1.Prologue
In MUSIC & PARTIES #017, I wrote about the psychedelic rock of Jimi Hendrix and the influence he had on the three great rock guitarists that came out of the U.K. working class: Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, and Jimmy Page.
Hendrix rose to prominence in the U.K. before finally making his breakthrough in the U.S. with legendary performances at the Monterey Pop Festival and Woodstock. But despite his success among white audiences, Hendrix was affected by the fact that the black community did not embrace him as an artist. Although he tried to reconnect with his roots at the end of his career, he would die before he made any real inroads. Today, he is highly regarded by many black musicians and artists.
In this article I will take a closer look at the last years of Jimi Hendrix’s career, and then introduce three black guitarists he inspired, who would come to commercial prominence in the 80s and 90s.
2.Jimi Hendrix’s fight to Reclaim His Blackness
Around 1969, when Jimi Hendrix had made his breakthrough with the Jimi Hendrix Experience--comprised of Hendrix, an English bassist, and an English drummer—he found himself trying to reconcile the fact that he was a black man who was playing what was considered “white music" to largely white audiences. He was becoming frustrated with being stereotyped as a hypersexual, perpetually high black man, and began to recognize how he was being paraded around for white people’s entertainment like some sort of a freak show. Reflexively, he sought to reconnect with his black roots. However, at a time when the black community was focused on the civil rights movement and Black Power, Hendrix was sometimes seen as an Uncle Tom-like traitor that was kowtowing to the white man.
Black radio refused to play his music. At the time, black music was basically synonymous with the Motown sound, and rock music was “white music". This frustrated Hendrix, as he knew that rock had its roots in blues and R&B, and was thus indisputably black. Nevertheless, his bewitching guitar-playing ways went against the current and was seen as an outlier among black musicians.
When the Jimi Hendrix Experience disbanded in June 1969, Hendrix called on African-American bassist Billy Cox—whom he had met in the army—and attempted to form a new band comprised of mostly black musicians. The band that he played with at Woodstock in August of that year was all black except for drummer Mitch Mitchell (whom he had played with in the Jimi Hendrix Experience).
In September, a few weeks after that legendary live performance, Hendrix was persuaded to play a free live show in Harlem, New York. By the time him and his band had taken to the stage, however, it was late, and much of the crowd had dispersed. When they started to play, some of the audience threw bottles and eggs at the stage.
Jimi would continue to try to play with a more black retinue, but none of the ensembles would last. In 1970, the Jimi Hendrix Experience reunited, albeit with the aforementioned Billy Cox as the bassist. In the middle of the European tour, Cox fell ill and had to drop out; Hendrix began trying to find a replacement but ended up dying of barbiturate-related asphyxia.
Hendrix’s final album released during his lifetime was Band of Gypsys, a live album recorded in New York in January 1970 with Billy Cox on bass and drummer Buddy Miles—a trio of black musicians. Hendrix’s guitar is, of course, the main attraction. But instead of the psychedelic rock sound he had been known for up until that point, he pushes his sound in a new direction by incorporating R&B, blues, soul, and hard rock influences. In other words, he was exploring a funk sound. The album would greatly influence funk musicians like George Clinton and Bootsy Collins, as well as two of the other guitarists I will talk about in this article: Lenny Kravitz and Slash.
Band of Gypsys
Jimi Hendrix recorded and released this live album in 1970.
Hendrix’s music would never find true widespread acceptance among the black community during his lifetime. But today, his music and legacy has inspired many generations of black musicians and artists. Hip hop groups like Public Enemy and A Tribe Called Quest have sampled his music in their songs. Even Kanye West, the self-proclaimed “greatest artist that God has ever created”, revealed in a Harper’s Bazaar interview that his favorite song was Hendrix’s cover of “All Along the Watchtower”.
3.Prince: Transcending the Genres of “White" and “Black" Music
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For his penchant for fusing rock music with funk and soul, Prince was seen as a kind of successor to Hendrix. While Prince is largely known as a singer and multi-instrumentalist, he was also highly regarded for his skills on the guitar. His 1984 album, Purple Rain, is a rock masterpiece that combines pop, funk, and psychedelic influences. It reached the No. 1 position on the Billboard 200, and remained there for 24 weeks. Still, Prince had not been accepted into the mainstream overnight.
Purple Rain
Prince’s 6th album, released in 1984. The soundtrack to the film of the same name, in which Prince starred.
When the young Prince signed a record contract with Warner Records, he insisted that he be signed to its pop division rather than its R&B division. Nonetheless, for the first four years of his professional career he was mostly marketed to black markets, and received most of his airplay on R&B radio. It would take rock radio a while to come around.
Part of that was due to the genre-bending nature of Prince’s music, but more than that it was an issue with his image—a gender-bending persona that wore makeup, heels, and flamboyant stage costumes, whom many people at the time assumed to be gay. Prince’s singing voice, too, could be both masculine and feminine, powerful and fragile, characterized by a sensuality that was clearly eager to receive pleasure as much as it was about giving it. Everything about his look was androgynous and fluid, which painted him as a freak in the eyes of conservative American listeners. For Prince, the image was not just a branding choice but a personal statement—the idea that he would not be confined to the stereotypes imposed on black people by white culture. His early work became popular on the Billboard Top R&B Album charts.
In 1981, Prince and his multiracial, multi-gender band the Revolution opened up for the Rolling Stones in L.A. But the largely white audience met Prince with boos and homophobic epithets, and the experience would have a profound effect on the artist. Still, he was undeterred, and pushed onwards. He would finally break into the mainstream with “Little Red Corvette"—which has a guitar solo—and would achieve his first No. 1 hit the following year with “When Doves Cry".
1999
Prince’s fifth album, released in 1982.
In the second half of the 80s, Prince would rule the pop charts with both his own releases—such as 1986’s “Kiss"—and the hits he wrote for other artists—“Manic Monday" for the white, female rock band the Bangles, and “Nothing Compares 2 U" for the Irish singer Sinead O’Connor. In this way, Prince shed the image of the “black artist" and transcended the genres of “black music" and “white music".
Prince was deeply spiritual and interested in astrology, and identified as a Gemini—the Twins—who are said to have a dual nature. That duality can be seen in many aspects of his persona and identity: black music and white music, masculinity and femininity, sexuality and spirituality, tenderness and wildness. Even purple, his favorite color, is the combination of two prime colors—red and blue.
In the mid 90s, Prince became frustrated with the lack of control he had over his own music and the restrictiveness of his record contract. As a show of defiance, he changed his artist name from Prince to an unpronounceable symbol that combined the symbols for male (♂) and female (♀). Fans came to call it the “love symbol". Today, the idea of non-binary gender has become widespread, but at the time it was rare to see such a public figure express his queerness so unapologetically. The move was also Prince’s way of drawing attention to the fact that black artists are often treated akin to slaves by their record label masters; he was announcing in no uncertain terms that he was breaking free of his chains.
The duality of Prince’s persona also characterized the last phase of his career. In 2001, he became a Jehovah’s Witness, to the shock of much of his fanbase. Jehovah’s Witnesses denounce extramarital sex, homosexuality, and illegal drugs; Prince stopped playing some of his most sexually explicit songs live, and even began proselytizing door-to-door. While he had experienced a religious awakening on one level, he had started to take painkillers regularly to manage a hip issue—said to have been the result of years of wild stage performances. In 2016, he would die of an accidental overdose of fentanyl, a powerful synthetic painkiller 100 times stronger than morphine and 50 times stronger than heroin.
4.Lenny Kravitz: The Quintessential 90s Nouveau Hippie
The music scene in the early 90s was as characterized by racial divides as it had ever been. For white audiences, the alienation and anger of grunge was in—and classic rock was seen as a dinosaur. Meanwhile, black audiences basked in what came to called the golden age of hip-hop. And then there was Lenny Kravitz, whose embrace of the rock and roll and R&B sounds of the 60s and 70s made him a curious figure out of time.
Kravitz was born in Brooklyn to a Jewish father and African-American mother. His father was a TV news producer who moonlighted as a jazz concert promoter, and his mother was an actress and hippie who was deeply entrenched in the civil rights movement. He grew up watching his parents weather societal pressures at a time when interracial marriage was still largely a taboo—something that would greatly shape his outlook as an artist.
When Kravitz’s mother was cast in the TV sitcom The Jeffersons, he moved with his mother to L.A. There, he attended Beverly Hills High School—which served as the basis for the fictional setting of the TV show Beverly Hills 90210—and counted Slash and actors like Nicolas Cage among his classmates. Having been musical from a young age, he learned how to play piano, guitar, and drums, and he became a studio musician after graduating from high school.
Kravitz married Lisa Bonet, a half-black and half-Jewish actress famous for her work on The Cosby Show, and the pair moved into a bohemian apartment building in New York. One of their neighbors was the Michael Goldstein, a Jewish businessman who had worked as a music promoter for bands like the Grateful Dead and Jefferson Airplane in the 60s. He also happened to have been a good friend of Jimi Hendrix. Goldstein would become a mentor and father figure of sorts for Kravitz.
However, when Kravitz finished recording his debut album, he struggled to obtain a record contract. For American record labels, his signature blend of funk, rock, and psychedelic music and message of “Love & Peace" were not white enough for white audiences, and not black enough for black audiences. In the end, he got a record deal with the British record label Virgin Records after an executive commented that his sound was “Prince meets John Lennon". Kravitz’s debut album Let Love Rule and his follow up Mama Said sold fairly well in the U.S., but established him as a major artist in Europe (following in the footsteps of his idol, Jimi Hendrix). He was also embraced by Japanese audiences for his catchy riffs and good looks.
Let Love Rule
Lenny Kravitz’s first studio album was released in 1989.
Mama Said
Kravitz’s second studio album was released in 1991.
Around this time, Kravitz and Bonet got divorced, and he began dating French singer and actress Vanessa Paradis. He would also co-write and produce her self-titled third album, which was a hit in France and the U.K.
Vanessa Paradis
Paradis’ self-titled third album was released in 1992.
Kravitz would breakthrough onto the American mainstream with his third studio album, Are You Gonna Go My Way. The title track is his take on the Jimi Hendrix sound, and became one of the iconic songs of 90s rock. The song has also been used in numerous Japanese commercials over the years. The song portrays Jesus Christ as a rockstar; when Kravitz sings about “my way", he is referring to Jesus’s way—the path of love. At a time when rock was all about grunge and hip hop was all about gangster rap, his message was embraced by many members of the younger generation—as was his love of bellbottoms and retro fashion as a whole. He was the quintessential 90s nouveau hippie.
Are You Gonna Go My Way
Lenny Kravitz’s third studio album was released in 1993.
On the one hand, Kravitz’s sound is an homage to all of his favorite music; in the U.S., however, many saw—and continue to consider—his music as a soulless retread of the 60s and 70s, a shameless ripoff of artists who did it better. In their eyes, the message of “Love & Peace" was dated and native, especially considering the racial tensions that came to characterize the 90s and have only worsened since. For Kravitz, however, it was inevitable that he would not want to be confined to specific racial and musical boxes. And while it would seem that his music shares very little with the hip-hop scene at the time, his fondness for recycling musical ideas and sounds places him squarely inside of sampling culture. While he may not be an innovator, he is certainly creative.
Kravitz currently splits his time between Paris and the Bahamas. Perhaps he looked around and came to the realization that his message of “Love & Peace" was falling on deaf ears in America.
5.Slash, L.A. Decadence, and Guns N’ Roses
Slash was born to a British father and African-American mother, and spent his childhood in the U.K. His father was an artist who designed album covers for musicians like Neil Young and Joni Mitchell, and his mother was a costume designer who made clothes for musicians like David Bowie and John Lennon. Slash moved to L.A. at the age of 11. He later reflected on his biracial identity in this way: "As a musician, I've always been amused that I'm both British and black; particularly because so many American musicians seem to aspire to be British while so many British musicians, in the 'Sixties in particular, went to such great pains to be black."
The young Slash spent his adolescence in the bohemian world of Southern California that had been created by the hippie generation. His parents were relatively well off, and Slash lived a mostly carefree life until his parents separated; he became a self-described “problem child" and started drinking and doing drugs. In middle school, he befriended later Guns N’ Roses drummer Steve Adler, and he learned to play the guitar. His favorite bands at the time were the Rolling Stones, Cream, and Led Zeppelin.
In the early 80s, Slash played with a number of bands in the L.A. glam metal scene, running in the same circles as his later Guns N’ Roses bandmates. In 1984, singer Axl Rose was fronting a band called Hollywood Rose; after its guitarist accidentally hit Axl with his guitar during a live show, Axl drove him out of the band and Slash was asked to replace him. The band would play a number of other shows but would ultimately break up. In 1985, Hollywood Rose reformed sans Slash, and merged with another band called L.A. Guns—fronted by guitarist Tracii Guns—leading to the birth of Guns N’ Roses. However, just two months in, Rose and Guns got into a fight, and the members of L.A. Guns would end up leaving the band. Rose asked Slash to join, forming the band’s “classic" lineup.
Guns N’ Roses gradually grew a following with shows on the L.A. nightclub scene, and thanks to their rowdy shows and rebellious lyrics, they established a reputation as “the world’s most dangerous band" before they had even scored a record contract. In 1987, the band released its debut album, Appetite for Destruction, which would eventually become the best-selling debut album of all time.
Appetite for Destruction
Guns N’ Roses’ debut album was released in 1987.
The biggest reason for the success of Guns N’ Roses are the good looks, sexual appeal, and sweet-sounding voice of its frontman, Axl Rose. The band was propelled to stardom by his charisma. At the same time, it’s undeniable that Slash’s melodious, sweet-sounding guitar was a perfect compliment for Rose’s voice. While Slash is neither a virtuoso nor an innovator of the guitar, he has a signature, hummable sound that is direct and hypnotic—something that won him legions of male fans and made the band into something more than just a glam rock act.
It would take a while for Guns N’ Roses debut album to gain momentum, but when it did, the band quickly became the biggest act in rock and roll. They were soon playing stadiums—and gaining a reputation for being late to take to the stage. In 1991, they simultaneously released two albums, Use Your Illusion I and Use Your Illusion II, which respectively reached No. 2 and No. 1 on both the U.S. and U.K. albums charts. But the bigger the band got, the greater their vices became, and the interpersonal relationships between the members gradually deteriorated. Slash became addicted to heroin, causing Rose at one time to threaten to leave the band if he did not clean up; Slash would be able to quit for a time before becoming a heavy user again. At the same time, Slash felt conflicted about Roses’s volatile on-stage antics and racially-charged language. The two would continue to grow apart, and when Rose began to reject the songs Slash had written in the mid 90s, the guitarist would officially leave the band.
Use Your Illusion I
Guns N’ Roses third album reached No. 2 on the U.S. album charts.
Use Your Illusion II
Guns N’ Roses fourth album reached No. 1 on the U.S. album charts.
Slash has since worked with a number of different singers as part of his many solo projects, but none has had the commercial or critical success of his work with Guns N’ Roses.
In 2012, when Axl Rose was asked about the prospect of a Guns N’ Roses reunion, he answered, “Not in this lifetime." But Slash and Rose would bury the hatchet in 2016, and Slash would officially rejoin the band. Lenny Kravitz would even open for the band on a few of the dates of their “Not in This Lifetime" comeback tour. Today, Slash is a teetotal who has also renounced drugs and no longer smokes; Rose is into spirituality and homeopathy. It seems the band’s appetite for destruction has tapered off with age.
6.Making a Name For Yourself as a Black Guitarist in Rock
As these four rock greats show, making a name for yourself as a black guitarist on the rock scene was a difficult and delicate endeavor. Black guitarists had to work at least twice as hard as their white counterparts to be successful.
Jimi Hendrix started his career supporting R&B artists on the so-called Chitlin’ circuit, but he would make his breakthrough as a rock guitarist in the U.K. Legendary performances would elevate his status among white rock fans in the U.S., but black audiences would remain indifferent or worse, antagonistic toward what they saw as a black man catering to the tastes of white audiences. Hendrix recognized that white rock fans were burdening him with the stereotype of the hypersexualized, perpetually-high black man, and he sought in his final years to reconnect to his black roots and expand his sound to incorporate more of his black influences.
Prince was initially pigeonholed as an artist playing “black music", and he strove to gain more acceptance on the rock and pop charts. Recognizing that the identity of the “black guitarist" was too limited in scope, he played most of the instruments on his recordings, and embodied an androgynous persona that was mysterious and bewitching—which eventually allowed him to transcend genres and racial barriers.
Lenny Kravitz aspired to be like Jimi Hendrix, but perhaps recognized that he could not be a trailblazing black guitarist in the same way that Hendrix was. Like Prince, he plays most of the instruments on his recordings, and produces his own records. While he lacked original music ideas or technical virtuosity, he tapped into the approach of sampling culture and combined his favorite 60s and 70s musical influences to create a signature sound. Following in the footsteps of his idol, he first broke through in Europe and Japan; while he has had massive hits in the U.S., he has never been truly, fully embraced.
Finally, Slash, recognizing that he did not have the technical virtuosity to make it as a solo musician, decided to become a member of a band—a complement to a charismatic frontman. He was a black guitarist in a white rock band, but curiously, few Americans recognize Slash as black. Rose’s sex appeal would win the band its female fans, while Slash’s knack for melody and gruff image would win the band its male fans. And while Guns N’ Roses would become the biggest band of its era, its appeal to black audiences has always been minimal or nonexistent.
All four of these guitarists recognized that in order to break free of genre or racial constrains and make a name for themselves, they would have to make sacrifices, and would have to do something different. That is the wall that stands before all black guitarists in the largely white world of rock music. In places like Europe and Japan, where that racial element does not exist—or is not as pronounced—all four were embraced for their music.
7.Epilogue
The Japanese refer to Jimi Hendrix by the affectionate nickname “Jimi-Hen", whom legions of Japanese guitar players have looked up to as a hero. And the Jimi Hendrix Stratocaster continues to be a best-selling guitar on the Japanese guitar market—there is even a Hendrix model for right-handed guitarists. Meanwhile, Prince’s unapologetically androgynous attire has greatly influenced the visual-kei aesthetic, and his love symbol-shaped guitar would serve as an inspiration for guitarists like The Alfee’s Takamizawa Toshihiko, who is also known for his out-there guitar designs.
Guns N’ Roses and the L.A. glam metal scene would also have a significant influence on modern J-Pop bands like X Japan, Glay, and L’Arc~en~Ciel—which all got their start as visual-kei bands. With their boyish good looks and sweet vocals, Yoshiki and Toshi from X Japan, Teru from Glay, and Hyde from L’Arc~en~Ciel are all clearly following in the footsteps of Axl Rose.
Another band that was clearly influenced by Guns N’ Roses is B’z—a rock duo comprised of vocalist Inaba Koshi and guitarist Matsumoto Takahiro. The pair take their cues from Rose and Slash, especially earlier in their careers, when Inaba would wear hot pants on stage. Meanwhile, Matsumoto has worn a top hat on stage once or twice. Their balance of personas is why B’z has both male and female fans—whereas X Japan, Glay, and L’Arc mostly have female fanbases.
B’z also took a note from Lenny Kravitz and based their sound on the best elements of hard rock from the U.S. and the U.K. One B’z song will sound like Guns N’ Roses, another like Van Halen, another like Aerosmith, another like Led Zeppelin. They subtly endeared Japanese audiences to rock music that they had not been exposed to by combining influences and adding a healthy dose of Japanese enka. B’z would sell millions of singles and albums and become the best-selling rock act in Japanese history.
Lastly, I’ll leave you with a collaboration between B’z vocalist Inaba and Slash, called “Sahara". B’z fans will likely assume this is just a new B’z track, but they should recognize this as evidence of how indebted B’z is to bands like Guns N’ Roses.
