Samiksha Jaiswal (Editor)

The Revolution Will Not Be Televised

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Released
  
1971

Genre
  
Funk spoken word

Format
  
7-inch single

Length
  
3:07

The Revolution Will Not Be Televised

A-side
  
"Home Is Where the Hatred Is"

Recorded
  
April 19, 1971 RCA Studios, New York City

"The Revolution Will Not Be Televised" is a poem and song by Gil Scott-Heron. Scott-Heron first recorded it for his 1970 album Small Talk at 125th and Lenox, on which he recited the lyrics, accompanied by congas and bongo drums. A re-recorded version, with a full band, was the B-side to Scott-Heron's first single, "Home Is Where the Hatred Is", from his album Pieces of a Man (1971). It was also included on his compilation album, The Revolution Will Not Be Televised (1974). All these releases were issued on the Flying Dutchman Productions record label.

The song's title was originally a popular slogan among the 1960s Black Power movements in the United States. Its lyrics either mention or allude to several television series, advertising slogans and icons of entertainment and news coverage that serve as examples of what "the revolution will not" be or do.

  • In the beginning of hip hop artist Common's song "The 6th Sense" from the 2000 album Like Water for Chocolate he states "The revolution will not be televised, the revolution is here."
  • 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," an allusion to the song.
  • 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". A radio station that played the song was fined by the FCC.
  • In the mid-1990s, hip-hop/rap artist KRS-One recorded a re-imagining of the song using different lyrics, written by Wieden+Kennedy copywriter Stacy Wall, for "Revolution," a Jake Scott-directed Nike commercial featuring Jason Kidd, Jim Jackson, Eddie Jones, Joe Smith, and Kevin Garnett.
  • The opening line of "Welcome to the World of the Plastic Beach", performed by Snoop Dogg on the Gorillaz album Plastic Beach, is "The revolution will be televised".
  • A cover was recorded by the trio Labelle as part of a medley for their 1973 album, Pressure Cookin'.
  • On their 1999 album Ad Finité the band Genaside II has a song called "The Genaside Will Not Be Televised," where some words of the original text were changed, such as different film actors being named.
  • The song appears in the 1999 Norman Jewison film The Hurricane and on its soundtrack.
  • The Revolution Will Not Be Funded: Beyond the Non-Profit Industrial Complex, a book published in 2009, references the song in its title.
  • In 2010, New Statesman magazine listed it as one of the “Top 20 Political Songs”.
  • In 2011, after Gil's death, Lupe Fiasco released a poem dedicated to him titled "The Television Will Not Be Revolutionized".
  • In June 2013 a sign quoting the poem's title (in Greek) was posted on a window inside the Greek state broadcaster ERT as employees resisted its closure by the government under pressure from the troika of the EU, ECB and the IMF to cut public spending under their austerity regime.
  • Released in September 2013, South Korean entertainer G-Dragon's Coup d'Etat contains a vocal sample of "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised".
  • Parts of the song are used during the opening credits of season six of Homeland.

    • References

    The Revolution Will Not Be Televised Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA