Things that won’t be televised. Revolution & Genocide
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 TV into a stolen ambulance
NBC will not be able to 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
Gil Scott Heron 1974
Michael Rosen 2025
Michael Rosen has reworked Gil Scott Heron’s words to remind us powerfully that the genocide in Gaza is not televised. Israel bars all media and has murdered over 100 journalists.
The genocide will not be televised
They will keep out cameras
they will keep out those who sympathise
they will keep out those with eyes
The genocide will not be televised
The screens will be full of game shows
reality TV shows, comedy shows
quiz shows, nice-up-your home shows
cookery shows, chat shows
The genocide will not be televised
The genocide will not be televised
journalists will cluster on the outside
they won’t be let inside
they will accuse some of being spies
they will challenge numbers of those who died
The genocide will not be televised
The genocide will not be televised
they will keep saying that it’s a humane war
they keep saying that they want more
they know full well what they’re fighting for
The sea to the river, they want it all
The genocide will not be televised…
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