Available:*
Library | Call Number | Status |
|---|---|---|
Searching... R.H. Stafford Library (Woodbury) | 921 HENDRIX | Searching... Unknown |
Bound With These Titles
On Order
Summary
Summary
It has been more than thirty-five years since Jimi Hendrix died, but his music and spirit are still very much alive for his fans everywhere.
Charles R. Cross vividly recounts the life of Hendrix, from his difficult childhood and adolescence in Seattle through his incredible rise to celebrity in London's swinging sixties. It is the story of an outrageous life--with legendary tales of sex, drugs, and excess--while it also reveals a man who struggled to accept his role as idol and who privately craved the kind of normal family life he never had.
Using never-before-seen documents and private letters, and based on hundreds of interviews with those who knew Hendrix--many of whom had never before agreed to be interviewed-- Room Full of Mirrors unlocks the vast mystery of one of music's most enduring legends.
Author Notes
Charles R. Cross was editor of The Rocket , the Northwest's highly regarded music and entertainment magazine and the first publication to do a cover story on Nirvana. He is also the author of Room Full of Mirrors: A Biography of Jimi Hendrix; Led Zeppelin: Heaven and Hell; Backstreets: Springsteen, the Man and his Music; Nevermind: The Classic Album; and Here We Are Now: The Lasting Impact of Kurt Cobain . His writing has appeared in Rolling Stone, Esquire , and Spy , among many other publications. He lives in Seattle.
Reviews (5)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Cross (Heavier than Heaven: A Biography of Kurt Cobain) turns his thoughtful eye toward another Seattle music icon, Jimi Hendrix (1942-1970). With a storyteller's eye, he captures Hendrix's difficult, poverty-stricken childhood with alcoholic and largely absent parents, rendering it as tragic yet not without its happy, tender moments. After a stint as an army paratrooper, Hendrix knocked around playing guitar in blues clubs in the 1960s, winding up in New York and eventually London, where he established himself as a guitar god, even earning the adulation of the Beatles, before exploding onto the U.S. scene with a 1967 appearance at the Monterey Pop Festival. While replete with tales of rock star excess, Cross's narrative, based on more than 300 interviews, describes Hendrix as thoughtful and craving some semblance of order to his life, even as it became steeped in drug use. Of Hendrix's death at age 27, viewed by many as a possible suicide, Cross makes the best case yet for it being accidental, portraying Hendrix as exhausted, unable to sleep and likely taking nine sleeping pills without much thought. There are a number of Hendrix bios already available, but Cross's surpasses them all, both in terms of research and execution. (Aug.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Booklist Review
Vet rock scribe Cross delivers one of the best biographies to date of the late guitar god Jimi Hendrix. Although there is no shortage of bios--or posthumously released recordings--of Hendrix, Cross distinguishes this effort with information gleaned from interviews with primary sources, including Hendrix's surviving family members. Cross is able to provide a fresher and more detailed portrait than appeared in Al Hendrix's (Jimi's deceased father) autobiography, including updates on the intra-family squabbles caused by Al's will. A fuller picture of Hendrix's formative years and the odd dynamic that infused the relationship of Al and Jimi's mother, Lucille, consequently emerges. Theirs was a troubled relationship, rife with adultery and the suspicion, frequently voiced by Al, that not all of the couple's children were biologically his. In addition to the family dirt, Cross covers all the usual Hendrix bases and then some. Was Jimi bisexual? Quite possibly. Did the DAR call for the Monkees to kick the fledgling Jimi Hendrix Experience off their 1967 tour? No; that was a publicity stunt by manager Chas Chandler. Did Hendrix enjoy his seminal involvement with the Plaster Casters? You bet. Admirably comprehensive and well referenced, this is the Hendrix biography to acquire if you can acquire only one. --Mike Tribby Copyright 2005 Booklist
Guardian Review
It is not often that a pop biography, written 35 years after the event, succeeds in dismantling the fables and revealing the reality of a performer's life with quite such clear-eyed acuity as Room Full of Mirrors . When Jimi Hendrix first arrived in London in September 1966, it was as if some exotic guitar god had descended, fully- formed. The terse sleeve notes on his debut album, Are You Experienced , released eight months later, famously hinted at an impossibly romantic provenance. "Left school early and joined the Army-Airborne, but was invalided out with a broken ankle and an injured back. Started hitching around the Southern States, guitar pickin'. One night one of the Isley Brothers heard him playing and offered him a place in their band . . ." The truth, as Hendrix might have put it himself, goes a little deeper than that, and Charles R Cross has got as close to it as anyone yet, in his exhaustive and groundbreaking account of the life of the greatest guitarist in the history of rock. In the case of Hendrix's early departure from the ranks of the 101st Airborne division of the US Army, the real story turns out to be almost comically divergent from the myth. On Hendrix's medical examination records of May 1962, the army doctor, Captain John Halbert, noted a string of chronic health "complaints" including "masturbating; dizziness; pain . . . in the left chest . . . trouble sleeping; personal problems" and recommended that Hendrix should be discharged because of his "homosexual tendencies". This highly unlikely gambit enabled Hendrix to extricate himself from the forces less than a year into his three-year enlistment period without facing a prison term. The story of Hendrix's childhood is less amusing, and while previous biographies have made general allusions to his difficult upbringing, Cross spells out the painful details of grinding poverty, emotional neglect and personal tragedy that explain much about Henrdix's flamboyant yet deeply troubled nature. Born in Seattle in 1942, when his mother, Lucille, was 17 years old, Hendrix was shunted from pillar to post all his young life. He was three when he first met his father, Al Hendrix, on the day he came to California to reclaim his son from the family that had been caring for him up to that point. Al gave Jimi his first disciplinary spanking on the long train ride back to Seattle. Al and Lucille, who were both heavy drinkers, went on to have five more children, four of whom were severely disabled. After divorcing Al, Lucille died when Hendrix was 15. Small wonder that, once the unusually sensitive boy had discovered a talent for playing the guitar, he should take refuge in music. This, in itself, became a bone of contention, and Hendrix dared not leave his guitar unattended in the family home for fear of it being destroyed by Al, who believed his son's interest in the instrument to be unhealthy. Cross, who lives in Seattle, is best known for his highly acclaimed biography of Kurt Cobain, Heavier Than Heaven . His local knowledge gives him an edge over other biographers when it comes to exploring Hendrix's early years, as does his impressive rate of tracking down and talking to those involved with him at the time, a process involving "more than 325 interviews over the course of four years". The story falls more closely into step with previous biographies once Hendrix arrives in London and his accelerated ascent to global stardom begins. One voice that is missing from the 325 interviews is that of Mitch Mitchell, who played drums with Hendrix virtually from the day he stepped off the plane, until the week of his death in London four years later in September 1970. And while Cross is punctilious in referencing the events of Hendrix's life during this tumultuous period, he tends to skate rather airily over the musical details. Even so, he draws interesting links between several of Hendrix's gentler songs - such as "Angel" and "Castles Made Of Sand" - and his feelings of sadness over the loss of his mother. And having read this book you will never again stop to wonder from whence came the anger and despair voiced in songs such as "Manic Depression" and "I Don't Live Today". Cross has no time for conspiracy theories, and dismisses the bizarre claims of the late Monika Danneman over the circumstances surrounding Hendrix's death. Nor does he sign up for some of the more fanciful interpretations that have been ascribed in the past to Hendrix's beliefs and behaviour patterns. Cross maintains that, as an ex-soldier, Hendrix was a supporter of the Vietnam war, at least in the early days. If he had intended his famous, feedback-drenched version of the American national anthem to be a political or anti- Vietnam statement he never spoke of it. "We're all Americans," he said at a press conference. "It was like 'Go America!' . . . We play it the way the air is in America today. The air is slightly static, see." While Hendrix quickly became one of the most celebrated musicians of all time, a figure on a par with his own hero Bob Dylan, the picture that emerges from behind the scenes is of a man drifting rudderless in a sea of lifelong insecurity, heroically unable to commit himself to anything beyond the pleasures and concerns of the moment. By the closing chapters, as he stumbles from abandoned gig to trashed hotel room, either beating up groupies or begging them to marry him, Hendrix has turned into the Pete Doherty of his day. Cross is sparing in his analysis but always to the point. Recounting an interview Hendrix gave to a Danish journalist just weeks before his death, in which the troubled guitarist insisted that other than his music he felt he had nothing to live for, Cross reflects momentarily on the likely significance of this dramatic statement. "Jimi was stoned out of his mind at the time but there was truth in the confession - the life he had created as a star was as lonely and as isolating as his fractured childhood." David Sinclair's Wannabe: How The Spice Girls Reinvented Pop Fame is published by Omnibus. To order Room Full of Mirrors for pounds 17.99 with free UK p&p call Guardian book service on 0870 836 0875. Caption: article-hendrix.1 The truth, as Hendrix might have put it himself, goes a little deeper than that, and Charles R Cross has got as close to it as anyone yet, in his exhaustive and groundbreaking account of the life of the greatest guitarist in the history of rock. In the case of Hendrix's early departure from the ranks of the 101st Airborne division of the US Army, the real story turns out to be almost comically divergent from the myth. On Hendrix's medical examination records of May 1962, the army doctor, Captain John Halbert, noted a string of chronic health "complaints" including "masturbating; dizziness; pain . . . in the left chest . . . trouble sleeping; personal problems" and recommended that Hendrix should be discharged because of his "homosexual tendencies". This highly unlikely gambit enabled Hendrix to extricate himself from the forces less than a year into his three-year enlistment period without facing a prison term. The story falls more closely into step with previous biographies once Hendrix arrives in London and his accelerated ascent to global stardom begins. One voice that is missing from the 325 interviews is that of Mitch Mitchell, who played drums with Hendrix virtually from the day he stepped off the plane, until the week of his death in London four years later in September 1970. And while Cross is punctilious in referencing the events of Hendrix's life during this tumultuous period, he tends to skate rather airily over the musical details. Even so, he draws interesting links between several of Hendrix's gentler songs - such as "Angel" and "Castles Made Of Sand" - and his feelings of sadness over the loss of his mother. And having read this book you will never again stop to wonder from whence came the anger and despair voiced in songs such as "Manic Depression" and "I Don't Live Today". - David Sinclair.
Kirkus Review
Kurt Cobain's biographer takes on the great rock guitarist's legacy and misses the mark. Cross, former editor of the Seattle alternative weekly The Rocket, reached bestseller lists with his biography of Nirvana's ill-fated front man (Heavier Than Heaven, 2001). In this book he reconsiders another Washington state icon, '60s rock superstar Jimi Hendrix. Due on the eve of the 35th anniversary of Hendrix's death at 27 from an accidental overdose, Cross' biography sits somewhat in the shadow of Keith Shadwick's comprehensive Jimi Hendrix Musician (2003), as well as such precursors as Harry Shapiro and Caesar Glebbeek's Jimi Hendrix: Electric Gypsy (1990) and Charles Shaar Murray's Crosstown Traffic (1989). Cross is strongest in his chapters about Hendrix's deprived upbringing in Seattle and the first stirrings of his musical urges, but his tales of Hendrix's apprenticeship on the Southern chitlin' circuit and his artistic development in the hipster cauldron of Greenwich Village in the mid-'60s feel underreported. Worse, Hendrix's 1966 arrival in London, where he quickly became the toast of English musical society, reads like a twice-told tale. We hear again that Hendrix slept with his guitar, but little attention is paid to exactly how he developed his stunning musical and technical gifts. His prodigious mastery of the studio, still a large part of the guitarist's testament, receives virtually no scrutiny -- his sessions are viewed as just part of the blur that accompanied his snowballing fame. While Hendrix's ascent as a black musician playing for white rock 'n' roll audiences (and viewed in some quarters as a racial sell-out) is contemplated, Cross seems either unwilling or unable to grapple with this contradiction, which was so central to Hendrix's inexorable rise. One ultimately understands that Hendrix was crushed by the burden of celebrity, but the sources of that celebrity remain vague. Hendrix's story is finally lost in a purple haze. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Library Journal Review
While albums with "rare" or "lost" Jimi Hendrix studio tracks pop up annually, the late guitar god's biographers haven't been as revealing-they tend to regurgitate tired facts or reinforce the image of Hendrix as a rock martyr. Cross, who previously tamed Kurt Cobain's legacy in the best seller Heavier Than Heaven, ends that cycle by tackling Hendrix with authority and objectivity to spin a tale that's as compelling as it is illuminating. Readers are introduced to a boy who grew up in astonishing poverty and social dysfunction in Seattle; Cross also highlights the rocker's faults by detailing Hendrix's exploitation of women and the little-known fact that he was discharged from the military after lying about his sexuality. And he teases readers with passages of letters that Hendrix wrote to his father, Al, before and after becoming famous. Not only does this read like the definitive take on Hendrix but it also positions Cross as the next great rock biographer. Highly recommended for all libraries, especially those in the Pacific Northwest. [See the Q&A with Cross on p. 84.-Ed.]-Robert Morast, Argus Leader, Sioux Falls, SD (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Table of Contents
| Author's Note | p. xi |
| Prologue: Room Full of Mirrors: Liverpool, England April 9, 1967 | p. 1 |
| Chapter 1 Better Than Before: Seattle, Washington January 1875-November 1942 | p. 8 |
| Chapter 2 Bucket of Blood: Vancouver, British Columbia 1875-1941 | p. 16 |
| Chapter 3 Over Average in Smartness: Seattle, Washington September 1945-June 1952 | p. 26 |
| Chapter 4 The Black Knight: Seattle, Washington July 1952-March 1955 | p. 39 |
| Chapter 5 Johnny Guitar: Seattle, Washington March 1955-March 1958 | p. 49 |
| Chapter 6 Tall Cool One: Seattle, Washington March 1958-October 1960 | p. 61 |
| Chapter 7 Spanish Castle Magic: Seattle, Washington November 1960-May 1961 | p. 75 |
| Chapter 8 Brother Wild: Fort Ord, California May 1961-September 1962 | p. 84 |
| Chapter 9 Headhunter: Nashville, Tennessee October 1962-December 1963 | p. 96 |
| Chapter 10 Harlem World: New York, New York January 1964-July 1965 | p. 108 |
| Chapter 11 Dream in Technicolor: New York, New York July 1965-May 1966 | p. 118 |
| Chapter 12 My Problem Child: New York, New York May 1966-July 1966 | p. 130 |
| Chapter 13 Dylan Black: New York, New York July 1966-September 1966 | p. 142 |
| Chapter 14 Wild Man of Borneo: London, England September 1966-November 1966 | p. 154 |
| Chapter 15 Free Feeling: London, England December 1966-May 1967 | p. 169 |
| Chapter 16 Rumor to Legend: London, England June 1967-July 1967 | p. 185 |
| Chapter 17 Black Noise: New York, New York August 1967-February 1968 | p. 199 |
| Chapter 18 New Music Spacequake: Seattle, Washington February 1968-May 1968 | p. 213 |
| Chapter 19 The Moon First: New York, New York July 1968-December 1968 | p. 227 |
| Chapter 20 Electric Church Music: London, England January 1969-May 1969 | p. 241 |
| Chapter 21 Happiness and Success: Toronto, Canada May 1969-August 1969 | p. 253 |
| Chapter 22 Gypsy, Sun, and Rainbows: Bethel, New York August 1969-November 1969 | p. 267 |
| Chapter 23 King in the Garden: New York, New York December 1969-April 1970 | p. 280 |
| Chapter 24 Magic Boy: Berkeley, California May 1970-July 1970 | p. 294 |
| Chapter 25 Wild Blue Angel: Maui, Hawaii July 1970-August 1970 | p. 306 |
| Chapter 26 The Story of Life: Stockholm, Sweden August 1970-September 1970 | p. 319 |
| Chapter 27 My Train Coming: London, England September 1970-April 2004 | p. 334 |
| Epilogue: Long Black Cadillac: Seattle, Washington April 2002-April 2005 | p. 353 |
| Source Notes | p. 357 |
| Acknowledgments | p. 365 |
| Index | p. 369 |
