Earth vs. Space

The dramatic story of Jimi Hendrix’s final years, when the legendary guitarist’s groundbreaking musical experiments reflected a nation on fire.

Like all cosmic phenomena, Jimi Hendrix’s time on Earth was as dazzling as it was fleeting. In Earth vs. Space, esteemed Yale professor Michael E. Veal takes us inside the end of Hendrix’s career, an intense, two-year period in which the preeminent guitarist of his time produced his most forward-thinking music, even as chaos roiled his personal and professional lives. Hendrix helmed three bands in two years, including Band of Gypsys—his only all-Black ensemble—in 1969–1970 and transcended the British rock style that once garnered him fame. No longer did he sing of sex, dope, science fiction, waterfalls, or salvation under the sea, but rather lyrics of social consciousness, self-realization, and political awareness. Chronicling the artistic and social turbulence of late 1960s America, Earth vs. Space reveals Hendrix as a liberating avant-gardist of blues, soul, and rhythm & blues—fighting power with musical art and reconciling hippie psychedelia with the hard realities of race and politics that still strike resonant chords today.