Room Full of Mirrors: A Biography of Jimi Hendrix

I don't know what the deal is with all these other reviewers (including the professional reviewing services), who claim this to be the best biography of Jimi Hendrix. That claim is erroneous, and I can only assume these are personal friends of the author or people who have been paid to hype the book. As a biography of Jimi Hendrix, I would rank this book as "good" or maybe even "very good" but certainly not "excellent" or "outstanding." Having read through this book twice, I have backed off of the harshness of my initial review, and I offer my apology to the author. However, the truth is we all get tired of the endless corporate hyping of every new product as "The Greatest" this or that. That is a very hard claim to live up to in this case, given the fact that several well-written bios of Jimi Hendrix are currently available.

If this book had been more honestly titled, it would have been called "Jimi Hendrix - The Early Years" and would have ended with Jimi meeting Chas Chandler in 1966 (i.e. around page 153 out of about 370 total pages of text). In all fairness, the book does have several strong points. It is a pleasant and informative read written from a sympathetic perspective. The author has interviewed an impressive number of people, many of whom have not gone on record before. It includes a tremendous amount of new detail on Jimi's early years (childhood in Seattle, years in the military and on the road, hustling in New York City) than other bios - probably a result of the fact that this author is a resident of Jimi's hometown of Seattle and was able to gain access to his early friends and family members. In fact, the coverage of Jimi's early years is definitely the strong point of the book - it fills in A LOT of holes and clarifies a ton of confusions, misconceptions, half-truths and outright untruths (including some created by Jimi himself) and for this reason is surely worth buying for serious fans of Jimi Hendrix. There are several fascinating and previously unpublished photos from Jimi's youth and his years in the U.S. military. The book also sheds light on a number previously undiscussed personal relationships of Jimi's including several girlfriends from throughout his life who have never gone on record before.

The problem is that once the book reaches Jimi's years of fame it thins out considerably and anyone who has read previous Hendrix bios will notice that the majority of core information which ties this book together is lifted (and heavily simplified) from other biographies, articles and interviews (which are quoted but not cited). The period from 1966-1970 is a fairly superficial read which ignores a lot of important musical and biographical details and cannot be considered serious biographical writing about Jimi Hendrix. If you want to compare it to another of the Hendrix bios, it is most similar to the tone of Jerry Hopkins' 1979 "Hit and Run" - but admittedly much less sensationalized and much more tastefully and respectfully written. No disrespect, but with all the other solid Hendrix bios out there, I would not suggest starting here. In my humble opinion, the best written and best researched books about the life and/or music of Jimi Hendrix remain:

Kramer/McDermott: "Hendrix: Setting the Record Straight"

Murray: "Crosstown Traffic"

Shadwick: "Jimi Hendrix: Musician"

Brown: "Jimi Hendrix: The Final Days"

Shapiro/Gleebeck: "Jimi Hendrix: Electric Gypsy"

McDermott/Kramer/Cox: "Jimi Hendrix: The Sessions"

Valkhoff: "Eyewitness 1968," "Eyewitness 1969/1970"

Roby: "Black Gold: The Lost Archives of Jimi Hendrix"

Potash: "The Jimi Hendrix Companion"

The personal accounts of Noel Redding ("Are You Experienced"), Kathy Etchingham ("Through Gypsy Eyes") and Sharon Lawrence ("Jimi Hendrix: The Man, the Myth, the Truth") are somewhat painful reads but also valuable. David Henderson's "Scuse Me While I Kiss the Sky" is flawed but also provides an invaluable glimpse into Jimi's personal life and his African-American context (which most biographers have tended to ignore). And Mary Willix's "Letters from Home" provides a lot of information on Jimi's youth. Based on the new information about Jimi's early years, Mr. Cross's book would fit nicely into this secondary category.

I was appalled after reading Charles Cross's book, "A Room Full of Mirrors". What it should be called is a book full of (expletive delete)! It's not only filled with redundancy and things told so many times in other better written books about the late artist but in it Mr. Cross has the audacity to literally make up stories about Jimi Hendrix, which unfortunately garnered media attention all over the world for his sorry excuse for a book that sheds absolutely no new light on Jimi Hendrix. But I will say one thing for Mr. Cross he certainly is creative when it comes to making things up about someone he claims to have respect for.

I have been a Jimi Hendrix fan since the age of 13 when I purchased my first record "Are You Experienced" at the Doubleday book store on Fifth Avenue in New York City. Not too many years later on a hot July night on Randalls Island, I had my own experience with Hendrix, when I sat right on the stage 8 feet away from him while he filled Downing Stadium with his electrifying energy and passion. I never took my eyes of him and if I did it, was only to watch his long fingers glide so effortlessly along the neck of his Stratocaster.

I knew that night was special even at the age of 15, but I had no idea how truly special it was, because unlike other musicians I would see many times over the course of my lifetime this would be the only time I would see him.

While I always loved his music I never really knew much about the man behind the music. Other than a few random newspaper or magazine articles I read I had really no idea what this man was all about. I watched with a degree of sadness as an endless stream of autobiographical tell all books dedicated to him written by those that knew him and those that didn't started to appear on the market. This coupled with the creation of the Jimi Hendrix cottage industry and its proliferation of seedy merchandise I found so despicable that I turned my attention to other musicians and lost interest in Hendrix.

While I sure all the licensing deals for his music and his image were lucrative it was all sadly initiated by some greedy people who are, by recent court order, his legal heirs. They say they know what is best for his continuing legacy.

I for one was never sure how an officially sanctioned & licensed Jimi Hendrix watch, drink coaster, water bottle or mobile phone cover was good for his legacy, but what do I know about legacies. Having only the slightest insight and understanding into the nature of his character I'm not sure Jimi would agree with their judgment on the coasters!

Despite this endless parade of tacky merchandising ventures by the guardians of his flame this September marks 35 years since Mr. Hendrix passed away and with out a doubt the true legacy he left us, his music, shines as brightly today as it did the day it was abruptly extinguished.

One day and I have no idea why I picked up an E book copy of Jimi Hendrix: The Man, the Magic, the Truth by Sharon Lawrence and literally could not put it down. I was fascinated by her description of this man, who was her friend, as being this very shy soft spoken, humble guy and his rise from an obscure Seattle background to the status of rock legend.

Because she was an intimate friend of his she was able to describe his personal side that was certainly knowledgeable, always charming, extremely intimate, and in a wonderfully compelling accessible and captivating way for her readers. I walked away from that book truly feeling as though I had come to know the man behind the myth.

So if you ever wondered what he was really all about, what made him tick, what did he think about, what were his interests, what were his inspirations, read her book. After reading Lawrence's account of the times she spent with Hendrix, I felt the desire to learn more about this man, whose life was tragically cut short 2 months after I saw him in a riveting performance here in New York.

So I did.

I started to read every book I could get my hands, even the out of print ones and ended recently Mr. Cross's recently published and exhaustively boring "Room Full of Mirrors".

What I found as I read through the volumes of information was a dearth of information with so many different and conflicting stories and points of view from people some who knew him and some who didn't. Mr. Cross's book, "Room full of Mirrors" fits nicely into the category of those that did'nt. I became convinced as I read this book and the others that I had started with the best book, by Lawrence, written in a perspective that tells his story from start to finish in a way that none of the others had managed to do which was to capture the true essence of who Jimi Hendrix was.

While it is clear Mr. Cross has done a great deal of duplicate research on Hendrix he is unable to capture this sense and delivers absolutely no new insights into what made this cultural icon tick.

In a recent interview I read he stated that "It's not how much I know about Jimi's B-sides; it's how much I know about the emotional arc of his life," If he does understand it I wished he had been a relayed that in the body f his work as I saw little understanding of the nature of Jimi Hendrix's emotional Arc.

Some might disagree citing Cross's revelation of the actual nature of Hendrix's army discharge. According to Cross and only Cross I might add, Hendrix claimed he had feelings for a bunk mate during a mental hygiene visit as they were called in the army back then and that he was subsequently discharged spring of 1962for having "homosexual tendencies".

This little book promoting tid bit was picked up and run by hundreds of, looking for smut on anybody, reporters and not surprisingly appeared heavily in the Gay Tabloids.

Do a GOOGLE SEARCH on this and you'll find juicy little book promoting items like this:

Rock god "pretended to be gay"

Gay.com UK, UK - Jul 29, 2005

Congradulations Mr. Cross, was this what you were looking for?

While Mr. Cross does not believe Mr. Hendrix was actually a homo sexual or that he even had reservations or objections to the war in Vietnam, (which by the way was prior to John F. Kennedy's assassination and still in the very early stages) rather that Hendrix who had a legendary appetite for persons of the opposite sex had used this a convenient excuse at the time to get out of the army and go play his guitar. I don't' know about you but in retrospect I would have said just about anything to get out of the army, and no one would have thought twice about it now, but I didn't grow up to be Jimi Hendrix.

Cross indicates that the information for his spurious allegations comes directly from Hendrix's military records, which he states an unnamed collector provided him. He furnishes us with nothing other than his word as proof for making what can only be called a slanderous character statement about someone who can't even defend himself and is also counter to everything that has ever been written about this period in his life.

Even as I write this these allegations of Mr. Cross's have been proven to be false. The smoking gun has now released a portion of the National Archives 98 page official Army records on Jimi Hendrix, funny Mr. Cross no mention of anything remotely bear what you and your cohorts have made up about him faking homosexuality to get out of the army, NOTHING. I did speak to a representative there who stated to me that the National Archives does not at this time have a copy of the official discharge papers, the D-214, but they were trying to find them. They also told me that it was a federal violation for the medical records to be published and they doubted any body had these in their possession.

Which comes to another interesting point. Just who is this mysterious person, or collector Mr. Cross states owns these papers supposedly acquired from Chas Chandler? Why in the word would Chas Chandler even had these documents in the first place? That was the response I got when I queried many of the people who would actually know the answer to that question, people who knew him personally. They all told me that Chas never mentioned any of this to them during his lifetime. Another hole in the flawless research of this book.

Actually I think it's rather sad that after four years of hard research and interviews the best Mr. Cross could find is something as meaningless as this, if it's true at all. Then to use it as a way to garner sales for this copy cat retread autobiography is even more pathetic. Citing unsubstantiated documents in the long run can only be seen as a deliberate maneuver to gain sales and attention and will certainly be a contributing factor in what will be its short shelf life.

Funny in the 43 years since Hendrix's discharge from the Army nothing even remotely like this has ever been published, but I guess if Mr. Cross says it's so, it must be true, right?

I mean, I believed 60 minutes this past summer when they released documentation on the military records casting aspersions and allegations on one Lt. George W. Bush. After all they followed what can only be called the most rigorous journalistic principles in the preparation and reporting of this type of sensitive information. I am sure Mr. Cross follows these same guidelines and has the same criteria when it comes to reporting this kind of information to the public, wouldn't you think?

And 60 minutes at least showed you the false documentation they had uncovered unlike Mr. Cross!

It has been noted in another review here on Amazon that much of the information in this "new" biography has been cited before, yet not even credited properly by Mr. Cross, and this contributes to the books ever repetitive and tedious nature.

If you're going to use this kind of trash as your defining moment in your book and utilize it as a runaway news item to sell it one might ask is there anything else worth reading in the book. The answer is NO, save your money.

It is shameful that someone who claims respect for the artist would stoop to this level to garner sales and publicity especially someone who has stated that he admired the guitar legend and understands his "emotional arc"!

If you knew understood the "emotional arc" of Jimi Hendrix you never

would have dreamed of pulling a stunt like this.

Finally to get another perspective on this situation I turned to some of Jimi's musician friends for comment on this book. They see this book as not having an ounce of respect for Jimi, and certainly not a tribute to JImi but as another crass merchandiser trying to make a quick buck on the short life of Jimi Hendrix.

When I realized the author wasn't even around during the time Jimi was playing, I almost wrote the book off on that basis. That would have been a huge mistake.

My very special friend, Glenn, obtained two tickets to see Jimi at Madison Square Garden, and invited me along. The music was incredible. I still recall All Along the Watchtower, and much of what was on Electric Ladyland. The stage was in the center of the house and it slowly turned. To make things even wierder, tons of picture flashes continued to go off. I have often thought Jimi must have disliked having that stage turn and nothing being done about all the camera flashes, as though he was in the circus, and when the book got to that show, it confirmed my assumption.

On a second occasion, with my same friend, we went to see what was billed as the "Festival for Peace" at Madison Square Garden, but fortunately this time, the stage was at the end of the floor and stationary. Jimi played just a few songs, and I was utterly blown away with a smile ear to ear. Wish you were all there, as attempting to explain that experience is impossible to do with words. After just a few songs, Jimi let his guitar fall to the floor and walked off stage. I never understood what the problem was, since he sounded amazing. The book touches on that show as well and provides insight.

As I began reading this book, I was a bit turned off by all the detail behind Jimi's family, and very young years, but this detail proved essential in having a proper context to understand much that followed, choices Jimi made, and revealed Jimi the person, not the star.

This book is an excellent place to start, or finish, for that matter, for any one looking to read about Jimi. So many people that knew Jimi particularly well, have been extremely generous to share such intimate details. This book pulls you in, bringing the past into the present leaving you feeling as though you were there, during each step of the journey.

The details in this book are just incredible. The time Jimi spent in England, personal relationships, friends, fans, fellow muscisians sharing stories. Wow!

Jimi left us too early, but with a body of work that stands among the best ever recorded. To read this book is also to understand Jimi the person, full of sound, fury, and a huge heart with a tender soul.

Awesome job Mr. Cross. Thank you for writing this.

Gary

Well, how to begin? First let's face it, most Jimi Hendrix fans are somewhat obsessive when it comes to him. And we each have our own individual opinions about him, his music, and his life. And it is hard for some of us to accept any deviation from our beliefs. I like to think when it comes to Jimi, all you really need to know about him can be found in his music. His hopes, his fears, his loves, his demons.

That being said, I still enjoy reading about Jimi and how he lived and how he made his music. So consequently, I thoroughly enjoyed Mr. Cross's book. While some may criticize it because it does not delve deeply enough into the music and how Jimi made it, I feel that in a round about way it does just that. Jimi's life, all of his childhood experiences, his life on the Chitlin' circuit, his struggle to become recognized as a musician, all contributed in some way to his music and how he approached his career and his song writing. Now this book may not go into a lot of detail when he comes to the technical aspects of his music, but that's okay, because there are several other excellent books about Jimi that do just this.

I found this book to be well written and insightful when it comes to Jimi's childhood. It appears that Jimi from the beginning depended on the kindness of neighbors and relatives. I simply cannot imagine living the way he did as a child and I cannot even fathom what it did to Jimi and how it shaped his life. That part of the book was very sad. One thing is apparent, however; Jimi his entire life depended on happenstance or serendipity in his decision making. I guess he knew no other way. He just believed that things would work out eventually. And the author was correct in his belief that Jimi was just as trapped by his music and the life it afforded him as he had been during his childhood and adolescence in Seattle. Music saved him from that life, but I guess nothing could save him later. He had talent, no doubt it. That is talent in music, but no talent in how to change his life even when it obviously became very destructive.

I suppose I will continue reading books about Jimi, because there is a part of me that believes if I keep reading, I can figure him out, but that will probably never happen. There will always be a part of Jimi that will remain mysterious and hidden and that is after all how it should be.

Charles Cross does a wonderful job of capturing the complex life of Jimi Hendrix.After reading his book I come away with one thought that kept nagging at me and that was that Jimi Hendrix was decades ahead of his time.Anyone curious about the inner workings of Rock stars and all the touring that ends up draining their energy will not be disappointed in this book.One of the most profound things I have ever read occurs On page 225 where Jimi is quoted as saying one time..."When the power of love overcomes the love of power...the world will know peace."

There are no boring sections in this book....quite the contrary as I found myself resentful of anything or anyone that got in the way of my reading time.I highly recommend this book to those like me who came of age in that wonderful time of the 60's and also to those younger who want to gain some insight into what makes a Rock n roll legend like Jimi Hendriks tick and whose life was snuffed out way too soon.

You could wish for a little more on Hendrix's musical legacy - the influence of his sound carries to this day - but this s a pretty extraordinary book, filled with tales of a heartbreaking childhood and a wonderful array of fascinating musical legends, plus insight into some of his musical creations.

The book also gives the reader plenty of reason to wish that someone around Hendrix could have helped him stop his fatal spiral into substance abuse. (The book is not one to persuade someone to take up drugs as a hobby. Definitely not.)

The research is fairly astounding, and the writing compelling. I'd recommend it.

Finally, an accurate and definitive account of Jimi's childhood and family life that isn't sugarcoated. This entire book is an absolute must read for any Hendrix fan and is riviting enough to enrapture even a non Hendrix fan. Meticulously researched with oodles of new revelations into Hendrix as a human being both on and off the road. Cross decisively clears up many missconceptions

with startling new information. A refreshing Hendrix reality check for die hard fanatics both past and future with a few mindblowing photos shown for the first time to boot. If you only own one book on Hendrix, this should be it.

Ray Rae Goldman

Archivist/Historian

James Marshall Hendrix Foundation

I picked this book up at the bookstore and started reading it. I did not stop reading until I was done. It was that good. I have 30 Hendrix books in my collection and, without a doubt, this is the best researched and most interesting Hendrix book of them all. I found out so many things that I never knew about Jimi and I was absolutely amazed how Jimi really recieved his discharge from the Army. This book is so well written that, like a great movie, I did not want it to end. This book clearly sets the standard for all past and future Hendrix books. I guess it took an author from Seattle to finally write the definitive Hendrix book. Well done, Charles Cross, and thank you.

A third of this bio is excellent, namely the part dealing with Hendrix's family roots, his childhood, teenage years. Later any Jimi fans comes across the things he/she knows almost by heart - repetitions taken from other bios, magazine clippings, other musicians' memoirs, etc. It would have been more interesting had the author used language higher than a secondary school level. Instead we're exposed to a set of verbs from a junior-high: he went, saw, worked, invited, met etc, etc. This is no literature.
There aren't any beatifully written passages that sink into your
memory or lit your imagination or make you reread some fragments.
On the contrary, what have stayed in my mind are some brutal scenes, e.g. Jimi at 18 being hit with a belt by his father, jimi using some foul language to his fans, Jimi constantly cheating his girlfriends, pretending being a gay, pretending being a bisexual, etc. Well, it looks that after four years of hard labour a mountain spawned a mouse. All in all, I treat this
bio as a perfect complementary to Keith Shadwick's "Hendrix/Musician". There the music is analysed very thoroughly, here everything else apart from music.

Give Charles Cross credit for taking on a subject as iconic as Jimi Hendrix. Note the wide disparity of the reviews on this website; Jimi had obsessive fans and here they are, passing judgement on the book's content. People have had 35 years to develop an image of "their Jimi" and a factual biography can be a disturber of myths and legends. Essentially, what I got from this book was that Jimi Hendrix was sensitive, gentle in nature, obsessed with playing guitar, highly sexual, had a sense of humor, was a bad drunk, and oh yeah, a musical genius.

This is a very well researched book, Cross carefully presents as many factual events as he can with a minimum of authorial comments or interpretations.

The mystery, and I do mean the MYSTERY, is how Hendrix became such a consummate musician. There were plenty of other hired-gun guitarists that played in touring bands during the '60s, but Hendrix synthesized his musical experiences in a way no one ever did before.

The book does best in the early years. The weakness of this fine book is in the later years---and in discussing or documenting his short, brilliant recording career. "Electric Ladyland" is one of the most amazing sounding rock albums of all time; a chapter could have been written about these sessions alone; and other chapters about his equipment, his technique; those who were influenced by him (Robin Trower, Stevie Ray, etc. etc.). Heck, an entire BOOK was written about the making of Miles Davis' "Kind of Blue" album, an equally important album in the jazz world.

So, for musician readers of this bio, there isn't much info regarding Jimi's music in terms of the technical stuff. But despite this shortcoming, the book is basically a must-read for any fan of Jimi Hendrix's music.