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In 1969, Davis told Rolling Stone that he could create "the greatest rock 'n' roll band you ever heard." With Jack Johnson, he was going to prove it.ĭavis' journey to that point is as legendary as Johnson's. And what kind of recording session would befit a legend of Johnson's magnitude? A sprawling, almost mythical one, in which Davis continued his own artistic journey and created a fitting tribute to the famed boxer. This was the kind of man Davis could get behind. After going into exile for seven years in Europe and South America, Johnson eventually returned to America in 1920 to serve a one-year sentence, after which he continued to live large until his death in 1946. He was convicted by an all-white jury on trumped-up charges under the Mann Act (often used as a tool against African Americans) in 1913. This refusal to kowtow to the conventions of a racist society proved so frustrating that eventually the powers that be conspired to take him down. He loved jazz, fast cars, good food and beautiful women, and no one was going to tell him to be quiet about these things. He refused to take marching orders from anyone and enjoyed a lavish lifestyle with his boxing earnings. No, I couldn't have reached him in 1,000 years."įrom there, Johnson continued onward, becoming perhaps the most famous Black person on the planet. Johnson didn't just beat Jeffries he dominated him so thoroughly that Jeffries noted, remarkably, afterward: "I could never have whipped Johnson at my best. More than 20,000 people, mostly white, showed up to watch the fight, which was staged in an outdoor ring specially built for the purpose in Reno. Jeffries was at that point undefeated and came out of retirement in his own words "for the sole purpose of proving that a white man is better than a Negro." Jeffries in the so-called "fight of the century" in 1910.
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His exploits were legendary, perhaps none more so than his bout with recently retired ex-champion James J. A kind of sorcerer in his own right, Johnson was more than the first African American to hold the world heavyweight boxing title, which he did from 1908-15 he was also, like Davis, a larger-than-life cultural icon and rebel.