GUILFORD — A new and acclaimed biography, “Gil Scott-Heron: Pieces of a Man,” about the man widely regarded as the forefather of modern hip-hop, was largely written, incongruously, in a remote cabin in the woods of Southern Vermont.
But then perhaps it not so odd. The author of this definitive biography, Marcus Baram, grew up in the village of Green River in Guilford, and in Belmont, Mass. He now lives in Green River and Brooklyn, N.Y.
“I have spent a lot of time in Guilford since I was a kid,” Baram says. “My father was a Marlboro Music fanatic and so, in 1966, he bought a hunter's cabin in Green River where he could go to stay during the festival.
“Our whole family loved Vermont and began coming more often. I spent most of my summers in Guilford and every other weekend. A few years ago, sort of like Thoreau, I built a cabin of my own on this property, a writer's retreat, where much of the Scott-Heron biography was composed.”
Published by St. Martin's Press only last month, “Gil Scott-Heron: Pieces of a Man” is the first biography of a musical legend who wrote songs that fused jazz, blues, and soul with uncompromising lyrics that took on the social and political issues of 1960s and 1970s.
A lifelong fan, Baram knew Scott-Heron, and they were discussing collaborating on a memoir before the artist died.
Baram is the managing editor at International Business Times. He has more than 15 years of experience in journalism as an editor and reporter, he writes at his website, marcusbaram.com.
Most recently, he says, he was senior editor at the Huffington Post for four years, where he “helped build the site into a news behemoth by running the front page, editing original stories, reporting exclusive stories and boosting traffic.”
Previously, he continues, he was a producer at ABC News, an associate news editor at The Wall Street Journal, news editor at the New York Observer, and a reporter at the New York Daily News.”
Although he has had a long career in journalism, this is Baram's first book.
“I wanted to write the definitive Scott-Heron,” Baram says.
The book took him more than two years to write as he held his full-time job.
“I began this project as a fan, but I also did much solid research,” Baram explains. He conducted more than 200 interviews “and spent many months of reporting to tell Scott-Heron's story, the most definitive account of this musical genius' life and legacy.”
Baram says he first became interested in a Scott-Heron biography shortly after moving to New York City in the early 1990s.
“Gil was based in Manhattan where he performed a lot. After I got a chance to see him live, I decided I must write a book about this great artist. There are books about [Bob] Dylan or various jazz greats coming out every other year, but there was nothing on Scott-Heron.”
Baram says he believes that this as an important story to be told.
“Gil Scott-Heron was a unique artist who fell of the map in the 1980s and needs to be remembered. He has influenced countless writers, academics, and musicians from indie rockers to rappers - everyone from Cornel West and LCD Soundsystem's James Murphy to Kanye West, Eminem, and Mos Def.”
Baram says that Scott-Heron was perhaps best known for his 1970 polemic “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised.”
Baram writes: “He sealed the soul of a turbulent decade, marked by uncertainty and racism, in a time capsule with his bitingly observant lyrics in singles such as 'The Bottle' and 'Johannesburg,' which canonized him as a counterculture hero.”
Baram says Scott-Heron was sometimes called “the black Bob Dylan,” a term he'd hated.
“But there is some truth to it, since he wrote complex poetry often addressing social issues tied to rhythm-and-blues music. He performed at the No Nukes concert in 1979 organized by Bruce Springsteen. Long before people were thinking much about apartheid in America, he was the first person to write a song about it, which he performed on 'Saturday Night Live' in 1975 with Richard Pryor hosting.”
After his heyday in the 1970s, Scott-Heron had a sad decline. He developed a drug addiction in the 1980s and began a free fall.
“That part of of his life is unfortunate, and as a crack addict, he ended his life in jail,” Baram says. “However, a music producer from England was a big fan and got him to record a new album in 2010 that was remixed by a hot music producer. So he had a little revival at the end of his life and went out on a high.”
Scott-Heron maintained a cult following throughout his life, but as Baram writes, “Even as he grappled with the personal demons that fueled so many of his lyrics, he never achieved mainstream success. But he still continued to perform and occasionally record well into his later years, until eventually succumbing to his lifelong struggle with addiction when he passed away in 2011.”
How well known is he now?
“Half the people I talk to have no clue of who he was, even those who follow hip-hop bands whom you think would know,” Baram says. “Yet another half, often including people you wouldn't think would know or remember him, like a 19-year-old college kid I was talking to recently, or the older sister of my landlord, who is in her 50s or 60s, are big fans.
“Scott-Heron was always less popular outside the Afro-American communities, but he had a few genuine hits in the 1970s. Even now in Brattleboro, at Turn It Up, you can find many of his CDs, which have been remastered and reissued.”
“Gil Scott-Heron: Pieces of a Man” has received favorable buzz of late: The New Yorker named it “one to look for” on its website, and it has been reviewed and had chapters included in various publications and websites, including the Chicago Tribune, Vanity Fair, and Newsweek online.
Baram has been interviewed on public radio programs such as “The World” and “The Tavis Smiley Show.” Baram said he will soon will be interviewed on Smiley's public TV program.
“Writing this biography has been a labor of love,” Baram says.
He is touring the country to promote the book and is planning to give a reading at Everyone's Books on Elliot Street in early 2015.
“One thing I regret is the demise of The Book Cellar on Main Street in Brattleboro,” he says. “I knew and loved that bookstore growing up in Southern Vermont, and I always envisioned that when I finally wrote a book of my own it would be sitting there in the store window. Now it's gone.”