Journalist and Filmmaker James Maycock on Gil Scott-Heron: The Revolution Will Not Be Televised

How did the film with Gil Scott-Heron  come about and how did you get him to agree to it?

I can’t remember the exact series of events.  But the idea for a film about Gil was pitched to the BBC by Jez Nelson’s production company. Once there was genuine BBC interest, Jamie Byng, the CEO at Canongate Books in Edinburgh, encouraged Gil to do this. Jamie had become very good friends with Gil when Jamie re-published Gil’s original two novels in 1996. Gil trusted Jamie implicitly and it was a close relationship. The film might not have happened without Jamie’s endorsement. 

What was Gil like day to day? Was the public persona the real one?

He could be moody, sweet, charming, funny, truculent and difficult. Before my film-making career began, I’d also interviewed Gil over the phone a number of times when writing feature articles for the UK broadsheets and international magazines. Certainly, on those phone calls, he was friendly, delightful, amusing and sharp. I was very fond of him.

Gil was in a difficult period back then. How did you handle that as a crew?

I think the final film is a fascinating, honest portrait of Gil Scott-Heron and Don Letts shaped the narrative. I was there on the shoot, but Don Letts was the person who had to deal most directly with Gil during the New York shoot, alongside the executive producer, Jez Nelson. Both Don and Jez walked a tightrope very skillfully. Let’s just say it was quite turbulent at times. More to be revealed at the talk!

Many people only know The Revolution Will Not Be Televised of Gil’s music. What gets missed by stopping there?

A vast amount!  He didn’t like being stereotyped by that song at all - what artist would? I remember asking him if he felt that song had become an albatross around his neck. He replied, half-jokingly: “No more than Taxi Driver is to Robert De Niro”.

What’s your personal favourite Gil Scott Heron track? Which track or poem do you think is most underrated?

It changes all the time.  But I will always love The Bottle.  Most underrated track is 1976’s It’s Your World, with both music and lyrics written entirely by Brian Jackson.  It’s very uplifting.

He’s often called a godfather of hip-hop, a label he reportedly resisted. What did he say about it to you?

In the BBC film, he admits that if the title is a position of honour, then he would accept it.  But he also joked, saying something along the lines of: “I don’t get up in the morning and say, ‘good morning Godfather, how you doin’?’”

He was also very conscious of all those who had come before him in the spoken word tradition.  He used the metaphor of a “train” – and felt that a lot of Black American poets had boarded the “spoken word train” before he got on it.  He didn’t want to take all the credit – or even felt he deserved all the credit – so that’s perhaps where the resistance to being labelled the “Godfather Of Hip-Hop” came from.

He generosity was, quite rightly, also extended to Brian Jackson, who co-wrote much of their music, and who made immense contributions to their recordings.  Unfortunately, Brian doesn’t get the credit he deserves.

The title is about media and protest. How does it land in the age of social media?

Good question. I guess the title might now be The Revolution Will Not Be On Tik Tok.  Nor will it be discovered gazing into your black mirror for five hours each day. The original was, in part, a satirical attack against passive consumerism.  And I guess the equivalent today is that things like social media have also become a dangerous distraction – as we fall for clickbait, fear-bait, and the urge for dopamine hits. 

Because of this, we have become far more of a “spectator generation” than perhaps was ever wildly imagined possible back in 1970.  Post-Covid, we don’t go out as much and we can easily isolate and cut ourselves off from reality at home. However, as the opening line states in Gil’s “Revolution Will Not be Televised”: “You will not be able to stay home, brother”.  

So, just like how Gil satirised television and consumerism back then and its promises (“The revolution will not give your mouth sex appeal”) a lot of social media and YouTube channels now offer us a distorted, disconnected reality, with content producers employing it as a means of aggrandisement of self, of ego, and monetising their content by exploiting people’s insecurities, as well as sowing division & hate. A lot of psychological manipulation going on.  

Also, take a track like Gil’s Brother (1970).  This was a brilliant critique of performative virtue-signalling, of which there’s quite a lot of around today.  So there are definite parallels between what Gil so brilliantly revealed then, and what is going on now.  

Which artists today carry his influence?

It’s difficult to quantify.  But his influence is huge and has seeped into a lot of music. Most obviously in the political and conscious styles of hip-hop, with someone like Chuck D (Public Enemy) a huge admirer (and who appeared in the BBC film about Gil), as well as Common, but also in the more neo-soul styles, too.  I remember Gil saying he liked Arrested Development too.

What can people expect from this event at the Malt Cross?

A celebration of a brilliant artist and an engaging discussion & debate between myself and Vince Wilson, who knows a lot about Gil, and saw him perform in Birmingham in 1976 – 50 years ago.  This was his & Brian Jackson’s first ever tour of the UK. I will playing some never-before-heard audio of Gil Scott-Heron from my interviews with him over the years.

James Maycock is will be discussing Gil Scott-Heron: The Revolution Will Not Be Televised at the Malt Cross from 5pm on Sunday 25 October. Tickets are £7.50 and available to buy on the Malt Cross website.