Jan
27
Submitted by webmaster on Wed, 01/27/2010 - 11:09
[Editor's Note: I usually don't feature videos on Jambalayah.com that include profanity. However, I'm showcasing this this video because of the enormous influence that this recording has had on rap/hip-hop music and other spoken word performance arts.]
Gil Scott-Heron - The Revolution Will Not Be Televised [Early Version] - 1970
Posted by MrMLD72MLD
November 16, 2009
Video Description:
This is a sound file of Gil Scott-Heron performing his now classic poem to the accompaniment of conga drums.
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3 comments
The Revolution Will Not Be Televised
[Gill Scott-Heron]
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 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 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 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 in 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 life of Roy
Wilkens strolling through Watts in a Red, Black and
Green liberation jumpsuit that he had been saving
For just the proper occasion.
Green Acres, The Beverly Hillbillies, and Hooterville
Junction will no longer be so damned relevant, and
women will not care if Dick finally gets 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,
Francis Scott Key, nor sung by Glen Campbell, Tom
Jones, Johnny Cash, Englebert Humperdink, or the Rare Earth.
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,
will not be televised, will not be televised.
The revolution will be no re-run brothers;
The revolution will be live.
http://www.stlyrics.com/lyrics/undercoverbrother/therevolutionwillnotbet...
Here's information about "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised" that I posted ona Mudcat Discussion Forum thread that I started in 2009:
The Revolution Will Not Be Televised" is a poem and song by Gil Scott-Heron. It was the B-side to Scott-Heron's first single, "Home Is Where the Hatred Is".
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 as the b-side to the single "Home Is Where The Hatred Is".
All 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.
The song appeared in the film The Hurricane by Norman Jewison about the wrongful imprisonment of boxer Rubin Carter and the fight to free him from injustice.
The poem is notable for its extensive political and cultural references, many of which may be unknown today.*...
The song has been covered, sampled, and parodied extensively.**
-snip-
*The Wikipedia article contains a listing and explanation of those references.
** The Wikipedia article contains a listing of a number of those artists who have covered and sampled this rap/song.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Revolution_Will_Not_Be_Televised
-snip-
The words in the composition were directed toward Black Americans and "the revolution" that is talked about is a "Black Power" revolution.
http://www.youtube.com/comment_servlet?all_comments&v=1qoalKUt0mo&fromurl=/watch%3Fv%3D1qoalKUt0mo%26feature%3DPlayList%26p%3D75CDE29E8CAF7B24%26playnext%3D1%26playnext_from%3DPL%26index%3D45
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