Customer Reviews

Room Full of Mirrors: A Biography of Jimi Hendrix

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1 star:		(6)

 

 

I don't know what the deal is with all these other reviewers (including the professional reviewing services), who claim this to be the best biography of Jimi Hendrix. That claim is erroneous, and I can only assume these are personal friends of the author or people who have been paid to hype the book. As a biography of Jimi Hendrix, I would rank this book as "good" or maybe even "very good" but certainly not "excellent" or "outstanding." Having read through this book twice, I have backed off of the harshness of my initial review, and I offer my apology to the author. However, the truth is we all get tired of the endless corporate hyping of every new product as "The Greatest" this or that. That is a very hard claim to live up to in this case, given the fact that several well-written bios of Jimi Hendrix are currently available.

If this book had been more honestly titled, it would have been called "Jimi Hendrix - The Early Years" and would have ended with Jimi meeting Chas Chandler in 1966 (i.e. around page 153 out of about 370 total pages of text). In all fairness, the book does have several strong points. It is a pleasant and informative read written from a sympathetic perspective. The author has interviewed an impressive number of people, many of whom have not gone on record before. It includes a tremendous amount of new detail on Jimi's early years (childhood in Seattle, years in the military and on the road, hustling in New York City) than other bios - probably a result of the fact that this author is a resident of Jimi's hometown of Seattle and was able to gain access to his early friends and family members. In fact, the coverage of Jimi's early years is definitely the strong point of the book - it fills in A LOT of holes and clarifies a ton of confusions, misconceptions, half-truths and outright untruths (including some created by Jimi himself) and for this reason is surely worth buying for serious fans of Jimi Hendrix. There are several fascinating and previously unpublished photos from Jimi's youth and his years in the U.S. military. The book also sheds light on a number previously undiscussed personal relationships of Jimi's including several girlfriends from throughout his life who have never gone on record before.

The problem is that once the book reaches Jimi's years of fame it thins out considerably and anyone who has read previous Hendrix bios will notice that the majority of core information which ties this book together is lifted (and heavily simplified) from other biographies, articles and interviews (which are quoted but not cited). The period from 1966-1970 is a fairly superficial read which ignores a lot of important musical and biographical details and cannot be considered serious biographical writing about Jimi Hendrix. If you want to compare it to another of the Hendrix bios, it is most similar to the tone of Jerry Hopkins' 1979 "Hit and Run" - but admittedly much less sensationalized and much more tastefully and respectfully written. No disrespect, but with all the other solid Hendrix bios out there, I would not suggest starting here. In my humble opinion, the best written and best researched books about the life and/or music of Jimi Hendrix remain:

Kramer/McDermott: "Hendrix: Setting the Record Straight"
Murray: "Crosstown Traffic"
Shadwick: "Jimi Hendrix: Musician"
Brown: "Jimi Hendrix: The Final Days"
Shapiro/Gleebeck: "Jimi Hendrix: Electric Gypsy"
McDermott/Kramer/Cox: "Jimi Hendrix: The Sessions"
Valkhoff: "Eyewitness 1968," "Eyewitness 1969/1970"
Roby: "Black Gold: The Lost Archives of Jimi Hendrix"
Potash: "The Jimi Hendrix Companion"

The personal accounts of Noel Redding ("Are You Experienced"), Kathy Etchingham ("Through Gypsy Eyes") and Sharon Lawrence ("Jimi Hendrix: The Man, the Myth, the Truth") are somewhat painful reads but also valuable. David Henderson's "Scuse Me While I Kiss the Sky" is flawed but also provides an invaluable glimpse into Jimi's personal life and his African-American context (which most biographers have tended to ignore). And Mary Willix's "Letters from Home" provides a lot of information on Jimi's youth. Based on the new information about Jimi's early years, Mr. Cross's book would fit nicely into this secondary category.

Well, how to begin? First let's face it, most Jimi Hendrix fans are somewhat obsessive when it comes to him. And we each have our own individual opinions about him, his music, and his life. And it is hard for some of us to accept any deviation from our beliefs. I like to think when it comes to Jimi, all you really need to know about him can be found in his music. His hopes, his fears, his loves, his demons.

That being said, I still enjoy reading about Jimi and how he lived and how he made his music. So consequently, I thoroughly enjoyed Mr. Cross's book. While some may criticize it because it does not delve deeply enough into the music and how Jimi made it, I feel that in a round about way it does just that. Jimi's life, all of his childhood experiences, his life on the Chitlin' circuit, his struggle to become recognized as a musician, all contributed in some way to his music and how he approached his career and his song writing. Now this book may not go into a lot of detail when he comes to the technical aspects of his music, but that's okay, because there are several other excellent books about Jimi that do just this.

I found this book to be well written and insightful when it comes to Jimi's childhood. It appears that Jimi from the beginning depended on the kindness of neighbors and relatives. I simply cannot imagine living the way he did as a child and I cannot even fathom what it did to Jimi and how it shaped his life. That part of the book was very sad. One thing is apparent, however; Jimi his entire life depended on happenstance or serendipity in his decision making. I guess he knew no other way. He just believed that things would work out eventually. And the author was correct in his belief that Jimi was just as trapped by his music and the life it afforded him as he had been during his childhood and adolescence in Seattle. Music saved him from that life, but I guess nothing could save him later. He had talent, no doubt it. That is talent in music, but no talent in how to change his life even when it obviously became very destructive.

I suppose I will continue reading books about Jimi, because there is a part of me that believes if I keep reading, I can figure him out, but that will probably never happen. There will always be a part of Jimi that will remain mysterious and hidden and that is after all how it should be.

You could wish for a little more on Hendrix's musical legacy - the influence of his sound carries to this day - but this s a pretty extraordinary book, filled with tales of a heartbreaking childhood and a wonderful array of fascinating musical legends, plus insight into some of his musical creations.

The book also gives the reader plenty of reason to wish that someone around Hendrix could have helped him stop his fatal spiral into substance abuse. (The book is not one to persuade someone to take up drugs as a hobby. Definitely not.)

The research is fairly astounding, and the writing compelling. I'd recommend it.

When I realized the author wasn't even around during the time Jimi was playing, I almost wrote the book off on that basis. That would have been a huge mistake.

My very special friend, Glenn, obtained two tickets to see Jimi at Madison Square Garden, and invited me along. The music was incredible. I still recall All Along the Watchtower, and much of what was on Electric Ladyland. The stage was in the center of the house and it slowly turned. To make things even wierder, tons of picture flashes continued to go off. I have often thought Jimi must have disliked having that stage turn and nothing being done about all the camera flashes, as though he was in the circus, and when the book got to that show, it confirmed my assumption.

On a second occasion, with my same friend, we went to see what was billed as the "Festival for Peace" at Madison Square Garden, but fortunately this time, the stage was at the end of the floor and stationary. Jimi played just a few songs, and I was utterly blown away with a smile ear to ear. Wish you were all there, as attempting to explain that experience is impossible to do with words. After just a few songs, Jimi let his guitar fall to the floor and walked off stage. I never understood what the problem was, since he sounded amazing. The book touches on that show as well and provides insight.

As I began reading this book, I was a bit turned off by all the detail behind Jimi's family, and very young years, but this detail proved essential in having a proper context to understand much that followed, choices Jimi made, and revealed Jimi the person, not the star.

This book is an excellent place to start, or finish, for that matter, for any one looking to read about Jimi. So many people that knew Jimi particularly well, have been extremely generous to share such intimate details. This book pulls you in, bringing the past into the present leaving you feeling as though you were there, during each step of the journey.

The details in this book are just incredible. The time Jimi spent in England, personal relationships, friends, fans, fellow muscisians sharing stories. Wow!

Jimi left us too early, but with a body of work that stands among the best ever recorded. To read this book is also to understand Jimi the person, full of sound, fury, and a huge heart with a tender soul.

Awesome job Mr. Cross. Thank you for writing this.

Gary

Give Charles Cross credit for taking on a subject as iconic as Jimi Hendrix. Note the wide disparity of the reviews on this website; Jimi had obsessive fans and here they are, passing judgement on the book's content. People have had 35 years to develop an image of "their Jimi" and a factual biography can be a disturber of myths and legends. Essentially, what I got from this book was that Jimi Hendrix was sensitive, gentle in nature, obsessed with playing guitar, highly sexual, had a sense of humor, was a bad drunk, and oh yeah, a musical genius.

This is a very well researched book, Cross carefully presents as many factual events as he can with a minimum of authorial comments or interpretations.

The mystery, and I do mean the MYSTERY, is how Hendrix became such a consummate musician. There were plenty of other hired-gun guitarists that played in touring bands during the '60s, but Hendrix synthesized his musical experiences in a way no one ever did before.

The book does best in the early years. The weakness of this fine book is in the later years---and in discussing or documenting his short, brilliant recording career. "Electric Ladyland" is one of the most amazing sounding rock albums of all time; a chapter could have been written about these sessions alone; and other chapters about his equipment, his technique; those who were influenced by him (Robin Trower, Stevie Ray, etc. etc.). Heck, an entire BOOK was written about the making of Miles Davis' "Kind of Blue" album, an equally important album in the jazz world.

So, for musician readers of this bio, there isn't much info regarding Jimi's music in terms of the technical stuff. But despite this shortcoming, the book is basically a must-read for any fan of Jimi Hendrix's music.

I really liked how entertaining of a read this book was. Cross' connections and understanding of the Seattle area give the book a unique perspective to Hendrix's roots. You feel like he became like a part of the Hendrix family and you the reader were allowed a glimpse into Jimi's family as told by somebody inside the circle. However, after Jimi leaves New York for England, the story is told much too hastily and is murky. I'm reading Electric Gyspy right now and it is much more detailed in the facts though not as fun. Room Full of Mirrors on the other hand transcends the Hendrix myth and historical trivia and boldly and artfully paints an intimate portrait of the origins of a musical genius.

Charles Cross' biography of Jimi Hendrix may not be particularly astute about the music and how it was made, but it does allow the reader to appreciate the nature and effects of his upbringing, as well as the path he took to rock stardom through several years of training with the likes of The Isley Brothers, Ike and Tina Turner, Curtis Knight, and Little Richard. Hendrix's unique blending of blues, rock, and R&B flows out of the facts of his life and experiences -- his early dates in Jim Crow south, in the army, and of course among his family in Seattle and Vancouver. Cross also makes clear how Hendrix emerged as a favorite of white hippie audiences -- while being spurned by the black audiences of Harlem. Filled with compelling anecdotes, this book does us the favor of avoiding easy psychologizing (with a few exceptions) -- while giving us enough insight to speculate on our own. The lack of a discography or session schedule is a big minus. Bottom line: Hendrix comes alive on these pages. While he is mainly viewed in a positive light, his unlikeable traits are presented forthrightly -- and this musician's balance between musicianship and showmanship is still worth evaluating. I concur with other reviewers who maintain that this book is strongest when discussing his development. But the character and uniqueness of the man emerge whole.

I loved this book; I am not what you would call a huge Jimi Hendrix fan, but being a music lover and living near Seattle, how could you not pick this title up.
Charles Cross does a splendid job of retracing the youth of Jimi Hendrix, a youth that I would not wish on my worst enemies children, It becomes clear to me why Jimi was as messed up as he was. With out a stable home life and being transported from one house to another it's a wonder that he was successful at all.
Jimi Hendrix was a man that wanted to do one thing and that was make music, in fact during the last week of his life when he shows up at a party without his guitar, friends knew he was in trouble. He was never away from his guitar.
There were some interesting I didn't know that from Jimi being in a band with Tommy Chong; yes that Chong and that one of his rodies was Lemmy from Motorhead. It also had a story of Jimi being at a Denny's in my hometown of Mount Vernon, WA although it was an accurate of not kind description of the place.
This is a tragic story of a man who may have been the most talented guitarist ever, but a man who obviously was running from the demons of his childhood his whole life, these demons did make him into the greatest guitarist ever (sorry Eddie Van Halen, and Mr. Clapton) but also led to his drug use and out of control life.
I came away from this book saddened and wanting more to make sure that I give my children what every child needs, a stable, loving home.

The book was exceptionally good; though I knew Hendrix woud die, I was still unprepared for it when it occured. That is truly attributable to the fine writing of Charles Cross

I picked this book up at the bookstore and started reading it. I did not stop reading until I was done. It was that good. I have 30 Hendrix books in my collection and, without a doubt, this is the best researched and most interesting Hendrix book of them all. I found out so many things that I never knew about Jimi and I was absolutely amazed how Jimi really recieved his discharge from the Army. This book is so well written that, like a great movie, I did not want it to end. This book clearly sets the standard for all past and future Hendrix books. I guess it took an author from Seattle to finally write the definitive Hendrix book. Well done, Charles Cross, and thank you.