"The Evolution will be televised and tweeted and Facebooked and Livestreamed and . . . "
-- banner in the lobby of a Gannett worksite, according to Anonymous@9:56 a.m., who indicates this is part of a Feb. 2 kickoff of Corporate's latest transformation initiative.
(That phrase sound familiar? Ironically, here's why.)
Here are the lyrics of the original 1970 counter-culture song, "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised." (Note the anti-corporate, anti-mass media lyrics.)
ReplyDeleteYou 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,
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 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 May
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
or report 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 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 proper 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
bbout a white tornado, white lightning, or white people.
You will not have to worry about a dove in 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 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.
Consider the impact of "The Revolution . . " on the movie "Network", where the various revolutionary groups are negotiating with the network execs for their own TV (reality) show.
ReplyDeleteOne of the best performances ever on Saturday Night Live came early on, when GSH performed "Johannesburg".
Have you heard? Johannesburg!
The revolution will not be televised. It will be downloaded illegally free of commercials.
ReplyDeleteIronic as hell that Gannett would cluelessly rip the meme from Gil Scott-Heron.
ReplyDeleteIronic except for the "clueless" part -- with Gannett, that's a given.
Gil Scott Heron would be rolling over in his grave. A principled man like that would shriek with Gannett ripping him off. And it shows how truly clueless most of Gannett's managers are that they would paraphrase a revolutionary like that. Like Newt campaigning in one of those iconic Che Guevara tee shirts.
ReplyDeleteI have this on wax (album).
ReplyDeleteBought it in 1974 and it's still in pristine condition!
It's by Gil Scott Heron, Brian Jackson and the Midnight Band and from the album "Winter In America"