A new book about Jimi Hendrix that features discussions with his contemporaries, including fellow musicians and other scene-makers, is coming this fall. Acclaimed rock music journalists and authors Harvey Kubernik and Kenneth Kubernik celebrate the legendary artist’s life, music and legacy with Jimi Hendrix: Voodoo Child, coming October 19, 2021, from Sterling Publishing.
Jimi Hendrix: Voodoo Child includes previously unpublished excerpts from interviews with the recording, producing and engineering principals from throughout Hendrix’s career, with a focus on his music. Among those featured are Dick Clark, Andrew Loog Oldham, composer Mike Stoller, Steve Cropper, Chris Hillman, photographer Henry Diltz, Dave Mason, producer Jerry Wexler, Electric Lady Studios engineer Eddie Kramer, Love guitarist Johnny Echols, Don Wilson of the Ventures, Brian Auger, TV and film director Michael Lindsay-Hogg, Jim Keltner, and many more.
Writer-photographer Heather Harris says of the book, “You’ll be happily immersed… in no time. It is mega-content bursting at the seams.”
She adds, “Most all of its myriad photographs are entirely new to the public, including those telltale little square Kodak Instamatic shots of the band interacting with fans and peers alike, or oddities like fans splashing about in the reflecting pool fronting the stage of the Hollywood Bowl while the Experience [performed].
“Eddie Kramer, Nels Cline and Billy Cox so thoroughly codify why Hendrix sounded like Hendrix that the music will swirl in your head all the while that you’re reading. Which is precisely what a superior music book should do.”
Harvey Kubernik’s work has been published internationally in Melody Maker, Variety, Goldmine, the Los Angeles Times, MOJO and Record Collector News. He is also a Best Classic Bands contributor. His books include The Story of the Band: From Big Pink to the Last Waltz; 1967: A Complete Rock History of the Summer of Love; Canyon of Dreams; Neil Young: Heart of Gold; and Leonard Cohen: Everybody Knows. He lives in Los Angeles.
Related: Harvey Kubernik has assembled interviews with legendary artists in celebration of Bob Dylan
Kenneth Kubernik is a former editor of Music Connection magazine. He has contributed to Variety, the Los Angeles Times and MIX magazine. He is the coauthor of The Story of the Band. He lives in Los Angeles.
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1 Comment so far
Jump into a conversationSadly, both former members of The Experience are deceased, as it would really be so invaluable to have their recollections for a book like this. As Hendrix’s last remaining sideman, Billy Cox understandably has often tried to portray himself as being part of the mainstream in Hendrix’s world, but actually he was only involved on the tail end of Hendrix’s brief career, and not a part of the three core LPs at all.
Eddie Kramer was there from the beginning, and probably has the most insight into the creation of his first three groundbreaking records, as well as “Cry of Love,” which was, essentially, Hendrix’s last recording effort, though he died before the LP was finished being mixed. Unfortunately, Kramer is also instrumental in “co-producing” the dearth of those horrible post-Hendrix records, with Janie Hendrix, which consist of Hendrix jams and outtakes which would never have seen the light of day had Jimi lived. As someone who was Hendrix contemporary and studio collaborator, Kramer is partly responsible for the creation of some of the greatest rock records ever made. It’s a travesty that he didn’t honor that incredible privilege and accomplishment, and, instead, chose to sell out his position to cash in with Hendrix’s baby sister, who had absolutely nothing to do with his music, and is unabashedly trading on his name and legacy in a way that tarnishes, rather than honors his genius. There are a great many younger people who have only heard these outtake records as their sole perception of Jimi Hendrix, and have never heard “Are You Experienced,” or “Electric Ladyland.”
Whenever I hear cuts from some of these “new” outtake records, I just shake my head in wonder at how Eddie Kramer could have let himself be a part of such traitorous acts that denigrate the true genius of his friend’s “real” accomplishments, of which Kramer was once so proud to be part of.