Jimi Hendrix - Electric Gypsy - Harry Shapiro and Caesar Glebbeek

 

I originally read this massive tome on one of the Tommyknockers longer tours of Europe, but it was such a good read that I finished it early on and nearly everyone else on the tour (TK's and Embryonics) read it before the tour finished. I seem to remember that everyone dug it and we had tons of conversations about it - I mean, who doesn't dig Jimi? Of course, that was quite a while ago now so I thought I'd give it another go and see if I still dug it as much.

Jimi's early life was erratic with his dad drafted into the army before he was born and his mother was a 16 year old hellion who just wanted to party and fraternize'n'travel with various men. This meant that Jimi also went from home to home before his father, Al, was discharged. Even then, there was a lot of moving around for various reasons and not a lot of money to be found but eventually Al was settled enough that he was convinced to buy a guitar for Jimi and after that, nothing was the same for the youngster.

Jimi played whenever he could, including in several local bands before he ended up joining the army, but he was injured jumping out of a plane and ended up in Nashville, where he stayed for no major reason. He had met Billy Cox in the army and played with him in Nashville, where he also met Larry Lee (who would much later play with Jimi at Woodstock), and hooked up with various tours of the "chittlin' circuit" before getting an offer to go to New York to "become a star". He jumped at the chance, as he had been stagnating, and it turned out to be the right thing to do, although it took a while, and not with the person who convinced him to move.

Women and the Isley Brothers sustained him for a while, as well as Little Richard and a few other short-lived stints with other stars. Eventually he put together something of his own (often with Randy California, later of Spirit), and, of course, Chas Chandler of the Animals "discovered" him, thanks to a mutual female friend. Chas took Jimi to England and things moved pretty quickly, especially considering that he was an unknown, but the Experience came together, followed by a hit single ("Hey Joe") and he was on his way.

A good portion of the books describes various escapades while touring, interviews, jams and recording sessions. I find it simultaneously funny and disturbing that a lot of the press regarding Jimi describes him as "ugly" - incredibly racist as pretty much any woman - and most men - would tell you that he was a very good looking guy, as evidenced by the plethora of photos included - lots of black'n'white (including the worst picture I have ever seen of Jimi making a horrific guitar face on stage) and a handful of color.

Of course, as everyone knows, Jimi got tired of the roller coaster and went through numerous changes in personnel and even some experimenting in different styles, took some time off, played some magical and some so-so shows, had plenty of personal turmoil, drug busts, drug problems (although most say that he was not very heavily into hard drugs) and lots more. But, towards the end, he was working on a new album with lots of terrific material, and although he was stressed and had some simple health issues (due mostly to exhaustion), most people say that he was reasonably upbeat and looking to the future, which, of course, never came.

Re-reading this now, at my cynical old age, I believe that a lot of the fellow musicians' quotes have a bit of revisionistic history and exaggeration, but that's to be expected, especially when someone becomes as legendary as Jimi did. The authors even take Jimi's quotes, which to me often seem to be his over-the-top hip jive talk, a bit more seriously than the probably were intended. But, writing - and quotes - are to be interpreted by the reader, aren't they?

There are some fine descriptions of the songs with technical details combined with musical and lyrical influences. Sone of these are speculative but many are based on Jimi’s quotes and all are logical. There's also massive appendixes with discographies (which has only grown exponentially since the book was published, of course), bibliographies, and listings of all of his known guitars and effects. Pretty darn comprehensive, especially at a time well before computers, emails and instantaneous communication.

These days, everyone who cares knows the basic story, but this tale has lots of anecdotes and tons of interviews, including with his brother Leon, who recently wrote his own book. 

So, certainly any fan. should give it a go, and get lots of behind-the-scenes stories - just take everything with a grain of salt, as with anyone's bio, I suppose.