An original punk: How Miles Davis inspired Henry Rollins
One of the most infamous frontmen in all of punk rock, Henry Rollins rose to prominence as the lead singer for Black Flag. Gaining a reputation for the intensity and anger of his performance, Rollins quickly became a certified legend of the American West Coast punk rock scene. Watching old Black Flag performances, you can see the influence of Iggy Pop, Alan Vega and Patti Smith inherent in Rollins’ stage presence, but an unlikely influence on the frontman comes in the form of Miles Davis.
While the influence of jazz legend might not be the most obvious when listening to the hardcore punk rock of Black Flag, Rollins has always been open about his love for the genre. Previously, the ex-frontman has spoken about how John Coltrane’s A Love Supreme led him to an epiphany, asserting that “Jazz is the best thing America ever came up with, and I need to know every single thing about jazz.”
“Well, I don’t like anybody that’s got all the answers for me,” submit Black Flag in the lyrics to their 1982 track ‘My Rules’. Perhaps that goes some way as to explaining Rollins’ love for Miles Davis. The music of the legendary jazz trumpeter always allowed for interpretation and spontaneity. Finding fame during his Birth of Cool Period, Davis was a constant innovator and began experimenting with psychedelic jazz on acclaimed records like Bitches Brew.
In many ways, Miles Davis was one of the original punks. During a time of racial segregation and discrimination in the US, Davis was fearlessly individual and unapologetic. As Rollins explains, “This is what African-American artists are being treated like. Meanwhile, they’re giving the world this incredible music, and they’re being treated like second, third class citizens, as if anyone needs to get treated like that at all. Miles Davis turned it on its head. He’d turn his back on the audience.”
The strong image and confidence of Davis is something that greatly influenced Rollins’ own stage presence, “That gives you such a sense of confidence when you hear that, ’cause you realise, ‘That’s what I wanna do with music, that’s what I wanna do with any art I do, is be defiant’”. As the lead singer of Black Flag, and later Rollins Band, Henry certainly embodied that confident defiance that Davis pioneered.
Continuing on his love of the trumpeter, Rollins describes Davis, “Like a swan: graceful, and ready to fight. And that’s Miles Davis. No musician I know embodies that more than him”. The Black Flag singer has such a love for the jazz legend that he was invited to speak at the unveiling of a US postage stamp commemorating Davis’ contributions to American music.
As he said in the speech, Davis’ ability to be unapologetically himself, constantly moving forward without paying much mind to negative reviews and setbacks, allows Rollins to deem the artist “punk rock”. Even though Davis did not share many similarities with the punk rock scene musically, his attitude and approach to music certainly bled through into punk.
