The Revolution Will Not Be Televised (album)
| The Revolution Will Not Be Televised | ||||
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| Compilation album by Gil Scott-Heron | ||||
| Released | 1974 | |||
| Recorded | 1970–72 | |||
| Genre | Jazz, funk, R&B, proto-rap, spoken word | |||
| Length | 33:01 | |||
| Label | Flying Dutchman | |||
| Producer | Bob Thiele | |||
| Gil Scott-Heron chronology | ||||
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| Alternative cover | ||||
1988 reissue cover
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The Revolution Will Not Be Televised is a compilation album by American vocalist Gil Scott-Heron, released in 1974 by Flying Dutchman Records. The album takes its name from Scott-Heron's 1971 song of the same name. It features recordings previously featured on Scott-Heron's first three albums for the Flying Dutchman label, Small Talk at 125th and Lenox (1970), Pieces of a Man (1971), and Free Will (1972), which were produced by jazz producer Bob Thiele. The album's recordings feature musical elements of funk, jazz, and proto-rap.
When The Revolution Will Not Be Televised was released in 1974, it charted on Billboard's Top Jazz Albums. It peaked at number 21 on October 12 after spending five weeks on the chart. In a contemporary review, Ebony magazine's Phyl Garland called the album "mind-blowing" and said Scott-Heron "does not merely posture and pacify, but presses one to consider the uncomfortable truths of contemporary blackness."
Since then, The Revolution Will Not Be Televised has positive reviews from publications such as The Washington Post and Los Angeles Daily News, the latter of whom gave it an "A" and stated, "the roots of rap run deep through this superb retrospective".Robert Christgau gave it a "B+" in a 1981 review, writing that the compilation abandons the homophobia that plagued Scott-Heron's 1970 debut Small Talk at 125th and Lenox in favor of songs that show artistic progress, including agitprop that sounds less arrogant but still committed and improved singing that reveals his compassion. In his book To the Break of Dawn: A Freestyle on the Hip Hop Aesthetic (2007), William Jelani Cobb said of its significance in hip hop music:
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