The Revolution Will Not Be Televised - Footnotes

(Poem found at: http://www.globaldarkness.com/articles/gill_scott_heron_revolution_willnotbe_televised.htm)

First stanza: You will not be able to sit at home during the revolution and watch it on tv, it will not be broadcasted.

Second stanza: The revolution will not be a show starring popular actors of the seventies, with commercials telling you how to lose five pounds quickly, or what makeup to wear.

Third stanza: There will be no riots, no declaration of the winner of the war on television. The revolution will be behind the scenes.

Fourth stanza: Cops are often referred to as pigs. There will be no pictures of cops controlling these riots. There will be no pictures of Whitney Young, an African American activist and leader of the NAACP in Georgia, run out of Harlem. (Information on Young: http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAyoungW.htm). There will be no paintings of Roy Wilkins, who was the executive director of the NAACP and a civil rights activist (Information on Wilkins: http://www.multied.com/Bio/people/Wilkins.html), wearing a painted jumpsuit in Watts, assumingly as a statement.

Fifth stanza: The black community will no longer be concerned with the lives of television characters; they will be in the streets looking for a leg up in life.

Sixth stanza: There will be no highlights of the revolution on television. Jackie Onassis, former wife of John F. Kennedy (Information on Jackie Onassis: http://www.lucidcafe.com/library/96jul/jackie.html) will not be shown blowing her nose, assumingly at the time of the death of President Kennedy. There will be no theme songs written for the Revolution like many other wars have had.

Seventh stanza: Talks of popular commercials from the time era, stating that these products will not fix what ails you during the revolution. Also speaks of white tornadoes, white lightning, and white people, simply saying that it is a white world. There will be nothing on the news about insignificant things such as animals escaping from the zoo.

Eighth stanza: The revolution will not be something you can sit and watch, it will be what the audience of the poem will be living, in everyday "black America.

Additional notes: Scott-Heron emerged in the early 1970s with albums