I wanna talk about the greatest guitarist who ever lived. Those who disagree please post here. Well, I think and feel strongly that Jimi was the ultimate. Recently I've 'returned' to the music of this guitar legend. Put a live album on several weeks ago (The Jimi Hendrix Concerts), and realised I'd been missing out on a lot of energy for some time. So, getting into it more, I bought just recently the Jimi Hendrix Experience box set - now with additional DVD of otherwise unavailable documentary and three live performances (I think previously released) and I've hardly had time to review it yet. But I'm familiar with his music, though I've never possessed the three studio albums he made in his lifetime.
I'd like to say a few things.
Firstly, interestingly he had two names and three stage names! Born Johnny Allen Hendricks, his father later changed it to James Marshall Hendricks while he was still a toddler. His first stage name was Jimmy James, then Jimmy Hendrix, and finally Jimi Hendrix.
Secondly, my feelings and opinion. More energy came out of Jimi's guitar than any other guitarist. But it wasn't just rock: Jimi was based on blues. He was black and blues was the music of his background and he listened to it growing up. I think that what Jimi actually did was this: he returned the music that came out of the black experience and was transformed into, broadly speaking, the music of white listeners, and restored it to it's origins. Blues became rock, and Jimi returned rock to it's blues roots. But it never lost it's rock feel.
Hendrix expressed his music as trying to combine 'earth' - blues, jazz, and funk, with 'space' - psychedelic sounds from his guitar. But many people and listeners seem to overlook the essentially blues nature of Jimi's passion. Maybe the guitar pyrotechnics took attention away from it.
One really important point to make is that the guitar pyrotechnics did seem to take attention away from the fact that Jimi was also a truly great songwriter. Just listen to The Wind Cries Mary, Foxy Lady, Castles Made Of Sand, Little Wing, Fire, and Gypsy Eyes to realize how true that is. Seems Jimi has been vastly under-rated as a songwriter!
It's like Jimi was a personified statemement of the optimism and acceptance of the sixties youth rebellion. The rebellion is gone, but the music is still there, with the energy you can feel. And hopefully there's a little less racist bigotry in the world now because of Jimi.
But Jimi wasn't just blues mixed with rock. Jimi stood at the very nexus between blues and rock. The very image of a black man with a white strat is like a statement that black and white music and culture can be fused and all the racist rubbish and prejudice means nothing in the pure passion and feel of Jimi's guitar. White musicians also featured prominently in his band line-ups.
Unfortunately, for all it's bluesiness, Jimi's music never really gained much interest from black listeners.
Rock and Roll started with Chuck Berry and was consummated in Jimi Hendrix.
And, just something I noticed; if Jimi had retained the name Johnny Allen Hendricks, Jimi's performance of Johnny B. Goode would have taken on an extra meaning!
Jimi was a true American hero, summarizing the freedom and experimentation of American culture. His mixing of black and white mainstream music is part of that symbolization. And Jimi was also part Cherokee and part Mexican. There is an image of Jimi in the booklet to the Ultimate Experience CD of Jimi's face superimposed on the face of the Statue Of Liberty. The crown is on Jimi's head. Doves in flight adorn the picture. I love that image. Seems to speak volumes.
And that yearning for freedom is embodied in his Woodstock Star Spangled Banner.
Hendrix has a looseness, a groove that even guy's who can play the notes can't quite replicate. Compare Stevie Ray Vaughan's "Little Wing" to Jimi's. Particularly, that "vooom" stop. Nobody does that like Hendrix. His timing is based on the breath/planet earth/the cosmos--not a metronome.
He is also a master of the effects he uses--they're never there for the effect's sake.
I love that version of Jimi (with the Beatles, I think) doing "Day Tripper" with Jimi shouting "Day Tripper yeah" in a call and response thing. He also funkifies the riff a little bit.
BTW is that the Beatles (I've heard it's Noel Redding singing with somebody else, but it sounds like John Lennon)?
Nobody can replicate Jimi. He was at one with the instrument. I've got the Radio One album and I'm sure it's not the guys on it. Would be great if true.
Not true, it's Noel Reading singing, if you listen carefully and know the beatles well enough, you can definatley hear it's not lennon! If you get the BBC sessions cd, it's got the song on there and it explains a lot about all that contriversy..just because its a beatles song they're playing and not hendrix singing, they decided to tag it as lennon singing, well it's not. Don't be fooled. Also, don't you think that if it was the beatles with them, it would be a bit more well documented, and more people would know about it?
Anyway, with that aside, i love Hendrix (or used to, now im just venturing on other artists as well), got quite a few of his cds as well, and tapes (about 16 in total i think), he's a bloody good player, and a legend, although i think Stevie ray vaughn could replicate him perfectly, and maybe even took it a step further, his live album is bloody amazing! And hendrix doing hear my train comin in berkley is sooo good as well, and he could really control his feadback could hendrix.
ok cool if you listen you can hear him saying all sorts of stuff, and it sounds like there's loads of people there in the studio. I'm 100% sure it's not John there.
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DM's Beatles forums › Other music forums › Various Artists, Lyrics, Discographies, URLs › James Marshall Hendricks