 | |
List Price: $16.00 | | Publisher: Atria
Salesrank: 158108
|
| Our Price: $7.18 |
| Used Price: $2.99 |
|
| Media: Paperback |
|
Editorial Review:
David Henderson's biography of Jimi Hendrix, Jimi Hendrix: Voodoo Child of the Aquarian Age -- first published in hardcover in 1978 -- was described by Greil Marcus of Rolling Stone as "[t]he strongest and most ambitious biography yet written about any rock and roll performer." The paperback edition was retitled 'Scuse Me While I Kiss the Sky: The Life of Jimi Hendrix, and in this smaller format, extensive interviews from the original edition were omitted. Nonetheless, all previous editions sold more than 300,000 copies and created a new standard for writing about popular artists, especially musicians.
Henderson's biography helped to rescue Hendrix from an unfair, erroneous association with drug decadence and recognized him as a true musical genius. The Hendrix legacy still thrives, and Henderson has more to reveal and further insight to offer about the man who remains regarded as the greatest rock and roll guitarist of all time. 'Scuse Me While I Kiss the Sky: Jimi Hendrix: Voodoo Child is the newly revised, updated, and expanded edition of the definitive, most beloved biography of the man behind the legend. It melds the original text, which featured Hendrix's voice in complete interviews, with new material -- to the extent that Hendrix could easily be described as the coauthor of this work.
Henderson now offers information that was initially difficult to obtain in the years immediately following Hendrix's death. With the passage of time, originally reluctant informants have come forward, and many of the coverups and legal battles have been resolved. All of this has shed new light on Hendrix's life, as well as on the circumstances surrounding his mysterious death. This edition includes more of Hendrix's personal writings, and goes more in depth about his romantic life and the music -- its creation, problems, and triumphs -- as scholarship and recognition of his importance have deepened over time. While revealing essential information about his untimely death, i reads like a grand adventure novel but so includes salient cultural, political, and historical background. David Henderson wrote this biography as the result of a promise he'd made to Jimi at Ungano's nightclub in Manhattan in 1969 to write something solely about him. The rock legend had read and liked Henderson's piece in Crawdaddy -- one of Hendrix's favorite magazines -- on his concert with Sly Stone at the Fillmore East. Little did either man know that they would forever be connected by this timeless and important biography.
'Scuse Me While I Kiss the Sky: Jimi Hendrix: Voodoo Child Reviews:
Poetic Biography 
2009-11-11 - Most reviews of this book do not understand what David Henderson is up to. Henderson is an artist in his own right and his biography of Hendrix is a great read. Henderson is an artist forged in the same cultural milieu as Hendrix. Henderson was an important figure in the Black Arts Movement and he is working in the New Journalism tradition (Hunter Thompson, Thomas Wolf etc.) so don't expect generic writing and a presentation of "facts." This is a poetic biography and it brings Hendrix to life. If you are put off by "slang" and are appalled by any deviation from the New York Times Style Sheet you should probably skip this book, but if you want to spend some time digging Jimi, his triumphs and tragedy you should get this book. If you were not at Monterey Pop, or Woodstock, or the Berkley Community Theater in 1970 when Hendrix dedicated the show to the Black Panther Party, you should get this book-- it is the next best thing to being there.
Jimi
2009-10-20 - Good price. Speedy delivery. What more could I ask for? Keep up the good work.
Boring 
2009-07-22 - I was disappointed in this book. Personally, I think it is boring and kept waiting for it to get better. It is all about his music, and there is much more to Jimi then that. Or, that I would like to read about. The part about his childhood was nice, I liked that. I think many people would find this book facinating, but not me. It is more a story about his music, and I would rather read about his life. I guess you could say his life was his music. And maybe there isn't much known about his personal life. His death was remnants of articles I had read, and already knew.
A Fans Fantasy 
2009-04-22 - The author superimposes his own thoughts,opinions, politics etc onto Hendrix the man way too often. There is far too much "Jimi thought this, Jimi felt that" to the point were he is putting actual thoughts into Hendrix's mind at various points in his life. Sorry David, that's not history, that's fantasy.No book that invents dialogue and actual thoughts is worthy as history.Biographies should be written from an objective, not subjective perspective.No book that you will read on any ones life can possibly be the whole story and keeping this in mind this one is not an unenjoyable read. It's just that it fails to live up to the basic tenets of good biography writing listed above.It is a good idea to read numerous bios of a particular subject to get a more rounded life story and there are much better ones out there on this musical genius.
