Gil Scott-Heron Memoir Due on MLK Day

Gil Scott-Heron's posthumous memoir "The Last Holiday" will be published by Canongate on Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

"Holiday" is said to focus on Scott-Heron's 1980s tour with Stevie Wonder to campaign to get King's birthday recognized as a national holiday. "Holiday" will also cover his music career and work in the civil rights movement

Scott-Heron, who died in May of this year, is one of those individuals for whom the term "influential" is insufficient. As a writer, poet, spoken-word artist and musician he helped lay the seeds for what would become hip-hop, and he's remained an important counter-culture touchstone.

He's been shouted out by LCD Soundsystem, worked with British electronic musician Jamie XX and on Wednesday night My Morning Jacket covered his song "The Bottle" while on stage at Madison Square Garden.

You can listen to an early recording of Scott-Heron reading from "Holiday" here.

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