Black Music goes deep purple, through purple rain and purple haze

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As we shift the #BlackMusicSunday color palette from last week’s shades of blue to purple and its many shades, from violet to lavender, I doubt that anyone would fail to think immediately of Prince’s “Purple Rain” and Jimi Hendrix’ “Purple Haze,” tunes that have made music history and received much acclaim.

Purple appears only rarely in nature. That’s partly why the color has long historical associations with royalty, as well as with imagination, mystery, and spirituality.

In keeping with the royal naming traditions for Black musicians, I’ll open today’s edition with our Prince.

Fittingly, Prince’s official website places his life story under the header “Born Into Royalty.”

Prince Rogers Nelson was born on June 7, 1958, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, a city with a rich and surprisingly complex history that would shape the young artist in significant ways. Prince’s parents, John Lewis Nelson and Mattie Della Shaw, found one another through music, and when their child was born they gave him John’s stage name, Prince Rogers.

In the 1950s John Nelson had made a name for himself in the music scene playing piano and leading the Prince Rogers Trio, a jazz group who would play in clubs and community centers on the North Side, in addition to gigging behind the stage at strip clubs in downtown Minneapolis. It was while he was playing with his trio at the Phyllis Wheatley House, a historic building that opened in 1924 to provide social services for African-American families moving to North Minneapolis, that he first met Prince’s mother, Mattie, and recruited her to sing in his band. Their musical union developed into a romantic partnership as well, and almost exactly nine months after marrying (their wedding was August 31, 1957), they welcomed their son Prince into the world.

“There were 2 Princes in the house where we lived,” Prince wrote in the first pages for his memoir, The Beautiful Ones. “The older one with all the responsibilities of heading a household & the younger one whose only modus operandi was fun.”

Peter Sean at IMDb continues the story.

Prince at the age of eighteen started working on high-quality demo tracks with Chris Moon. With these demo tracks Prince eventually ended up signing a recording contract with Warner Brothers Records and was the youngest producer associated with the label. Prince made his debut on the record label with his 1978 album, For You. It wasn't a strong successful album, however it was fair for a beginning artist and ranked 163 on the U.S. Pop Charts. Prince's next releases would tend to do much better on the charts with his singles, "Why You Wanna Treat Me So Bad?" and I Wanna Be Your Lover in 1979. This would start to introduce Prince as a person who presented sexually explicit material into the music industry. However Prince didn't begin to attract mainstream artists until he release his single, 1999. This single began to be noticed by M.T.V. viewers and this would make him a part of the main-stream music media. Prince released two more singles called Little Red Corvette and Delirious. The album featured Prince's new band, The Revolution. In 1984 Prince would release what would be seen as an admired and profound masterpiece the feature film/sound-track album, Purple Rain in 1984. Prince's father contributed to this album, by cowriting the chord sequence for a couple of his songs. Prince continued to give cowriting credit to his father on several other albums, as his famous chord sequence would be used in several of Prince's singles and albums.

Songs from Purple Rain were played for the first time and recorded during a benefit concert for the Minnesota Dance Theatre at the First Avenue nightclub in Minneapolis on August 3, 1983.

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The album Purple Rain was the soundtrack for the film Purple Rain, which won an Oscar in 1985 for Best Original Song Score and for Best Original Musical.

Prince’s epic 2007 performance of “Purple Rain” in pouring rain at Super Bowl XLI at Dolphin Stadium in Miami, Florida, is enshrined in music history.

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Way before Prince wrapped himself in purple rain, Jimi Hendrix released “Purple Haze” as a single in 1967, and on several compilation albums after that first release. I’m fascinated by Hendrix’s evolution as a musician because when I first met him and heard him play in New York City, he was simply a sideman with Curtis Knight and the Squires—with a conk hairstyle and no fringes.

Jimi Hendrix when he was playing with Curtis Knight and the Squires, c.1965. pic.twitter.com/sshLDgdrAw

— RetroCo (@Retro_Co) May 29, 2021

Here’s a look at Jimi Hendrix’s beginnings, per his official website.

Jimi Hendrix, born Johnny Allen Hendrix at 10:15 a.m. on November 27, 1942, at Seattle’s King County Hospital, was later renamed James Marshall by his father, James “Al” Hendrix. Young Jimmy (as he was referred to at the time) took an interest in music, drawing influence from virtually every major artist at the time, including B.B. King, Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, Buddy Holly, and Robert Johnson. Entirely self-taught, Jimmy’s inability to read music made him concentrate even harder on the music he heard.

Al took notice of Jimmy’s interest in the guitar, recalling, “I used to have Jimmy clean up the bedroom all the time while I was gone, and when I would come home I would find a lot of broom straws around the foot of the bed. I’d say to him, `Well didn’t you sweep up the floor?’ and he’d say, `Oh yeah,’ he did. But I’d find out later that he used to be sitting at the end of the bed there and strumming the broom like he was playing a guitar.” Al found an old one-string ukulele, which he gave to Jimmy to play a huge improvement over the broom. By the summer of 1958, Al had purchased Jimmy a five-dollar, second-hand acoustic guitar from one of his friends. Shortly thereafter, Jimmy joined his first band, The Velvetones. After a three-month stint with the group, Jimmy left to pursue his own interests. The following summer, Al purchased Jimmy his first electric guitar, a Supro Ozark 1560S; Jimi used it when he joined The Rocking Kings.

In 1961, Jimmy left home to enlist in the United States Army and in November 1962 earned the right to wear the “Screaming Eagles” patch for the paratroop division. While stationed at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, Jimmy formed The King Casuals with bassist Billy Cox. After being discharged due to an injury he received during a parachute jump, Jimmy began working as a session guitarist under the name Jimmy James. By the end of 1965, Jimmy had played with several marquee acts, including Ike and Tina Turner, Sam Cooke, the Isley Brothers, and Little Richard. Jimmy parted ways with Little Richard to form his own band, Jimmy James and the Blue Flames, shedding the role of back-line guitarist for the spotlight of lead guitar.

Though many listeners think that the “purple haze” in the song references the Purple Haze marijuana strain or LSD, the lyrics, according to biographers, were not drug-related, as Drew Wardle writes in “The Story Behind The Song: Jimi Hendrix's game-changer, 'Purple Haze.'”

Many people associate the song, ‘Purple Haze’ with taking acid, but Hendrix said otherwise. In fact, the song was written about the time he had been reading a science-fiction novel and fell asleep. Hendrix dreamt that he was underwater, surrounded by an impenetrable purple haze. He believes that the purple haze was a spiritual and religious awakening and was perhaps protected by God. Initially, the refrain to the song was, “Purple Haze, Jesus saves.”

Here’s an iconic performance of “Purple Haze.”

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No discussion of the music and life of Hendrix can go without mentioning the extraordinary biography 'Scuse Me While I Kiss the Sky, written by noted Black poet, author, and friend of Hendrix David Henderson. The book was first published in 1978 and was updated and reissued in 2009.

Henderson’s writing has a flow that is sheer poetry. It’s worth reading even if you are not a fan of Hendrix.

Going further back in time, other members of Black music royalty wrapped themselves in noble purple, notably the Duke (Ellington) and the Queen (Ella Fitzgerald)—with their versions of “Deep Purple,” written by pianist Peter DeRose in 1933, with lyrics added by Mitchell Parish in 1938.

When the deep purple falls Over sleepy garden walls And the stars begin to twinkle in the night In the mist of a memory You wander all back to me Breathing my name with a sigh In the still of the night Once again I hold you tight Tho' you're gone your love lives on when light beams And as long as my heart will beat Sweet lover, we'll always meet Here in my deep purple dreams

Here’s the Queen:

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And here’s the Duke.

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The purple palette includes lavender, orchid, lilac, and violet; if you’ll join me in the comments, we’ll be listening to the colorful contributions in those shades, from artists ranging from Miles Davis, John Coltrane and Sun Ra, to vocalists Eartha Kitt, Sammy Turner, and Aaron Neville.