The Revolution Will Not Be Televised

The album features the song "Whitey on the Moon", which ironically addresses the pride of white people in having walked on the moon. While the American population, and especially black people, live in poverty for the most part. But the album opens with an introductory poem, entitled "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised". After introducing himself, Gil Scott-Heron recites a text that is intended as an ironic response to the song "When the Revolution Comes" by the Last Poets. While the latter joked that people would surely be content to watch the revolution go by, sitting in front of their televisions, Scott-Heron develops a more complex argument, still poorly understood today. The text will be taken up the following year on the album Pieces of a Man. An album that Gil Scott-Heron will record with Brian Jackson on piano. In addition to a stunning soul-jazz musical accompaniment, provided by the outstanding musicians. Hubert Laws on flute and saxophone, Bernard Purdie on drums, Ron Carter on bass and Burt Jones on guitar. Ultimately, it was this version that would become popular later on. Even though the song – and the album as a whole – received little attention at the time.