Jimi Hendrix

Ghost Rider wrote: micky wrote: Dr4Wazo wrote: and what about Peter Frampton hhahah... he did do a double live album.... more prog in that alone than Hendrix has Oh no, that too... Are there no limits to your skeletons in the closet? BTW, as much as I like Hendrix's output, I don't think he should be added to PA. If we're looking for influential guitarists whose output can (at least in part) considered prog, we should look to Jeff Beck. "Blow by Blow" is a jazz-rock masterpiece of the first order!

damn right partner...  and no.. there are NO limits to the skeletons in my closet.... unless you are just referring to my choices in music...

Philéas wrote: erik neuteboom wrote: I have created an own subgenre entitled Prog Andaluz but it's rejected while we are still looking at subgenres like Raga-/Indo-rock on Prog Archives, very confusing  .. I haven't heard any Spanish prog, but judging from the close relation to the folk music (flamenco) people seem to have down there, I'm sure that there is a particular style of prog in Andalusia, and in Spain in general. I'm all for that new subgenre!

oh man... talk to Erik.... the man has some great suggestions... I reviewed one he suggested to me by Mezquita.. WOW!  You'll love it.. trust me...

Did you know that when Jimi lost his mother (alcoholic, destroyed liver) when he was 12, the guitar became a substitute. Even when he went to the toilet the guitar was with him and he also imitated every sound with his guitar.

Poor you Micky, perhaps a misplaced childhood could have tributed to some magic !

Ok, so let's get back on topic!

erik neuteboom wrote: Many progrock guitarplayers are influenced by the late Jimi Hendrix, I presume these guitarplayers has put that influence in their music so to me it sounds reasonable to conclude that Jimi Hendrix was very influential to progrock ...

I again ask you where you hear Hendrix in any Prog song. In all the Prog I've heard, I haven't heard one single direct influence from Hendrix. If you provide me with evidence that he was a major influence on the developement of the classic Progressive Rock sound, I will consider changing my mind.

The arguement you're using suggests that Hendrix is proto everything, not only Prog. You say he has influenced practically every guitarist, in that case you'd have to name him even as Proto-Pop (Pop, of course, referring to post-1970 Pop) to some degree, as there are Pop guitarists influenced by him. I'm sure one could somehow trace his influences as far as rap or electronica or other guitarless genres with this attitude. We need to draw the line somewhere.

Those points have, as far as I am concerned, little to do with the compositional structures, the music itself, in Prog. It was also Eric Clapton who first used distortion in popular music, and I'm sure he might have changed between rhythm guitar and soloing before Hendrix did aswell. Regarding the stage performances, I can hardly see what impact they have on the music. The use of wah-wah can hardly be used as an arguement, because the wah-wah pedal is an accessory for electric guitar. It's a bit like saying that the first major artist using Fender amps in the early 50's influenced prog, because Steve Howe used Fender amps. It doesn't really work out in my mind.

You have, however, one point that is more reasonable than the others, the one about Hendrix influencing people to create strange sounds with the guitar. However, during that time, there was much psychedelic experimentation in music, and I don't think Hendrix is the sole source. I also think that this arguement suggests that we could also consider Electric Blues artists of the '50s such as Muddy Waters or B.B. King as Proto-Prog, since they often used extensive soloing on the guitar in their music, a form of playing that is also found in Prog.


Edited by Philéas - August 13 2006 at 07:23

Anyone remember Robert Fripp saying that he imagined King Crimson to be 'what Hendrix would sound like playing Bartok.' Hard to say there wasn't some influence.

But then again, by that logic, anyone important in developing the blues tradition could also be considered influential...

So I guess this is just trivia :-)

User123abc wrote: Anyone remember Robert Fripp saying that he imagined King Crimson to be 'what Hendrix would sound like playing Bartok.' Hard to say there wasn't some influence.

That's not influence, that's just a comparison Rober Fripp made between his and Hendrix's music. He didn't mention being influenced by Hendrix, and I don't hear much Hendrix influence in his music anyway.

Progressive?? wrote: There is a book about progressive rock (I don´t remeber the name) that said trhat Jimi's music was a really important part in the foundation of Progressive rock. In fact, Jimi was part of what in that book was called: "first wave", along with Procol Harum, the nice, and others

Do try to find out the name of that book, I'd be very interesting to read it.

As far as I know, no one considered Hendrix to be part of the early Progressive Rock movement during the late 1960s and early 1970s. Hendrix played Psychedelic Rock and Electric Blues. I can accept him being called a "Progressive Blues" artist, but not a Progressive Rock one. I accept that he might have had some influence on Prog, but as far as I can hear when I listen through the classic Prog records, there isn't enough of Hendrix in there to justify his inclusion as a Proto-Prog artist on this site.

Again, if we ever were to have a Progressive Blues category on this site, I'd accept his introduction into it. However, as we don't yet have that category, I think that Jimi Hendrix should be left out until it's implemented.

WaywardSon wrote: I think the whole debate boils down to 1 Being Progressive 2 Playing Progressive music   Hendrix was Progressive in the way he changed guitar playing, but then so was Eddie Van Halen when he introduced two hand tapping to the masses.   But both of them didn´t really play Progressive music.

Amen, brother! At last someone with some sense...

Oh, just a blues gitarist with an edge? I can remember me an album Electric Ladyland on which he blends several styles, above that he has played not only blues but also rock, psychedelia and some great varied work on the acoustic guitar  !

In my opinion Jimi Hendrix was already 'progressive minded' in his mother's womb  !

Edited by erik neuteboom - August 14 2006 at 13:35