John Coltrane inspired Public Enemy and more musicians

John Coltrane, who would have turned 100 last week, is considered one of the giants of jazz for his brilliant improvisational skills and torrential sound. Lesser known, however, is his influence on other forms of popular music, from rock to rap.

"Many groups have cited their love for John Coltrane," said Ellen Druda, community service event coordinator for the John &and Alice Coltrane Home in Dix Hills, which will present a free Coltrane centennial celebration concert by the Sam Dillon Quartet at St. John’s Episcopal Church on Oct. 4. "He’s reaching for the stars, reaching within himself and reaching out to the universe to make that connection."

Here are five examples of artists outside the jazz world who embraced Coltrane’s intrepid spirit.

The Byrds

Guitarist Roger McGuinn has acknowledged that the folk-rock icons were dabbling in LSD around the recording of their 1966 single "Eight Miles High," often cited as the first psychedelic rock song. "But ‘Eight Miles High’ actually came about as a tribute to John Coltrane," he told the Guardian in 2014. McGuinn said he focused on Coltrane's sitarlike sax on the track "India," then tried to mimic that on guitar. The Byrds classic that finally emerged, he said, "was our attempt to play jazz."

Byrds member David Crosby, however, recalled it a little differently to The Guardian: "Of course ‘Eight Miles High’ was a drug song," he said.

Public Enemy

The Roosevelt rap group vc’s 1988 single "Don’t Believe the Hype" provided a critique of mass media that predated today’s distrustful attitude by decades. Front man Chuck D also managed to sneak in a jazz reference: "Writers treat me like Coltrane, insane," he bellowed, adding, "We’re brothers of the same mind, unblind.’"

It’s a somewhat oblique reference that seems to equate the saxophonist’s out-there musicality with Chuck’s own outspoken politics. "We both know what’s happening," Chuck told Spin magazine that year, "but we’re treated like we’re bugging."

Carlos Santana

The guitar god who brought Latin flavor to classic rock is a longtime jazz fan who has played with some of the greats, including Wayne Shorter, Ron Carter and Herbie Hancock. Santana’s 1973 album with John McLaughlin, "Love, Devotion, Surrender," featured covers of Coltrane’s "Naima" and "A Love Supreme." Santana followed it with the album "Illuminations," a collaboration with Coltrane’s widow, Alice.

There’s a next-gen connection, too: Ravi Coltrane, a sax man like his father, and Salvador Santana, the keyboard-playing son of the guitarist, performed together at 2004’s Montreux Jazz Festival.

Rakim

The pioneering rapper was raised in Wyandanch within a musical family that included a singing mother and a sax-playing brother. According to a story Rakim told at a book-signing event in Santa Fe, New Mexico, he listened religiously to Coltrane as a teenager and eventually realized the saxophonist was able to play multiple notes simultaneously. "If John Coltrane could play two notes at one time," Rakim said, "what could I do?"

As half of the early hip-hop duo Eric B. and Rakim, the rapper employed extra syllables, internal rhymes and silences that brought a new sophistication to hip-hop.

The Grateful Dead

The famous jam band’s founders have cited Coltrane as an influence — not surprising given their highly improvisational music. "The basic inspiration for The Grateful Dead was the Miles [Davis] Quartet with Coltrane or Trane's quartet from the early '60s," co-founder Phil Lesh said in a 2022 interview with Forbes.

Band leader Jerry Garcia put a more nuanced point on it in a 1981 interview with the now-defunct Musician magazine posted at the blog Grateful Dead Sources. "I never sat down and stole ideas from him; it was more his sense of flow," Garcia said. "That and the way his personality was always right there — the presence of the man just comes stomping out of those records."

For more information on Coltrane-related events, call 631-860-9200 or go to thecoltranehome.org.