Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #311001 in Books
• Published on: 2003-01-13
• Binding: Paperback
• 528 pages

Synopsis
Fusing blues, jazz and psychedelia with an outrageous personal style and image, Hendrix is still revered as the most important instrumentalist in the history of rock. He died aged 27 from drugs and alcohol. Capturing the essence of Hendrix's intense, apocalyptic and ultimately tragic life, the author covers Hendrix's boyhood in Seattle, his years in the US Air Force, his reputation as the best sideman around, his manic trip to London and superstardom, the songs, the concerts, the flaming guitars, the drugs, the booze, the women and most important, the incomparable legacy he left behind.

Customer Reviews

Too groovy for me man!
The biography "Electric Gipsy" was a brilliant read - it didn't go particulrly close to the man through really detailed interviews with his friends, but the attention to detail was pretty amazing, and the photos and extra info [instruments, bootlegs, performances etc] really make it a book to come back to time and time again. I won't be reading this one again though. True, it does contain many,many interviews with Hendrix's friends and family, and does have interesting transcriptions of stoned interviews with he, and other musicians -which are mostly interesting and put Hendrix into historical context more than the[only] other biog I have read. But the description of the music and his guitar playing is written so badly and inaccurately and rambles on so much it drives you mad. Unfortunately this part of the book is so bad it ruins the rest.
To re-iterate, there are some interesting alternative takes on what happened during Jimi's few years of fame which I actually think are more accurate than the journalistic mythology that has become the truth over the years, and is believed by most people. The hippy-style of writing also is more in keeping with how things really were then, rather than something written in hindsight, but those passages describing the music and Jimi's playing???? No

Yes, but WHAT WAS HE LIKE?!
As a huge music fan, I am always interested to read about the characters behind the music, whether I am a fan of their music or not. I am pretty ambivalent in my feelings to Hendrix, but that is not the reason why this book is such a disappointment (I read Sting's book too, and was hugely entertained, despite the fact that I'm far from keen on his records).

No, the weakness of this book is that it never really gets you close to who Hendrix was - How did he treat the women in his life? What effect did drugs have on his personal and creative life? what was he like to work with/ for? Etc etc.
What we get instead is passage after passage describing various songs and performances. Trying to describe music is like trying to explain to a blind person the difference between two colours - you gotta experience it for yourself for it to make any sense. If you want to know what the songs were like, LISTEN TO 'EM!!!!!
Aside from that, there are several transcripted interviews where Hendrix is either very, very stoned or, quite frankly, talking nonesense. The language he uses is very late-sixties, which is fair enough, but no effort is made by the author to question the psychobabble - or to try to explain what they could mean. So, Jimi tells an interviewer that he is from an asteroid just outside Mars, and the comment is not picked up on as evidence of drug misuse/ the trendy mysticism of the day/a bored rock star trying to fool around with yet another interviewer/ mental health issues... There is no critical voice to balance the gushing praise.
Likewise, the author states that he believes Hendrix was murdered, but offers no reason his hunch, nor any substantial theory as to who did it or why they would want Hendrix dead.

Overly excitable in his praise of the music, far too vague about the man himself. Avoid.

On the other hand, "Dear Boy - The Keith Moon Story" shows how a biography SHOULD be written

Read this book!
Never mind if you are a fan of Jimi Hendrix or not. Never mind if you like music or not. This book transcends those barriers of like and dislike.

If music has never touched your soul, you are in desperate need to read this. If it has, and you have cried simply because of the sheer power and beauty of music, you will feel right at home.

The book goes beyond the man Hendrix, and beyond the music of the genius Hendrix. Have you ever wondered about the spirituality of music, especially the blues? Then come on in, you're among friends.

There is just no way this book could have been written by a white man. But be warned: this will change the way you listen to music for EVER! Why this book hasn't received 150 prizes is totally beyond me.

Just get it, read it, and be flipped over. All the good things all the other reviewers have written about this book are true. There is no way one can overestimate writing like this.