When Gil Scott-Heron passed away quite suddenly last year, I think a lot of fans received the news with heavy hearts and, at the same time, a sense of relief that a man who had obviously struggled so hard to overcome the forces plaguing was finally at some rest. The thought of no new music, especially after his brilliant 'comeback' album I'm New Here, was hard to consider--the music world had lost a vital and unique voice. So it was with great delight that I downloaded, The Last Holiday: A Memoir from the man himself. Given his struggles the idea of a published memoir seemed almost too good to belive but Jamie Byng the director of Canongate, the publishers and a close friend of Heron's revealed that The Last Holiday, completed a year before Heron's death last May, was nearly 20 years in the writing, a process that caused its author no end of angst and entailed some dramatic re-writes, including the scrapping of several chapters told in the third person by a narrator named The Artist.
The title refers to Martin Luther King's National Holiday--a venture inspired and spear-headed by Stevie Wonder but something with which Gil was heavily involved. In fact the book doesn't move much past that event and Stevie Wonder's Hotter than July tour, but maybe that is a good thing. In that sense it looks to be a bit unfinished--mch like the man, sadly gone before all of his work was done.
There is a poignancy about the release of the book in this week before the MLK holiday and reading it has taken on something of a devotional tone for me. If you liked Gil Scott-Heron you need this book, and if you don't what are you doing reading this blog?:)
Great tip and love the ending of ts post! I see you found your wit back in the UK (how did it stay dry with all that rain?)
Posted by: Seeward | 11 January 2012 at 01:37 AM