Wild Thing - Norman, Philip

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Résumé :
Almost 50 years after his lonely death, Hendrix is the abiding symbol of musical genius cut tragically short. Wild Thing will be the first biography to bring together the splendour and sadness of his brief life, and to attempt to unravel the circumstances of his death.

Hendrix revolutionised classic rock, inventing a whole new vocabulary for the guitar. Onstage he pushed the boundaries of Sixties permissiveness, fellating the strings of the guitar with his tongue, lying it flat and straddling it, even setting fire to it. Yet in private he was polite, shy and sweet-natured. Norman will explore these contradictions in a narrative that takes us from Hendrix's roots in Seattle to his louche and glamorous life in Mayfair, when London was the world's most 'swinging' capital and then back to the US with the series of historic outdoor rock festivals that rounded out the decade.

Wild Thing will be a celebration of matchless artistry, and a gripping chronicle of those now mythical times. But it will also investigate the peculiar conditions of his death, part whodunnit as it tells the most cautionary of rock 'n' roll parables. After all these years of rumour and speculation, Jimi's ghost may finally be laid to rest....

Biographie:
Philip Norman was born in London and brought up on the Isle of Wight. He joined the Sunday Times at twenty-two, soon gaining a reputation as Atticus columnist and for his profiles of figures as diverse as Elizabeth Taylor, Little Richard and Colonel Gaddafi. Author of the UK and US bestseller Shout!, he has also written the definitive lives of Paul McCartney, Buddy Holly, Mick Jagger, Elton John and John Lennon....

Sommaire:

'Arguably the greatest instrumentalist in the history of rock music,' says Jimi Hendrix's citation in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. James Marshall Hendrix remains unique as an African American who broke out of the traditional 'Black' genres of blues, r&b and soul to play hard rock to an overwhelmingly white audience, almost single-handedly creating what became known as heavy metal.

With unprecedented access to Jimi's younger brother, Leon, the two most important women in his life and numerous previously untapped sources, bestselling music biographer Philip Norman resurrects the real Jimi from the almost mythical icon who has continued to influence young guitarists. His death in 1970, aged only twenty-seven when his fame was at its height, has long been rock's greatest unsolved mystery. But finally we learn where the responsibility lay for Jimi's lonely, squalid end.

'An engaging memorial to a rock revolutionary whose music, in contrast to many of his revered Sixties peers, retains much of its explosively thrilling voodoo power' The Times