Legendary poet, musician and spoken word artist
Gil Scott-Heron is to have his memoirs published on January 16, 2012. The late great artist's memoirs will be titled "The Last Holiday" and is set for release through publishers Canongate. The release date falls on the same day as
Martin Luther King day, which is fitting because the memoir does document the singer's civil rights activism and a tour he embarked on with
Stevie Wonder in 1980-81 to establish the national holiday. Canongate will also release an audio extract of the book where Heron will be heard reading about the murder of Beatles icon,
John Lennon.
Listen to Heron reading the Lennon chapter below.
The iconic Gil Scott-Heron passed away on the afternoon of May 27 in New York City around 4pm EST at St. Luke’s Hospital.
The loss of Scott-Heron sent a shockwave throughout the worlds of Hip Hop and Soul music. Numerous amounts of current and past artists in both genres expressed their sentiments via Twitter and other outlets. His profound impact on Black culture throughout the 1970s and 1980s was immeasurable. To call him simply an artist does a great disservice to his contributions. He was much more than an artist. He was a prolific songwriter, author and poet that had a pulse on the circumstances he was surrounded by and with his words he moved a generation of disenfranchised people to become something bigger than the environment they were subjected to.
A prophet may be a more accurate description of Scott-Heron because his lyrics from 40 years ago are still eerily relevant today.
An interesting documentary I just stumbled across: Originally aired on the BBC in 2004,