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Today marks the 30th anniversary of the release of Prince’s 1984 soundtrack to the film, Purple Rain. The album, film and tour came 14 years after the death of Jimi Hendrix, who was the musical progenitor for many musicians from many genres, regardless of race and that includes Prince. “Purple Rain”, the album, is a genuine synthesis of American musical styles ranging from rhythm and blues, funk, pop, country, jazz and even gospel. Prince won the commercial success and critical acclaim from mainstream and Black tastemakers that eluded Jimi Hendrix in his lifetime.

Jimi Hendrix, like many musicians who cut their teeth early on in their careers, grew up playing in jazz clubs, blues bars, and anywhere musicians could plug in and play. As a youth, he listened to records by Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis as well Robert Johnson, Bo Diddley, Howlin Wolff, Muddy Waters and Little Richard. Hendrix just loved music, no matter who performed it. Raised in Seattle, he was mostly shielded from the racism that was inflicted on many African-Americans throughout this country, particularly in the southern region. His first band was formed in high school, The Rockin Kings and his egalitarian worldview was consistent with his music. At 18, he left Seattle for the U.S. Army, was stationed in Nashville, Tennessee, served in the Armed Forces for a year and half and was honorably discharged after injuring himself on a helicopter jump. While in the Army, he met future band member and soon-to-be confidant, bass player Billy Cox. Hendrix, sought gigs to pay the bills by touring on the Chitlin Circuit with r&b lumanaries like Little Richard, Albert King, Curtis Knight, The Isley Brothers and Jackie Wilson. By playing in front of primarily Black audiences with Black acts, he learned a great deal about musicianship, showmanship and to handle the rigors of touring: demands on your time, little to no sleep and keeping professional commitments. After the tour was over, he moved to New York City and played in the house band at Cafe Wha?, located in the Greenwich Village. Through, Keith Richard’s then girlfriend, Linda Keith, he met Chas Chandler, former bass player for The Animals and quickly gathered the wherewithal to make Jimi a rock star. In September 1966, Chandler flew Jimi to London, England to gig for a month and put him in the studio to cut 3 studio albums with The Experience. Over two years, Hendrix gained fame and popularity playing a new brand of rock music for young White hipsters that was taken by his looks, charisma and personality. To English music devotees, he was cooler -than -cool, hipper-than-hip and a challenger to the rock hierarchy of Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck and The Rolling Stones. Where English guitarists played stiffly, Hendrix played with reckless abandon and wild uninhibitedness.

His time spent in England, influenced the way he spoke and maybe more importantly, the way he dressed. When he went back to the States, his bizarre dress, mellow personality and apolitical stance stood in stark contrast to the Black Power, Black politics and aesthetics of the day. His very being was too freaky for Black urbanities who were taking more militant actions to secure equal rights in Black America along racial, economic and political lines. It didn’t help that his band mates and management were all white, which implicitly sent the message, that Hendrix didn’t take pride in his Blackness or at the very least didn’t believe that musicians of his own race didn’t have what it took to make it in the business, playing his music. He was charged with being a “sellout” and his music didn’t reach Black listeners due to strict limitations of broadcast radio formats. His music was too progressive to be played on rhythm and blues radio, so the records he sold were primarily from white fans. He was a pop star, who played for mainly White audiences, was interviewed mainly by the Black press. While none of this, should be interpreted as a problem, Jimi was just as concerned about who wasn’t at his shows as he was, who was there. Members of the Black Panther Party and other radical political groups pressured Hendrix to sack Noel Redding, Mitch Mitchell, Chas Chandler, Michael Jeffreys and Eddie Kramer, and hire Black people in their stead. Whether Hendrix broke up the Experience because of prodding from the aforementioned is still unclear, but what is clear is after 3 successful Experience albums that contained psychedelic themes, music and lyrics that was based in the White counterculture of hippiedom, Jimi reached out to his old Army buddy Billy Cox and drummer, Buddy Miles to cut a live album called Band Of Gypsys, recorded over 2 nights (December 31, 1969 and January 1, 1970). This pioneering unit, was the first all Black power trio in rock music. The music the three men played and captured on vinyl, helped lead the move towards the marriage of funk rhythms played with rock attitude and musicianship.

What does that have to do with Prince? Well, after Hendrix’s death in 1970, Black guitarists and musicians who wanted to go into rock music faced an insurmountable climb breaking into the field that to this day is dominated by all male White bands and artists. Even if you were great, the barrier at rock radio was akin to South African apartheid: white radio programmers, white djs and white fans have had a lock on artists not white making it. Although the late Eddie Hazel and Ernie Isley are examples of Black guitarists with supreme guitar chops, they were kept to Black radio. In 1984, Prince was the rare Black artist who had the songwriting, musicianship, showmanship, edge and appeal to make the crossover jump to enjoy the widest exposure a Black artist can have to expose their music to a mass audience. Of course, Prince borrowed ideas from Hendrix such as guitar phrasing, onstage demeanor and clothes. However, the music on Purple Rain remains highly original, innovative, adventurous. By way of the movie, casual fans got to see a glimpse of Prince as a creative: actor and performer. To some people he was dangerous, vulgar and a heathen for blending the sacred with the profane. While other people reveled in his mysterious persona, androgyny and music. Prince once said in an interview when describing his music, that he hates anything pure, as in pure jazz, pure rock etc. That’s exactly why his music caught with millions of people, is because he didn’t cater to any one music audience. Even though his musical roots are in funk, from his first album on, he included at least one rock song full of blazing guitar solos and suggestive songwriting.

Prince now and then, represents what Hendrix wanted all along for himself: to have the leeway to record in any genre and let the work be judged on its own merit, rather than arbitrary notions that it’s “too black” or “too white”. The success of the Purple Rain album, is like a middle finger to the sexist and racist backlash those in heavy metal and hard rock gave to disco music once it started outselling rock records. Prince, more than Michael Jackson did with “Beat It”, produced bad ass songs with heavy rock aesthetics that was head and shoulders above the pap classic rock radio was playing at the time. “When Doves Cry”, “Let’s Go Crazy”, “Purple Rain”, “Computer Blue” and “Darling Nikki” are far removed from the speed metal and aimless guitar shredding that typifies the kind of music associated with ’70s and ’80s rock. Prince and The Revolution revolutionized the genre by making the music danceable and accessible. Not watered down at all. “When Doves Cry” is a strange song, with no bass line at all, the LM1 Linn Drum Machine, cold synthesizer chords, and intense guitar soloing near the end of the song, Prince wrote a “stop what you are doing now” composition that is pop (strong chorus and lead line), rock (guitar playing) and avant-garde (Prince’s deep voice and lyrics). Miles Davis, upon hearing the song, couldn’t wait to meet Prince and pick his brain. In a weird way, Davis must have felt it was like deja vu: a once-in-a-lifetime talent who has rewritten the musical language of a music that has been Whitewashed and devoid of its origins for decades, provoke the same reaction as Jimi did. Jimi revered Miles the same way Prince did. Miles who started as a jazz musician and recorded a series of electronic fusion albums that was changing the way people thought of improvisational music was the link between Jimi and Prince. Miles never got to record with Jimi but made damn sure he with Prince. Ultimately, Jimi’s management didn’t think a Miles Davis/Jimi Hendrix project would make a lot of money, with the thinking that jazz music is a niche market that has a miniscule portion of the musical market share, thus not lucrative. By the time, Prince and Miles recorded their only known collaboration, “Can I Play With U?”, the industry had changed dramatically. Labels didn’t have as big of a stranglehold on an artists’ creative control.

“When Doves Cry” and “Let’s Go Crazy” topped the Billboard Hot 100 and Billboard Black Singles Chart. “Let’s Go Crazy”, ostensibly a rock song was played on r&b radio, Black audiences embraced the White members of Prince’s band The Revolution. These are important developments that shouldn’t be taken for granted. That was a major coup for Black Music. It helped kick in the door for the Living Color, Fishbone and Lenny Kravitz to secure record deals and make unapologetic music. Unfortunately, in contemporary Black American popular music, if you’re not a rapper or r&b artist, you will be marginalized. In the nineties, the balance between hip-hop, r&b, jazz was better. Brand New Heavies could be played along side Biggie Smalls. Now, Esperanza Spalding, an artist who has more than enough appeal to enjoy greater success, is known more for upsetting Justin Beiber fans after winning the Best New Artist Grammy in 2010 than her great albums like Radio Music Society. I guess what I’m trying to say, while many will celebrate the film, the proteges and how the film came to be, the impact of Prince challenging the narrow definitions of what Black music is and what Rock & Roll is, has yet to be talked about until now. Prince is the last of the Mohicans. He is a musician’s musician, a style icon, advocate for artists rights to own their master recordings and the most comprehensive artist who has ever lived. I like to think that Jimi was smiling from his resting place and crying tears of joy at Prince’s triumph.

“When Doves Cry” and “Let’s Go Crazy” topped the Billboard Hot 100 and Billboard Black Singles Chart. “Let’s Go Crazy”, ostensibly a rock song was played on r&b radio, Black audiences embraced the White members of Prince’s band The Revolution. These are important developments that shouldn’t be taken for granted. That was a major coup for Black Music. It helped kick in the door for the Living Color, Fishbone and Lenny Kravitz to secure record deals and make unapologetic music. Unfortunately, in contemporary Black American popular music, if you’re not a rapper or r&b artist, you will be marginalized. In the nineties, the balance between hip-hop, r&b, jazz was better. Brand New Heavies could be played along side Biggie Smalls. Now, Esperanza Spalding, an artist who has more than enough appeal to enjoy greater success, is known more for upsetting Justin Beiber fans after winning the Best New Artist Grammy in 2010 than her great albums like Radio Music Society. I guess what I’m trying to say, while many will celebrate the film, the proteges and how the film came to be, the impact of Prince challenging the narrow definitions of what Black music is and what Rock & Roll is, has yet to be talked about until now. Prince is the last of the Mohicans. He is a musician’s musician, a style icon, advocate for artists rights to own their master recordings and the most comprehensive artist who has ever lived. I like to think that Jimi was smiling from his resting place and crying tears of joy at Prince’s triumph.

“When Doves Cry” and “Let’s Go Crazy” topped the Billboard Hot 100 and Billboard Black Singles Chart. “Let’s Go Crazy”, ostensibly a rock song was played on r&b radio, Black audiences embraced the White members of Prince’s band The Revolution. These are important developments that shouldn’t be taken for granted. That was a major coup for Black Music. It helped kick in the door for the Living Color, Fishbone and Lenny Kravitz to secure record deals and make unapologetic music. Unfortunately, in contemporary Black American popular music, if you’re not a rapper or r&b artist, you will be marginalized. In the nineties, the balance between hip-hop, r&b, jazz was better. Brand New Heavies could be played along side Biggie Smalls. Now, Esperanza Spalding, an artist who has more than enough appeal to enjoy greater success, is known more for upsetting Justin Beiber fans after winning the Best New Artist Grammy in 2010 than her great albums like Radio Music Society. I guess what I’m trying to say, while many will celebrate the film, the proteges and how the film came to be, the impact of Prince challenging the narrow definitions of what Black music is and what Rock & Roll is, has yet to be talked about until now. Prince is the last of the Mohicans. He is a musician’s musician, a style icon, advocate for artists rights to own their master recordings and the most comprehensive artist who has ever lived. I like to think that Jimi was smiling from his resting place and crying tears of joy at Prince’s triumph.

[Edited 6/25/14 14:15pm]