question re: Jimi Hendrix (for serious guitarists or guitar fans)

Hendrix was talented as hell, and could play like no one else. However, Clapton feels the blues and plays them more perfectly and impressively than one could ever imagine a mortal doing. Jimi may have slightly more raw skills on the guitar, but I really think Clapton is better at making music.

-not an expert but a huuuge fan

he is God for a reason

cig wrote:

Hendrix was talented as hell, and could play like no one else. However, Clapton feels the blues and plays them more perfectly and impressively than one could ever imagine a mortal doing. Jimi may have slightly more raw skills on the guitar, but I really think Clapton is better at making music.

-not an expert but a huuuge fan

He has a rightful place in the top tier. Killer guitarist, very influential, ahead of his time, as fun as he was talented.

Eric Clapton on Jimi Hendrix:

"There was something about the way Jimi played the Strat that made it seem like it was off limits to me. I thought, I can’t do that, I’m not even going to get involved in all that, it’s just too crazy."

as a guitarist and guitar aficionado, i will honestly say that Hendrix is not my favorite. However, he was highly influential, name one guitarist over the next 30 years that doesn't consider him an idol, and he made great music. The reason I don't like him is he did too much with effects, I like my rock cleaner than he played it. He is definitely one of the top 5 of all time though, there is no disputing that

cig wrote:

Hendrix was talented as hell, and could play like no one else. However, Clapton feels the blues and plays them more perfectly and impressively than one could ever imagine a mortal doing.

I disagree. Clapton was an excellent guitarist, but he doesn't crack the top ten of the great blues guitar players. Even if you're limiting the discussion to white British guitar players from the 60s, I think that Peter Green has him beat as a blues player. Check out:

Brent wrote:

cig wrote:

Hendrix was talented as hell, and could play like no one else. However, Clapton feels the blues and plays them more perfectly and impressively than one could ever imagine a mortal doing.

I disagree. Clapton was an excellent guitarist, but he doesn't crack the top ten of the great blues guitar players. Even if you're limiting the discussion to white British guitar players from the 60s, I think that Peter Green has him beat as a blues player. Check out:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IxgY9eEFiYM

hersay!

I'd put Green and his bandmate Danny Kirwan, both of them (in their prime), ahead of Clapton. And Jeff Beck, Carlos Santana, John McLaughlin, Johnny Winter, Buddy Guy, Johnny Copeland, and Mark Knopfler, too. Clapton hasn't evolved in decades.

It's very difficult to elevate Hendrix the guitarist separately from Hendrix the producer. He was truly groundbreaking in what he managed to do in the studio. Some may dismiss it as "effects" but I wouldn't minimize it that way. It was genius, it was brilliant.

Don;t forget Ted Nugent ! Wang DAng Sweet Poon Tang !

Sometimes comparing musicians is like comparing athletes from different eras.

Hendrix was definitely great, and as others have said, very influential and ahead of his time. I think that's key.

Jimi had his own gig, like Jaco Pastorius or Earl Scruggs or Thelonius Monk. There were people before them that sort-of did what they were doing, but these guys personalized it and gave it a definite direction in the style of music they played because they had vision and had something to say (which is so important in a player).

Three times in my life I've met people who actually played with Hendrix, so I had to pick their brains to find out exactly what it was about him that made him so special. Most of what I got from those other guys was similar to what Clapton said above.

I'm with the guy who said he used too many effects for his taste. Except, for me, it was that he was so sloppy of a player. All that distortion covers a multitude of sins. Listen to his acoustic guitar playing and try not to cringe.

However, guys like Neil Young and Bob Dylan have singing voices that aren't necessarily traditional or even beautiful, but there are millions (myself included) who will fork over their hard-earned cash to hear them sing live. I've wondered if maybe Jimi is in with guys like that in some ways. His playing wasn't perfect, but it had feeling and emotion and at the time it came out it was very fresh. And it pushed the boundaries out a little more.

People have found fault with an awful lot of Miles Davis's trumpet playing (flubbed notes and half valving), but every time something new came down the pike in jazz, there was Miles leading the parade, being first, showing what was possible.

And like Buddy Holly and Michael Hedges, you have to wonder what he would have done next had he lived. What could Jimi have done if he had lived through the entire 1970's? He would have put out several more albums and I'm sure it would have been delicious.

And, as an aside, I thought Mitch Mitchell, Jimi's drummer, was every bit as talented and fresh as Jimi was. I was originally drawn to Jimi's music not by Hendrix himself, but by the guy dancing on those drums behind him. That was the stuff.

I'll tell you a story, not many people know this one. It was the same club where I later wrote 'Do the Funky Chicken,' in Covington, Tennessee. I had two guitar players, I can’t remember the second one’s name at the time, but the first one was a young guy, playin' just terrible, loud, out of tune, all over the place. After a while, I said, "Send him home, I can't use a guitar player who plays like that." That dude was Jimi Hendrix.

-Rufus Thomas

MusicTherapist wrote:

Listen to his acoustic guitar playing and try not to cringe.

Technically, he was not that great. His real genius - from what I have seen - is composition. The best example of this is "all along the watchtower" - after JH rearranged, Bob Dylan used the JH version over his own.

He could "think" music, and go in new directions more fluidly, than most other musicians - like Eno & Fripp, but much more spontaneously. If it was not perfectly polished, he was not too fussed. He knew where he was going. Most musicians (even the best) hug the median.

the fact that he left +300 (?) reels of unfinished work at the time of his death (from which numerous albums have been released) speaks volumes about how fecund his mind was.

He had a combination of effortless power and musical creativity that I think has never been matched. I don't think that makes him the best ever, but it's very interesting stuff to listen to. I never get sick of it.

I don't know much about guitarists and while Hendrix is definitely one of my favorites, I really like Terry Kath and so did Hendrix. While speaking to saxophonist Walter Parazaider Hendrix said "Your guitar player is better than me". He also reportedly said at one of his concerts "You gotta check out this guy Terry Kath. His band is CTA. He's the best guitar player in the universe." Obviously Kath felt differently saying, "Man no one can ever do what he did with a guitar. No one can ever take his place."While Kath may or may not be the best, he is rarely in the discussion and certainly deserves to be.

For people who know blues, Clapton is proficient but nothing outstanding. He is more of a scholar of the blues than a player, although of course he is a great musician. His best stuff was freak out fuzz rock with Cream, as well as his 70's coked out performances, which do have some amazing playing. I don't know, Clapton is like Coldplay if you are into the blues.

Hendrix revolutionized rock guitar playing in terms of tone, improv skills, effects, etc. He was also a great blues player but like Clapton was better as a rock guitarist. Same with Page, Beck, and all the white dudes.

I very much agree on Clapton. On the "Sessions for Robt. Johnson" dvd and album you can clearly see this. He lacks that certain fluidity and continuity that B.B. King once noted of Stevie Ray and then commented on his own lack of this fluency in blues playing. But the old Hendrix Blues collections show stuff I've yet to pick up in Clapton's playng. Now, we're talking strictly blues playing here, right?

We're not really talking blues. We're talking Hendrix.

I didn't mean my "cringing about his acoustic playing" as a criticism, but more as an observation. Sadly, sometimes I have trouble hearing through some of the slop in Hendrix's playing to hear all the really great stuff he was doing.

Off the Grid summarized it really well with what he said. Those are the things that made Hendrix great, and why so many players after him tried to dive off his ending points into more newer stuff. So many players owe a debt to Hendrix in that regard.

Hendrix had exceptional feel for the music he was playing, a fludity that only comes from playing many thousands of hours. He had a mastery of volume contol that allowed a level of expression that was unique at the time and has been imitated by others ever since.

He also played some beautiful melodies and harmonies.

extraordinary drummer - not a dead spot in any tune, kind of characteristic of Ginger Baker, Keith Moon and others of that ilk. I've always figured the reason you never hear drum work like in "Fire" these days is cause it's just to difficult.