Musical messenger.

• Author: Gilmore, Brian
• Position: The Last Holiday: A Memoir - Book review

The Last Holiday: A Memoir

By Gil Scott-Heron

384 pages. Grove Press. $25.

On December 13, 1975, the poet, songwriter, and self-described "bluesologist" Gil Scott-Heron appeared on NBC's Saturday Night Live and performed a song called "Johannesburg." The performance was described by the Los Angeles Sentinel years later as "stunningly prophetic." It was a clarion call for change in South Africa years before the corporate media uttered the name "Nelson Mandela" or paid attention to the anti-apartheid movement. At least among African Americans, Scott-Heron changed the tenor of the conversation on that issue in one late-night performance.

Scott-Heron's SNL moment wasn't surprising; he always wrote poems and songs on important social and political issues before they became fashionable. Whether it was the danger of nuclear energy ("We Almost Lost Detroit," 1977), or the moral bankruptcy of granting Richard Nixon a pardon for Watergate ("We Beg Your Pardon, America," 1975), Scott-Heron was cutting edge. Many of his fans still call him "The Messenger."

When Scott-Heron unexpectedly died last May, a sense of dread came over me for days. However, the loss was tempered by the thought that I had been witness to the entire career of one of the most startling American poets of the post-war era. The Last Holiday, Scott-Heron's recently published memoir, serves as his parting comment.

The Last Holiday, with cinematic qualities, documents a humble but special life. Before he discusses his own experiences, Scott-Heron praises someone else: Stevie Wonder. Wonder and Scott-Heron were friends for years, and he makes it a singular purpose in the book to celebrate Wonder for his leadership role in making the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday a national holiday.

Scott-Heron's band was the opening act on Wonder's "Hotter Than July" tour of 1980-1981. So he had a front row seat as Wonder performed in arenas ali across the United States and sang his now-famous anthem, "Happy Birthday," each time as his demand for a day for King.

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"Something was wrong with ignoring a man here that the world had acknowledged everywhere," Scott-Heron writes. Much of The Last Holiday is wrapped around this event. The book begins with Wonder and the fight for the King holiday, returns near the end with a more intimate look at that crusade, and in the middle, we get the rich and full life of Scott-Heron, the poet and songwriter.

Gil Scott-Heron was born...