Jimi Hendrix

This is a complicated subject...who is good, who is better, and who is best. Not something that can be spelled out as A-B-C. Let's see what comes out of my keyboard. Jimi Hendrix changed the world. He took an instrument that was still, in many ways, in a prepubescent stage, and turned it into the raging instrument that we all think of today. He had a wonderful knack for how to push his audience's buttons, and was always able to please every crowd. His solos, riffs, and effects were unlike anything seen before. Think of it this way. Guys like Townshend and Clapton, they were (are) also much more technical with their playing styles. Now, I am the biggest Clapton fan this side of the Atlantic. It is really all about your tastes. Satriani could probably play every note on the guitar without thinking about it. He can sight read music, much like Steve Vai. No one can take that away from those guys. But at the same time, no one can ever take the electric guitar revolution away from Hendrix. He lived it. He felt it. He created it with his own flesh, blood, and yes, occasionally lighter fluid.

--RJ

arjen,

well said my freind, well said, i get really sick and tired of hearing the satriani/malmsteen bash fest that takes place every other week in these forums, those
guys are excellent guitar players, hendrix is dead and has been for along time, get
over it and move on, can any body here play as good as satch and malmsteen?
i didn't think so! its a lot easier to bash them than it is to play as good as they do !

^^Using your logic, if Paige dies tomorrow we should just "get over him, and move on."

Sorry. But 'living in the past' is probably wrong. But looking back and taking and learning from the past is one of the best things you can do in life.

I know it irks the Metal players, but no way can Yngwie or Steve Vai or any of those guys play guitar like Hendrix did.

Hendrix played with more fire and passion than anyone, Stevie Ray Vaughan is a close second.

Hendrix didn't just see guitar as a musical instrument. He saw it as a tool to create visions. When you listened to Hendrix, you could actually hear and feel the story he was telling.

Here is a perfect example, Machine Gun. This was a protest again the Vietnam War. In this song you can actually hear the sounds of war. Listen close and it gets pretty scary, because war is scary. And Hendrix could make you hear that and feel that. So, in my opinion he has far better technique than all these other players. They are just playing notes. Hendrix was WAY above that. Listen to this whole song and see for yourself.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TV74PsUo1dc&mode=related&search=

^^Machine Gun. Probably his best song. That's my favorite version of the song, but he did a version of Isle of Wight that was 22 minutes long. Incredible, a close second to his New Years Eve version with The Band of Gypsys.

As for him using guitar as a tool to tell his story. So true. He wrote a song about how he got frustrated with not being able to get the sounds out of his head onto the guitar. That song is Manic Depression.

I'll try to upload the full version of Machine Gun to Youtube, since the video there is just the first 10 minutes (its about 13 min long...the last 3 minutes are incredible as well).

Well - that's ten minutes of my life wasted I can never get back.

What started out as a fairly average blues rock song descended at times into a musical(?) cacophony matched only by Yoko Ono's singing. Sorry, I just don't get it....if you're going to deify Hendrix, then ALL his work should be judged by the same standards. That, to me, was meaningless free-form meandering, the aural equivalent of doodling on a note-pad while you're on the telephone.

I realise that 99.99% of you will doubtless disagree, and point out the intrinsic ironies and the underlying harmonics blah blah etc....Emperor's New Clothes. There is nothing in that song remotely appealing to me.

Little Wing, on the other hand, is truly beautiful....that to me is the real Hendrix enigma; how he could go from such sublime heights as LW and Angel and All Along The Watchtower to such ridiculous depths as this....

As always, just MY opinion.....

:D :D :D

Vic

Vic

As Sly Stone said, "different strokes for different folks" :D

But I myself did not hear meaningless meandering in that song. I have heard meaningless meandering from some of the other artists mentioned. But I could hear the bombs and missiles falling in that song, I could hear a machine gun. I could hear the sound of death. And war is chaos and confusion, you could hear that too.

In Third Stone from the Sun, a song about visitors from another planet, you can hear the flying saucers. In Waterfall you can hear the water gently falling. In the Star Spangled Banner you can hear the jets and bombs falling.

Or at least I could. :wink:

I'm with Vic on this one. I really like Hendrix a lot, but songs like Machine Gun and his rendition of the Star Spangled Banner are nothing but noise to me. They literally (and I do mean literally) hurt my ears. Sounds like a cat being tortured. The first minute or so of Machine Gun is really cool, but then I just can't listen. Yes, I understand he's making sounds of bombs dropping and other warlike sounds and whatnot, but just because you can make funny sounds with your guitar doesn't mean it's pleasurable to listen to.

StormyMonday

Well, isn't that how it is with any form of music? Some people love Rock, some hate it. Some love Country, some don't.

I mean, I remember back in the 70's that many people loved Disco, which I despised. Many people love Rap music, I think it is even worse (much worse) than Disco ever was.

Hendrix was very expressional. He wasn't just about playing music per se. He said in interviews that he was intrigued with all sorts of sounds, he liked sounds like static for instance. He once said his goal was to make the sound of a cellophane typewriter, whatever that means. He was on a different plane. But the fact is, he could make those sounds, and believe me, they are not easy to do.

To me it is no different than Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture where you can also hear the sounds of war and cannons firing.

Here is Hendrix's May This Be Love which I incorrectly called Waterfall. See if you cannot hear the beautiful sounds of flowing water. Hendrix made chaotic noises for war, but he could make the gentle sound of flowing water too. He could make nearly any sound you can imagine, that's what sets him above others.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aKlRAIKef3g

I agree with you Wes, it's purely and simply a matter of personal taste. There's quite a few Hendrix songs I like, but they're far outweighed by the ones I don't like. You'll never hear me saying "Hendrix sucks" or "Hendrix was talentless" because he quite obviously wasn't, he was a genuine talent, an innovator and an incredible showman. It's what he chose to do with his talent that grates on my ears at times.

Another Artist you mentioned earlier - Alvin Lee. He was also known as "Mr Speedfingers" and the "Fastest Guitar In The West." But that particular version of "Goin' Home" you mentioned was for me a LOW point of Woodstock. Speed DOESN'T mean the same as good music....when that song comes on the radio (it's played every now and then on Planet Rock, the DJ who usually plays the song always mentions something about how fabulously fast his playing is....) it has me reaching for the off button, or at least the tuning dial. To me it's incredibly boring - by the time he's mumbled "gn hm" for about the thousndth time, and recycled the riff for about the same number of times, I don't need any sleeping pills.

But - as you say - different strokes, it'd be a funny old world if we all liked the same music. Doubtless there is lots of music I've never heard that I'd probably love, and lots I'd hate too, but at the end of the day, the music I choose to play is my choice. I've never heard Malmsteen or Satriani....at least if I have they haven't made any impression on me.

And it's not just one particular genre of music - as much as I love the Beatles, I LOATHE most of the White Album. Revolution 9 in particular - people can witter on about experimentation, and technology, and how cutting-edge and avant-garde it is - but it isn't music, it's just meaningless drivel.

Even the greats aren't immune to lapses - side one of the Plastic Ono Band's "Live Peace In Toronto" is great rock'n'roll, for the most part, but side two.....well, listen for yourself. Feedback, Yoko wailing, random noise - it is NOT music, whatever it is.

I'm getting carried away ranting on about the stuff I don't like - but there is plenty of good music to listen to. So to everyone who's taken the time and trouble to read this, I hope your musical heroes continue to inspire you and entertain you, be it Hendrix, Yngwie, Satriani, Lennon, Clapton, whoever - music is there to be listened to and enjoyed!

Now go listen to some music - better yet, pick your guitar up and make your own! There are still undiscovered riffs out there y'know......

:D :D :D

Vic

Vic -
Yes, The Hendrix Enigma.

I LOVE Jimi.
And it was just recently that I was getting into his version of Hey Joe. (I was entertaining ideas of learning to play it)
And along that journey, it struck me how beautiful of a player he really was.
Granted, the lyrics to Hey Joe are not Beautiful - the music behind Jimi's version is though.

There were at least two Jimi's - The Studio Jimi, and The Live Jimi.
In the studio (all those songs you listed as liking Vic) Jimi played his Strat thru (usually) Fender tube amps.
A much cleaner low gain sound.
More textures were used.

Live, Well he had The MARSHALL WALL!!!!
Very overdriven. The show very maniacle.
He was compensating for a huge loss in texturing with volume and feedback and distortion.

The Marshall wall came later though.
His early live stuff was 'sloppy' and low volume. (Usually thru a Fender combo amp)
Jimi was very shy though and not used to being the frontman.
And at low volumes was trying to do the rhythm, bass, fills, and solos all while singing.
Sloppy.... Doubtful.

Did those early low volume live songs sound like the recorded versions - NO WAY.

Layla is probably my favorite album ever.
Have you ever seen Derek & the Dominos play live on a TV show????
Absolutely AWFUL!!!!
From what I consider to be one of the Greatest bands ever put together....?
There is NO WAY they could reproduce that studio sound.
Clapton and Duane Allman with at least 6 guitar tracks per song.
Live - Just Clapton with Brownie thru a Fender Blackface amp (He used a tweed champ on the album) Floundering badly.

The Beatles stopped touring all together after 66.

The Stones - Sympathy for the Devil Live in the 60's - That's a piano song!!!!
As a matter of fact - ANY Stones Live from the late 60's makes me wanna run for cover (and I Love the Stones).
Live technology in the 60's was really bad.

I think this is where alot of Hendrix bashing comes from.

Take that into consideration and give the man a break - HE WAS THE GREATEST!!!!

Ken

To me, there's a difference between not liking a certain sort of music, and music that is physically painful. I don't particularly care for modal jazz, rap, punk or disco music, but I don't have an overwhelming urge to turn it off when I hear it.

I don't know if there are other people like this or maybe my hearing is just ultra sensitive, but when Hendrix starts playing like that in Machine Gun and the Anthem, my ears literally start hurting and my skin crawls. And no, I don't have the volume up too high. It's not just that I don't like it, but it's uncomfortable to listen to.

Now, the other video of Hendrix playing "Who Knows" (which was posted somewhere recently) is another story. That, I like (other than Buddy's yodeling). I like the funky Hendrix who could pull the nastiest groove you've ever heard out of nowhere, not the funny noises Hendrix who hurts my ears.

StormyMonday

Variety is the spice of life. I am glad we don't all like the same music. But that version of Machine Gun was the exact same as the Band of Gypsies album, IMHO Hendrix's best work because you could see what he could do live. He really didn't need fancy studio tricks. And he only used a few pedals. Most of those sounds were in his mind and fingers.

Those sounds are great to me. I love the bomb and missile sounds. I WISH I could play guitar like that. I wish I could make people hear and feel the songs I play.

The solo in Sympathy for the Devil was awesome. You could hear Satan in those wicked guitar licks.

Some people just play songs, maybe even great songs. But some people can transport your imagination to a different place. It's like you are really there.

I don't know if I can explain it any better than that. But these super-noodlers can's do that, Hendrix could.

Here is an audio Acid Trip, Are You Experienced. This song scared me the first time I heard it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4yZXb4aD2Q

Sorry for this long post. Just so much to reply to.
But I myself did not hear meaningless meandering in that song. I have heard meaningless meandering from some of the other artists mentioned. But I could hear the bombs and missiles falling in that song, I could hear a machine gun. I could hear the sound of death. And war is chaos and confusion, you could hear that too.

In Third Stone from the Sun, a song about visitors from another planet, you can hear the flying saucers. In Waterfall you can hear the water gently falling. In the Star Spangled Banner you can hear the jets and bombs falling.

Or at least I could. :wink:
I feel the same.

And I've said it 100 times. You MUST listen to 1983 (A Merman I Should Turn to Be) by Hendrix. Beautiful. Beautiful. You hear the waves of water splashing on the sea. Shut your eyes, you feel the water running across the hairs of your body. It's so peaceful, yet part of the song puts you through the struggles in his life. In the lyrics he talks about how he wishes he could go live peacefully in the sea, and avoid "the lands so battered and torn"

Vic- As Wes said in a later post, different strokes for different folks. Glad you aren't saying "OMG HE SUCKS" and I'm glad you're being right about this, you realize it's your opinion. Mine is opinion to.Ou know, I agree. I despise most of the White Album. I love a lot of the Beatles stuff. But the White Album, I really can't stand a lot of the songs.

CitiZenNoir- So true. Live and studio is so different. It's funny, because, a lot of poeple hate Hendrix because of how he was live. A lot of people hate Hendrix because they don't like his 'radio songs.' Not a lot of people see the depth of Hendrix, like some of the songs listed in this topic. Hell, even Little Wing isn't played enough on the radio, or atleast on my classic rock station. They overplay some of his other stuff too much (I don't mind, but from another persons perspective). Another great point you made is that . And one version of "Hey Joe" that (is my fave) is his Winterland version. http://youtube.com/watch?v=w3fYW2lAH7U There's the link to it.

StormyMonday- I understand your point. Different strokes for different folks.

Wes(last post)- Mmm, agreed. I think his New Years Eve concert was his best. He was great at Newport as well. Problem was, his manager DID NOT want Hendrix to be with an all black band, he wanted the Experience to reunite. On January 28, 1970 he went as far as to having someone give Jimi some bad acid. That night Jimi was all disoriented and after playing two songs (Who Knows? and Earth Blues), he went and sat in front of his amp with his head in his heads, possibly crying. That's the only negative part of the Band of Gypsys, IMO. The fact his bastard manager had him locked in a chamber.

Back to 1983 (A Merman I should Turn to be), as CitizenNoir was pointing out, some songs just can't be played live. That song is just one song that just can't be played live. Way too many effects, everything. It'd be great live, but it wouldn't be anything like the studio.

If anyone wants any great Hendrix jams, reply or PM me or something. Like I said in a previous posts. His jams show you his greatness as well. The improvising...I've never heard anything like it. Never. You know, if you want any rare Hendrix, let me know. I have his whole collection, that I know of atleast.

But these super-noodlers can's do that, Hendrix could.

Which again is taste, I guess. Some people see and hear all kind of things with Hendrix, others with Satriani, Segovia or Bob Dylan for my part. People like Satriani and Vai are heavily into weird effects, whether or not you connect to them just depends on taste. It's like atonal music: it's just plain annoying to listen to, IMHO, but some people love it so I'm not going to say there is no passion or emotion in it. I just can't connect with the stuff, which is cool. It's probably also a generation thing, just like it's hard for me to fully understand the impact classical tunes had two hundred years ago, because I didn't live then and didn't experience the atmosphere.

Anyway, I love Band of Gypsies, really a very nice album. I prefer the more mellow and 'chill' Hendrix (Little Wing, Bold as Love, Castles made of sand etc) over the louder rock stuff, but that's mostly because of his sound. There's this sharp shrilness in his solo sound that kinda pierces my skill in a way. A bit too mean for my wimpy taste. :P