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Snowflake

The Revolution Will Not Be Televised

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I've seen a few references to this on the boards and in commercials so since I'm bored I thought I'd give out some useless trivia. The Revolution Will Not Be Televised is a song by Gil Scott-Heron addressing the fact that theres more to life then whats feed to you on TV. I relly wonder if the suits at Nike and whoever else co-opted the phrase has ever listened to the lyrics(I think not). I really find it ironic that the song was ever used in a commercial at all.

Here are the lyrics. They go with a sweet groove laid down by some bad ass jazz peeps

Quote

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 8:32
or 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 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 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 white tornado, 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.

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