J. Hendrix; overrated twanger of the millenium?

[mc9mm]

Well this thursdays rant is about Jimi Hendrix, the never questioned and
allmighty god to all of us guitarists. Well I'm fed up with it.
You can hardly get up in the morning anymore without hearing how good, great, wonderful, lifechanging he was.
Before I proceed, let me state for the record that I like Jimi's work alot,
I think he was a good guitarist.

Ok so now I'm gonna list the things which made Hendrix so godlike:

1. He was first. Many guitarists does it better, but he did it first.
Just like The Beatles and MC5 or whatever.

2. He died. Face it, if the man were alive today he would never have achieved
nearly as much fame as he has now. He would still probably be considered
one of the best, but not the Best, the God, the Jimi.

3. His guitarplaying. Yes, without a doubt, this man was an awesome guitarplayer,
but I rank this quality third place beacuse the two other are more important.

The fact that you cannot utter a negative word about "the Jimi" just makes me..
..not mad, just sick and tired.
Another thing that bothers me are people who either listens to rock or plays
guitar are supposed to love Jimi Hendrix, and most of 'em do, even though
the intro from Hey Joe might be the only Hendrix they've ever heard.
But that does'nt matter, the man is in-questionable. Gaaaah!

Weeeeell that brings this thursdays rant to an end. Thank god.

[zepp_rules]

feel better?

[ketsueki15]

I know how you feel man..One bad word about Jimi and its like the people want to cut ur head off...I personally dont care for his music and I dont think he was a guitar god either..From the concert videos that ive seen, he played pretty sloppy..but thats my opinion on things

[Tele Master]

He may have been pretty sloppy, but I get tired of hearing about these guys that can do a billion notes a second and can do all this fancy stuff on their guitar. But I like the sloppy guitarists, Jimmy Page and Greg Keelor are my favs. Both very different, but I like their music,songwriting, and MESSY guitar playing.

[Digit]

Well let's face it....
99% of his talent is in his ability to showcase himself.
Light your guitar on fire, play behind your head, smash your guitar, play with your teeth..etc etc...
As far as talent goes... he was able to play from the heart (which means get into what he was doing without flubbing up cause he knew people were watching)
but he was an adequate player at best.
The appeal was in his showmanship. To guitarplayers he showed a new way of overdriving the guitar. For audience members, he showed that he could trick people into thinking he was better than he was with all his gimmicks.

And yeah... if he hadn't died, he'd be an nobody right now.

[Leedogg]

Yea, I feel ya on this one. I too get tired of the "Jimi was the greatest of all time" axiom. I totally agree with your 3 reasons as well. I think Jimi's greatest ability was in song composition considering that two of my favorite songs, SRV's "Little Wing" and Shawn Lane's "All along the watchtower", were originally written and performed by Jimi. No doubt the man was talented, and without him my favorite artists wouldn't have been inspired to in turn inspire me.

[mc9mm]

feel better?

Yes, thank you for asking!

Woah, I didn't expect anyone to actually agree with me, I thought
I would get my email-account nuked and my fingers smashed with a hammer.

[beginner]

two of my favorite songs, SRV's "Little Wing" and Shawn Lane's "All along the watchtower", were originally written and performed by Jimi.

All along the Watchtower was actually written by bob dylan, but jimi changed and improved the song a lot so that you can almost call it his composition.

[PonyOne]

BLASPHEMY! Just kidding. I agree with you, for the most part.

Jimi could qualify as one of the most overrated guitarists ever. He's an awesome guitarist, IMHO, but, there are a lot of awesome guitarists who do what he did, musically: they play from the heart and have their own unique ways of doing things that set them apart from the crowd.

you can see them at clubs near you across America. And sadly they will most likely never be seen anywhere else.

Jimi seems to be #1 to people who don't play guitar, don't listen to guitar-based music and don't really listen to guitar-based music. Him and Santana. I have spent countless hours arguing with people that Danny Gatton was a fickin amazing guitarist, to have them go "Huh? Uh, no, Jimi was the best. He just was." over and over and over...

I do agree with you. Like Who being the first guys to become notorious for thier gear-smashing furor at the end of their shows, Jimi had his shtick, i.e. not only did his guitar get smashed, it got burned. he was the only black guy of that time frame who didn't get famous playing exclusively down-home blues; let's face it, to throngs of white suburbanite rich kids who became hippies, seeing a black guy onstage playing blues licks they'd never heard intermingled with rock music, wearing crazy clothes, he was the flavor of the day. he just died while he was still in everyone's mouth and became this lexicon of the 60's culture.

[beginner]

Jimi could qualify as one of the most overrated guitarists ever. He's an awesome guitarist, IMHO, but, there are a lot of awesome guitarists who do what he did, musically: they play from the heart and have their own unique ways of doing things that set them apart from the crowd.

you can see them at clubs near you across America. And sadly they will most likely never be seen anywhere else.

Yes there are a lot of guitarists who do what he did, musically.....
But why the hell is Jimi so popular?
He was first... :)

[TheWizard]

he definatly wasn't the greatest, but for being self taught he was quite amazing

put his solos aside and listen to his use of chord inversions and phrasing, and all the little improv things he would do that made his music so interesting, thats what I like so much about him

and he could burn up the pentatonic scales pretty damn fast when he wanted to

he was unique at the time and if it weren't for him a lot of the best players out there would never have picked up the instrument, so was he a god, no, maybe a demi-god, either way i think he deserves the amount of respect he recieves today

[The Ace]

Great Rock player? yes

Greatest rock player? Maybe

Greatest guitar player? not at all. This is where i get irritated There are so many people I know that swear by hendrix, that think he is the greatest of all time, they haven't even heard amazing guitarists though. There are so many that are more talented, or are better improvisers, or put in much more variety.


I've never been a big fan of Hendrix's mega rock songs. I much more like his clean songs, such as Little Wing, Castles Made of Sand and The Wind Cries Mary.

[alucard0941]

The thing you have to understand is, Hendrix was the first of his kind. Like for example, I can agree that many guitarists are better than Hendrix SKILL WISE right? But if it wasnt for Jimi, those guitarists wouldnt be where they are right now. He WAS the biggest moitivation at his time and after he died becuase people had never seen anyone do what he does on a guitar, thus they want to copy and be like him. Of course since he died, new guitarists would study his work, use his techniqus and add their own spice. Therefore, they eventually become better than him SKILL WISE. Now we all think that Hey John Petrucci and great, he is fast, and his work sounds good. Well, the thing is, he probually got most of his chops from Hendrix. Also, it was him who made rock and eventually metal to become so great. I bet no one can name a rock guitarist who was better than him before his time or even after his time. Im not talking about rock bands, but actual guitarists.
DUH!!! these new guitarists are gonna be better than him!!! The man died early and he probually wasnt at his max guitar potential yet.

There is alot I can say but my fingers hurt.
Peace

[The Ace]

Well since my biggest influence is (or maybe was...) Randy Rhoads, and he barely listened to hendrix.... i don't know. Whatever... my opinion stands.. Hendrix is the man... but there are some I like more.

[DreamRyche2112]

Greatest guitar player, maybe for his time yes, but not the best who ever walked this planet. I bet right as you are reading this post there is someone sitting in there basement playin, and he might be the best guitar player in the world, but will never be discovered. The thing is without, Hendrix, where would rock music be today, well it probabaly wouldn't be anything like it is now.

There are thousnads of amazing guitar players that we have never heard of, so it is hard to even say anyone is the best guitar player. Jimi is great, but he's not the BEST. And same with marcaus Paus, he might be the so called "fatsest" player, but i bet you there is someone in the corner of his or her room playin that is faster. But we will never know. But i do love all of jimi's stuff.

[iamthe_eggman]

Greatest guitar player, maybe for his time yes, but not the best who ever walked this planet. I bet right as you are reading this post there is someone sitting in there basement playin, and he might be the best guitar player in the world, but will never be discovered. The thing is without, Hendrix, where would rock music be today, well it probabaly wouldn't be anything like it is now.

Hey, wait a minute.... I'm in my basement playing guitar right now... :eek:


There are thousnads of amazing guitar players that we have never heard of, so it is hard to even say anyone is the best guitar player. Jimi is great, but he's not the BEST. And same with marcaus Paus, he might be the so called "fatsest" player, but i bet you there is someone in the corner of his or her room playin that is faster. But we will never know. But i do love all of jimi's stuff.

And Yngwie is the fattest guitar player ever.

[alucard0941]

And Yngwie is the fattest guitar player ever.

NAAA man, i think Shawn Lane (R.I.P) can compete with him. :p

[Lordathestrings]

... And Yngwie is the fattest guitar player ever.... and Lesley West, and Randy Bachman, and Herve Allesant...

Hendrix was amazing and inspirational. That much is beyond dispute. Claims about 'better' or 'best' are pointless. Even in the late 60's, I was disappointed in his live stuff because it was usually played a little too fast and sloppy. But he was unique. And he is rightly revered.