Jimi Hendrix: Electric Gypsy

This is probably the best book that has been written about Hendrix. I think it is co-written by the editor of the excellent Jimi Hendrix fanizine "Univibes", it's an excellent source book, with list and lists of guitars, equpiment, gigs, photographs anything you would wish to know really about Hendrix's career. The large biography section is brillant and cannot be faulted-although I personaly don't ascribe to the writers theories about Monica Dannneman. I personaly don't think Hendrix wanted to marry Monica- or anyone in particular for that matter-or that she knew Jimi as well as she let on. Cathy Etchingham, Hendrix's London girlfriend for a number of years, dismisses her as stalker in her book. Coupled with the strange and often contradictory statements she made about his death in her hotel room-it raises a lot of questions about her place in Hendrix's life which are hard to guess at.

This is an excellent book , if you like Jimi's music :buy it! Remember that Caesar Glebbeek is the editor of 'Univibes' an excellent Jimi Hendrix-magazine .

An exhaustive biography, lacking in lurrid details, but filled instead with the story of Jimi's life, and how his life affected his music. It seems to me that this author decided that, since most people are interested in Jimi Hendrix for his music, then took that to be the perspective from which this book is written.The narrative is good, and the pictures are very nice.However, the most amazing part of this book is the appendices, which take up a full third of the book. They cover all the equipment that Jimi used, and a tremendous list of releases both official and otherwise. The amount of information included in this book is amazing, although some of it is now a bit dated. Hightly recommended for Jimi fans and guitar equipment wonks of all kinds.

Considering that this book was co-written by the man who runs the Hendrix Information Centre, Ceasar Glebbeek, it is a guarantee that this book will be as informative as possible. This bible of Jimi Hendrix has a complete discography which I and many fans alike refer to on a daily basis. Daily accounts of his life, gutar guide equipment guide, you name it this book has it. To put it bluntly this has everything you need from a wonderfully objective viewpoint that tells the story how it should be told.

Forget about the photo-filled leaflets produced by McDermott/Kramer and Mitch Mitchell. "Electric Gypsy" is the only "real" Hendrix biography available. Shapiro avoids the usual trap of obsessing over his subject, and gets down to the business of telling the story of an amazing life. Even more incredibly, Shapiro writes in such matter-of-fact language that Jimi's life seems real. A far cry from the cosmic freakshow that is Michael Fairchild (see the liner notes to "Blues").Yes, Jimi Hendrix was human. "Electric Gypsy" portrays him as a human, not a god. If you want to read about Jimi's life without the clutter of some massive cosmic conspiracy, start here.