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Jimi Hendrix: The Ultimate Experience
A chronological story of the life of Jimi Hendrix using quotes, original interviews, and 32 pages of color photographs, Jimi Hendrix: The Ultimate Experience takes readers from his childhood to his first Top 10 hit, "Hey Joe," to the chart-topping double album Electric Ladyland to his final public appearance at Ronnie Scott's in London. Using all-new interviews plus quotes collected from newspapers, magazines, books, television and radio documentaries, and Internet sites, Johnny Black has woven the testimony of those who were there into a complete exploration of Hendrix's extraordinary life. With over 100 color and black-and-white photographs and the words of those who watched Jimi Hendrix's life unfold - Pete Townshend, Paul McCartney, David Crosby, and Eric Clapton among them - Black has created a genuine eyewitness account that captures the chaos and excitement of Hendrix's career.
256 pages, Paperback
First published October 20, 1999
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June 25, 2012
"The Ultimate Experience" is written as an exhaustive, fact-filled calendar of events, with day-by-day accounts of what went on via quotes and reviews from eyewitnesses who were there...all in chronological order. Johnny Black serves not so much as the author, yet more so as the assembly man who meticulously put all of the parts together. The resulting story I gathered from the book is all together fascinating, and quite sad.
I had purchased the book a while back on a whim, at an independent book store on Vermont Avenue in Los Feliz. It was on a clearance sale, yet when I picked it up...I was taken by its content...I love music books that go through specific dates and venues for a specific artist. I quckly glanced through the book, and was surprised to see one little known fact about Hendrix's early association with 70's prog-rock band Emerson, Lake & Palmer. Soon I was hooked...I had to buy it.
Jimi Hendrix's music means the world to me. Ever since I was 12, 13 years old...I've been mesmerized by his sound. People too often forget what a great singer and songwriter he was...It still astonishes me that wrote all of those great songs..."Purple Haze", "Foxey Lady", "The Wind Cries Mary", "Fire", "Little Wing", "Spanish Castle Magic", "Castles Made In Sand", "Crosstown Traffic", "Burning of the Midnight Lamp", "Voodoo Child (Slight Return)", "Angel", "Ezy Ryder" and many many more...Jimi Hendrix wrote and sang on all of those fantastic songs plus...he was an incredible interpreter of other people's material...Just listen to "Hey Joe" or "All Along The Watchtower" and you'll see how brilliant he was at taking another man's song...and truly make it his own....AND...on top of all that...he was also the greatest guitarist who ever lived! Jimi Hendrix's guitar playing was filled with huge, exciting soundscapes...exploring every color in the spectrum. Hendrix could create memorable riffs, and jams that could blow your mind...His guitar solos are just as memorable as his songs...I can easily sing you his solo in "Purple Haze"...a fluid and melodic mixture of notes and sounds...To this day, many guitarist still copy his style...yet none sound like him. Jimi Hendrix was a one of kind artist...a musical genius, a legend...
Born in 1942, Jimi had a rough start from the beginning...with an absentee mother, and a father away in the army. Raised by various relatives as a child, it took years for Jimi's home life to resemble anything close to normal. Once his father, Al, returned to the scene, he struggled to support Jimi, and later Jimi's younger brother Leon. Jimi Hendrix was always an artistic child, who loved to draw futuristic images...As he got older, Al Hendrix managed to find enough money to buy Jimi his first guitar...Jimi practiced day and night, never allowing himself to be far from his guitar. As he got older, Jimi eventually ended up in the army, learning how to parachute, yet all the while playing in bands with his guitar...
Once he got out of the army, Jimi traveled around the South...playing in local bands...eventually getting a name for himself while playing behind big acts like The Isley Brothers and Little Richard. Tired of his role as sideman..Jimi made his way to New York, and tried to make it on his own. He starved, and slept on the street...yet still manged to play a gig somewhere in New York's Greenwich Village. It was Keith Richard's girlfriend, Linda Keith, who discovered Jimi Hendrix, and brought him to the attention of the man who would forever alter Jimi's life...former Animals bassist...Chas Chandler. Chandler took Jimi to England, got him a a record deal, and assembled a band for him with white musicians Noel Redding on bass, and the great Mitch Mitchell on drums...The Jimi Hendrix Experience was born. From 1966 until their last gig together in 1969, the Jimi Hendrix Experience rose to fame and fortune touring the world, and releasing three masterpieces...ARE YOU EXPERIENCED and AXIS: BOLD AS LOVE in 1967, as well as ELECTRIC LADYLAND in 1968. Post-Experience...Jimi Hendrix continued to create fascinating material...and perform memorable concerts in the U.S. and Europe with musicians Billy Cox, and Mitch Mitchell..."Jimi Hendrix: The Ultimate Experience" takes you through the greatest of Hendrix concerts...from Monterey Pop in 1967, to Woodstock in 1969, and the legendary Fillmore East concerts with vocalist/drummer Buddy Miles in December 1969, and January 1970. According to many quotes in the book...the concerts were incredibly LOUD...
Jimi lead a whirlwind life of recording, excess spending, touring, women, drugs, more touring, more women, more drugs. Drug use was as common as drinking water back in those days...and Jimi took it all on...pot, cocaine, acid, heroin...he did it all...sadly letting it consume his life. Too nice and polite to say no, Jimi found himself on too many occasions to be in situations he didnt want to be in...or with people he wanted nothing to do with. Jimi had an army of women who came and went in his life...lots and lots of women. On occasion, Jimi would blow off a rehearsal, a jam session, or a recording session in order to be with a woman who offered herself to him. He had lots of girlfriends, yet no one true love...Women were as much a vice to Jimi as drugs...Women were everywhere in his life. Sometimes he treated them well, other times he'd be prone to violence...
His management and the record industry wanted every piece of Jimi Hendrix...Rarely given time to rest...Jimi was fed all of the drugs, women and money he need in order to keep the machine going...Some nights, they had talk him into playing...Most often he was at odds with manager Mike Jeffrey...a man with mob ties...who forced Jimi Hendrix into too many situations that he did not want to do. In Johnny Black's book...Mike Jeffrey comes across as a greedy villain, who took advantage of his client in more ways than one...
By August of 1970, Jimi Hendrix was tired...burned out by the machine that made him a star. Despite poor health, Hendrix still managed to perform brilliantly (despite what the critics said) at his last ever UK performance, as the Isle of Wight festival. Finishing his last concert ever in September 1970, at a disasterous music festival in Germany, Jimi decided to stay in London for awhile. He had big plans for a new album...his first in two years...a new manager (or a return to Chas Chandler), and had a brand new recording studio in New York, built just for him...Electric Ladyland Studios. Yet on September 18, 1970...Jimi Hendrix died, with a woman by his side...According to the book, Jimi took too many sleeping pills...and mixed them with a bottle of red wine (another source says white wine)...which together drown him in his sleep...He was only 27 years old.
With that, Johnny Black's book ends abruptly..with no epilogue nor postscript to speak of...He does manage to get some quotes from friends, assosciates and others...yet the book just ends. It's a shame Black chose not to continue the story...covering the funeral, and posthumous releases...That said, Johnny Black's book "Jimi Hendrix: The Ultimate Experience"...contains a great amount of research..using quotes from all of the players in Jimi Hendrix's brief life...In addition, Black offers memorable quotes and anecdotes from Eric Clapton, Pete Townshend, Bob Dylan, Mike Nesmith, Noel Redding, Billy Cox, Mitch Mitchell, Chas Candler, Buddy Miles, Johnny Winter, Carlos Santana, Stephen Stills, Ian Anderson, Lenny, Keith Emerson, Mike Bloomfield, and more...Though by no means an in-depth story of Hendrix's life, "Jimi Hendrix: The Ultimate Experience" still provides an fascinating sketch, a blueprint, to wet one's appetite to all things Jimi Hendrix. The book leaves you wanting more...yet that's a good thing...
I had purchased the book a while back on a whim, at an independent book store on Vermont Avenue in Los Feliz. It was on a clearance sale, yet when I picked it up...I was taken by its content...I love music books that go through specific dates and venues for a specific artist. I quckly glanced through the book, and was surprised to see one little known fact about Hendrix's early association with 70's prog-rock band Emerson, Lake & Palmer. Soon I was hooked...I had to buy it.
Jimi Hendrix's music means the world to me. Ever since I was 12, 13 years old...I've been mesmerized by his sound. People too often forget what a great singer and songwriter he was...It still astonishes me that wrote all of those great songs..."Purple Haze", "Foxey Lady", "The Wind Cries Mary", "Fire", "Little Wing", "Spanish Castle Magic", "Castles Made In Sand", "Crosstown Traffic", "Burning of the Midnight Lamp", "Voodoo Child (Slight Return)", "Angel", "Ezy Ryder" and many many more...Jimi Hendrix wrote and sang on all of those fantastic songs plus...he was an incredible interpreter of other people's material...Just listen to "Hey Joe" or "All Along The Watchtower" and you'll see how brilliant he was at taking another man's song...and truly make it his own....AND...on top of all that...he was also the greatest guitarist who ever lived! Jimi Hendrix's guitar playing was filled with huge, exciting soundscapes...exploring every color in the spectrum. Hendrix could create memorable riffs, and jams that could blow your mind...His guitar solos are just as memorable as his songs...I can easily sing you his solo in "Purple Haze"...a fluid and melodic mixture of notes and sounds...To this day, many guitarist still copy his style...yet none sound like him. Jimi Hendrix was a one of kind artist...a musical genius, a legend...
Born in 1942, Jimi had a rough start from the beginning...with an absentee mother, and a father away in the army. Raised by various relatives as a child, it took years for Jimi's home life to resemble anything close to normal. Once his father, Al, returned to the scene, he struggled to support Jimi, and later Jimi's younger brother Leon. Jimi Hendrix was always an artistic child, who loved to draw futuristic images...As he got older, Al Hendrix managed to find enough money to buy Jimi his first guitar...Jimi practiced day and night, never allowing himself to be far from his guitar. As he got older, Jimi eventually ended up in the army, learning how to parachute, yet all the while playing in bands with his guitar...
Once he got out of the army, Jimi traveled around the South...playing in local bands...eventually getting a name for himself while playing behind big acts like The Isley Brothers and Little Richard. Tired of his role as sideman..Jimi made his way to New York, and tried to make it on his own. He starved, and slept on the street...yet still manged to play a gig somewhere in New York's Greenwich Village. It was Keith Richard's girlfriend, Linda Keith, who discovered Jimi Hendrix, and brought him to the attention of the man who would forever alter Jimi's life...former Animals bassist...Chas Chandler. Chandler took Jimi to England, got him a a record deal, and assembled a band for him with white musicians Noel Redding on bass, and the great Mitch Mitchell on drums...The Jimi Hendrix Experience was born. From 1966 until their last gig together in 1969, the Jimi Hendrix Experience rose to fame and fortune touring the world, and releasing three masterpieces...ARE YOU EXPERIENCED and AXIS: BOLD AS LOVE in 1967, as well as ELECTRIC LADYLAND in 1968. Post-Experience...Jimi Hendrix continued to create fascinating material...and perform memorable concerts in the U.S. and Europe with musicians Billy Cox, and Mitch Mitchell..."Jimi Hendrix: The Ultimate Experience" takes you through the greatest of Hendrix concerts...from Monterey Pop in 1967, to Woodstock in 1969, and the legendary Fillmore East concerts with vocalist/drummer Buddy Miles in December 1969, and January 1970. According to many quotes in the book...the concerts were incredibly LOUD...
Jimi lead a whirlwind life of recording, excess spending, touring, women, drugs, more touring, more women, more drugs. Drug use was as common as drinking water back in those days...and Jimi took it all on...pot, cocaine, acid, heroin...he did it all...sadly letting it consume his life. Too nice and polite to say no, Jimi found himself on too many occasions to be in situations he didnt want to be in...or with people he wanted nothing to do with. Jimi had an army of women who came and went in his life...lots and lots of women. On occasion, Jimi would blow off a rehearsal, a jam session, or a recording session in order to be with a woman who offered herself to him. He had lots of girlfriends, yet no one true love...Women were as much a vice to Jimi as drugs...Women were everywhere in his life. Sometimes he treated them well, other times he'd be prone to violence...
His management and the record industry wanted every piece of Jimi Hendrix...Rarely given time to rest...Jimi was fed all of the drugs, women and money he need in order to keep the machine going...Some nights, they had talk him into playing...Most often he was at odds with manager Mike Jeffrey...a man with mob ties...who forced Jimi Hendrix into too many situations that he did not want to do. In Johnny Black's book...Mike Jeffrey comes across as a greedy villain, who took advantage of his client in more ways than one...
By August of 1970, Jimi Hendrix was tired...burned out by the machine that made him a star. Despite poor health, Hendrix still managed to perform brilliantly (despite what the critics said) at his last ever UK performance, as the Isle of Wight festival. Finishing his last concert ever in September 1970, at a disasterous music festival in Germany, Jimi decided to stay in London for awhile. He had big plans for a new album...his first in two years...a new manager (or a return to Chas Chandler), and had a brand new recording studio in New York, built just for him...Electric Ladyland Studios. Yet on September 18, 1970...Jimi Hendrix died, with a woman by his side...According to the book, Jimi took too many sleeping pills...and mixed them with a bottle of red wine (another source says white wine)...which together drown him in his sleep...He was only 27 years old.
With that, Johnny Black's book ends abruptly..with no epilogue nor postscript to speak of...He does manage to get some quotes from friends, assosciates and others...yet the book just ends. It's a shame Black chose not to continue the story...covering the funeral, and posthumous releases...That said, Johnny Black's book "Jimi Hendrix: The Ultimate Experience"...contains a great amount of research..using quotes from all of the players in Jimi Hendrix's brief life...In addition, Black offers memorable quotes and anecdotes from Eric Clapton, Pete Townshend, Bob Dylan, Mike Nesmith, Noel Redding, Billy Cox, Mitch Mitchell, Chas Candler, Buddy Miles, Johnny Winter, Carlos Santana, Stephen Stills, Ian Anderson, Lenny, Keith Emerson, Mike Bloomfield, and more...Though by no means an in-depth story of Hendrix's life, "Jimi Hendrix: The Ultimate Experience" still provides an fascinating sketch, a blueprint, to wet one's appetite to all things Jimi Hendrix. The book leaves you wanting more...yet that's a good thing...
December 7, 2010
There have been so many Hendrix books published that it's difficult to know where a fan would start. Well, start here! Johnny Black's "The Ultimate Hendrix" is a tremendous overview of the life and career of Jimi Hendrix, from birth to death but no further than that. Jimi's posthumous career has a life of its own but that could be the subject of another book.
Black's book is chronological and during Hendrix's prime years, 1966 to 1970, he documents what Jimi was doing each day. The entries are enhanced by quotes from those around Hendrix at that time and place. There's also a nice bibliography which lists the earlier Hendrix books that Black has drawn upon. While reading the other Jimi books, you will want to keep this one by your side for reference purposes!
Black's book is chronological and during Hendrix's prime years, 1966 to 1970, he documents what Jimi was doing each day. The entries are enhanced by quotes from those around Hendrix at that time and place. There's also a nice bibliography which lists the earlier Hendrix books that Black has drawn upon. While reading the other Jimi books, you will want to keep this one by your side for reference purposes!
September 20, 2013
"facts" are conflicting with other books i have read on hendrix. but, it is a good read.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews