Gil Scott-Heron Remembers
Stevie WOnder's Hotter than July tour to establish MLK Day

January 15, 2016 | by SFJAZZ

Gil Scott-Heron, Stevie Wonder, Jesse Jackson, and Gladys Knight

Gil Scott-Heron's reflection on Stevie Wonder's "Hotter Than July" Tour was extracted from The Last Holiday: A Memoir by Gil.

The full excerpt was first published by The Guardian in 2012.

“...Memphis meant music. And unless you stop to think for a minute, you might forget that it was in Memphis that Dr Martin Luther King, Jr was shot and killed on a motel balcony on 4 April 1968. Stevie Wonder did not forget. In 1980, Stevie joined with the members of the Black Caucus in the US congress to speak out for the need to honour the day King was born, to make his birthday a national holiday.

The campaign began in earnest on Halloween of 1980 in Houston, Texas, with Stevie's national tour supporting a new LP called Hotter than July, featuring the song Happy Birthday, which advocated a holiday for King. I arrived in Houston in the early afternoon to join the tour as the opening act. By 15 January 1981, King's birthday, I had been working on the Hotter than July tour for 10 weeks...”

“...The Hotter than July tour was a project that, when taken as a whole, was set up to cover 16 weeks, or four months, a third of a year. The endeavour was cut into two six-week halves with a break – a rest period – that lasted a month. In essence, this rally was the half-time show before the second six-week half. One thing that knocked me out looking at this half-time show was how much I had not thought about. Like how much work was involved in organising a fucking rally. That was what Stevie had done and what had to have taken up so much of his offstage time when we were playing, and what must have consumed what I was calling a "rest period". The rally. Ways to publicise it, ways to dramatise it, ways to legitimise it...

...My respect for Stevie Wonder expanded in every direction that day. I was following his lead like a member of his band, because seeing as he had envisioned was a new level of believing. It was something that seeped in softly, and when you were personally touched by someone's effort and genuine sincerity, your brain said you didn't yet understand but your soul said you should trust...

...We all took the stage. The crowd continued to chant: 'Martin Luther King Day, we took a holiday!' Stevie stepped up to the mic and addressed them: 'It's fitting,' he said, 'that we should gather here, for it was here that Martin Luther King inspired the entire nation and the world with his stirring words, his great vision both challenging and inspiring us with his great dream. People have asked, Why Stevie Wonder, as an artist? Why should I be involved in this great cause? I'm Stevie Wonder the artist, yes, but I'm Steveland Morris, a man, a citizen of this country, and a human being. As an artist, my purpose is to communicate the message that can better improve the lives of all of us. I'd like to ask all of you just for one moment, if you will, to be silent and just to think and hear in your mind the voice of our Dr Martin Luther King.”

Somehow, years later, it seems that Stevie's effort as the leader of this campaign has been forgotten. But it is something that we should all remember. Just as surely as we should remember 4 April 1968, we should celebrate 15 January. And we should not forget that Stevie remembered.