plicitly anti-war” song, one can begin to interpret Hendrix’ mentality as he planned that track. The title itself gives away the meaning of the song, and Hendrix had given up all hopes of subtlety. The combination of this song, along with Hendrix’ new all black band, made it seem to Mike Jeffery, his current manager, that “Hendrix was about to sign up with the Black Panther Party” (Murray 54-55). There were many rumors going around at the time that seemingly substantiated this myth. Lorraine Alterman reported “...Hendrix is involved with militant blacks and perhaps this is why he now has an all-black group and has thrown away the gimmicks of his act” (10). After a few shows with his new band, Hendrix called it quits. He said : “The Band of Gypsies was outasite as far as I’m concerned. It was just...going through head changes is what it was, I really couldn’t tell – I don’t know.... And here I’d been fighting the biggest war I ever fought. In my life. Inside, you know? “ (Burks 42). Hendrix got together with The Experience midway through 1970, but they never recorded another album (Burks 40). The Band of Gypsys was Hendrix’ failed attempt to become a black rock superstar in an all-black band, the only way in which he could fully be recognized for his greatness at that time in which black superstars were few and far between, especially the rock music. His success in his previous three albums was not as important if the praise that was lavished upon him was because his band included two other white members. Through the filter of history, though, the praise that Hendrix has been given has been both color- blind (as far as his influence on modern-day rock musicians) and based on his ethnicity (when he is praised as a blues and R&B guitarist). The evolution of the albums of Jimi Hendrix was influenced by multiple occurrences: his early affinity for the b...
