicts the original with the line, "Our ambition will televise the revolution, and it'll sell more fucking commercial spots than the Super Bowl, the Olympics, the World Series, and the Tragedy Du Jour combined."
Apple's release of the Apple TV carried the tag-line "The Revolution Will Be Televised"
Wu-Tang Clan's song "Wu-revolution" on their Wu-Tang Forever album contains the lyric "Yeah, the revolution should be, televised."
[edit] References
The poem is notable for its extensive political and cultural references, many of which are opaque to younger readers and listeners. The list below links to some of the references Scott-Heron makes.
- "Plug in, turn on, and cop out," a reference to Timothy Leary's pro-LSD phrase "Turn on, tune in, drop out."
- Scag, slang term for heroin
- Richard Nixon, 37th President of the United States
- John N. Mitchell, U.S. Attorney General under Nixon
- General Creighton Abrams, commander of military operations during the Vietnam War
- Spiro Agnew, 39th Vice President of the United States under Nixon
- “Hog maws”, sometimes misheard as “hog moss”, soul food made from hog jowls
- Harlem, New York neighborhood
- Schaefer Award Theater, radio show by Dick Clark
- Natalie Wood, film actress
- Steve McQueen, film actor
- Bullwinkle, cartoon character
- Julia, a TV half-hour sitcom series of the period starring Diahann Carroll
- "Give your mouth sex appeal", from Ultra Brite toothpaste advertising.
- Instant replay, a sports television term
- Whitney Young, civil rights leader
- Roy Wilkins, executive director of the NAACP
- Watts, a neighborhood in Los Angeles, referring to the Watts Riots of 1965
- “Red, black, and green”, the colors of the Pan-African flag
- Green Acres, a U.S. television sitcom
- The Beverly Hillbillies, another U.S. television sitcom
- Hooterville “Junction” [sic], the fictional setting of Green Acres and Petticoat Junction
- Search for Tomorrow, a U.S. television soap opera
- Dick and Jane, generic characters influenced by the American basal readers
- “Eleven o’clock news”, a reference to a generic television news program
- “Women liberationists”, a reference to the feminist movement
- Jackie Onassis, seen during the period in television broadcasts covering Kennedy memorials
- Jim Webb, U.S. composer
- Francis Scott Key, author of the words to “The Star-Spangled Banner”
- Glen Campbell, U.S. pop music singer
- Tom Jones, Welsh pop music singer
- Johnny Cash, U.S. country music singer
- Engelbert Humperdinck, British pop music singer
- Rare Earth, all-white U.S. pop music band signed to Motown Records
- “White tornado”, advertising slogan for Ajax cleanser, “Ajax cleans like a white tornado”
- “White lightning”, a slang term for moonshine, also an American psychedelic rock band
- “Dove in your bedroom”? (advertising slogan)
- “Tiger in your tank”, an Esso advertising slogan created by Chicago copywriter Emery Smith [3]
- “Giant in your toilet bowl” - Reference to the Liquid Plumr Commercials that cleared your toilet so well it was like "having a giant in your toilet bowl [to work the plunger]. here would be an animation of a large disembodied arm using a plunger on your toilet. (advertising slogan)
- “Go better with Coke”, a Coca-Cola advertising slogan, “Things go better with Coke”
- “Fight the germs that may cause bad breath”, from Listerine advertising
- “Put you in the driver’s seat” (advertising slogan from a car rental company, Hertz)
- Rerun
