[amazonify]0786888415[/amazonify]Alright, if you actually get that reference and know the Dave Matthews song, I’m not actually referring to the same thing Dave is referring to when he calls it a Jimi thing. Although, given the actual subject of this post, it’s not that far off. Some might say apropos…at least those that know what apropos means.

I’m reading Room Full of Mirrors, a biography on Jimi Hendrix. I know his music, at least to the degree that most people do, but I knew nothing about the man. I found the book at a used book store for cheap, and I was interested.

Although I’m not quite to the part where he breaks into worldwide fame, I’m close. It’s a very interesting read, especially considering that I’ve had the chance to visit Seattle, where he grew up (and the Experience Music Project, which started because Paul Allen needed a place to store all of his Jimi Hendrix memorabilia), and New York City, where he started to become the musician and the entertainer the world would be enthralled by.

What most surprises me are the names, the people, that come in and out of Jimi’s life, that are recognizable, even famous. Even from an early age, because of a fairly hip music scene in downtown Seattle, Jimi met Little Richard, and later played backup for him. In New York, he befriended the girlfriend of Keith Richards. That girlfriend shared a fascination with Jimi for Bob Dylan, who was himself making his name known in Greenwich Village, New York City. Dylan wrote that he knew Jimi before he became big.

It seems that, even with the poverty he endured as a child, and even into his early adulthood, he somehow managed to ingratiate himself into these inner sanctums of holy musicianship. According to the book, it was part dogged determination mixed with equal parts naivete about the ways of the world, an off-stage shyness that always belied his on-stage antics, and an ever-noted sensuality in the way he carried himself and the way he caressed his guitar and made it sing.

The moral of the story thus far? Don’t be afraid to look ignorant when you’re learning from masters.