Often called the godfather of rap, Scott-Heron released 20 albums and many singles, including the deeply influential “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised.” Now, even after his death, Scott-Heron continues to mesmerize us in this brilliant and lyrical romp through the fields of his life. He carries us from his birth in 1949 and childhood in Jackson, Tenn., just east of Memphis, to his coming-of-age in New York City and his many and varied musical adventures with recording industry executives such as Clive Davis of Columbia Records. Scott-Heron recalls his grandmother talking to the junk man one day and the next thing he knew, an upright piano was being carried into the house; his musical career commenced when he started learning to play hymns on that piano. When the family got a second radio, he was able to listen to WDIA in Memphis, where Carla and Rufus Thomas and B.B. King were on-air personalities. When the interstate highway paved over their neighborhood, Scott-Heron and his mother moved on to New York, where his musical career took flight and soared. Scott-Heron’s memoir also gracefully calls out Stevie Wonder and his initially attempts and eventually successful campaign to establish Martin Luther King’s birthday as a national holiday. In this captivating memoir Scott-Heron movingly gives thanks for the “Spirits,” those intangible influences in his life that moved him and helped direct his life and to whom he gives back so fully through his gift of lyrics and music. (Feb.)
An impressively lucid book . . . both candid and guarded . . . his final admissions are heart-rending.
Engaging and immensely human . . . Much like his poetry, Scott-Heron's style is spare and effective, offering up jagged observations on fame, friendship and political and racial injustice.
For more than two decades, [Gil Scott-Heron] has been committed to examining those facts of the human condition that most of us would rather forget . . . he is an artist who has crafted witty but crucial insights for Black America.
Scott-Heron is such a fine writer . . . As readers and fans alike, we are left to mourn the passing of surely, the least likely pop star ever, one with a truly brilliant mind.
Sunday Times - Rob Fitzpatrick
Gil Scott-Heron is timeless.
This memoir reads a bit like Langston Hughes filtered through the scratchy and electrified sensibilities of John Lee Hooker, Dick Gregory and Spike Lee . . . about his own music, he could not be more simple or elegant. "I was trying to get people who listened to me," he writes, "to realise that they were not alone."
New York Times - Dwight Garner
One of the great pioneers of late-twentieth-century music.
A marvellous documentary of black America and life lived in the raw
A delight, full of with and alliteration and studded with passages of verse . . . it is a heartbreaking read as the last testament of a much-loved man, but it should certainly be read.
The formative incidents of Scott-Heron's life are placed in their cultural and historical contexts with great delicacy and precision.
Sunday Telegraph - Ben Thompson
Praise for The Last Holiday The Last Holiday , is an elegiac culmination to his musical and literary career. He’s a real writer, a word man, and it is as wriggling and vital in its way as Bob Dylan’s Chronicles: Volume One .”—Dwight Garner, The New York Times The Last Holiday such a fascinating memoir. . . . In ‘Home Is Where the Hatred Is,’ Scott-Heron sang, ‘God, but did you ever try / To turn your sick soul inside out / So that the world ... can watch you die?’ Most of us haven't; most of us have never had that kind of desperate courage. Gil Scott-Heron did, baring his imperfect soul to the world for decades. We're poorer for his loss, but richer for his words.”—Michael Schaub, NPR.org Rolling Stone (four-star review)The Last Holiday , plays back the life of a musician whose scorching political writings and recordings reflected the social injustice faced by African-Americans, inspiring today’s rappers.”—Elissa Schappell, Vanity Fair Milwaukee Journal Sentinel The Independent (UK)Publishers Weekly (starred review)Praise for Gil Scott-Heron The New York Times The Independent (UK)The Telegraph (UK)
This isn't just a memoir of Scott-Heron's being raised by his grandmother in Jackson, TN, and eventually becoming a preeminent musician/songwriter, often called the godfather of rap. More important, it's also about his joining a 41-city tour in fall 1980, organized by Stevie Wonder, that aimed to build momentum for the creation of a national holiday honoring Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Alas, Scott-Heron died in May 2011; his book remains an important testament to a life lived in—and beyond—music.
