Gil Scott-Heron - The Revolution Will Not Be Televised lyrics

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 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 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 Mays 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 on 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 on 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 has been
Saving for just the proper occasion

Green Acres, Beverly Hillbillies
And Hooterville Junction will no longer
Be so damn relevant
And women will not care if
Dick finally got 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 or Francis Scott Keys
Nor sung by Glen Campbell, Tom
Jones, Johnny Cash, Engelbert Humperdinck
Or The Rare Earth
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 dove
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 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