The Last Holiday: A Memoir
and over 900,000 other books are available for Amazon Kindle .
Learn more
| |||||||||||||||
 Trade In this Item for up to £3.35
Trade in The Last Holiday: A Memoir for an Amazon.co.uk gift card of up to £3.35, which you can then spend on millions of items across the site. Trade-in values may vary (terms apply). Find more products eligible for trade-in.
|
Frequently Bought Together
Product details
|
More About the Author
Product Description
Review
One of the great pioneers of late-twentieth-century music. --Independent
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
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
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
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. --Fiona Sturges, Independent on Sunday
An impressively lucid book . . . both candid and guarded . . . his final admissions are heart-rending. --Metro
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
Scott-Heron's memoir comes beautifully to life when talking about other musicians. --Telegraph Review
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
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
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
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. --Fiona Sturges, Independent on Sunday
An impressively lucid book . . . both candid and guarded . . . his final admissions are heart-rending. --Metro
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
Scott-Heron's memoir comes beautifully to life when talking about other musicians. --Telegraph Review
Product Description
'Dr. Martin Luther King had a dream. And Stevie Wonder had a dream. This is a book about dreams.' In the autumn of 1980, Stevie Wonder invited Gil Scott-Heron to join him on a forty-one-city tour across America, ending in Washington in January 1981, to gather popular support for the creation of a holiday in honour of the great civil-rights leader, Martin Luther King, Jr. Scott-Heron uses this history-making tour as the backbone of his fascinating memoir. Raised by his grandmother in Jackson, Tennessee, Scott-Heron's journey from humble beginnings to becoming one of the most uncompromising and influential musicians and songwriters of his generation is a remarkable one. Politically savvy and savagely satirical, socially conscious and tender-hearted, Gil Scott-Heron has been called the godfather of rap, and his unexpected death in May 2011 marked the loss of one of the world's most vocal and articulate artists. Chuck D of Public Enemy said of Scott-Heron, 'we do what we do and who we do because of you' and Eminem added, 'Scott-Heron influenced all of hip-hop'. In the words of Sarah Silverman, 'he mirrored ugliness with beauty, audacity, and valour'. A compelling testament to Gil Scott-Heron's career and achievements, The Last Holiday is full of Scott-Heron's keen insights into the music industry, the civil rights movement, modern America, governmental hypocrisy and our wider place in the world.
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Concise, informative, with enough sharp wit included to remind the reader of Gil Scott-Heron's genius,
By MCDee (Perth,Scotland) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Last Holiday: A Memoir (Hardcover)
The central thread of this text is the experience of touring with Stevie Wonder. Yet there is much more depth to it than a simple diary of any particular event.Through the exploration of Gil's past, the reader becomes enriched about how a seemingly unique writer and artist shared the same dilemmas at times as so-called ordinary people. We learn of Gil's upbringing, and read hints of where certain aspects of the 'Scott' character may have originated. Recollections are as diverse as they are insightful, from Gil's apperance on a Glasgow television show to talk of his footballing father, to the rather more alarming episodes where he suffers a stroke and recalls the aftermath of his mother's death. Throughout there are examples of his sharp and intellectual wit and understanding of what goes on behind the American facade we see looking in from outside. However complex the story becomes, the return to the relationship with Stevie over his career until 1981 anchors the text. At just over 40 chapters this is an enthralling dip into the life of a man who really should have been given more recognition. Though it is poignant that part of Gil Scott-Heron's story be told after his passing, there remains a lingering appetite to find out more. I for one can only hope that any future texts on the life of Mr.Scott-Heron will be as insightful as this.
17 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Nowhere near as informative as I had hoped...,
By Vetrianno (England) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Last Holiday: A Memoir (Hardcover)
I pre-ordered this book from Amazon as soon as I realised that it was due out. The service was just as good as ever, landing on my doorstep the very day that it was released. Unfortunately that is about as good as it. The book itself is a disappointment, at least to me. How come a guy as wise and philosophical as Gil Scott Heron continually was on record can't put together a good quality autobiography, one with real meaning? To me the reasoning comes on the inside cover where I learned that the copy write (and presumably the book earnings) belong to his estate, not that there is anything wrong with that in itself of course.I've been a big fan of GSH since I first heard 'The Bottle' in the 1970's, one of the most soulful, haunting but beautiful records That I have ever heard. Over the years, I have bought lots of his music including his last cd 'I'm New Here' which I loved and would recommend. Incidentally I was due to photograph him at Bestival in the September before he passed away. To me, the book lacks both the quality, honesty, humour and grittiness that i was expecting to encounter and that comes through in his songwriting and delivery. I was hoping to learn much more about GSH as a person from the book, about his problems and how they were manifested, about his frailties and how they were formed and his political views and associations. Unfortunately, other than around his schooling I learned very little, most of the other stuff covered is just skirted over. To me, it reads like it was written just to fill the Scott Heron coffers once he had passed, and as I touched on earlier there is nothing wrong with that either, I just feel that we learn little from this book about this giant of music, culture and social commentary. That said; may he Rest In Peace.
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
|
|
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
|
|
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
|
