Jimi: Sounds Like a Rainbow: A Story of the Young Jimi Hendrix (review)

In this account of Jimi Hendrix's early years, Golio explores the way a young boy, determined to bring the ambient music of his surroundings to life through painting and guitar, created a revolutionary sound that continues to influence rock and blues musicians. Audiences meet Jimmy (creative orthography was yet to come) as he mimics raindrops on a one-string ukulele, ponders the colors suggested by water and fire, imitates his musical idols on a broom-handle "guitar," and finally teaches himself to play on his first five-dollar set of used strings. Once Jimmy's talent is unleashed on a cheap electric guitar, "suddenly the room filled with a rocket's roar. Crashing waves. The buzz of swarming bees. Jimmy was finally painting with sound!" Kids familiar with Hendrix's visceral sound and astonishing dexterity may feel shortchanged by the scant two spreads of text and illustration that allude to his fiery performance; specifics about his career are relegated to a somewhat hagiographic "More about Jimi Hendrix" note, and the unavoidable details of his death are corralled into an author's note that delivers all the correct messages about drug abuse. Website and print resources and a selected discography are included, and an illustrator's note explains how Steptoe researched and created his vibrant plywood, paper, and paint collages in which a dreamy, almost translucent Hendrix hovers slightly above his gritty urban background.