Gil Scott-Heron, Poet, Dies at 62
- MAY 27, 2011, 11:15 PM ET
- Everett
- Gil Scott-Heron in 1985
Gil Scott-Heron, the poet behind the song “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised,” has died in New York City. He was 62 years old.
“The Revolution Will Not Be Televised” was a blast at consumer culture and its ability to lead social change. “The revolution will not make you look five pounds/ Thinner, because The revolution will not be televised, Brother,” go the lyrics. In the song, Scott-Heron warns listeners that “the revolution” won’t be found in the pop culture all around them. “The first change that takes place is in your mind,” Scott-Heron once said, explaining his words.
The son of a Jamaican professional soccer player and a college-educated mother who worked as a librarian, Scott-Heron was born in Chicago in 1949, raised in Jackson, Tenn., and later moved to the Bronx. His songs, which occupied a space between jazz, spoken word, and R&B, helped supply some of the musical and philosophical underpinnings of the Black Power movement of the 1970s and the hip-hop culture that would follow.
Many of his songs, like the anti-apartheid tune “Johannesburg,” were infused with social messages advocating equality, justice, and direct action to bring them about. “Well I hate it when the blood starts flowin’/ but I’m glad to see resistance growin’” he sang on “Johannesburg.”
You can listen to the song “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised” here.
You can leave your thoughts about Gil Scott-Heron in the comments.