MixedThe Sunday Times (UK)Always entertaining, if a little glib in places, the Sixties chronicler Philip Norman tells an archetypal crash-and-burn story of sex, drugs, rock’n’roll, dodgy gangster managers, debauched tours, bitter feuds, more sex, more drugs and even more sex ... Hendrix effortlessly attracted an army of girlfriends and groupies. Itemised with an unsensational eye in Wild Thing, his erotic exploits eventually start to feel comically absurd ... Norman’s forte is his pithy use of anecdote ... Wild Thing has less to say about Hendrix’s richer and deeper impact as a sonic innovator and counterculture figurehead. In fairness, Norman does make an effort to locate the rocker within the racial politics of his day ... Norman himself can be tone deaf on race at times ... Norman never met Hendrix, who falls outside his usual focus on the white founding fathers of British blues rock. That perhaps explains the uncertain tone of Wild Thing, which feels like the work of a capable chronicler rather than an impassioned devotee. Indeed, the author pads out his observations on Hendrix with tangentially related Beatles, Stones and Clapton anecdotes, as if struggling for a sure footing outside his comfort zone. Wild Thing brings few fresh insights to the table ... Most glaringly, the author skimps on serious analysis of Hendrix’s music or lyrics ... That said, Norman’s instinct for reportage serves him well in addressing Hendrix’s death ... There have been many superior books on Hendrix, and Norman has written better pop biographies than this, but Wild Thing is still 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.
Holly George-Warren
MixedThe Times (UK)...admirably thorough ... Janis is not just biography, but social history too, a loose chronicle of America’s late-Sixties counterculture ... With minimal voyeuristic prying, Janis dutifully tracks the singer’s love affair with booze and drugs: from smoking grass and slugging whiskey in Louisiana dive bars to popping pills in Austin and shooting speed in beatnik-era New York ... Janis is a serious-minded and professional work, commendably unsensational and even-handed, although it lacks the passionate engagement and deeper cultural context that Joplin’s status deserves ... The author also misses the chance to interrogate some more prickly angles on Joplin’s musical legacy, notably accusations of cultural appropriation ... Janis joins a growing canon of Joplin biographies, mostly written by women, and most keen to salvage the singer’s reputation from the sexism that elevates outlaw male musicians to hero status while undervaluing their female counterparts. As a rounded portrait of an explosively exciting artist, George-Warren’s book is never less than engaging. But as a feminist reclaiming of pop history, it is frustratingly tame.
Danny Goldberg
MixedThe Times (UK)\"Goldberg paints Cobain as a sweet and generous soul. However, that feels a little strained in places, as when the singer unilaterally renegotiates royalty contracts that deprive his fellow Nirvana members of huge payments, or leaves violent threats on the answerphones of dirt-digging journalists ... Disdainfully sidestepping the \'Talmudic arguments\' of punk purists, Goldberg protests too much about this indie/major divide, refighting ancient battles long rendered irrelevant in the era of online streaming ... Perhaps because of his generational distaste for punk, Goldberg is at his weakest on analysing Nirvana’s music ... A well-meaning, but slight addition to the growing canon of Cobain books, Serving the Servant reveals little that most Nirvana fans will not already know.\
Mark Blake
PositiveThe Times (UK)A juicy saga of excess all areas, Mark Blake’s biography of Led Zeppelin’s notoriously combative manager Peter Grant reads at times like an all-you-can-eat buffet of guilty pleasures ... a riotous rollercoaster ride full of larger-than-life characters, but also a cautionary tale told with at least one wary eye on the Me Too climate ... [Blake] humanises his subject as a devoted father and loyal friend without straying into sugary hagiography ... less leeringly salacious than previous biographies. His cautious probing of the band’s backstage sexploits suggests that he felt duty-bound to include this material, but was aware just how sleazy it sounded in 2018 ... an entertaining journey into a lost epoch of unchecked superstar excess. Blake is diligent on detail, but less assured on pulling back to the bigger picture. A little more cultural and social context from outside the Zeppelin bubble might have fixed Grant more firmly in his era, and also explained why this Wild West chapter in rock history had to end.
