Forty Years Ago: The Most Significant Music Album Ever and Unfortunate Questions of Blackness
August, 1967 was the height of the summer of love. It was, too, the crowning month of an amazing year of music. In sixty-seven Pink Floyd released their first album. The Stones would release their 7th, 8th and 9th albums. The Monterey Pop Festival redefined live concerts. Plus there was a little album from the Beatles that was dropped to, oh, a bit of notice.
Also, the most significant music album ever was released in the US.
On August 23rd of that year America was introduced to the absolutely astounding debut record from 24-year-old Johnny Allen Hendrix. Jimi, to the world. At a time when both musicians as artist, as well as studio recording techniques were evolving at an accelerated pace, Hendrix possessed a singularity. As a self-taught guitarist -- left-handed, no less, on a flipped Fender Stratocaster as opposed to a true left-handed guitar -- he was an unparalleled virtuoso. Beyond his sheer ability, what made Hendrix Hendrix was the absolute fearlessness of a nuke scientist he owned when it came to mixing and blending styles. Rhythm and Blues, free Jazz, Soul, Rock... A cocktail he called the melding of Earth and Space -- Earth being the music itself, Space being a psychedelic approach to phrasing, playing and recording. Added to all that was Hendrix himself -- the hair, the clothes, the casual attitude toward life and the obsession for creating perfect music.
Hendrix's musical philosophy is put on raw display in an album that is track by track nearly flawless. On the US version (the tracks and track order are different on the UK version) the album opens with "Purple Haze," does a hard tumble into "Manic Depression," slips into the most famous rendition of Billy Robert's "Hey Joe" . . . Side Two begins with the soulful "Wind Cries Mary," then launches into what is the greatest straight ahead rock piece ever written: "Fire." The album closes with "Foxy Lady" and "Are You Experienced." In between and among all that is a tour de force by a man who was born to invert expectations of music and who played what how.
And that is the prime significance of Are You Experienced and Jimi Hendrix. There were, of course, no shortage of black music stars particularly at that time when Motown was in full flower. However there were few, if any, prominent black rock stars. To the contrary, the modus operandi of rock had been for white acts -- be it Pat Boone or Elvis, the Beatles, or the Stones -- to lift from black R&B, repurpose the music and sell it to white audiences. Hendrix flipped the script, took the rock format, re-infused it with Soul and Funk and gave a visage of color to Rock and Roll.
The influence of his artistry was powerful and pervasive. A direct line can be drawn from Hendrix to nearly ever guitar icon of the era: Jeff Beck, Pete Townsend and Eric Clapton (who would remain close friends with Jimi for the remainder of his life). It was Paul McCartney who got the Jimi Hendrix Experience -- Jimi's ultra-lean band with bassist Noel Redding and drummer Mitch Mitchell -- into the Monterey Pop Festival. At the festival it was Stones' Guitarist Brian Jones who introduced The Experience.
Unfortunately, no matter that Hendrix "stole back" black music and openly acknowledged and credited countless R&B legends as being of influence to him, like many blacks who live how they please Hendrix was often accused of not being "authentically" black; of being a sellout for his style of music, for not having black band mates and for dating white chicks. Basically he was given crap for being himself rather than the kind of black that others perceive and dictate black should be.
You'd think in forty years such puerile questions of "authentic" blackness would have been long answered, then consigned to the Potters field of racial identity. Take a look at what nonsense Barack Obama still has to put up with, and you see that sadly they have not.
Perhaps even someone as unique as Hendrix could not change racial politics for all time. We'll all have to be satisfied with his having changed music forever.
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"The significant music album ever"?
Hardly.
Hendrix was above average at best.Clapt
But that aside,I agree with the rest of that statement.
You gotta know that you are lying here. Even Clapton ain't that stupid. Before they could have attempted to cop off of Jimi, they had all bitten off all the Hubert Sumlin that they could.
Eric Clapton has gotten a free ride off of Chess records for far too long.
As for the politics of race, refer to Plessy v. Ferguson, "jim crow" and how law becomes custom that allows for the kind of ignorance suggest that Clapton could smoke Jimi. All the practice since Jimi's passing, he still can't.
Ridley, pay attention here. I don't know what the hell kind of insight all the Hollywood writing has brought you, but white people are not going to vote for Barack in any numbers to be counted as significant. Certainly you know that. That folk even continue to consider someone as foul as Ghouliani having any opportunity to win ought to make you continually aware of just how unrelentingly stupid/racist the electorate in this country is.
I have huge issues with Barack, but I will not indulge the "Black enough" matter. All you gotta do is look at the cat, all the questions are answered. He's Black, y'all, and that is all there is too it. When folks enter the booths, that is all they are going to see anyway. That's racism, y'all. Simple as that.
I assume you know that when Clapton saw Hendrix play in London, he put down his guitar for an entire year. I don't think that HE thought he could smoke him...
Frank Zappa could "smoke" any of the guitarist i've seen mentioned here,don't beleive me FINE,just listen to Zappas:"GUITAR"(2 cd set),or "SHUT UP AND PLAY YER GUITAR"(3 cd set).Plus he[Frank] put out over 50 albums in 25 years,but most people only know of him by "Don't eat the yellow snow" or "Dina Moe Hum".
I was a Hendrix fan(still am),Page,F
thank you, thank you, thank you for writing this piece!
recently, my head has been wrapped around Jimi, and his truly amazing genius...i have been thinking about the lasting imprint on modern music he and his skills have made. Chrissie Hynde (i noticed you did not mention any women in your list of obviously influenced artists...
he was an artist without equal, and a true example of what our country is supposed to be about: a self-made person, unhindered by the stereotypes of his contemporaries. listening to his music, one is transformed and transported. while i am truly grateful for the time he had here, i am sad for the work he never got to share with us.
thanks again for writing this.
John,
I found your article refreshing. I too was inspired by Jimi Hendrix when I was a teenager and decided to follow his lead. As an African American who continues to do his thing, I too can't get acceptance by my fellow Blacks for showing my diversity as an artist. I'm an Elvis Impersonator, I sing in Chinese and Vietnamese and I perform standard tunes as a one-man-band which includes country and Hawiian music and when Blacks are in my audience, I tend to get odd stares and snide comments. Then the loud talking and laughing follows. But it's not only Blacks who find me to be odd, whites hurl insults at me as well, especially when I'm performing as Elvis. I guess it's okay for Elvis to have incorporated soul music and the style of Black artist in his own performance but it's not okay for a Black man to pay tribute to him as an impersonator. You're right, some things haven't and seemingly, will never change. This has for a long time been my pet peave with the Black community. As you've said, "Take a look at what nonsense Barack Obama still has to put up with, and you see that sadly they have not." Sadly, I'm still putting up with the nonsense too!
Mitch Mitchell
Elvis is kind of a sore spot with a lot of black people for obvious reasons, but its interesting to see you get the insults from both sides of the fence.
As an artist, you can't concern yourself too much with what the public thinks. Jimi had to go overseas to establish his career, Prince got booed off stage, 50 was pelted with garbage -- but none of them gave up on their dream.
People of all colors are always going to ridicule (and fear) the new and the different, but as a creative individual you simply have to to look past that and continue to do your proverbial "thing".
Quit whinning--you are an American--be proud of that!!!
check out TV on the Radio
We black people have won freedom from slavery, freedom from Jim Crow, and are winning our freedom from each other. Jimi Hendrix, Barack Obama, Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, James Baldwin, Langston Hughes, Bill Cosby, and countless others did not do what they were SUPPOSED to do; they did what they WANTED to do in the way they wanted to do it.
The legacy of slavery is still with us; generations of black people have been taught that living life as you see fit--embracing passion, indulging curiosity, and pursuing knowledge--is "acting white." That's because doing so could (and still can, in some places) get you killed.
"Black Enough" is code for those still adhere to the stereotypical preconception of just what a black person in America is SUPPOSED to be. But life is too short and times are too hard to worry about "keepin' it real" in that regard. I don't have time to be black. I'm too busy being me.
Mr. Ridley, great post. A heavy metal band "God Forbid" made up of mostly black members seemed to go through the same thing as Hendrix. It's not going any, sadly.
Jimi Hendrix!
"Axis Bold as Love" is a
great record! A classic!
"All Along The Watchtower"
is pure genius!
Let's see...
African-Americans chastised as not being black enough...
Clarence Thomas
J.C. Watts
Condi Rice
Colin Powell
Michael Steele
Walter Williams
Larry Elder
...Oh wait, they're not Socialists. My bad.
Haven't had time to read all the comments but one of my top 3 favorite Hendrix albums is "Band of Gypsies" with Billy Cox and Buddy Miles - both of whom were/are black men - backing up "The Man".
"Changes", "Machine Gun" and "Who Knows" are the standouts - all performed live on New Years Eve, 1969 at The Filmore East in NY.
These were also masterpieces with, imho, quite a bit more funk and feeling than many of Jimi's tunes.
Jimi didn't just play with the white guys. ;-)
does anybody have refs to accusations of Hendrix not being "black enough" because this is the first I've heard; he seems to be held up to heroic status in white & black & any other color "camp" (just look at old funk guitarist Eddie Hazel or newer punk/funk gtrist "Jimi Hazel" from 24/7 SPYZ" :-)
It's hard to dig up references from so long ago. I first heard about in in Rolling Stone and have written to them about any archives mentioning this.
It was a minor/major deal for a while.
The primary propenents were the Black Panthers who actually demanded a meeting Jimi to promote them. He told them he wasn't interested in politics. All he wanted to do was play his guitar and make great music.
He was pressured still by a lot of black musicians who came down on him for playing with only whites. Jimi was a colorblind as they come.
But before it got out of hand, he died although the controversy was during his last year of life.
The Black Panthers wanted him to push their agenda because they knew he had a huge audience in the white world. The musicians simply wanted a piece of Jimi.
Band of Gypsy's by the way only performed three times. Two shows nightly at the Fillmore East and one show about a month later that was not very good. The reviews at the time slammed the Square Garden concerts as basically out of sync.
HOWEVER the Fillmore shows were outstanding.
One little side note about the Fillmore shows. Bill Graham and Jimi were not friends and Bill was not a fan of Jimi, but he was a businessman and booked him.
He once rudely told Jimi that he wouldn't be popular if he wasn't all over the stage with his antics, amp and guitar breaking, etc.
So if you watch the Fillmore shows you will see Jimi hardly move. He proved to Bill that he could blow the walls out without his famous moves and sexually assualting the Marshall Amps.
IN some cases Jimi stood completely still while he ripped the place apart with his playing.
Bill was an asshole.
When rock music changed the music landscape in 1968, I was a young teenager who was totally sold on we then called; "The Philadelphia Sound". I could not grasp this new kind of music at that time, and yet....ove
Hendrix's album's were flawless as opposed to his live performances that were flawed. But Hendrix is one of the few musicians who's mistakes on stage sounded amazing and artistic not unlike a misused Picasso brush stoke on a work of art that captures our wonderment.
Hendrix's music will live on even when those of us that were alive to appreciate him are long gone.
If your reading Jimi......
Good stuff Ridley, keep up the GOOD WORK.
"When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace" ... Jimi Hendrix. A timeless man with a timeless message ... a musical genius.
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