Crosstown Traffic
Jimi Hendrix and Post-War Pop

Older fans of rock music have known Charles Schar Murray since the seventies of the last century as one of the sharpest writers of the then leading music weekly "New Musical Express". Sharp language and characteristic style, he never wrote in gloves. Often his opinion was provocative and never yield......more

This is a wide-ranging and brilliant attempt to locate Hendrix and his genius in the web of musical, social, racial history. This isn't to say the book's perfect - some of the arguments don't quite work, and the appendices feel (in one case) whimsical or (in the other) just not quite to cut it - but......more

Should really be titled “Jimi Hendrix and post-war music nobody listens to”. Interesting only to jazz nerds and music snobs.......more

It had some interesting things in it. There were long, passionate thoughts from the author on the historical issues of race and music, soul and jazz influences, what rock is and where it's from, how white people influenced Jimi Hendrix's fame, etc. I didn't really like it, however, because it often......more

I have seen one sniffy review here who made no allowance for the fact that the book was written in 1989, when vinyl still outsold CD's and therefore that was why a lot of the music recommendations seem 'out of date' by the standards of modern CD releases and downloads that have become the norm since......more