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Supportact said: [my style is] probably more an accumulation of limitations and bad habits than a 'style'.
Well, he was better than me
He may not have been the absolute best player technically (although he wasn't bad was he?) but he was pretty creative and innovative, and his stuff just sounds good...
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1980 Tokai LS-80
Massive Hendrix fan here (born in '75).
My dad had a 2 LP "The Story of Jimi Hendrix" which might well be the most important record I ever heard, it shaped my musical tastes for sure.
http://eil.com/images/main/Jimi+Hendrix+-+The+Story+Of+Jimi+Hendrix+-+DOUBLE+LP-300821.jpg
Most focus on the wild man, guitar trashing/burning personna but it's the mellower playing on "Little Wing" and "Axis Bold As Love" that really impresses me the most,
I obviously wasn't there at the time but compared to other players and records from that era he really did seem to be something different, and very very special indeed.
If you don't get him then that's fine, but he is to me the greatest electic guitar player there's ever been.
(I could go on but I'm signing off and heading home so you've luckly avoided a similar length post to my Clapton essay from the other week ;-) )
I do like a good bit of his stuff and yes some do it better these days and just after him, but he did it first in his generation.
So to me he fits into the pantheon of artists in each generation who define and move on their area of interest to a different level.
But some of his recordings are breath taking, decades ahead of his time, and often his playing was sublime and yet still loose and some what improvised.
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
A wizard, a magician, a voodoo priest with blazing guitar. Screaming feedback, screaming fans. A tall, handsome, larger-than-life avatar with a Strat. Utterly iconic, the personification of the spirit of rock n roll.
Hendrix is the archetype. He is the origin. He is the myth. He still is now and I bet he was then.
It's not about playing ability these days, and probably wasn't back then either (although that may have been the rationalisation of his appeal), but it's cos he was so fucking sexy and he made guitar playing so sexy.
I'm not even a fan and I don't listen to his stuff (although of course I know it); I don't even aspire to play or copy anything about him, but the appeal is primal, almost spiritual: and the guitar itself was either the way to commune ecstatically with some kind of primal force, or the manifestation of that force.
If you've ever had those moments, and I truly hope we all have, when you've thought rock n roll was just the most amazing, powerful, primal energy and and been struck with awe at how fucking good loud electric guitar is for the soul, then Hendrix was the living personification of that energy and spirit.
I think that's the appeal.
Good answer, thought the same when I first really heard Elvis!
British TV Saturday evening in 1969 ...
Typical shit - Cilla Black:
The Lulu show:
The guy was ground breaking ... the list of people inspired by Hendrix is long. Today's musical landscape would be totally different had Hendrix not been born. On the Lulu show he even stops and goes into a Cream song as they had just broken up .. you can't beat live TV.
Remember, it's easier to criticise than create!
I agree with @ICBM that the 'show' sometimes got in the way for me too and the live stuff is generally a bit ragged for my taste BUT a truly revolutionary musician. He made the electric guitar more radical than anyone before him.
His influence on guitar players is probably greater than any other player. His use of extreme volume, gain (via fuzz pedals), feedback, modulation, Octavias, wahs, etc was ground breaking.
I am not convinced we got to see the best of him. The Experience were not good enough to adequately show-case his talents - the signs were (with the Band of Gypsies) that he saw his future as part of a bigger band.
I own none of his music and in truth found much of it a bit of a racket (I have a real dislike of anything approaching metal) but I would never sideline him as unimportant. He is probably the most important electric guitarist there has ever been....
Clever use of effects and instruments. The kazoo on Crosstown Traffic for instance, pure genius.
His songwriting was pretty damn good too.
Remember, it's easier to criticise than create!