Steve Howe is the GOAT
Steve Howe is the GOAT
I liked hearing Earl Hooker and Freddie King, but that choice of Hendrix was peculiar. For some reason he and the band were upset, said they hadn't played together in six weeks, were frequently re-tuning during the jam session, and didn't play their own songs before leaving after less than an hour and not coming back. I'd be interested in hearing the back story. But it was by no means representative of Hendrix's best. When you compare speed, accuracy, and tone quality between eras, you're not grasping the revolutionary nature, originality, and musicality that make some machine-like playing like Glenn Gould or Simone Dinnerstein vastly inferior to, say, anything conducted by Karajan.
enuf said wrote:Today there are 500 high schoolers who are better guitarists than Hendrix was.
And yet 50+ years ago, many of the ways they play today didn't exist. It takes someone to invent new ways to play. No one can deny that Hendrix hasn't had a MAJOR influence on modern guitar playing. It's the equivalent of saying "Well a couple of US high school kids a year break 4 in the mile, so Bannister stinks". You have to consider the time period that historical figures existed in. Hendrix was doing stuff that no one else was doing (experimenting with distortion, playing rhythm/lead simultaneously, etc.).
enuf said wrote:
Today there are 500 high schoolers who are better guitarists than Hendrix was.
OK. Please provide names, tour dates, and number of platinum records they've sold. Thanks.
Because he was a hero who protected America as part of the 101st Airborne.
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/documents/crime/jimis-private-parts
Guitar antihero wrote:
Thoughts, opinions?
Buckethead.
Crapile wrote:
Peter Green
The only one who ever made B.B. sweat.
Guitar antihero wrote: Seriously, why is Jimi Hendrix considered the GOAT?
Same reason people mistakenly think Jimmy Page was a great guitarist...same reason people think Led Zeppelin was anything beyond a very average band. ACID trips!
E/O/T
Green Manalishi wrote:
Crapile wrote:Peter Green
The only one who ever made B.B. sweat.
Peter Green was great but quite limited and he cracked up just as he going out... BB a giant but guitar only a part of it; career eise I'd take John Lee Hooker though of course they're very different artists, BB closer to R&B and very much a showman.
If we wanna talk Brit blues and beyond, yoo need to reckon Tony McPhee / Groundhogs.
There are many plucked string instruments he never played, and so what. He was an electric guitarist. To call his legacy into question because he did not play the banjo is like criticizing the moon because it isn't a black hole.
Hierarchies are stupid, and a crossover artist like Hendrix did not give a damn if he was considered the greatest, just like he didn't care what genre he was considered to play in.
Just listen to the music that moves you, don't worry about what box to put it into, and what box to stack that box on. Hierarchies are for the trough-sniffers who just want to make $$$ off music and ignore it's poetry.
Answerer of Questions wrote:
Are You Experienced was released in 1967. Compare his work on that album to that of any of his contemporaries and maybe you'll begin to understand how groundbreaking it was.
Listen to Jeff Beck's guitarwork on the Yardbirds Roger the Engineer album and on Becks Bolero which were recorded months before Are You Experienced was, and you'll realized girlfriends weren't the only things Hendrix was stealing from some of those guys
Hot House of Omargarashid wrote:
Answerer of Questions wrote:Are You Experienced was released in 1967. Compare his work on that album to that of any of his contemporaries and maybe you'll begin to understand how groundbreaking it was.
Listen to Jeff Beck's guitarwork on the Yardbirds Roger the Engineer album and on Becks Bolero which were recorded months before Are You Experienced was, and you'll realized girlfriends weren't the only things Hendrix was stealing from some of those guys
I don't know who did what first, but J.H. deserves tremendous credit for anything he did that changed the way the guitar is played. Maybe the GIOAT? (greatest innovator of all time). That being said, regarding the GGOAT, I listen to his songs and I don't get it either. The stuff sounds excellent, but I don't hear anything that says "wow, nobody else sounds that amazing".
Just wow... wrote:
Hot House of Omargarashid wrote:Listen to Jeff Beck's guitarwork on the Yardbirds Roger the Engineer album and on Becks Bolero which were recorded months before Are You Experienced was, and you'll realized girlfriends weren't the only things Hendrix was stealing from some of those guys
I don't know who did what first, but J.H. deserves tremendous credit for anything he did that changed the way the guitar is played. Maybe the GIOAT? (greatest innovator of all time). That being said, regarding the GGOAT, I listen to his songs and I don't get it either. The stuff sounds excellent, but I don't hear anything that says "wow, nobody else sounds that amazing".
FWIT, my brother is a very good keyboardist and has played with rock bands at the local level since the early 70's, and when I told him I didn't see the "all time greatness" in Hendrix's playing talent, he thought otherwise. I'm definitely not nearly the connoisseur of guitar that he is.
(screwed up the FWIW but you know what I meant!).
Just wow... wrote:
Hot House of Omargarashid wrote:Listen to Jeff Beck's guitarwork on the Yardbirds Roger the Engineer album and on Becks Bolero which were recorded months before Are You Experienced was, and you'll realized girlfriends weren't the only things Hendrix was stealing from some of those guys
I don't know who did what first, but J.H. deserves tremendous credit for anything he did that changed the way the guitar is played. Maybe the GIOAT? (greatest innovator of all time). That being said, regarding the GGOAT, I listen to his songs and I don't get it either. The stuff sounds excellent, but I don't hear anything that says "wow, nobody else sounds that amazing".
50 years ago it was a different story. Jeff Beck tells it this way: "For me, the first shockwave was Jimi Hendrix. That was the major thing that shook everybody up over here. Even though we’d (British players) all established ourselves as fairly safe in the guitar field, he came along and reset all of the rules in one evening. Next thing you know, Eric was moving ahead with Cream, and it was kicking off in big chunks."
LedZux wrote:
Guitar antihero wrote: Seriously, why is Jimi Hendrix considered the GOAT?Same reason people mistakenly think Jimmy Page was a great guitarist...same reason people think Led Zeppelin was anything beyond a very average band. ACID trips!
E/O/T
I've played both acoustic and electric guitar (they're completely different instruments) for 30 years, so I feel competent to say something on this. The comparison is actually good. Jimmy Page was a child prodigy and technically very skilled, but not such a great musician, more of an expert copier. Jimi Hendrix was a self taught player with in some sense lousy technique whose work on an acoustic guitar is just ok, but who took full advantage of the technology available to him and whose musicality was of the highest level. He could play with a lot of feeling and a lot of nuance. He pushed the use of "effects" and distortion when those weren't so widespread and well known and easy as they are now. He has as big an impact on funk and R&B as he did on rock (He started out playing in bands like the Isley brothers and Little Richard). He was everything Jimmy Page wasn't. One can't imagine Miles Davis even listening to Led Zeppelin, and one can imagine him making an album with Hendrix. Look at their relation with the blues. Jimmy Page could reproduce classic blues songs faithfully. Hendrix could write and play voodoo chile.
Of course there were many contemporary electric guitarists who were technically better andhigh quality musicians (think John McLaughlin or Jeff Beck) and there were other guys who got a similar sound (Eddie Hazel).
Buddy Guy refers to Jimi Hendrix as the Coltrane of rock musicians.
EXP wrote:
Buddy Guy refers to Jimi Hendrix as the Coltrane of rock musicians.
I hate any of the GOAT discussions with music, because there's no real measure of establishment like we have in running. Does it mean technical proficiency? Does it mean putting on a live show? Does it mean pushing the boundaries of what can be done with the guitar? He was a damn fine guitarist and one of the all time bests, but the best of all time? I'm not sure.
Karl Hungus wrote:
EXP wrote:Buddy Guy refers to Jimi Hendrix as the Coltrane of rock musicians.
I hate any of the GOAT discussions with music, because there's no real measure of establishment like we have in running. Does it mean technical proficiency? Does it mean putting on a live show? Does it mean pushing the boundaries of what can be done with the guitar? He was a damn fine guitarist and one of the all time bests, but the best of all time? I'm not sure.
OK then. Give us a name.