Room Full of Mirrors: A Biography of Jimi Hendrix

One of these days, I'm going to astral project myself up into the skies," he boasted. "I'll be going to the stars and the moon. I want to fly and see what's up there. "I want to go up to the sky," he said, looking at his aunt, "from star to star.

He was only five-foot-ten, but people frequently mistook him for being over six feet, at least in part because his gigantic Afro made him appear larger than life. His thin, angular frame, which was shaped like an inverted triangle, furthered this illusion; he had narrow hips, a small waist, but impossibly wide shoulders and arms. His fingers were abnormally long and sinuous, and like the rest of him, they were a rich caramel color. His bandmates jokingly called him “The Bat” because of his preference for covering his windows and sleeping during the day, but the nickname also fit his penchant for wearing capes, which furthered his superhero appearance.

They drove to the parking lot of Garfield High School, where Jimi pointed to the windows on the building and told Carmen what classes were held there. The building had a pull that had him returning with a regularity that was in contrast to the infrequency of his attendance as a student. Since his fame, Garfield had taken on a mysterious allure that saw Jimi dedicate all his Seattle shows to the school from which he flunked out.

The night before Al left, they partied at the Rocking Chair, a club where Ray Charles would later be discovered.

He had spent three hardscrabble years performing on the Chitlin’ Circuit—a route of juke joints, icehouses, and barrooms where rhythm-and-blues music was played primarily to African American audiences. Just to get to those gigs, traveling black musicians had to plan carefully in advance such things as finding food and using a toilet, simple services that were denied blacks in parts of white America.

he had been a guest of honor in many pubs, and even the beloved Paul McCartney had once bought him a pint.

Noel had been born in Folkestone, a city in southeastern England, and he had already spent a lifetime in pubs and around cranky publicans.

Jimi had an extraordinary sense of self-awareness and an uncanny ability to use music to express emotional truths.