Why is Hendrix so revered amongst guitarists?

beed84

koneguitarist said:

I am not saying he was shit, more I just don't get the adulation as I don't see the qualities that others do.

He pioneered the guitar in the coolest way possible during a a pretty cool era.  He blew peoples minds and changed pretty much everyones preconceptions about how guitar can be played, guitarist or not. Let's face it, he more or less pratted around on his guitar and look what the funky mofo came up with...

ToneControl

p90fool said:

If you listen to any pop/rock group whose career spanned the mid to late sixties you can pinpoint from their recorded output exactly when they all first heard Jimi Hendrix.

I can't think of another artist like that.

That sounds like a good point, but can you give me a few examples?

racefaceec90

funnily enough was watching this video just yesterday

personally have always loved jimi (used to have a big poster of him when i was a teen) BUT i can understand where the gent is coming from with some of  his views.

he definitely bought the guitar forward though.

musicegbdf

All I can say is this spotty 13 year old had no interest in music in 1969 , heard Voodoo Chile and saved his pennies to buy a Top Twenty Guitar from Woolworths and has had GAS ever since .
Even now watching him play star spangled banner at Woodstock makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.

My 20 year old daughter says He is her biggest influence in her songwriting... So he has spanned a generation and I suspect in 100 years you will still hear his music being played ..

Neil

I was a youngster when Jimi first blasted on to the scene, I (and nobody else) had ever seen anything like it. He was a phenomenon.  

It is very easy to criticize his stuff umpteen years later but he wrote the book on being a rockstar. He thrilled me every time I heard/saw him.  I watched him on the Lulu show at the time, it blew my mind and still does.

All these years later I still get goosebumps watching him play Fire at Woodstock. 

I love visceral guitar playing and would rather listen to that type of music  than any bearded boring guitar maestro.

Music should touch your soul.

Wave your freak flag high! 

Sambostar

Rich Menga (Above) is a dick. I am surprised they haven't revoked his citizenship with his attitude.  He would be better suited to some small corner of little England somewhere.  Some (Most) of the things he comes out with are total nonsense.  By his own rational, how successful did Jimi get and how many albums did Jimi record compared to him...with all his gear and guitars.  What a cock. Jimi didn't know how to tune a guitar, what nonsense, it was always going out of tune.  Jimi could adapt and cut it with anyone, the polar opposite of a YouTube warrior. Prize example of someone who's blinkers have become surgically attached because they just don't get, or feel it.

welshboyo

There is more to Jimi than just Voodoo Chile, All Along the Watchtower and whatever else is on Electric Ladyland....yes, the album is probably the album where Hendrix had free reign and shows his creative side etc, but for me the draw is the Axis album, a far better album IMO (Up From The Skies anyone?)

Hendrix was the originator of it all in the rock world, much the same as Elvis etc..but Hendrix was a lot more charismatic than the slick haired, peanut butter sandwich eating bloke......

OK, Travis, Atkins et Al probably brought some techniques to the table, but Hendrix brought the whole VIBE as well.

I agree that some of his live stuff is off, but then a lot of it was fuel drugged and a lot of it was done under protest - from all the biog's I have read (I've read loads) a lot of the "showmanship" was something Hendrix was forced into..

His live sound too..it can't be easy playing a wall of Marshalls at full blast, the days of "micing up through the PA to reduce stage volumes" hadn't been invented then..

If you can, try and seek out the Eddie Kramer interviews that were part of the album re-releases where he breaks down a lot of the recordings and you get to hear what Hendrix was trying to achieve in the studio - the guy was a genius.

Also, I tend to agree with the posts on here about "The Experience" not being "talented" enough to showcase Hendrix's abilities..that is obvious from the Band Of Gypsys album where Hendrix (live too..) is on fire - he needed the right platform to perform.

For me, Hendrix was/is god, without him, anything rock based since the late 60's would not have sounded the same, his whole vibe and stage presence changed the musical world forever and if it wasn't for those sometimes manic moments we'd still be listening to Elvis trembling his right knee....IMO

Oh, one downside to him though, f'in Strat GAS

WYNIR0

He may seem 'nothing special' to some people now, but place him in context and all becomes clear.

I'm entirely 'meh' about elvis, and my son is about the beatles, it's all about remembering what the musical landscape was when they arrived.

Loobs

koneguitarist said:

Merle Travis, Chet Atkins, James Burton to name a few !

While all three are fantastic players, I really can't see much of an argument that they're more influential than Jimi. 

randomhandclaps

 

Lixarto said:

randomhandclaps said:

Obviously because it's cool to be different and shoot down icons some people like Lixarto above conveniently forget that the shift of people like Neil Young from folk to rock noise

Oh well done. You read my mind

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-duqdLlv3bxA/UzK2-r0oKmI/AAAAAAAAWF4/Ncj3PjxEvpI/s1600/13.gif

Oh wait - no you didn't.

What a demonstrative answer.  Obviously a good counter point would have been too tricky to muster, but no big surprise eh?!    

Fretwired said:

Lixarto said:

He was nought but a poor man's Stephen Stills.

Serious question - is there anyone you actually like? It all seems a bit negative to me. You like Neil Young but without Hendrix there would be no Neil Young as we know him.

 

Or alternatively is there any guitarist that you don't personally like but can have some constructive view on beyond snippy 'too cool for school' teenage criticisms?  It would be respectable if maybe you could provide some actual musical critique or viewpoint.  It gets really hard to tell if the comments are born from close mindedness or the need to prove some superiority over common-or-garden guitarists. 

koneguitarist

Loobs said:

koneguitarist said:

Merle Travis, Chet Atkins, James Burton to name a few !

While all three are fantastic players, I really can't see much of an argument that they're more influential than Jimi. 

That's because you are only thinking rock music. But even in rock and blues music, how many have tried to copy James Burton. Hello Mary Lou was the tune that made Jimmy Page, Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, keith Richards all sit up and realise the possibilities of bending strings to change notes leading to all the other intricacies of guitar playing such as vibrato and percussive techniques. I would even argue Chuck berry and T Bone Walker was more influential than Hendrix.

koneguitarist

koneguitarist said:

p90fool said:

If you listen to any pop/rock group whose career spanned the mid to late sixties you can pinpoint from their recorded output exactly when they all first heard Jimi Hendrix.

I can't think of another artist like that.

Beatles ?

Still waiting a reply on this one !

koneguitarist

In fact who exactly did Hendrix really influence apart from Robin Trower ? Clapton was already showing the way to go with Marshalls before Hendrix turned up, and he went in a totally different style afterwards.

shaunm

Srv, Satch has said Hendrix has always been his idol.

randomhandclaps

.

koneguitarist said:

In fact who exactly did Hendrix really influence apart from Robin Trower ? Clapton was already showing the way to go with Marshalls before Hendrix turned up, and he went in a totally different style afterwards.

Stevie Ray Vaughan, Eddie Van Halen, Prince, Frank Zappa, Steve Vai, Joe Satriani, Dave Murray and John Frusciante are all influential guitarists who along with other musicians like Marcus Miller, George Clinton and Miles Davis (many people believe the push towards the Bitches Brew era was related to Hendrix's influence) all openly spoke of the influence Hendrix's playing had on their own style and directions

shaunm

The RHCP often did Hendrix covers

jonnyburgo

Graham Coxon - listen to the intro riff

p90fool

ToneControl said:

p90fool said:

If you listen to any pop/rock group whose career spanned the mid to late sixties you can pinpoint from their recorded output exactly when they all first heard Jimi Hendrix.

I can't think of another artist like that.

That sounds like a good point, but can you give me a few examples?

I dunno, it sounded bang on last night after a bottle of wine

You can definitely hear it though, especially amongst the wave of West Coast hippy bands who were early on the rock scene, bands like Blue Cheer, Grateful Dead and Big Brother and the Holding Company, and many, maybe most others. I reckon you could guess the actual day Pete Townsend first heard him from live Who recordings too.
The US latched on to Hendrix about nine months after our coolest bands did, and there's a noticeable shift in tone amongst American guitar players after Monterey, both obscure and famous.

It's pretty well beyond doubt that he changed the way new and existing musicians thought about how to make music, and is probably in third place behind Elvis and The Beatles for that.

You can't take this stuff in isolation though, and @koneguitarist has a perfectly valid point about the influence of earlier country players. Hank Marvin wanted to BE James Burton, in turn throwing up a whole new generation of guitar owners who were ripe to be astonished by Hendrix. Young lads who could already play a bit were the most gobsmacked, and they WERE the following generation.

Rory Gallagher always made a big deal about how playing in Irish showbands schooled him, but it's Hendrix who turned his world upside down.

Whoever influenced who though, one thing remains about Hendrix even leaving aside his soulful singing, amusing or clever lyrical songwriting, his pop sensibilities and his production skills - when you strip away all the clever stuff he had a dark, primeval magic about the way he played matched only in my lifetime by Jascha Heifetz. (IMHO, obviously)

Fez

Other guitarists Hendrix influenced:

Steve Hillage, Frank Marino, Andy Powell, Micky Moody, Walter Trout.

Fact is we are still talking about Jimi.

viz