Source: Gil Scott-Heron, ‘The Revolution Will Not Be Televised’, from Small Talk at 125th and Lenox (1970), lyrics via http://www.songlyrics.com/heron-gil/the-revolution-will-not-be-televised-lyrics/, adapted to match original version
Text:
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 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 Mindale Rivers to eat
hog moss 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
Wood 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
The revolution will not be televised brother
There will be no pictures of you and Willie Mays
pushing that cart down the block on the dead run
or trying to slide that color TV into a stolen ambulance
NBC will not be able to predict the winner at 8:32
or the reports 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 Whitney Young being
run out of Harlem a rail with a brand new process
There will be no slow motion or still life of Roy
Wilkins strolling through Watts in a red, black and
green liberation jumpsuit that he had been saving
for just the right occasion
Green Acres, The Beverly Hillbillies and Hooterville
Junction will no longer be so goddamned relevant and
women will not care if Dick finally screwed
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 Keys nor sung by Glen Campbell, Tom
Jones, Johnny Cash, Engelbert Humperdinck
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 germ 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 can cause bad breath
The revolution WILL put you in the driver’s seat
The revolution will not be televised, will not be televised,
not be televised
The revolution will be no re-run brothers
The revolution will be live
Comments: Gil Scott-Heron (1949-2011) was an American poet and soul singer, and a noted influence on rap music. ‘The Revolution Will Not Be Televised’ was a phrase regularly used by the Black Power movement of the 1960s, before Scott-Heron produced this poem and song for his first album. The original version (given above) is a poem recited over a conga and bongo beat; the 1971 version released as the B-side of a single has a fuller musical accompaniment and small changes to the lyric. The lyric refers to a number of American television series, including The Rocky & Bullwinkle Show, Search for Tomorrow, The Beverly Hillbillies, Petticoat Junction and Green Acres.
