A speculative notion about rock and roll and race.

brianlux

While listening to the fantastic all-black 1970's rock band Death today, I got to thinking about rock and roll and race.  The (somewhat obvious) thought occurred to me that rock and roll was created by black musicians.  The music formed early on as an offspring of blues and R&B.  The founding fathers of rock include Little Richard and Chuck Berry.  This next big leap in rock came through the music of Jimi Hendrix.  There were other's who influenced rock of course, but at it's core, it seems to me rock and rock was born through the work of African American musicians.
Where my thoughts went to next were this:  If my assumptions about the genesis of rock  are correct- that rock is at it's essence African American music- why did so many blacks abandon this music?  There are a few black rack bands and artists today- Death (the 70's band) is still playing.  Tom Morello is still at ti.  Gary Clark, though maybe more blues than rock, is active.  But most rock bands and musicians today are white artists. 
I'm guessing this:  the fact that white bands and musicians became so enamored of rock and so prevalent in rock music, black eventually artist felt the need to move on and create their own new form of music- which of course is rap and hip hop.  Though not a fan of those genres, that of course is great- they went on to new things.  But sometimes I am saddened by the fact that blacks in general seem to have abandoned rock music.  Many of my favorite rock (and blues and jazz, of course) artists are black musicians and I feel like rock is missing something big due to the lack of black artists in that genre.

I don't mean to politicize the music or sound reverse racist or anything like that, but the fact is, black musicians are responsible for the existence of most popular music for the last several decades, and I'm bit dismayed that one of the livest creations of black artists- rock and roll music- seems to have been abandoned by the very people who were originally its creators.

These are speculative thoughts and not meant to be written in stone, but I wanted to share them and see if it's something worth kicking around.

JeBurkhardt

An overly basic explanation was that white consumers back in the 50's and 60's were more comfortable listening to music performed by white artists. The record companies recognized that and developed/marketed artists (hello Elvis and Jerry Lee Lewis) who performed the same music as the black musicians, but with an image that was more acceptable to white people. I have seen footage of white people back then complaining that rock and roll "lowering whites to the level of negros". Once their music was appropriated and "sanitized" for mass consumption, black musicians moved to other forms or altered/evolved their music and headed in new directions.    

tempo_n_groove

Rock at its core was still rhythm and blues in the early days.  That was all that was on the radio so that is what everybody played.  Come years later there are more genres and more choices.  I still see heavy participation in the rhythm and blues area of music being African American.

So maybe because the genre changed  and more of them it is more diverse?

Population has something to do with it I would guess?  African Americans are 13% of the population here in the states so for every white band you see there would be an African American band.

Tim Simmons

JeBurkhardt said:

An overly basic explanation was that white consumers back in the 50's and 60's were more comfortable listening to music performed by white artists. The record companies recognized that and developed/marketed artists (hello Elvis and Jerry Lee Lewis) who performed the same music as the black musicians, but with an image that was more acceptable to white people. I have seen footage of white people back then complaining that rock and roll "lowering whites to the level of negros". Once their music was appropriated and "sanitized" for mass consumption, black musicians moved to other forms or altered/evolved their music and headed in new directions.    

this. 

brianlux

JeBurkhardt said:

An overly basic explanation was that white consumers back in the 50's and 60's were more comfortable listening to music performed by white artists. The record companies recognized that and developed/marketed artists (hello Elvis and Jerry Lee Lewis) who performed the same music as the black musicians, but with an image that was more acceptable to white people. I have seen footage of white people back then complaining that rock and roll "lowering whites to the level of negros". Once their music was appropriated and "sanitized" for mass consumption, black musicians moved to other forms or altered/evolved their music and headed in new directions.    

Excellent points, Je.

JH6056

JeBurkhardt said:

An overly basic explanation was that white consumers back in the 50's and 60's were more comfortable listening to music performed by white artists. The record companies recognized that and developed/marketed artists (hello Elvis and Jerry Lee Lewis) who performed the same music as the black musicians, but with an image that was more acceptable to white people. I have seen footage of white people back then complaining that rock and roll "lowering whites to the level of negros". Once their music was appropriated and "sanitized" for mass consumption, black musicians moved to other forms or altered/evolved their music and headed in new directions.    

Absolutely this. But it's not only that "Black musicians moved on". It's that "rock n roll" became identified as, supported as, and contracted (record labels and touring companies) as a White genre and even though there were MANY Black rock acts, they had to fight to get seen or heard at all, and when they did they still were marginalized, rarely signed to record labels, rarely promoted, and rarely booked as touring acts.

Immediately Bad Brains and Living Color come to mind. Bad Brains were incredible, but are also more known to PJ fans because of Jeff A & him shouting out punk so much. But Living Colour not discussed among PJ fans as much. LC were SO DAMN GOOD, still very damn good. Vernon Reid (guitar) and Will Calhoun (drums) particularly blistering. And Corey Glover & Doug Wimbush (vocals, bass) also incredibly on fire.  I also remember them being the most famous band in "The Black Rock Coalition" of the 80s. 

But it was a STRUGGLE. To be seen and heard, there were obstacles everywhere, mostly with getting signed and getting booked.

Yes, "Black music" evolved from it's blues, R&B, African & Gospel/Roots Rock roots, in all kinds of directions.  But that doesn't mean that there didn't continue to be truly talented Black rock acts who tried and tried but only the tinyest few made it.  I remember another band, at least the frontwoman was Black, Skunk Anansie,  Her name was Skin if I remember correctly, Black woman, fierce, with a mohawk... They were good live!

It's great to see so many historic Black bands finally getting some recognition - I already expressed my horror (as a Black woman myself) that I never knew that one of the founders/Godmothers of Grunge was a Black woman, Tina Bell and her band Bam Bam (some guy named Matt Cameron was their drummer and some other guy named Kurt Cobain was I think guitar tech for a support band on a Bam Bam tour). She's AMAZING but I never heard of her until 2020.  That speaks to how Black artists are not only often not visible at the time they're making music, but their role in rock and roll (and other genre) history is often erased/left out.

So the lack of visibility of Black artists over time is much more about the lack of legitimacy and access they were granted, and less about it just being a genre Black artists "grew out of".

I have a young daughter and if she had to pick one single favorite artist right now it would be Willow (Willow Smith, Will & Jada Pinkett Smith's daughter, formerly of "Whip My Hair" fame). I'm not really a pop fan, but having listened to her through my daughter I gotta say she is GOOD! Some of her songs are loud, raucous, and she even did what I consider a very good message for young people song with Avril Lavigne for her latest album "G.R.O.W.".  Plus songs "Gaslight" & "Transparent Soul" all good messages for all humans, but especially youth. Main point though is, SHE CAN ROCK as well! Really rock! Not the best guitar player at all, but talented songwriter & frontwoman, currently bald, and she does her thing!

SO we saw Willow Monday night at a pretty small venue, and this band we NEVER heard of before, who I initially thought were 4 Black women (all with long braids, black skirts, sheer tops with black bra-like tops under), opened and were GREAT! Mostly rock, but also a punk-ish song or 2, and a couple of dance songs (they covered Pink Pantheress, another artist the young'uns love that I wouldn't know but for kiddo).  They were probably halfway through their set when I looked down the stage to the opposite side from where I was and realized that the lead guitarist who was in a black pleated skirt, blond braids swinging, black stockings and combat boots... also had a beard & moustache! Turns out they are 4 siblings, 1 oldest brother & 3 sisters, and they are indeed an Austin, TX rock band called "We Don't Ride Llamas" (NO IDEA why they're named that!) but it was SO GOOD to see this band of young Black rockers, all gender fluid and all that good 2021 stuff, rocking our asses off.

Remind me to tell you about being a very young girl, only Black person I could see for miles at my 1st serious rock concert, Van Halen, and Eddie Van Halen doing his "Eruption" solo and then walking all the way down the stage and up to me to hand me his guitar pick, and what I later came to understand about Eddie Van Halen's experience with being an immigrant & being discriminated against, and I understood even more that he meant to welcome me to that giant arena show where I probably looked pretty scared & worried about not being welcome. I learned a lot from being lucky with my early rock shows about being a Black rock fan and about Black rock artists from a very young age from that moment forward. Still have the pick of course.... 

Then we should talk about also when I was a kid, the Clash having Grandmaster Flash, Kurtis Blow, and Black Uhuru open various Clash shows in the US in early 80s... Fucking awesome, even though the audiences often were horribly abusive. But the Clash always came out and basically said "You don't have to like them, but you have to respect them, because they're our fucking guests! Save your abuse for our set!" and it always worked to calm the fans down.

In '98 at PJ's Camden shows I met the coolest Black young woman fan. We immediately bonded and I stayed in touch with her after the shows. On their next tour ('00?) she saw PJ at MSG and was up in the nosebleed section, alone, singing along but getting lots of stares and mean looks from the group of young white guys in front of her and around her. Then PJ went into "Not For You" and some of the guys turned around and started yelling the lyrics "THIS IS NOT FOR YOU! NOT FOR YOU!" and pointing at her.  She was alone, I wasn't there (if I was my short-ass would have laid into them... and possibly gotten pummeled but I would have absolutely stood up to them). 

But that was the last time she saw PJ, to this day, she was so upset and discouraged by that scary experience.  Kills me, still haven't been able to get her to go again. Fucking assholes.

In contrast, and I know she's not "rock" but still... On Billie Eilish's 2022 tour, she's got all female artists opening for her, including Willow.  On Eilish's 2019 tour, at the time she was my then 10 yr old daughter's favorite artist and after we saw her I took my kid over to the Light & Sound boards and asked the Lighting Director (who also did spectacular video displays for the show) if he could just take a moment to confirm how much work goes into designing a show like that. I hoped he would just say a quick "Yeah, lots of work", didn't expect or hope for more. But this young White LD, literally on the hottest tour in the WORLD at the time, took a good 20 minutes to go over EVERY SONG ON THE SETLIST with her to tell her about the lights & video & tech.  At the end he said "Do you like math, science, computer programming?" She said yes, and he smiled & said "Well, keep at it. If you keep loving it, maybe one day I will work for YOU!"

I seriously started to cry quietly.  I've been around the music business long enough to know how hard women artists and especially tech people and ESPECIALLY BLACK artists & female tech people have had it (another reason I loved PJ as I got to know their respect for their female crew & female artists). To have this young super professionally-hot White LD tell my 10 yr old Black daughter "One day maybe I'll work for you" (not even you'll work for me, which would have been inspiring enough at the time!) just made me realize... shit's come a LONG way in the right direction.  Still way too much further to go, but that was a really really cool moment for me to reflect on re: the journey of Black artists, tech people & Black fans in Rock N Roll.

brianlux

JH6056 said:

JeBurkhardt said:

An overly basic explanation was that white consumers back in the 50's and 60's were more comfortable listening to music performed by white artists. The record companies recognized that and developed/marketed artists (hello Elvis and Jerry Lee Lewis) who performed the same music as the black musicians, but with an image that was more acceptable to white people. I have seen footage of white people back then complaining that rock and roll "lowering whites to the level of negros". Once their music was appropriated and "sanitized" for mass consumption, black musicians moved to other forms or altered/evolved their music and headed in new directions.    

Absolutely this. But it's not only that "Black musicians moved on". It's that "rock n roll" became identified as, supported as, and contracted (record labels and touring companies) as a White genre and even though there were MANY Black rock acts, they had to fight to get seen or heard at all, and when they did they still were marginalized, rarely signed to record labels, rarely promoted, and rarely booked as touring acts.

Immediately Bad Brains and Living Color come to mind. Bad Brains were incredible, but are also more known to PJ fans because of Jeff A & him shouting out punk so much. But Living Colour not discussed among PJ fans as much. LC were SO DAMN GOOD, still very damn good. Vernon Reid (guitar) and Will Calhoun (drums) particularly blistering. And Corey Glover & Doug Wimbush (vocals, bass) also incredibly on fire.  I also remember them being the most famous band in "The Black Rock Coalition" of the 80s. 

But it was a STRUGGLE. To be seen and heard, there were obstacles everywhere, mostly with getting signed and getting booked.

Yes, "Black music" evolved from it's blues, R&B, African & Gospel/Roots Rock roots, in all kinds of directions.  But that doesn't mean that there didn't continue to be truly talented Black rock acts who tried and tried but only the tinyest few made it.  I remember another band, at least the frontwoman was Black, Skunk Anansie,  Her name was Skin if I remember correctly, Black woman, fierce, with a mohawk... They were good live!

It's great to see so many historic Black bands finally getting some recognition - I already expressed my horror (as a Black woman myself) that I never knew that one of the founders/Godmothers of Grunge was a Black woman, Tina Bell and her band Bam Bam (some guy named Matt Cameron was their drummer and some other guy named Kurt Cobain was I think guitar tech for a support band on a Bam Bam tour). She's AMAZING but I never heard of her until 2020.  That speaks to how Black artists are not only often not visible at the time they're making music, but their role in rock and roll (and other genre) history is often erased/left out.

So the lack of visibility of Black artists over time is much more about the lack of legitimacy and access they were granted, and less about it just being a genre Black artists "grew out of".

I have a young daughter and if she had to pick one single favorite artist right now it would be Willow (Willow Smith, Will & Jada Pinkett Smith's daughter, formerly of "Whip My Hair" fame). I'm not really a pop fan, but having listened to her through my daughter I gotta say she is GOOD! Some of her songs are loud, raucous, and she even did what I consider a very good message for young people song with Avril Lavigne for her latest album "G.R.O.W.".  Plus songs "Gaslight" & "Transparent Soul" all good messages for all humans, but especially youth. Main point though is, SHE CAN ROCK as well! Really rock! Not the best guitar player at all, but talented songwriter & frontwoman, currently bald, and she does her thing!

SO we saw Willow Monday night at a pretty small venue, and this band we NEVER heard of before, who I initially thought were 4 Black women (all with long braids, black skirts, sheer tops with black bra-like tops under), opened and were GREAT! Mostly rock, but also a punk-ish song or 2, and a couple of dance songs (they covered Pink Pantheress, another artist the young'uns love that I wouldn't know but for kiddo).  They were probably halfway through their set when I looked down the stage to the opposite side from where I was and realized that the lead guitarist who was in a black pleated skirt, blond braids swinging, black stockings and combat boots... also had a beard & moustache! Turns out they are 4 siblings, 1 oldest brother & 3 sisters, and they are indeed an Austin, TX rock band called "We Don't Ride Llamas" (NO IDEA why they're named that!) but it was SO GOOD to see this band of young Black rockers, all gender fluid and all that good 2021 stuff, rocking our asses off.

Remind me to tell you about being a very young girl, only Black person I could see for miles at my 1st serious rock concert, Van Halen, and Eddie Van Halen doing his "Eruption" solo and then walking all the way down the stage and up to me to hand me his guitar pick, and what I later came to understand about Eddie Van Halen's experience with being an immigrant & being discriminated against, and I understood even more that he meant to welcome me to that giant arena show where I probably looked pretty scared & worried about not being welcome. I learned a lot from being lucky with my early rock shows about being a Black rock fan and about Black rock artists from a very young age from that moment forward. Still have the pick of course.... 

Then we should talk about also when I was a kid, the Clash having Grandmaster Flash, Kurtis Blow, and Black Uhuru open various Clash shows in the US in early 80s... Fucking awesome, even though the audiences often were horribly abusive. But the Clash always came out and basically said "You don't have to like them, but you have to respect them, because they're our fucking guests! Save your abuse for our set!" and it always worked to calm the fans down.

In '98 at PJ's Camden shows I met the coolest Black young woman fan. We immediately bonded and I stayed in touch with her after the shows. On their next tour ('00?) she saw PJ at MSG and was up in the nosebleed section, alone, singing along but getting lots of stares and mean looks from the group of young white guys in front of her and around her. Then PJ went into "Not For You" and some of the guys turned around and started yelling the lyrics "THIS IS NOT FOR YOU! NOT FOR YOU!" and pointing at her.  She was alone, I wasn't there (if I was my short-ass would have laid into them... and possibly gotten pummeled but I would have absolutely stood up to them). 

But that was the last time she saw PJ, to this day, she was so upset and discouraged by that scary experience.  Kills me, still haven't been able to get her to go again. Fucking assholes.

In contrast, and I know she's not "rock" but still... On Billie Eilish's 2022 tour, she's got all female artists opening for her, including Willow.  On Eilish's 2019 tour, at the time she was my then 10 yr old daughter's favorite artist and after we saw her I took my kid over to the Light & Sound boards and asked the Lighting Director (who also did spectacular video displays for the show) if he could just take a moment to confirm how much work goes into designing a show like that. I hoped he would just say a quick "Yeah, lots of work", didn't expect or hope for more. But this young White LD, literally on the hottest tour in the WORLD at the time, took a good 20 minutes to go over EVERY SONG ON THE SETLIST with her to tell her about the lights & video & tech.  At the end he said "Do you like math, science, computer programming?" She said yes, and he smiled & said "Well, keep at it. If you keep loving it, maybe one day I will work for YOU!"

I seriously started to cry quietly.  I've been around the music business long enough to know how hard women artists and especially tech people and ESPECIALLY BLACK artists & female tech people have had it (another reason I loved PJ as I got to know their respect for their female crew & female artists). To have this young super professionally-hot White LD tell my 10 yr old Black daughter "One day maybe I'll work for you" (not even you'll work for me, which would have been inspiring enough at the time!) just made me realize... shit's come a LONG way in the right direction.  Still way too much further to go, but that was a really really cool moment for me to reflect on re: the journey of Black artists, tech people & Black fans in Rock N Roll.

A terrific and engaging post, JH, thank you so much! 
I'm familiar with some of the artists you mentioned but not others and I will look forward to looking into them further.  I'm always thrilled to learn more about new-to-me artists and music history. 
Great stuff there, thank you!

brianlux

Also, about those idiots harassing your friend,  what fools!  If I had been there, the thought of throwing the dudes over the edge of the balcony would have crossed my mind.  Of course, I'd have gotten my old white ass kicked good.  Losers like those guys don't belong at a PJ concert.  Sad story.

And very cool that you mentioned Black Uhuru.  I saw them in '82 at a show headed up by Talking Heads.  T.H. were great of course, but what an excellent surprise Black Uhuru was.  I had heard of them and Sly and Robbie, but seeing them was amazing!  What a fine groove that band cooked up!

JH6056

brianlux said:

Also, about those idiots harassing your friend,  what fools!  If I had been there, the thought of throwing the dudes over the edge of the balcony would have crossed my mind.  Of course, I'd have gotten my old white ass kicked good.  Losers like those guys don't belong at a PJ concert.  Sad story.

And very cool that you mentioned Black Uhuru.  I saw them in '82 at a show headed up by Talking Heads.  T.H. were great of course, but what an excellent surprise Black Uhuru was.  I had heard of them and Sly and Robbie, but seeing them was amazing!  What a fine groove that band cooked up!

Thanks for reading that all... as you can see you really tapped into something I've considered a lot myself over all these years of being a Black fan of Rock N Roll.

Wow you are so lucky you saw Black Uhuru! I saw them too ages and ages ago, but I was too young and too unfamiliar with the music to really be blown away.  And you saw them open for Talking Heads???  What a lineup! I'm fully jealous!

brianlux

JH6056 said:

brianlux said:

Also, about those idiots harassing your friend,  what fools!  If I had been there, the thought of throwing the dudes over the edge of the balcony would have crossed my mind.  Of course, I'd have gotten my old white ass kicked good.  Losers like those guys don't belong at a PJ concert.  Sad story.

And very cool that you mentioned Black Uhuru.  I saw them in '82 at a show headed up by Talking Heads.  T.H. were great of course, but what an excellent surprise Black Uhuru was.  I had heard of them and Sly and Robbie, but seeing them was amazing!  What a fine groove that band cooked up!

Thanks for reading that all... as you can see you really tapped into something I've considered a lot myself over all these years of being a Black fan of Rock N Roll.

Wow you are so lucky you saw Black Uhuru! I saw them too ages and ages ago, but I was too young and too unfamiliar with the music to really be blown away.  And you saw them open for Talking Heads???  What a lineup! I'm fully jealous!

Yeah, Black Uhuru were amazing.  They were the epitome of pulse and groove.  Totally infectious music! And there was and integral spiritual  character to their dedication to reggae culture in their performance.    So lucky to be the right age in the right place at the right time. 
And as much as I wish I had seen Talking Heads in the early days as a quartet as well as this later show, that expanded band was amazing.  Adding of Adrian Belew infused all that crazy guitar coloration of his, and the rhythm section was pumped up by Steve Scales on percussion and the band was rounded out by the late great Bernie Worrell.  Fantastic!

Thank you for contributing the the thread!  I was a bit hesitant to start all this because I didn't want it appear gratuitously fawning about race, but the truth is, without African American music, there would be no rock and roll.  And, for that matter, looking at my record collection, the simple truth is that the majority of my favorite music would not exist if it were not for black music.  It's something I felt was worthy of mention.  And it all started for me with listening to and later seeing Jimi Hendrix live.  And the Buddy Miles Express opened for Jimi.  Talk about a show that was a revelation.  Wow! And I worked backward from there to blues and jazz, the foundation of it all.

JH6056

brianlux said:

JH6056 said:

brianlux said:

Also, about those idiots harassing your friend,  what fools!  If I had been there, the thought of throwing the dudes over the edge of the balcony would have crossed my mind.  Of course, I'd have gotten my old white ass kicked good.  Losers like those guys don't belong at a PJ concert.  Sad story.

And very cool that you mentioned Black Uhuru.  I saw them in '82 at a show headed up by Talking Heads.  T.H. were great of course, but what an excellent surprise Black Uhuru was.  I had heard of them and Sly and Robbie, but seeing them was amazing!  What a fine groove that band cooked up!

Thanks for reading that all... as you can see you really tapped into something I've considered a lot myself over all these years of being a Black fan of Rock N Roll.

Wow you are so lucky you saw Black Uhuru! I saw them too ages and ages ago, but I was too young and too unfamiliar with the music to really be blown away.  And you saw them open for Talking Heads???  What a lineup! I'm fully jealous!

Yeah, Black Uhuru were amazing.  They were the epitome of pulse and groove.  Totally infectious music! And there was and integral spiritual  character to their dedication to reggae culture in their performance.    So lucky to be the right age in the right place at the right time. 
And as much as I wish I had seen Talking Heads in the early days as a quartet as well as this later show, that expanded band was amazing.  Adding of Adrian Belew infused all that crazy guitar coloration of his, and the rhythm section was pumped up by Steve Scales on percussion and the band was rounded out by the late great Bernie Worrell.  Fantastic!

Thank you for contributing the the thread!  I was a bit hesitant to start all this because I didn't want it appear gratuitously fawning about race, but the truth is, without African American music, there would be no rock and roll.  And, for that matter, looking at my record collection, the simple truth is that the majority of my favorite music would not exist if it were not for black music.  It's something I felt was worthy of mention.  And it all started for me with listening to and later seeing Jimi Hendrix live.  And the Buddy Miles Express opened for Jimi.  Talk about a show that was a revelation.  Wow! And I worked backward from there to blues and jazz, the foundation of it all.

I'm super glad you raised it. Dialogue is key and it's good to talk about race in this forum.

And yes I'm crazy mad jealous that you saw Buddy Miles open for Jimi frickin' Hendrix!!!  I'm not talking to you right now... 

brianlux

JH6056 said:

brianlux said:

JH6056 said:

brianlux said:

Also, about those idiots harassing your friend,  what fools!  If I had been there, the thought of throwing the dudes over the edge of the balcony would have crossed my mind.  Of course, I'd have gotten my old white ass kicked good.  Losers like those guys don't belong at a PJ concert.  Sad story.

And very cool that you mentioned Black Uhuru.  I saw them in '82 at a show headed up by Talking Heads.  T.H. were great of course, but what an excellent surprise Black Uhuru was.  I had heard of them and Sly and Robbie, but seeing them was amazing!  What a fine groove that band cooked up!

Thanks for reading that all... as you can see you really tapped into something I've considered a lot myself over all these years of being a Black fan of Rock N Roll.

Wow you are so lucky you saw Black Uhuru! I saw them too ages and ages ago, but I was too young and too unfamiliar with the music to really be blown away.  And you saw them open for Talking Heads???  What a lineup! I'm fully jealous!

Yeah, Black Uhuru were amazing.  They were the epitome of pulse and groove.  Totally infectious music! And there was and integral spiritual  character to their dedication to reggae culture in their performance.    So lucky to be the right age in the right place at the right time. 
And as much as I wish I had seen Talking Heads in the early days as a quartet as well as this later show, that expanded band was amazing.  Adding of Adrian Belew infused all that crazy guitar coloration of his, and the rhythm section was pumped up by Steve Scales on percussion and the band was rounded out by the late great Bernie Worrell.  Fantastic!

Thank you for contributing the the thread!  I was a bit hesitant to start all this because I didn't want it appear gratuitously fawning about race, but the truth is, without African American music, there would be no rock and roll.  And, for that matter, looking at my record collection, the simple truth is that the majority of my favorite music would not exist if it were not for black music.  It's something I felt was worthy of mention.  And it all started for me with listening to and later seeing Jimi Hendrix live.  And the Buddy Miles Express opened for Jimi.  Talk about a show that was a revelation.  Wow! And I worked backward from there to blues and jazz, the foundation of it all.

I'm super glad you raised it. Dialogue is key and it's good to talk about race in this forum.

And yes I'm crazy mad jealous that you saw Buddy Miles open for Jimi frickin' Hendrix!!!  I'm not talking to you right now... 

Haha!  I get it! 

Buddy Miles' band it was like watching and hearing a musical freight train.  I mean, seriously, that band had this HUGE sound.... not to mention that great voice!  The house was rumbling!