Pete Townshend on Hendrix >1 "I feel sad for people who have to judge Jimi Hendrix on the basis of recordings and film alone, because in the flesh he was so extraordinary. He had a kind of alchemist's ability; when he was on the stage, he changed...... He became incredibly graceful and beautiful. It wasn't just people taking LSD, though that was going on, there's no question. But he had a power that almost sobered you up if you were on an acid trip. He was bigger than LSD"
Its funny to hear some regular joe people descredit hendrix' playing style, but all his contemporaries considered him a genius. I think people, especially these days seem to forget that there was nothing quite like him. Sure he took from albert king, buddy guy, clapton and what not, but he also created his own distinct sound which resonates to this day. He was a ground breaking guitarist who changed the rules and dynamics to how a guitar can be played or sound for that matter. Sure there were people before and after him who played technically better, but not many can say they changed the spectrum of the electrical guitar quite like he did. He is to electric guitat what bruce lee was to martial arts.
It is true that Hendrix was an absolute master of the electric guitar. I wonder if there are any recordings of him playing acoustic guitar? One can't really compare him to guitarists like Segovia, Paco De Lucia, or even Django Reinhardt, but as a contemporary fan (I bought "Are You Experienced" when it first came out, and felt that "Electric Ladyland" was one of the greatest rock albums of all time) I have to admit that Hendrix was a brilliantly unique phenomenon. Nevertheless, life goes on, and I reckon that, in my lifetime, I now consider MIYAVI to be the best rock guitarist that I know of.
Right on, @vancitypoet... so much so that there’s another “regular joe” polluting your thread! To put things in perspective, I bought my first Hendrix LP in 1967 (I was 14), “The wind cries Mary”/“Hey Joe” (I was *floored*, ‘f course, and hooked for life), and I don’t even remember who Eddie Van Halen was and what group he played in. ;-> All things considered, he died stupidly at 27, but he did have time to deliver what he had to deliver, and was “game-changing” (Mozart died at 34 and did too deliver completely, a certain level above Jimi - but those were different times and places). For guitar-playing, there is before and after Hendrix. How many guitar players can you say that of? (A few, but not that many.) That said, Jeff Beck is somewhat a Jimi that would have lived on... and how well! He was not as revolutionary as Jimi, but he gradually got to being able to play all genres with as much gusto and savoir-faire in any, switching deftly from pick to fingers on the right hand as.musically appropriate, etc... I remember being floored by his two 80s affirmation albums, « Blow by Blow » and « Wired » just about as much as by Jimi. 😉 🎸 ✌🏻
Jimi was from another planet. A supernova. But the best thing he did in his very short life was to inspire millions of guitar players to play the guitar. And still now, when the youngsters hear him for the first time, they say "Wow".
I don't think the general public heard the best of Hendrix .All these greats seen him live .What he did in his short time with a guitar was phenomenal .
You do realize that he died around 1970, right? I mean, I was living in California during the Haight-Ashbury scene, in 1966 to 1968, but I was 4 to 6 years old, and even if I had seen him, I doubt I would have understood what was going on... Yeah... those members of the "general public" would have to be in their 70s now, to have seen him perform live, and for it to have made a difference to them.
@@BLACK-AUTUMN-MAGICK That's my point though . I hear quite a lot of later generations saying he's well over rated and he just sounds noisy etc . But the greats that got to see him ,Townsend Clapton Beatles Beck stones etc . Witnessed his ability in small halls and were in awe , totally mesmerised . That says something was very special. I guess there is so little material on record that the record comp's put out any old stuff .
@@bluesmaster9896 Yeah.... Some people get Hendrix, others don't... Linda Keith was interviewed in the Warner Brother's film "Jimi Hendrix," and she talked about some talent scout that she brought to one of his shows... ...like, "you gotta see this guy play..." ...and she said the guy was like, "this is nothing".... She went on to say that she took Chas Chandler to see Hendrix, and said Chandler's reaction was INSTANTANEOUS! The rest is history, but like I said, there are very few people around now that actually got to witness Hendrix live... (VERY, VERY FEW), and even fewer that actually know what they were witnessing... Keep in mind that Jeff Beck's got to be around 80 years old now!
@@BLACK-AUTUMN-MAGICK Yes true, it's easy to imagine them all in their prime ,I really enjoy footage from 60s etc .That actually made me chuckle about Beck ,but you're quite right .
Its amazing how many superstar guitarists admitted to saying "oh shit what am I going to do now?" or "I couldnt look at my guitar for weeks" lol Jimi ftw
I can't believe someone here said Jimi couldn't play????? Please, Listen to lets say... Band of gypsys album. My favorite song is Power to love, But this entire album will enlighten you. Jimi was simply incredible!
You clearly got trolled and fell for it. Nobody with an opinion that matters thinks Hendrix couldn't play. It's not even worth responding to claims like those.
He played with raw emotion no guitarist has played like him since there are some great guitarist before and since but for me he was memorising from the soul a one off. See you on the flip side.
Hendrix playing very loud on my car stereo...it's a super power rock sound....wild thing 1968 from Clark University....it's amazing...to hear...just coming thru on a car stereo...no one has come close since....1968
Mr. Beck ... I'm thinking you've done alright for yourself. I'm a lifelong musician (guitarist since 2nd grade) and on any given day ... you, sir are my #1. Yep ... even in front of Jimi.
Pete Townshend on Hendrix>6 "He made the electric guitar beautiful. It had always been dangerous, it had always been able to evoke anger. If you go right back to the beginning of it, John Lee Hooker shoving a microphone into his guitar back in the 1940s, it made his guitar sound angry, impetuous, and dangerous." "Early blues players, too - Muddy Waters, Buddy Guy, Albert King - they did it to hurt your ears. Jimi made it beautiful and made it OK to make it beautiful."
I loved Jimi as soon as I heard him. Before he was well known, some of the kids at school here in Australia 'called me 'Jimi' because of this, I think because they thought he was weird and it was a meant as a derogatory comment. However that changed, and I remember someone called me Jimi and another person said, 'no, Jimi Hendrix is cool'. After that, I was never called Jimi again as a derogatory comment. I am still a big fan, but there was nothing like hearing him for the first time.
I like Hendrix's bassline on 'All Along The Watchtower'. I reckon that's a pretty good thing to learn for any aspiring bassist - and played by Jimi on this occasion (you can hear it!)
According to Beck, Hendrix was the reason he stuck with a Strat. If it was good enough for Hendrix, that was all he should ever need. Funny, how a man (Hendrix), with such a short career, influenced the world of guitar forever.
Well, Jimi isn’t making noise anymore, Jeff is the ONE who makes my head turn every time these days!!!! It’s ME who goes: ”Jeff Beck”?..... ”Yeah, ..... THAT GUY🙄!!! ………… YEAH I’VE HEARD OF HIM!!🤯 (”I SAY ’GRACE BEFORE DINNER,TO THAT ’GOD’, EVERY DAY!!!”) LONG LIVE JEFF!!! 🙏✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨
Hendrix raised the stakes. Clapton retreated back into the blues, (a wise move). Beck answered the challenge, & has "run with the ball" for 43yrs since Jimi's death: The closest you can come to imagining what Jimi might have done if he'd lived is in the music of Jeff Beck. (As backwards as it might seem, Beck's incredible work with the Yardbirds in '65-'66 was one of Jimi's major influences!)
I think Jimi just wasn't going to live long. The same with Jim Morrison and Keith Moon. Maybe they would if they came along today, when people take better care of their health.
@@teastrainer3604 If you get chance to hear Jimi singing his original tunes in “the bedroom” with no electricity, you’ll hear the voice & lyrics of a depressed, even suicidal man.
A Year before Jimi Hendrix, I was strongly affected by Jeff Beck and the Yardbird's "Shapes of Things to Come"... which turned out to be The Jimi Hendrix Experience.
My jaw dropped when i heard Hendrix for the first time, i think it was all along the watchtower. But i shit my pants when i began listening to his lesser known stuff.
one huge thing was chas had jimi shorten known songs too 3 minutes ,, you play the riff then jam the F out of it and give it a dam good ending or heavy bang at the end,and you got it going .. next part jimi writing and music arrangement
Pete Townshend on Hendrix >3 He did this thing where he would play a chord, and then he would sweep his left hand through the air in a curve, and it would almost take you away from the idea that there was a guitar player here and that the music was actually coming out of the end of his fingers ....... There was a sense of wanting to possess him and wanting to be a part of him, to know how he did what he did because he was so powerfully affecting.
the true genius is on record , live and studio , Hear my train a' commin , Little wing , Voodoo Child , Tax free ( cover ) , Driving south , Villa nova junction , Purple haze , Gypsy eyes , Machine gun , Burning of the midnight lamp , Manic depression , I don't live today , Aaltwt. , the list goes on and on !
What Jimi put on the table in 1966 eclipses all that came before and after it. "Are You Experienced" was a quantum leap in the pure sense of the phrase. Like an electron changing orbits, he seemed to magically appear without traversing the space between him and his predecessors. Page, Clapton and Beck roots could be easily traced through their imitations (and theft) of Black Blues men’s licks. It was essentially a lateral progression for them. And we know where EVH got a lot of his shit from.
Ah yes, the evil White man is always stealing. Who invented the guitar? How about the electric guitar? Who discovered the electrical principal of induction? Should I go on? I can…
I know what you mean by another level (and appreciate the intelligent, calm response) but just to clarify, I was thinking of JB Group Live at the Fillmore, Truth and Beck-Ola more than BbB and Wired. As far as Zappa, Hot Rats and Chunga's Revenge came to mind.
Pete Townshend on Hendrix>4 " I remember feeling quite sorry for Eric, who thought that he might actually be able to emulate Jimi. I also felt sorry that he should think that he needed to............." "I think it was at a gig Jimi played at the Scotch of St. James [in London] - Eric and I found ourselves holding each other's hands. You know, what we were watching was so profoundly powerful."
I read that his amps would be so loud and feedback ready that anyone else who handled his guitar would send the amps out of control. He played LOUD aha, only person who could play that loud.
Hendrix stands alone..the man was simply unique and blew other guitarist away that are legends themselves including Clapton, Townsend ,Beck and many others that try to attempt his sound and fall short.
Nowadays everybody tries to learn all about jazz beacause you have counterpoint, sincopation, polyrhythm and lot of that stuff, and looking for "new original technical" music to make but what Jimi Hendrix did was combine all that in a song of course he never "learn" that for going to a music institute that was with him
Jimi is buried in my hometown, and the cemetery he's in is actually not half a mile from where I used to live as a kid. It's actually the cemetery I've chosen to be buried in....
The implication seems to be that the aim in playing was to be the best so if Jeff Beck couldn't be there was no point. Surely, the aim is to enjoy playing and hope others enjoy your work too. I really enjoyed Jeff Beck's jam with Stanley Clark at the North Sea Jazz in 2006.
I agree. I learned someinteresting facts about Jimi reading books by the two Experience players; Mitch Mitchell and Noel Redding, and also a book by their producer Eddie Kramer. They report that Jimi had an uncanny ability to process sounds of everyday life and play them using guitar. Like a human tape recorder. Mitchell was very impressed with Jimi's ability to mimic backwards guitar sounds saying that much on there records is NOT backwards! That blew me away.
Pete Townshend on Hendrix >2 "What he played was fucking loud but also incredibly lyrical and expert. He managed to build this bridge between true blues guitar - the kind that Eric Clapton had been battling with for years and years - and modern sounds, the kind of Syd Barrett-meets-Townshend sound, the wall of screaming guitar sound that U2 popularized."
KeVox7, ( Dates) Hendrix first made impact in the UK in the fall of 1966 continuing till his death in Sept 1970 ..........and the first Jimi Hendrix Experience LP (UK version) of "Are You Experienced " released May 12th 1967 (universally acclaimed as exceptional) was nearly 3 years before Black Sabbath's first LP (and that thunderstorm !) released in Feb. 1970. I often wonder how Hendrix would have developed if he had lived as long as Jeff Beck (excellent, of course, also).
Hendrix really showed those british english folks what a Electric guitar is all about--(Hendrix Guitarist Serial killer)= with over a billion confirmed Kills.
The late Eddie Van Halen on Howard Stern's show was asked his opinion of various guitar players. Howard: Jimmy Page EVH: sloppy Howard: Jimi Hendrix EVH: guitar tricks
@paul7703 the reason that those three are not talked about as much, on the whole, is that they don't consistently show as much emotion ("feel") in their playing. Music is, at the end of the day, about feeling and not about how many notes you can play per second. Not to belittle any of the three you mention: I do enjoy all of their work, but I feel more reward listening to Beck, Hendrix, and Clapton (usually in that order).
I have seen loads of brilliant guitar players live. Joe Bonamassa, Eric Clapton, Peter Green, Tony Iommi, Lindsay Buckingham, Buddy Guy, Neil Young, Phil Campbell, Derek Trucks, Ron Asheton, Keith Richards, Ronnie Wood, Jeff Beck, The Edge from U2. Loads more who’s names I can’t recall right now. None came close to Carlos Santana. He exploded onto the stage and just shredded. He stopped a few times and mentioned Jimi Hendrix with God like reverence between songs.
@1971Goldtop Iommi didn't just play fundamental riffs and progressions. He made them fundamental. By the way he's missing the tips of his fingers. A lot of stuff would be impossible for him to play.
@Black5heep62 i agree on a few terms. it definatly counts on taste of music. it will always be an argument. and Hendrix was a genius in my own opinion. his theory of music was that of unexplainable talent. right, who cares if could play with his teeth? he was wild man and the fans loved seeing it
@DONDIVA1969 1967, a year back then was very important, like the time for Clapton to publish his work with the Bluesbreakers and Cream's first album (wich influenced Hendrix so much) striking a yet-to-know Jimi world.
garmonbozia318, I believe Jimi knew he was absolutely the best, and not by a little but by a landslide; he was, however, an extremely modest and humble man who thought better of bragging and thumping his chest with the bravura that a GENIUS as himself could have gotten away with-
You do know Hendrix never considered himself the greatest don't you? Matter of fact he was really impressed by Beck's playing, as well as Zappa's and Buchanan's.
@Jerry Creasy Beck reached his peak by 1976 and it's a level very few will ever approach. And that includes the great Jimi Hendrix. Jimi came out of the chute firing on all cylinders which is why we don't see a progression on each album. In music you have a peak and ya can't go beyond it. Be grateful for what Jimi gave us; it was enough.
@@stringtheoryguitars4952: Huh? That's the best you can up with? I love Jeff Beck's playing but I've not heard a single thing by him that surpasses the creativity and song writing ability that Hendrix possessed by ''10 light years''. Beck himself will tell you that.
