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The Last Holiday: A Memoir
Gil Scott-Heron
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Description for The Last Holiday: A Memoir
Paperback. 'Leave it to Scott-Heron to save some of his best for last .. He's a real writer, a word man, and [The Last Holiday] is as wriggling and vital in its way as Bob Dylan's Chronicles: Volume One' New York Times Series: Canons. Num Pages: 336 pages. BIC Classification: AVGP; AVH; BGFA; BM. Category: (G) General (US: Trade). Dimension: 198 x 129. .
Raised by his grandmother in Tennessee, Gil Scott-Heron's journey from humble beginnings to becoming one of the most uncompromising and influential songwriters of his generation is a remarkable one. In this, his heartfelt, beautifully written and posthumously published memoir, we are given bright insights into the music industry, New York, the civil-rights movement, modern America, governmental hypocrisy, Stevie Wonder and our wider place in the world. It is also a fitting testament to the generous brilliance of Gil Scott-Heron and to the Spirits that guided him.
Raised by his grandmother in Tennessee, Gil Scott-Heron's journey from humble beginnings to becoming one of the most uncompromising and influential songwriters of his generation is a remarkable one. In this, his heartfelt, beautifully written and posthumously published memoir, we are given bright insights into the music industry, New York, the civil-rights movement, modern America, governmental hypocrisy, Stevie Wonder and our wider place in the world. It is also a fitting testament to the generous brilliance of Gil Scott-Heron and to the Spirits that guided him.
Product Details
Publisher
Canongate Books Ltd
Format
Paperback
Publication date
2017
Series
Canons
Condition
New
Number of Pages
336
Place of Publication
Edinburgh, United Kingdom
ISBN
9781786890252
SKU
V9781786890252
Shipping Time
Usually ships in 5 to 9 working days
Ref
99-99
About Gil Scott-Heron
In a musical career spanning five decades, from Small Talk at 125th and Lenox to I'm New Here, Gil Scott-Heron (1949-2011) released twenty albums and many seminal singles including 'The Revolution Will Not Be Televised,' 'Home Is Where the Hatred Is,' 'Winter in America,' 'B Movie,' 'Johan-nesburg,' and 'Lady Day and John Coltrane.' He was also the author of three previous books: two novels, The Vulture and The Nigger Factory and Now and Then: The Poems of Gil Scott- Heron.
Reviews for The Last Holiday: A Memoir
A marvellous documentary of black America and life lived in the raw
Spectator
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.
Independent on Sunday
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.
Dwight Garner
New York Times
One of the great pioneers of late-twentieth-century music.
Independent
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.
Rob Fitzpatrick
Sunday Times
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.
Herald
Gil Scott-Heron is timeless.
New York Times
An impressively lucid book . . . both candid and guarded . . . his final admissions are heart-rending.
Metro
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.
Washington Post
The formative incidents of Scott-Heron's life are placed in their cultural and historical contexts with great delicacy and precision.
Ben Thompson
Sunday Telegraph
Spectator
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.
Independent on Sunday
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.
Dwight Garner
New York Times
One of the great pioneers of late-twentieth-century music.
Independent
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.
Rob Fitzpatrick
Sunday Times
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.
Herald
Gil Scott-Heron is timeless.
New York Times
An impressively lucid book . . . both candid and guarded . . . his final admissions are heart-rending.
Metro
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.
Washington Post
The formative incidents of Scott-Heron's life are placed in their cultural and historical contexts with great delicacy and precision.
Ben Thompson
Sunday Telegraph