Midnight Lightning: Jimi Hendrix and the Black Experience

by Greg Tate

Jimi Hendrix's social meaning, his sexual mystery, and his scientific explorations in the field of sound are addressed here from a black perspective. This unique introduction to a man who, despite his popular appeal, has never made it into the pantheon of 20th-century black icons, incorporates extensive interviews with black Americans who shed light on Hendrix’s complicated racial relationships. Midnight Lightning explores how Hendrix exploded the complacently segregated world to emerge as an icon for white boys, why his songs were not heard on black radio, and why black people once viewed him as a hippie Uncle Tom. Also explored are 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 use of technology in popular music, and how black his music really was. This biography discusses his sex appeal-especially for black women-how he redefined rock fashion, why nobody was really mad at him for sleeping with white women (at the same time as Sammy Davis, Jr. was being harassed and threatened for kissing a white woman onstage), and how he was marketed as a white performer. Explained are the ways in which Hendrix subverted and destabilized black masculine stereotypes, changing the way black music and black identity are perceived.

Genres: Music, Biography, Nonfiction

157 pages, Hardcover

First published July 1, 2003

About the author

Greg Tate is a music and popular culture critic and journalist whose work has appeared in many publications, including the Village Voice, Vibe, Spin, The Wire, and Downbeat. He is the author of Flyboy 2: The Greg Tate Reader, Flyboy in the Buttermilk: Essays on Contemporary America, and Midnight Lightning: Jimi Hendrix and the Black Experience, and the editor of Everything But the Burden: What White People Are Taking from Black Culture. Tate, via guitar and baton, also leads the Conducted Improvisation ensemble Burnt Sugar The Arkestra Chamber who tour internationally.

Reviews

[RK Byers · Rating 5 out of 5]

really good writing combined with really good interviews made for a really good book.

[Jonathan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Compliment Sandwich Review

The Good: I'm torn because the premise is perfect. Jimi is someone who was, to paraphrase a joke from George Carlin, "openly black". It was evident in his upbringing and in his view of the future (which predates the Parliament-Funkadelic and is rightly compared to Samuel Delaney in the book). Still, it is odd his stuff wasn't put into the corporate mix of Black radio (both contemporaneously and now) and h is style, friendships, music, and legacy should be viewed in that light.

The Bad: I'm not sure Greg is the guy for the job. First of all, this stream of consciousness writing has got to stop. His lists, asides, tangents, and random pop culture references are distracting. It is almost also entirely opinion--the few interviews he has in the book come far too late and cover the life stories of the subjects instead of how they interacted with Jimi. But most of all, he puts himself in the book so much that his viewpoints and takes end up being distracting--like the one where he says that Jimi didn't catch on with black audiences because he played guitar, only to mention Curtis Mayfield (a guitarist himself) as a soulful person Jimi could've been like.

The Good: He makes some interesting comparisons that I think could've gone on. I liked the one where he said that Jimi was like OJ of his time, the one where he wonders why Jimi was never controversial in the White community for being in an interracial relationship (unlike Sammy Davis Jr.), and the understanding of how his music influenced funk, hip-hop, and electronic music. I just wanted so much more.

I give the slimmest of recommendations, but be warned. I was a big fan and often wonder the same questions. But I walked out of the book with no answers.

[Matt · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm not really a Hendrix devotee, but I wanted to read some Tate and this is what the library had. Tate's goal is to reclaim Hendrix for black folks, and he does this in ecstatic, lyric, highly referential and jazzed writing. He lays out a dozen different genealogies of black culture that Hendrix sprang from, whether musically or socially or artistically, etc. It's mostly a tumble of impressive words, though at the end, there are essentially transcripts of four interviews with people who Hendrix in different ways that are are very restrained but interesting.

I think maybe Tate's charm is the mix of his over-the-top style and his interesting choice of sources? It makes for an impressive, if quick, read.

[Phil Overeem · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Tate section of this book--really, a long essay--is my favorite Hendrix reading, and I have Henderson, Murray, and Cross under my belt. Tate's style blows those three away, he keeps you constantly intellectually engaged--and it ain't biography. The Allen Twins section is an unreliable trip; Ronnie Drayton's guitar-player analysis is fascinating; the rest is...eh. BUT: worth it for Ironman's arguments.

[Michael Powell · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hmmm this felt like portions of three different books mixed together