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Published Sep 2020
400 pages
Genre: Biography/Memoir
Publication Information
A shattering new biography of rock music's most outrageous - and tragic - genius.
Over fifty years after his death, Jimi Hendrix (1942–1970) is celebrated as the greatest rock guitarist of all time. But before he was setting guitars and the world aflame, James Marshall Hendrix was a shy kid in Seattle, plucking at a broken ukulele and in fear of a father who would hit him for playing left-handed. Bringing Jimi's story to vivid life against the backdrop of midcentury rock, and with a wealth of new information, acclaimed music biographer Philip Norman delivers a captivating and definitive portrait of a musical legend.
Drawing from unprecedented access to Jimi's brother, Leon Hendrix, who provides disturbing details about their childhood, as well as Kathy Etchingham and Linda Keith, the two women who played vital roles in Jimi's rise to stardom, Norman traces Jimi's life from playing in clubs on the segregated Chitlin' Circuit, where he encountered daily racism, to barely surviving in New York's Greenwich Village, where was taken up by the Animals' bass player Chas Chandler in 1966 and exported to Swinging London and international stardom.
For four staggering years, from 1966 to 1970, Jimi totally rewrote the rules of rock stardom, notably at Monterey and Woodstock (where he played his protest-infused rendition of the "Star-Spangled Banner"), while becoming the highest-paid musician of his day. But it all abruptly ended in the shabby basement of a London hotel with Jimi's too-early death. With remarkable detail, Wild Thing finally reveals the truth behind this long-shrouded tragedy.
Norman's exhaustive research reveals a young man who was as shy and polite in private as he was outrageous in public, whose insecurity about his singing voice could never be allayed by his instrumental genius, and whose unavailing efforts to please his father left him searching for the family he felt he never truly had. Filled with insights into the greatest moments in rock history, Wild Thing is a mesmerizing account of music's most enduring and endearing figures.
8 pages of color illustrations
"Norman combines colorful, energetic picaresque...with lush evocations of Hendrix's sound...Norman's entertaining, psychedelically tinged portrait shows why Hendrix made such a deep impression on rock 'n' roll." - Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"There will be much interest in all things Hendrix on the 50th anniversary of his death this September. As his chronicler, Norman is, most definitely, experienced. Essential for music collections and anyone interested in Hendrix or music of the 1960s." - Library Journal (starred review)
"[P]erceptive...An intimate, accomplished biography of a peerless musician." - Kirkus Reviews
"[Wild Thing is] an almighty great read...like taking a step back in time. The characters are so well-depicted that I could remember traits and mannerisms from fifty years ago. I was totally transported into the milieu and now am sort of haunted by the tragedy of it all." - the former Linda Keith, who discovered Jimi Hendrix in 1966
This information about Wild Thing was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Philip Norman is the bestselling biographer of Eric Clapton, Buddy Holly, the Rolling Stones, John Lennon, Elton John, Mick Jagger, and Paul McCartney. A novelist and a playwright, he lives in London.
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