Why is Hendrix so revered amongst guitarists?

Chuffola

Lixarto said:

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

I like Hendrix, but I love Stills. One of the most underrated guitarists, I think - acoustic or electric. Some of the Manassas stuff is fantastic.

koneguitarist

So what should I be listening to, as listening to Electric ladyland, and apart from crosstown traffic which was catchy, it's been quite tedious and a bit of a row.

Some of it reminds me of cream at their most indulgent. 

stonevibe

Great songwriter.

Happened to be a pretty good musician as well.

You can hear his Dylan influences and his imagery, back this up with solid chord progressions and lead flourishes.

Then add the flair with FX and control of his amps / guitars.

i.e.

After all jacks are in their boxes
And the clowns have all gone to bed
You can hear happiness staggering on down the street
Footprints dressed in red

And the wind whispers Mary

A broom is drearily sweeping
Up the broken pieces of yesterday's life
Somewhere a queen is weeping
Somewhere a king has no wife

And the wind cries Mary

The traffic lights they turn a blue tomorrow
And shine their emptiness down on my bed
The tiny island sags downstream
Cause the life that they lived is dead

And the wind screams Mary

Will the wind ever remember
The names it has blown in the past
And with its crutch its old age and its wisdom
It whispers "no, this will be the last"

And the wind cries Mary

xSkarloey

koneguitarist;221488" said:

So what should I be listening to, as listening to Electric ladyland, and apart from crosstown traffic which was catchy, it's been quite tedious and a bit of a row.Some of it reminds me of cream at their most indulgent. 

Just listen to All Along the Watchtower over and over. Almost a model of restraint but for my money his most powerful studio recording.

stonevibe

For me its more than his guitar playing.

A great voice for someone who was so shy and hated his own voice. 

ThePrettyDamned

Born in 1990, me, and I like him.  

He has an amazing voice and wrote some brilliant songs.  Unlike Clapton, or the newer 'blues heroes'  who play tasteful rubbish, he had real charisma and doesn't bore me.  

His rig is constantly on the verge of explosion - I've no idea how he controlled the feedback!

I don't listen to him much, but he was amazing.  

equalsql

He completely changed the landscape on what was possible with the electric guitar, I don't think anyone else at that time had the vision and courage to take the instrument to such extremes. He literately blew the door off the hinges with his experimentation and dynamics. 

When I think of all the other famous guitarists at the time: Beck, Clapton, Lee, Bloomfield etc, they were all great, but very conventional players (well perhaps not Beck). Just listen to Voodoo Chile (a slight return) and it's an awe inspiring,  kaleidoscopic explosion of sound that was truly ground-breaking at the time.

One of the few tracks that still blows me away every time I hear it.

ICBM

Skarloey said:

koneguitarist said:

So what should I be listening to, as listening to Electric ladyland, and apart from crosstown traffic which was catchy, it's been quite tedious and a bit of a row.Some of it reminds me of cream at their most indulgent. 

Just listen to All Along the Watchtower over and over.

And 1983...

impmann

Machine Gun

Nuff said

jonnyburgo

He was the real deal, he just had it in him, he couldnt have been anything but. More than just a great guitarist, he was a musical genius, Listen to Electric Ladyland if you don't believe me. 

Sounds corny but while I hack and flounder around at music, that motherfucker was put on this earth to do it.

Fez

I think we all have some artist your supposed to like but don't get for me it's Springsteen for the other guitarist in my band it's the Beatles. Any innovative player is of his time so when we look back there are going to be people who don't get them and other people who are nostalgic for that artists golden period.

viz

Totally agree - that's why it's art, it's subjective.

AlanP

But he *is* the man.

octatonic

AlanP said:

But he *is* the man.

Well, he was a man.

Now he is moon dust.

Sambostar

It took me a long time to get into Jimi as a kid, as he just wasn't technically proficient enough to inspire me and dare I say, a bit boring.  When I got it,  I got it though, he could play and sing on his own and you would have been transfixed, he fills every frequency and void with his playing and singing and creates a 4 dimensional effect, more than a whole band could.  That is really hard to do I now appreciate.  Blues players often have a back up band and are one liners, rockstars have a backup etc etc.  Jimi, Rhoads and EVH really fill the void, non stop, no rest, it is just wall to wall music, questions and answers, rhythms, tension and atmosphere.  Only country players can even get close to that IMO, but all their stuff mainly sounds the same and often they have a big band backup.  Even if country players can do that.  Can they entertain on the level Jimi could, or are they more niche and less uplifting?  His rhythm work especially is brilliant.  Most players and band members put out sinuous single lines that cut with the rest of the band to produce a whole.  He was a band on his own.

Phil_aka_Pip

What everyone else has said about Hendrix, plus

• He could take a sequence of notes, almost an arbitrary one such as the riff that begins Purple Haze and play it in such a way as to have it making sense.
  
• He could blast out a power chord and milliseconds later be making the guitar scream at the high end of the neck: sometimes the lower strings of the chord were still ringing but even on the occasions when they weren't, you thought they still were.
  
• He could re-interpret, nay, redefine someone else's song: prime examples Johnny B Goode, All along the watchtower
  

Sambostar

And his soloing was just as void filling and efficient and cut a meaning to everyone and everyone who heard it could identify with it.  Not too technical, not too intelligent, packed with emotion.  It was soulful. His timing, off timing, rhythm, grace and soulful tones were just about as perfect as you can get I reckon and it just seemed to come out naturally off the cuff, although I guess born out of endless practice, professional rhythm playing and talent.  And there wasn't even a millisecond of disjuncture in any of his playing, it was if it rolled out without any thought process whatsoever without adhering to too many formulaic rules and he went to places others feared to tread.

Ianpdq

Saw him at the IOW what can I say what a Guitarist

Richardj

I was lucky enough to have a mother who loved Hendrix, Pink Floyd etc so had these sounds from an early age.  Knowing the tiny bit that I do about guitar craft I certainly don't see him as a technical genius. But what I do see very clearly is the person who really pushed the sonic boundaries.  At the time Pete Townsend was wild in his antics (smashing etc), but his guitar work was still fairly conventional.  Jimi Hendrix took good guitar craft and just pushed.  Songs, guitar playing and showmanship.  This is why he has his place as a 'legend'. My partner (a fine classical violinist and bassoonist) thinks he sounds a bit indulgent. To be completely honest when I see and am and told how wonderful Van Halen and Vai etc are, have they actually done any more (apart from speed) for the rock genre than the likes of Hendrix and afterwards Townsend and Page ripping it up before them?  Just MHO.

impmann

Great art divides opinion. And Jimi played art