In September 1966, a young American named Jimmy James arrived in London from New York with $40 and a Fender Stratocaster guitar that had been stolen from Keith Richards. Four years later, having astonished the world with his music, he died in London under the name of Jimi Hendrix.

Jimi Hendrix: London captures a unique moment in time: a period of wild invention, great artistry, and outlandish—and often self-destructive—lifestyles. London was the epicenter of a revolt in popular culture—music, fashion, and attitudes toward sex, drugs, and personal freedom—that thrilled half the world and shocked the other half.

Jimi Hendrix: London opens with a short scene-setting chapter that sketches the transformation of a strait-laced, blitzed London into a dynamo of popular music and social rebellion—the perfect setting for the transformation of Jimi from a backing musician into a rock legend. The chapters then chronicle Jimi’s arrival in London, where he almost immediately wows the locals (among them the Beatles, the Rolling Stones and Eric Clapton), his acquisition of a savvy manager, a tight band, and a forgiving girlfriend; and his launch into a breakneck career that whisks him from dingy clubs to Woodstock, from back-room jam sessions to recording studios and tv studios.

The book explores the private as well as the public man, capturing the contrast between the wild showman on stage and the unassuming guy at home, assessing the influence of his challenging upbringing and military service on his attitudes toward politics, spirituality, and family, and explaining how an African American with an extravagant haircut and an even more extravagant taste for clothes could feel so at home in a country that had never seen anything like him before.
Keywords: guitar, jimi, london

Published on 01-10-2010
Standard Copyright License