The Revolution Will Not Be Televised
"The Revolution Will Not Be Televised" is a satirical poem and Black Liberation 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 three-piece band, was the B-side to Scott-Heron's first single, "Home Is Where the Hatred Is", from his album Pieces of a Man. This recording was still sparsely instrumented, but now, in addition to drums, featured a driving bassline played by Ron Carter and, somewhat unconventionally, a jazz-infused flute line by Hubert Laws throughout, acting as a countermelody to Heron's passionately delivered spoken word vocal. This sparse and rhythm-driven backdrop to Heron's incisive vocal, held down by Bernard Purdie's tight and explosive funk drumming, and eschewing thick chordal accompaniment, foreshadowed musical developments in hip-hop in the decade to come.
It was also included on his compilation album, The Revolution Will Not Be Televised. All these releases were issued on the Flying Dutchman Productions record label.
The song's 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. The song is a response to the spoken-word piece "When the Revolution Comes" by The Last Poets, from their eponymous debut album, which opens with the line "When the revolution comes some of us will probably catch it on TV".
It was inducted to the National Recording Registry in 2005.
In 2021, it was ranked at No. 258 on Rolling Stones "500 Greatest Songs of All Time". In 2025, the publication ranked the song at number 14 on its list of "The 100 Best Protest Songs of All Time."
Cultural references in the poem
Each verse has several cultural references:- "Plug in, turn on, and cop out", a reference to Timothy Leary's pro-LSD phrase "Turn on, tune in, drop out."
- "Skag", term for heroin
- Xerox, best-known manufacturer of photocopying machines
- Richard Nixon, 37th president of the United States
- John N. Mitchell, U.S. Attorney General under Nixon
- General Creighton Abrams, one of the commanders of military operations in Southeast Asia during the Vietnam War
- Mendel Rivers, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee during the period of 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 the stomach of a pigSchaefer Award Theatre, an anthology of theatrical films that aired on several U.S. TV stations
- Natalie Wood, film actress
- Steve McQueen, film actor
- Bullwinkle, cartoon character
- Julia, the lead character on the half-hour television sitcom series Julia starring Diahann Carroll.
- "Give your mouth sex appeal", from Ultra Brite toothpaste advertising
- "The revolution will not get rid of the nubs", the nubs being beard stubble, from a Gillette Techmatic razor advertisement of the period
- Willie Mays, baseball player
- "NBC will not be able to predict the winner at 8:32", a reference to television networks predicting the winner of presidential elections shortly after the polls close at 8 p.m.
- "Pigs", term for police
- Whitney Young, civil rights leader
- "Process", term for using chemicals to straighten a Black person's hair
- Roy Wilkins, executive director of the NAACP
- Watts, a neighborhood in Los Angeles, alluding to the Watts Riots of 1965
- "Red, black, and green", the colors of the Pan-African flagGreen Acres, a U.S. television sitcomThe Beverly Hillbillies, a U.S. television sitcom
- "Hooterville Junction"
- "...will no longer be so damned relevant," a statement of approval toward the rural purge that led to the above three shows being canceled
- Dick and Jane, generic white couple derived from white children, a brother and sister, featured in American basal readersSearch for Tomorrow, a popular U.S. television soap operaThe Brighter Day, another U.S. television soap opera
- "Hairy-armed women liberationists", participants in second-wave feminism
- Jackie Onassis, the late U.S. President John F. Kennedy's widow, seen during the period in television broadcasts of Kennedy memorials
- Jim Webb, U.S. composer
- Francis Scott Key, lyricist of "The Star-Spangled Banner"
- Glen Campbell, U.S. pop/country music singer, then hosting The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour
- Tom Jones, Welsh pop music singer, then hosting This Is Tom Jones
- Johnny Cash, U.S. country music singer, then hosting The Johnny Cash Show
- Engelbert Humperdinck, British pop music singer, then hosting The Engelbert Humperdinck Show
- Rare Earth, all-white U.S. rock band signed to Motown Records
- "White tornado", advertising slogan for Ajax cleanser, "Ajax cleans like a white tornado"
- "White lightning", a term for moonshine, the name of a 1950s country and western song by George Jones, and an American psychedelic rock band.
- "Dove in your bedroom", an advertising image associated with Dove anti-perspirant deodorant
- "Put a tiger in your tank", an Esso advertising slogan created by Chicago copywriter Emery Smith
- "Giant in your toilet bowl," a reference to Liquid-Plumr commercials saying that it cleared so well it was like "having a giant in your toilet bowl" with an animation of a large arm using a plunger on your toilet.
- "Things go better with Coke", a Coca-Cola advertising slogan
- "Fights germs that may cause bad breath", from Listerine advertising
- "Will put you in the driver's seat", reference to advertising slogan for Hertz car rental.
In popular culture
- During the Super Bowl LIX Halftime Show in New Orleans, rapper Kendrick Lamar made a reference to "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised" during his performance, in which he said "The revolution ’bout to be televised / You picked the right time but the wrong guy," and then led into his song "Squabble Up". He also references it in his song "TV Off", with the line "This revolution been televised, I fell through with the knick-knacks".
- Scott-Heron's song is referenced numerous times throughout the 2025 film One Battle After Another, in which the lyrics are used as a code for former members of the group the French 75 and their associates to identify one another.
- 2012-12-16 but first published on the Ninja Tune compilation triple-album Xen Cuts on 2000-09-18.