Sharon Lawrence, Jimi Hendrix: The Man, The Magic, The Truth (Harper Entertainment, 2005)
The chief questions that arise with a book like Jimi Hendrix: The Man, The Magic, The Truth, a book in which the author is offering a personal memoir rather than an outside view based on truly objective independent research, revolve around how accurately the author's memories match the facts. Did the author dissemble in ways to appear in a more favorable light? Do they have biases they are seeking to bolster? I can only hope Sharon Lawrence was (and is) the sort of friend she appears to have been (and continues to be) to Jimi Hendrix.
The review copy was an un-correct proof with a very small number of punctuation, spelling and grammatical errors. These were the only distractions that pulled focus from what proved to be a very rewarding read. Once I picked it up, I found myself drawn into the well-told and compelling story of the artist behind the myth. One advantage is that the author was already a working journalist in the sixties, living in L.A. mostly interviewing of members of the film industry for UPI, when she met Hendrix.
The book begins in February 1968 when Lawrence, as a favor to Les Perrin, a friend of hers from London then doing PR work for the Jimi Hendrix Experience, gave Perrin a lift from L.A. to a concert in Anaheim where she first met Hendrix. In only two short years Jimi Hendrix would be dead of a drug overdose. Lawrence and others close to Hendrix remain convinced it was a suicide, brought on in large part by the pressure cooker demands of being an iconic rock star. Not to mention the multitude of managers, producers, record company executives and family members who were all eager to extract every possible penny from Hendrix's performing and recording, regardless of the toll it demanded from the artist. In short, a classic tale of the self interested and short sighted paying too much attention to the golden eggs and not enough to the well being of the goose laying those riches.
That Hendrix was only really on the scene for four short years seems inconceivable. He was and remains a towering presence in Rock, indeed any music employing the electric guitar. Lawrence makes excellent use of various "on the record" recorded interviews she conducted with Hendrix during those years, as well as with a vast cast of others involved in his life and career, both then and throughout the three and a half decades since. She also draws on her memories of personal conversations, shared moments and diligent research to bring to life a fully rounded view of, as her title has it, Jimi Hendrix.
Given that the music, life and times of Jimi Hendrix have been documented so many times (if often in bits and pieces), there is little need for me to offer a synopsis of the biographical material covered in any detail. Ultimately, few of the characters intimately involved with Jimi Hendrix' story (including Hendrix) escape some share of the blame in what is a cautionary tale along the lines of 'be careful what you wish for; you just might get it.' With that said, reading Sharon Lawrence's excellent biography, Jimi Hendrix, made me want to return to the recorded Hendrix catalog. It also made me sad to think about what music might have been made by Hendrix in the decades since his unfortunate demise.
