Jimi Hendrix and the Black Experience |
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 August, 2003 | Midnight Lightning: Jimi Hendrix and the Black Experience | Many of us know that Jimi Hendrix started in the world of R&B as a guitarist for the Isley Brothers, Wilson Pickett,
Little Richard, King Curtis, and others.
Hendrix author Greg Tate is a journalist who has written about literature, music, and popular culture.
For some late Summer reading, I highly recommend this book. You'll get a perspective about Hendrix that's a real eye opener.
As a solo artist, Jimi was forced to go to England to make a name for himself, before breaking through in the USA.
Did you know that to this day, Jimi Hendrix CD catalog sales total over 3 million dollars annually.
Tate pulls no punches in a book which he calls, "a kind of Jimi Hendrix Primer for black folk."
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The gritty liner notes say it all..."Incorporating extensive interviews with black Americans who can shed light on Hendrix's complicated racial relationships, Midnight Lightning explores, among other issues:
- How Hendrix exploded our complacently segregated world
to emerge as an icon for white boys (direct quote).
- Why we never hear his songs on black radio.
- Why black people once viewed him as a hippie Uncle Tom.
- His connection to the Black Power movement.
- How he electrified soul music and made the electric
guitar supplant the human voice.
- How he revolutionized the technology in popular music.
- How he redefined rock fashion.
- His sex appeal, especially for black women."
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Review written by King for the Powerhouse Radio Newsletter, August, 2003.
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