Wild Thing: The Short, Spellbinding Life of Jimi Hendrix

Wild Thing: The Short, Spellbinding Life of Jimi Hendrix

by Philip Norman
Wild Thing: The Short, Spellbinding Life of Jimi Hendrix

Wild Thing: The Short, Spellbinding Life of Jimi Hendrix

by Philip Norman

Hardcover

$28.95 
  • SHIP THIS ITEM
    Qualifies for Free Shipping
  • PICK UP IN STORE
    Check Availability at Nearby Stores

Related collections and offers


Overview

New York Times Book Review "The Best Books to Give This Year"
Publishers Weekly
Best Books of the Year (Nonfiction)

A shattering new biography of rock music’s most outrageous—and tragic—genius.

Over fifty years after his death, Jimi Hendrix (1942–1970) is celebrated as the greatest rock guitarist of all time. But before he was setting guitars and the world aflame, James Marshall Hendrix was a shy kid in Seattle, plucking at a broken ukulele and in fear of a father who would hit him for playing left-handed. Bringing Jimi’s story to vivid life against the backdrop of midcentury rock, and with a wealth of new information, acclaimed music biographer Philip Norman delivers a captivating and definitive portrait of a musical legend.

Drawing from unprecedented access to Jimi’s brother, Leon Hendrix, who provides disturbing details about their childhood, as well as Kathy Etchingham and Linda Keith, the two women who played vital roles in Jimi’s rise to stardom, Norman traces Jimi’s life from playing in clubs on the segregated Chitlin’ Circuit, where he encountered daily racism, to barely surviving in New York’s Greenwich Village, where was taken up by the Animals’ bass player Chas Chandler in 1966 and exported to Swinging London and international stardom.

For four staggering years, from 1966 to 1970, Jimi totally rewrote the rules of rock stardom, notably at Monterey and Woodstock (where he played his protest-infused rendition of the “Star-Spangled Banner”), while becoming the highest-paid musician of his day. But it all abruptly ended in the shabby basement of a London hotel with Jimi’s too-early death. With remarkable detail, Wild Thing finally reveals the truth behind this long-shrouded tragedy.

Norman’s exhaustive research reveals a young man who was as shy and polite in private as he was outrageous in public, whose insecurity about his singing voice could never be allayed by his instrumental genius, and whose unavailing efforts to please his father left him searching for the family he felt he never truly had. Filled with insights into the greatest moments in rock history, Wild Thing is a mesmerizing account of music’s most enduring and endearing figures.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781631495892
Publisher: Liveright Publishing Corporation
Publication date: 09/15/2020
Pages: 400
Sales rank: 689,844
Product dimensions: 6.20(w) x 9.40(h) x 1.50(d)

About the Author

Philip Norman is the best-selling biographer of Eric Clapton, Buddy Holly, the Rolling Stones, John Lennon, Elton John, Mick Jagger, Paul McCartney, and Jimi Hendrix. A novelist and a playwright, he lives in London.

Table of Contents

Prologue 1

1 'He was hearing music but didn't have an instrument to bring it to earth' 11

2 'Jimmy was a hippy before anyone knew what a hippy was' 29

3 'I still have my guitar and amp and as long as I have that no fool can stop me living' 43

4 'Everything's so-so in this big raggedy city of New York' 57

5 'I've got just the person for you 72

6 'Quite honestly, Chas … he's almost too good' 89

7 'Oh my God, I'm not God any more' 106

8 'Go out and buy us a tin of lighter fuel' 124

9 'Not on my network' 140

10 'From rumor to legend' 155

11 'He was a life-saver' 172

12 Electric Ladies 195

13 'I'm going to die before I'm thirty' 211

14 'Nothing but a Band of Gypsies' 228

15 Miles and Miles 242

16 'Dad, my love …' 253

17 'Hey, man, lend me your comb' 268

18 'Just call me helium' 284

19 'Goodnight Sweet Black Prince' 303

20 'A tall black guardian angel in a hat' 317

21 "Scuse me while I kiss the pie' 329

Epilogue 344

Notes 359

Acknowledgements 366

Picture Credits 368

Index 369

From the B&N Reads Blog

Customer Reviews