Why is Hendrix so revered amongst guitarists?

koneguitarist

Most have never seen him play, only did a few good things in my opinion, his stage show was wild I agree. But what was so special? Serious question, let's debate the so called ultimate guitar hero.

Drew_TNBD

Really?

viz

Very natural player.

p90fool

DartmoorHedgehog

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...

octatonic

Timely topic- I am writing an essay for my degree on the identity of the electric guitar and Hendrix features rather heavily in this.

Before Hendrix there was no such thing as a Guitar Hero.

There were guitarists who were showy, or virtuoso's but no-one before Hendrix represented so much at once.

And so quickly too- his career was only 4 years, really.

It happened at a time where people suddenly had more freedom- sexually and socially.

The whole 60's counterculture was a period where a lot of things happened and Hendrix was a signifier for a lot of that- he came to represent that time.

Then he had the good grace to die young, preserving his legacy.

Also he was black but not working in a black genre.

Like Chuck Berry he worked primarily with white musicians so he crossed over into a mainstream (also predominantly white) audience, much as Chuck Berry did.

monoamine

he was lightyears ahead of his time

the fact you have to ask this question really tells me you don't deserve to have the reasons explained

koneguitarist

This is not a pisstake, I have never gotten Hendrix, maybe it's my upbringing with country music prevalent in my house hold, or maybe it's that I was too young at time to see the fuss.

not_the_dj

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 ;-) )

johnnyurq

Not a massive Hendrix fan but objectively he did break the mould and set the bar and tone for the future.

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.

underdog

I'm kind of with the OP here, kind of. I say that because quite often bbc4 or sky arts will have some live Hendrix on and I think great I will watch that, but after 20mins or so I turn over. His live performances were often drug enduced noise that sounded better in his head and the audience's heads than it does to sober onlookers 40 years in the future.

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.

Lixarto

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

xSkarloey

Lixarto said:

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

Stills is a deaf man's Hendrix. (And also a deaf man.) 

ICBM

koneguitarist said:

Most have never seen him play, only did a few good things in my opinion, his stage show was wild I agree. But what was so special?

That's exactly what I used to think until I started really listening to the way he used sound. He was the first to really play the *sound* as opposed to the guitar. He didn't play the physical instrument then modify the result with amps and effects - he played the amps and effects using the guitar as a controller. No-one had really done that before, even though he wasn't the first to use high volume, fuzz and wah.

Then on top of that he used that control of the sound in an immensely musical way to arrange his songs, so the way he used the guitar became integral to them rather than just an instrument to play the notes and chords on. Most players still don't do that, they still play the notes as if they're separate from the sound and the arrangement. So to me he was the first true *electric* (instead of just amplified) guitar player.

But I still find the over-the-top showmanship a bit irritating, to be honest.

Best album, if you don't want to just get a 'best of', to illustrate what he was really about: Electric Ladyland.

Grunfeld

Like Drew's said, does this need to be asked?

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.

koneguitarist

Grunfeld said:

Like Drew's said, does this need to be asked?

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!

Fretwired

I was there [as they say]. Clapton had the chops but he had the stage presence of dead cod - he was just cold. Along comes Hendrix with he US accent, outlandish clothes and stage presence - the guy had charisma. He was a showman with a raw guitar tone.

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.

richardhomer

Probably the reason why it's still possible to buy a Strat....

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....

boogieman

He was such an innovator. The first time I heard him in 1967 I seriously thought WTF! I'd never heard anything like it and didn't realise you could even make a guitar sound like that.

Clever use of effects and instruments. The kazoo on Crosstown Traffic for instance, pure genius.

His songwriting was pretty damn good too.

breakstuff

Love his recorded stuff but I also can sometimes end up switching off when watching him play live.He often descends into just making a horrendous noise,however when he was on form,to me he was one of the ,if not the most natural players of his generation.His instrument became an extension of his body and he made it all look so effortless.Like I said,when on form,a tremendous talent often immitated very rarely bettered as the complete package.

Fretwired

... and he sadly died young rather than suffer an enevitable slow decline like Clapton and Page.