Gil Scott-Heron – The Revolution Will Not Be Televised
Gil Scott-Heron RIP
Listen/Download – Gil Scott-Heron – The Revolution Will Not Be Televised
Greetings all.
It was last night that rumors, and eventually confirmation of the passing of the mighty Gil Scott-Heron appeared.
In a word, Gil Scott-Heron was deep.
I first became aware of him when I was in high school and saw Scott-Heron and his band performing their funky strike against apartheid ‘Johannesburg’ on Saturday Night Live.
A few years later he was part of the M.U.S.E. No Nukes concerts at Madison Square Garden (unfortunately not on the night I attended) where he laid down ‘We Almost Lost Detroit’, which appeared in the film of the concerts.
Years later, when I was deeper in the funk and soul game, I was lucky enough to find a copy of his very first album, ‘Small Talk at 125th and Lenox’.
The Gil Scott Heron of 1970 was a much different artist than he would become. His early work was largely spoken word, more the sound of a revolutionary poet than the deeply soulful singer he would evolve into.
‘Small Talk at 125th and Lenox’, featured the track I bring you today, the original version of ‘The Revolution Will Not Be Televised’, a landmark spoken word piece that stands as a stark, verbal blow against the America of 1970, touching on race, politics, war, popular culture and a death of the spirit brought on by television.
It is powerful stuff, in large part because of Scott-Heron’s delivering the text with his deep, sonorous voice over a backing composed only of percussion.
Scott-Heron, who was born in Chicago but raised in Tennessee got his start as an author, writing two novels before the beginning of his recording career.
He met his frequent musical partner Brian Jackson while at Lincoln University in Pennsylvania.
After ‘Small Talk at 125th and Lenox’, Scott-Heron’s record became progressively more musical, though since he was always as much a writer as a musician, they never lost their poetic edge, and as such he became a hugely important influence on the world of rap.
His later years were plagued with drug troubles (and subsequently imprisonment) and failing health. He was able to record a final album ‘I’m New Here’ in 2010, and though the many shadows of his life were present in the periphery, the old, strong Gil Scott-Heron was still there.
He passed yesterday at the age of 62.
He will be missed, deeply.
The Revolution Will Not Be Televised
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 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 Mendell Rivers 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, 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 on 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 lifes 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,
Or Francis Scott Key, nor sung by Glen Campbell, Tom
Jones, Johnny Cash, or Englebert Humperdink.
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,
not be televised, will not be televised.
The revolution will be no re-run brothers;
The revolution will be live.
Peace
Larry
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Themocracy
Devastating news Larry.I loved the man and his work.
RIP Gi-Scott.
larry did you ever find a copy of that african beaver 45.
If you have not I have a copy.
jfs
sad news but disrespecting both “Green Acres” AND “The Beverly Hillbillies?”
[…] were thick on the ground all over the Internet. Many touched upon his best-known songs, including “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised,” “B-Movie,” “Home is Where the Hatred Is,” “Winter in America,” […]
Porky:
“Green Acres” was delightfully surreal; “The Beverly Hillbillies” was just plain rock-fuck stupid.