Hendrix Overrated?

It seems like Johnny Winter was tearing it up around the same time frame that Hendrix was. It just so happens that I recently read an article stating that Johnny got up and jammed with Hendrix before he (Johnny) had any kind of recognition. Hendrix didn't know what to think about someone who could at a minimum, hold his own with him.

If the benchmark for someone’s worth is whether or not people could play their songs. Why don't we use Yngwie as an example? I'm thinking there would be more people here able to get closer to playing Hendrix, than Yngwie yet, he gets little to no respect.

My take on Hendrix was that he was a very innovative guitarist and songwriter, not counting, one hell of a showman.

 
yeah i own the dvd, and although his stuff doesn't blow me away, you have to admit it sure as hell had to blow everyone away at woodstock. i mean there was no one else like him at the time. there have been better guitarists since him, but none of them could have been as good if hendrix hadn't paved the way. you can't base his talent on one dvd.

 
First, are you talking about the recent release, which gives us most of performance in set list order, except for 2 tunes where second guitarist Larry Lee sang? If you are talking this DVD, it is a long performance. And it may not be complete, as there is a history of editing out some of the solos. Hendrix didn't read or write music, had no formal musical training, and came from very poor circumstances. Yet, through hard work and ability he reached a sort of pinnacle. He is all about tone and the controlled use of feedback and loud volume. The musicians with him at Woodstock were of varying quality, and the band was underrehearsed. Having said that, Jimi's performance is a tour-de-force, as he is forced to carry the performance. The half-hour from Voodoo Child, through the Star Spangled Banner, Purple Haze, Woodstock Improvisation, and Villanova Junction, is on another plane. Jimi is not simply playing his music rote, but introduces new material and jams on the old. What can I say about the Star Spangled Banner? That, along with the Band of Gypsys Machine Gun on Jan. 1, 1970, is great instrument-expanding and mind-expanding music. So, maybe not the greatest Hendrix overall, but it has more than a few great moments.

 
I can't play the way he does.  He stretches his middle finger from his index finger to go over to the next fret, from 1st to third fret for example.  That, I believe, is what created his sound and legacy.  He had that niche and tried to use it to every advantage.
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I THINK YOU'VE GOT IT. Jimi's secret was the middle finger stretch. He was just so much more nimble than anyone else.

Seriously, I can understand how difficult it is to "get" Hendrix when you've been exposed to players like Richie Blackmore, VanHalen, Satriani, Vai, Eric Johnson, Ingwie, Jeff Beck, etc. All of these guys are faster, more technically proficient, and certainly more precise guitar players.

What you have to remember is, before Jimi, the leading edge virtuosos of rock guitar were players like Chuck Berry and Dick Dale. No one was playing like Hendrix. His use of distortion, the vibrato arm and feedback were as different from the norm as the first Apple computer was to the mechanical paper-roll adding machine.

Van Halen was a good analogy. When he first hit, his technique was jaw-droppingly different and innovative. In 1978, no one could play like him. Today there are 15 year olds who can play Eddie's licks note for note.

The point is, Jimi opened a door to an entirely different and unexpected way of playing the guitar. Others have had the advantage of 35 years to learn and advance what Jimi created. It's not surprising that some look back and find the original version dated and primative.

If you want another example of this same principle, listen to original recordings of Robert Johnson. Robert's guitar playing was so advanced and different for his time that it inspired the story that he sold his soul to the devil in return for superhuman musical ability. To someone unaccustomed to early 20th century Delta blues guitar, the music sounds primative, challenged in both pitch and timing, and maybe even amateurish.

In 2030, I expect 20 year old guitar players will be saying, "What was the big deal with Steve Vai? I learned all of that basic crap when I was 10."

 
I have always had a mystical concept of Henrix as an untouchable guitarist who superceded humanity with raw talent and vision.
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I think it would be hard to overrate Jimi Hendrix, unless you said he was a virtuoso that transcended Segovia, Joe Pass, Django Reinhart, Eddie Van Halen, and Steve Vai all in one.

And no one ever said that.

For the most part, the evolution of rock guitar has been just that--an evolution. Two figures, however, abruptly broke with what went before and redefined rock electric guitar: Jimi Hendrix and Eddie Van Halen.

Once an interviewer asked Dizzie Gillespie, "What do you think of Louie Armstrong?" Dizzie's answered, "No him, no me." In other words, even though Dizzie could technically play circles around Louie, and played far more complex music, the jazz world Dizzie entered would not have been ready for bop had not Louie jumpstarted the jazz soloing concept 20 years earlier.

Likewise, some people might be unimpressed by Jimi's licks or his sound, or the limited few effects that he was using, but bear in mind, NO ONE WAS DOING ANY OF THIS at the time. No Jimi, no Eddie. Also no Robin Trower, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Robben Ford, Tommy Bolin to name a few.

Effects? There were none. Jimi had an insatiable quest for new sounds. He was in direct touch with Roger Mayer and other tinkerers and inventors. The concept of effects was so new that he was playing the prototypes--from the inventor's garage directly to the stage. One of the first with a wah, probably the first with an Octavia, a rotary speaker effect, and whatever few others could be scrounged up at the time. And he integrated them musically into his act from the get-go. When Hendrix worked effects into his act, they were fully formed; they did not sound like gimmicks for their own sake.

Second, there was his voicing. Nobody was doing the elegant little chord melody fills the way he was doing them. Just listen to his comping on "Hey Joe." It may sound somewhat commonplace now but no one in rock certainly was playing like that. Some jazzers were, but they weren't doing it on a Strat into a dimed Marshall stack.

Third, he had a feel for his music that has rarely been equaled. The Project Hendrix's Blues compilation shows his incredible range and feel for the blues. One cut is just him and a slightly out-of-tune acoustic 12-string guitar. You'd SWEAR it was an Alan Lomax recording done on the front porch of a shanty in the Mississippi Delta. I have recordings by Robert Johnson, Blind Lemon Jefferson, and Charlie Patton, and this impromptu acoustic number by Hendrix totally cops that vibe.

Then play further into that CD and you'll find that he could do blues as well as just about anybody, while taking the sounds and the inventiveness of the solos to heights that would never be realized by Wolf, Muddy, or any number of blues giants. In fact, there is stuff on that CD that I don't think anyone has caught up to, including SRV.

 
yeah i own the dvd, and although his stuff doesn't blow me away, you have to admit it sure as hell had to blow everyone away at woodstock.  i mean there was no one else like him at the time.  there have been better guitarists since him, but none of them could have been as good if hendrix hadn't paved the way.  you can't base his talent on one dvd.
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this is the kind of intelligent response that I was hoping to generate....., you were probably a teacher's pet. lol

Although I never saw footage of Monetery Pop, that to me is my "swan song".

 
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Jimi.... You don't feel it? You have no soul. Go straight to the inferno baby! /emoticons/default_laugh.png

Machine Gun....... pull that shit off live.... even in your bedroom. I ache all over -- in my own soul -- when I listen to that track. Jimi remains a genius. You just need wider expose to the breadth of his work if you don't yet see it or feel it. (i.e., don't judge him by the leads on purple haze. It's like evaluating Page on the sloppy runs in Heartbreaker.....)

 
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[quote The Project Hendrix's Blues compilation shows his incredible range and feel for the blues. ............... you'll find that he could do blues as well as just about anybody, while taking the sounds and the inventiveness of the solos to heights that would never be realized by Wolf, Muddy, or any number of blues giants. In fact, there is stuff on that CD that I don't think anyone has caught up to, including SRV.
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One of my favorite albums.............can't get enough of that one.

 
One of the topics that is being dealt with here is the idea of progress in the arts and I always wonder what people mean by that.

A cave painting in Alta Mira Spain may be crude but I don't necessarily prefer a photorealist painting because it requires more skill to do it. I can't say the same thing about functional items though...at least with respect to their functionality, I'd probably rather have a modern wristwatch than something made a hundred years ago.

The stuff on his 3 core albums: Are You Experienced, Axis Bold as Love and Electric Ladyland, is just brilliantly original, ingeniously conceived of and composed, executed with incredible style and energy and perfectly produced. To my ear, it is perfect for what it is. His instincts were perfect...he created the taste that would appreciate him.

I don't believe anybody's done anything more expressive since.

 
I'm not much of a Hendrix fan either. Perhaps it's the iconoclast in me, but I tend to turn a critical eye on whatever I'm "supposed" to like, and Hendrix is one of those that if you question him all the religiosity comes out of the woodwork. That having been said, I agree that the thing that throws him over the top for me is Band of Gypsys. That is one of the best records ever made, and Machine Gun isn't even the best thing on it. If he had not produced that record, I would have seen him as a truly great guitar player, but certainly not way out ahead of peers at the time, especially Clapton with Cream, but also Johnny Winter, Lonnie Mack, Jeff Beck or Jimmy Page. Anyway, Band of Gypsys takes all the marbles off the table.

Also, I watched the Isle of Wight DVD and thought it sucked. Then I listened to the same thing on the radio and except for the first two tunes I thought his playing was freaking unbelievable, revolutionary, blew my mind. Not sure why, but maybe it was just the look of it all...

 
Bottom line to all these guitar players mentioned is this......They "innovated" and not "immitated" they took their respective instruments and ran with them and embellished on what came before them and did'nt get stuck in the "I wanna play like so and so" rather they made it their own to varying degrees and remember...It's not the most technically brilliant guitarist thats the best...It's the guitar player thats having the most fun thats the best!!!! /emoticons/default_laugh.png

 
You have got to get a copy of the Band Of Gypsys Live At The Fillmore. The problem I always had with Hendrix was with Mitch Mitchell and Noel Redding. They were just too hyperactive for my tastes. The Band of Gypsys is non-stop heavy grooves with incredible guitar playing. It's almost too much for me to sit and listen to the whole thing at one time.

 
Being a relative young'n, I have limited historical perspective besides what I could repeat from others' arguments. However, I have to agree that very little blows me away like the Band of Gypsies recordings. If you have never had a chance to hear it, check out the extended recordings on the "Live at The Fillmore East" release. The first track, "Stone Free," has a ten-minute jam that is simply amazing.

Matt

 
Will I live tomorrow

Well, I just cant say

Will I live tomorrow

Well, I just cant say

But I know for sure

I dont live today

No sun coming through my windows

Felt like Im sitting at the bottom of a grave

No sun coming through my window

Felt like Im sitting at the bottom of a grave

I wish youd hurry up and rescue me

So I can be on my miserable way...

 
Ya Know I have not posted anything on this board in quite awhile but i check in often. And This is one of those posts that make me ask why some subjects fall off the board in no time at all and others with about as much merit as a National enquirer article go on to spawn three pages. does this make better players or just a bunch of geek wash women who cant get a date and are growing hair on there palms pretending to woodshed. When they should shut up and play there guitars.

Aspire for greatness like the people you trash have achieved. if your on this board chances are you already play a great guitar.

Peace And Happy New Year.

Posts like this make me kinda glad there will be no factory tour...Can you dig it?

 
Oh, posts like this don't get me p'd off. They're interesting.

I don't buy the "You can't criticise unless you can do as well" argument, though. If we all followed that, it would be the end of spectator sports, and Monday-morning quarterbacking, and harping against politicians and jeering the dolts on American Idol. I can say that a restaurant's salmon was overcooked even though I'm no master chef.

I don't think of Jimi or any of those guys as being less advanced than, say, Michael Schenker. Jimi's phrasing and timing and note bending and choice of lines was usually wonderful and soulful. He did what he did, and did it beautifully. I mean, BB King doesn't play many notes compared to Malmsteen, but he does usually play the right ones at the right time, and whether ya play 64 notes in a measure or one, it's all about the choice of notes. It's not like putting an engine on a dyno and quantitatively saying one is more powerful than another. A musician's supposed to express his or her vision of the world, soul, feeling. There are a lot of ways to do that.

 
Oh, posts like this don't get me p'd off. They're interesting.I don't think of Jimi or any of those guys as being less advanced than, say, Michael Schenker. Jimi's phrasing and timing and note bending and choice of lines was usually wonderful and soulful. He did what he did, and did it beautifully.
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Nobody seems to care about Monterey Pop. That performance launched Jimi into stardom. Was he more than human? Or an average Joe finding a creative outlet?

I question the validity of the concept that he had so much talent that only a select few can even come close. I believe that Hendrix had an inferiority complex, whereas because he was half native American, he couldn't fit entirely into the Black community. Because his ethnicity was somewhat unique, so was his commitment to music and connection to the public.

This is the platform that lends itself to his esteemed image, plus his talent. Also he was in the right place at the right time. But he also died at 26 from the use and abuse of drugs. I doubt if he could have gotten off the roller coaster to save his life.

I am just tired of pretentiousness. A while back I did a Steve Vai post and how I thought that his image was shallow. Not his music, per se, but I questioned what had he done to earn the title as the "best" guitarist?

 
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