Gil Scott-Heron Memoir Set for January Release
A memoir by Gil Scott-Heron, the influential soul-jazz and spoken-word songwriter who recorded “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised,” will be published on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day in January 2012. The timing and title for the book, The Last Holiday, refer to Scott-Heron’s involvement with the civil rights struggle and his effort with Stevie Wonder to establish a national holiday for Dr. King.
Scott-Heron, a socially conscious writer who is often credited as a major inspiration for rap lyricists – his voice can be heard on Kanye West‘s My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy – died in May at age 62. While working on an early draft of his autobiography, he recorded an audiobook chapter about the night of the murder of John Lennon, when Scott-Heron was playing the Oakland Coliseum with Wonder. The excerpt can be heard here.