Lenny Kravitz is nominated for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for the first time this year, alongside Mary J. Blige, Mariah Carey, Cher, Dave Matthews Band, Eric B. & Rakim, Foreigner, Peter Frampton, Jane's Addiction, Kool & The Gang, Oasis, Sinead O'Connor, Ozzy Osbourne, Sade, and A Tribe Called Quest. 

Lenny Kravitz deep album cuts (Spotify playlist):

1. Fear

2. Freedom Train

3. All I Ever Wanted

4. Flowers For Zoe

5. When The Morning Turns To Night

6. Sugar

7. Come On And Love Me

8. Sister

9. Tunnel Vision

10. Beyond The 7th Sky

11. Straight Cold Player

12. Live

13. It's Your Life

14. Bank Robber Man

15. Flash

16. Love Revolution

17. Sunflower (featuring Drake)

18. Strut

19. We Can Get It All Together

Tracks 1 and 2 from Let Love Rule (1989)

Tracks 3, 4 and 5 from Mama Said (1991)
Tracks 6, 7 and 8 from Are You Gonna Go My Way? (1993)

Tracks 9 and 10 from Circus (1995)

Tracks 11, 12 and 13 from 5 (1998)

Between Sheryl Crow's induction last year, and the nomination of Lenny Kravitz and Oasis this year, it feels like the Rock Hall is swinging hard towards the '90s rockers who were the most openly nostalgic for the '60s and '70s. That surprises me a little, because there are still huge '90s bands like Smashing Pumpkins and Alice In Chains who haven't even been nominated yet that I think pushed the sound of the era forward a little more. But as the biggest Black rock star of his time, Lenny Kravitz does deserve some consideration, and the guy is undeniably talented: he played every instrument on a lot of his songs, he's even a pretty sick drummer. Cindy Blackman Santana was Lenny Kravitz's touring drummer for many years and appeared in a lot of his videos, and I got to interview her last year, she was really cool. As far as I can tell "Straight Cold Player" is the only Kravitz studio track Blackman Santana ever played on.

Kravitz is releasing a new album, Blue Electric Light, in May. And when he started doing promo for the album late last year, he made comments in an Esquire interview about how he's always felt a little neglected by Black media outlets and award shows like BET, which made a lot of waves. Some people took Kravitz's side while others sort of shrugged that he made rock music that appealed more to White audiences. 

I have to say, though, putting this playlist together really impressed upon me that a whole lot of Kravitz's music is funk/soul and that he doesn't really make straight up hard rock that much of the time outside of those singles he's known for -- the mix of styles on his albums is very similar to most Prince albums. It's probably a missed opportunity that "It Ain't Over 'Til It's Over" is just about the only time he's been played on R&B radio (give or take a guitar solo on a Tyrese single last year) -- "Sugar" hits that "It Ain't Over" vibe really nicely. On his first tour, Kravitz covered songs written by Hendrix and Love's Arthur Lee, but a lot of the songs on here remind me of Sly Stone more than anything else, he often has this almost lo-fi sound that's a cross between There's A Riot Goin' On and solo Lennon. 

Lenny Kravitz, initially performing under the stage name Romeo Blue, was in the tabloids for his marriage to actress Lisa Bonet before he even had a record out. And Bonet wrote some lyrics for his debut album, including "Fear." He wrote "Flowers For Zoe" for their daughter Zoe Kravitz, who's of course also a famous actress now. A 15-year-old Sean Ono Lennon co-wrote and played piano on "All I Ever Wanted" with Kravitz after they worked together on a cover of his father's "Give Peace A Chance." It was one of the first things Sean Ono Lennon had done besides appearing on Yoko Ono's albums. 

Circus is known as the underperforming dud of Kravitz's '90s albums, and he himself said he was distracted by his mother's illness, and she died a few months after the album was released. I think Circus is better than its reputation, though, it has some of his hardest rocking stuff, and he got a really nice John Bonham drum sound on it. In 1996, I went to the HORDE Tour, and Kravitz was the top-billed artist besides Blues Traveler, I recall his set being pretty good. 

Lenny Kravitz is one of those artists who released a Greatest Hits album at the height of their popularity, in his case in 2000 after the success of 5, and then never really wrote another song of consequence. He's still a hugely famous guy who shows up at award shows, but when he releases an album, I usually hear the first single a couple times on VH1 and then never think of it again. For many years, Kravitz was the only big name star in the music industry who was half Black and half Jewish, so when Drake came along with a similar background, it wasn't surprising that he linked up with Kravitz and guested on one of his songs, and "Sunflower" is a fun track. 

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