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| Room Full of Mirrors: A Biography of Jimi Hendrix | 
 enlarge | Author: Charles R. Cross
Publisher: Blackstone Audio Inc.
Category: Book
List Price: $72.95
Buy New: $45.96
You Save: $26.99 (37%)
New (3) from $45.96
Avg. Customer Rating:  54 reviews
Sales Rank: 4486815
Media: Audio Cassette
Edition: Unabridged
Number Of Items: 10
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.9
Dimensions (in): 9.2 x 6.9 x 2.4
ISBN: 0786147075
Dewey Decimal Number: 790
EAN: 9780786147076
ASIN: 0786147075
Publication Date: August 15, 2006
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: Brand New! UNABRIDGED audiobook on CASSETTE direct from the manufacturer. Sturdy vinyl case.
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Product Description
For many, the name Jimi Hendrix conjures up a larger-than-life image of the man who set fire to guitars, womens hearts, and the status quo. In this groundbreaking account, music journalist Charles R. Cross takes a far deeper look. Beyond Hendrixs legendary onstage and offstage magnetism and his excessive lifestyle was a man who struggled to accept his role as an idol and privately craved the kind of normal family life he never had. Based on more than three hundred interviews and never-before-seen private documents, this book recounts the entire arc of Hendrixs life, from his troubled childhood and struggle with racial prejudice, to his rapid ascent in swinging London, to headlining Woodstock in 1969, with his death a year later. As colorful and large as the decade of the sixties, this biography gives the real Hendrix the immortality he deserves.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 49 more reviews...
 Well Written December 1, 2008
This is a well written biography that does not dwell on the lurid details of Hendrix's life, presenting them instead in a much more dignified and unbiased way. The book is interesting, fun to read and--in spite of its content--could even be thought to be appropriate for most adult readers.
I'll Meet You in the Next World and Don't Be Late July 22, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This is an entertaining biography. I have been a Jimi Hendrix fan since I was 14 and it was his guitar playing that made me want to go out and buy a guitar and learn how to play at that same age.
I have all 3 studio ablums, the Band of Gyspys, and some of the later posthumous recordings. This book helped to fill in the gaps that were missing from the many DVDs, videotapes, and various audio out there.
Cross paints a good picture of an icon that struggled for so long. He wasn't always considered the best back when he first started out. He was humbled by people better than him but he had such drive to go out there and keep trying. That's a positive message to those who just think that he life was just a negative world of drugs and an early death. He did want he dreamed that he always wanted to. Whether it was joining the Screaming Eagles or jamming at some local NYC club, he made up his mind and did it.
This book also doesn't gloss over his faults like abusing women, having a bad temper after drinking too much, and being short on cash with a hit record on the charts. It just makes him more human. Sometimes its nice to see an icon viewed as a real person without all the hype.
That is probably the book's strength. It shows Jimi before the legend became bigger than the man.
I haven't read many of the other biographies but I want like to check out the one by Eddie Kramer.
It is also nice to see that the Experince Hendrix, LLC is doing a great job of putting out quality DVDs in this century. I hope his legend never dies out and I don't think it will. 100 years from now someone will still be listening to Purple Haze and wondering if they ever Been Experienced?
 Interesting June 24, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
I've only gotten past the first couple chapters and it's interesting thus far. I look forward to how it continues and develops.
Very informative, but weak and irritating writing style. April 24, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I'm just re-reading Cross's book for the second time. I thought I would give it a second chance. I was quite irritated by it the first time, although the wealth of detail on Jimi's diificult early life in particular was very interesting and for me completely new.
Second time around I am even more irritated by Cross's style and errors. He seems to me to be guity of just guessing when he doesn't know for sure, and of stating 'as fact' stories from people which in reality are more likely merely unconfirmed (unconfirmable?) personal anecdotes.
E.g. 1
he repeats an 'eyewitnesses' incorrect description of what Jimi wore during his performance at Monterey. Jeez... How easy would that be to check???
E.g.2
He says the Rainbow bridge concert at Maui began with a Hare Krishna group leading the assembled in chanting 'Om'. (Er... but Hare Krishna's DO NOT chant 'Om'). Cross presumably guessed who the group leading the chanting was.
That might not seem like such a crime. But why do that?
AND I feel sure if he did that on this 'fact' he'll have done it elsewhere. Bad scholarship and bad biography writing.
How about not knowing the difference between 'Voodo Chile' and Voodo Child (Slight return) and referring to them as if they are ONE song.
Or referring to Eva Sunqvist as his "favourite Swedish groupie" at a time when he hadn't even met her yet as she was an anonymous fan who had sent him roses at each swedish gig and who was a virgin prior to her encounter with Jimi. Etc., etc.
There are many other facts like this which he got wrong, and many stories that seem to be hyped up to my mind.
E.g the 'not serving clowns' anecdote that he made so much of in the beginning (and then repeated later on in the book). I'm sure it has some grain of truth in it, but Cross appears to have accepted Noel's probably fuzzily remembered anecdote and then embellished it himself.
Another example is Jimi supposedly spending a couple of hours one night playing well-known Jazz standards with a lounge pianist in Morocco. Jimi knew "two hours" worth of "Jazz standards"??? Sure. Right.
More likely that the pianist played some jazz standards and that Jimi sat in and improvised along with him.
Am I being too pedantic?
It just seems to me that Cross is adding to the mythology...and haven't we had enough of that already..?
Fans of this book may ask 'what else can be done when all we have to go on is people's stories from forty years ago'?
Obviously, any author of Cross's age HAS TO rely on anecdotes - but there are other and better ways of choosing and expressing the same information.
So, here are some requests to Charles to consider before the next reprint:
1. Present anecdotes as anecdotal and DO NOT dress them up AS FACT.
2. State your sources.
3. Make it clear when there is a difference of opinion about a supposed event and let us the reader decide.
Compare his method with John McDermott and Eddie Kramer's book,"Hendrix: Setting the Record Straight" or the excellent book Not Necessarily Stoned, But Beautiful: The Making of "Are You Experienced" by Sean Egan.
Those are examples of a more honest and therefore more accurately informative way to go about biography. And those books are therefore in my opinion a much more enjoyable read and are much better written.
To give him his due, Charles Cross HAS gathered together a lot of fascinating material that I - as a long-time Hendrix fan - was unaware of before. He has often put some events in a time frame and context that I hadn't understood properly or so well before. So I am glad to have the book. But Charles rarely qoutes his sources. Which makes it harder to guage the accuracy of the info or for anyone to check it. By doing so he also thereby raises his own status to that of THE storyteller and quasi-witness instead of what he is in reality which is a mere chronicler of stories from others long AFTER the events. See how he starts off his book with himself centre-stage discovering Lucille's grave and taking Leon there. I think this says a lot about his approach. i.e. I detect a lot of 'look what I know/have discovered' all the way through his book. Which is OK, as he clearly has unearthed a great deal of little-known information.
But its precisely that lack of humility that allows him to justify making up facts when he doesn't know the detail and shows his lack of respect to his readers assuming most of us won't notice.
I read many people championing this book as THE definitive Hendrix Biography.
Well, I agree it is a welcome addition. But, In my opinion, there are a good deal better books out there. THE definitive Hendrix Biography? Nah!
This book definitely is NOT that, in my opinion. Not by a long way.
When the Power of Love overcomes the love of power.... March 8, 2008
There are many accounts of Jimi's legacy and interpretations of it and as a review column I am not here to compare one with the other. Every story has it's own charm and misrepresentations no matter who tells them and we all know how subjective perception is in our day to day lives. I don't consider myself an authority on any subject let alone one as complex as Jimi. I do know that I loved him when he was alive, probably even more so today. He was the real deal, like any great artist, and that's why his music has stood the test of time.
This a great accounting of Jimi's life and one that I have not read about previous to it.The amount of depth the author brings to Jimi's early life is astounding and shows clearly how his troubled home life brought him to be as driven as he was. It has far more information on the subject of his time in the army and his subsequent tours through the Chitlin Circuit, particularly his associations with the bigger R and B names at that time. The center section has some great pictures I had not seen before and there are numerous quotes from Jimi that I had not read before.
The book has a very clear chronological pace and all the major players that were part of that time are given enough attention to support the material being presented. There seem to have been no stone unturned in Mr. Cross's 4 year search for authenticity. It is well written and an easy read for anyone who loves Jimi. For those of us that are not Experienced - this is a great expose on the heart of a true artistic genius who left an indelible mark on the art form we call music - just ask any guitarist.
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