Black Gold- The Lost Archives of Jimi Hendrix

Hendrix: Setting the Record Straight Here's the first complete, definitive account of the career, music, and legacy of Jimi Hendrix, based entirely on first-person recollections and new, exclusive interviews with musicians and key figures in the Hendrix inner circle. Authors John McDermott and Eddie Kramer (Jimi's l...	Jimi Hendrix: Sessions: The Complete Studio Recording Sessions, 1963-1970 Jimi Hendrix is universally recognized as the greatest rock 'n' roll guitar player of all time. But until now, the story of how he made his amazing music has never been told. Jimi Hendrix: Sessions is the first book to take us inside the studio and reveal, album by album and trac...	Jimi Hendrix - Musician Jimi Hendrix: Musician presents a completely fresh look at Hendrix by tracing his musical history and examining him as a guitarist, composer, and singer. Hendrix was a larger-than-life figure, and previous accounts have tended to obscure the role of his musical genius. This book ...	Jimi Hendrix: Electric Gypsy September 18, 1995, marks the 25th anniversary of Jimi Hendrix's untimely demise. To commemorate this event, the authors have revised and updated over 200 pages of Electric Gypsy, the record of Hendrix's legacy as the music world's most talented guitarist.	Electric Ladyland Bursting with ideas and energy, Jimi Hendrix's second album release of 1968 (following Axis: Bold as Love) was a double-LP set that showcased virtually everything the guitar genius had to offer: blistering blues ("Voodoo Chile"), galaxy-patrolling space jams ("1983... A Merman I ...
Room Full of Mirrors: A Biography of Jimi Hendrix Now in paperback, the national bestselling biography of American musical icon Jimi Hendrix It has been more than thirty-five years since Jimi Hendrix died, but his music and spirit are still very much alive for his fans everywhere. Charles R. Cross vividly recounts the life of...	Jimi Hendrix: Voodoo Child: The Stories Behind Every Song Jimi Hendrix began musical life on the "chitlin' circuit" in the mid-1960s, where he developed a fluid, funky guitar style, backing the likes of the Isley Brothers on the road. In 1966 Chas Chandler, formerly of The Animals, discovered him playing in Greenwich Village and shrewdl...	Are You Experienced?: The Inside Story Of The Jimi Hendrix Experience The Jimi Hendrix Experience had one of the most dazzling and sensational careers of any band. Their roller-coaster ride through a schedule of sell-out tours and frantic recording sessions left them crazed with sex, drugs, stardom, and exhaustion; but at the same time they produce...	First Rays of the New Rising Sun The guy was damn ingenious with a guitar, but not half as industrious as the folks who've packaged and repackaged his posthumous material. First Rays of the New Rising Sun, however, is an attractive assortment of "spiritual, very earthy" late recordings that surfaced in the '70s ...	Are You Experienced As emblematic of its time as of its sorcerer-like creator, 1967's Are You Experienced unleashed Jimi Hendrix onto a world in the midst of such cultural and musical shakeups that it really didn't seem as "far out" as it actually was. It wasn't just Hendrix's virtuosic skill as a p...

For Hendrix Completists
Hendrix left behind thousands of reels of tape containing hundreds of hours of music, much of it never made widely available. This book details all that mass of material and exposes just how much more Hendrix exists than his handful of commercial releases. Little, it appears, ever went unrecorded, though the author chronicles those lost items with great regret. Hendrix is now mythological, and this book only increases his legend by whetting the appetite for more 'new' Jimi that will surely come sooner or later, now that the estate of Hendrix is in charge of his music. Had he lived, it seems likely that Hendrix would have entered a jazz period. If he were alive today, who knows what he'd be playing? Most likely, he'd be more like the drug addled Sly Stone than the lifelong creative artist that Miles Davis was until he died. Still, in his brief 27 years, Hendrix changed music, as this book makes clear.

Excellent balance of facts and history
Admittedly, this book will appeal to the Hendrix-ophile more than the casual reader. However, Roby weaves a good thread of history and minutiae that will capture the interest of the casual Hendrix listener as well. Since the book was published, a lot of the "lost" material has been officially released. However, there is a wealth of video and audio that even the most ardent collectors have not seen or heard. (Experience Hendrix possesses some but not all of this un-bootlegged material and will probably release it in dribs and drabs for the next decade or so, consider this: a large armored truck was used in the 70's to transport all of the hundreds of reels of Hendrix material) Roby does neglect covering the Douglas/Hendrix period with the same level of archivists detail. What about all the sessions set up with Tony Williams, Mother Hen/Dave Holland, the apartment jam w/Miles Davis? There is still much entombed in vaults and will be for decades to come. Roby's book scratches the surface but I think as time passes more and more evidence will confirm the importance of Hendrix to pop music and music in general.

Excellent for the music-lover
Maybe 'Electric Gypsy' from Glebbeek is the ultimate biography , this however is more into Jimi's MUSICAL legacy.Full of detail and if you pick this up , you won't regret it...

Getting to the Heart of the Matter
Steven Roby has written a masterful account of Jimi Hendrix's recorded legacy. Black Gold is an essential resource for the dedicated Hendrix collector, and is also a great read that would interest anyone who loves Jimi's music. It is the difinitive history of one of rock's leading legends, delving deeply into the recordings he made, and into the man himself. By including quotes made by Jimi and his peers, Roby's unique perspective has illuminated aspects of Jimi's musical life that had previously been shrouded in darkness and shadow.Roby presented himself with a nearly impossible task, which required talking to musicians, associates, friends and family about the past, then attempting to separate myth from fact when discrepancies arose. It may not be possible to uncover the whole truth, but Black Gold cuts two or three layers deeper into Hendrix's recordings and claims about it, than any previous account.

an essential Jimi read
Ever wonder who jammed with who? This book helps you to find out. This book both a comprehensive list of all recordings of Jimi and his band, as well as an intimate look at the lifestyle of one of America's greatest musicians. I skipped over a lot of the lists and dove into the narratives that told stories of Jimi jamming with Janis Joplin, Eric Clapton (Jimi is supposedly the only guitarist to ever play Clapton off-stage), The Who and many other greats. What I enjoyed most about the book was the details about Jimi learning to play the guitar and his first gigs. Jimi is a musician that stayed true to his roots and his own unique style.I only gave this book 3 stars because, unless you know absolutely nothing about Jimi Hendrix or some of the other musicians in the book, much of what you read you are likely to already know. Redding included many well known anecdotes as filler for his archival list, which is admirably constructed and researched. The only problem is, is that much of what is on the list is unavailable to the public.Still, if you're a Jimi fan, you have to read it. After all, it's a book about Jimi.