“The Revolution Will Not Be Televised” Lyrics - Gil Scott-Heron

“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 drop 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 interruption

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 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, because 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 television into a stolen ambulance

NBC will not predict the winner at 8:32or the count 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 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 right 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

About a whitetornado, white lightning, or white people

You will not have to worry about a germ on 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 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


The revolution will be no re-run brothers

The revolution will be live