Are you Experienced? Jimi Hendrix

SRV is in no way 80 times better than Jimi! Secondly, Nine to the Universe is Jimi's most progressive album, then perhaps Electric Ladyland.

 Hendrix, although primarily a blues guitarist, started to evolve his sound into free-form jazz rock, like in the sessions which eventually became Nine to the Universe. Add to that the influence of prog bands like ELP, and it was evident that he was headed in that direction. Hendrix was even considering joining ELP (HELP) before he died.

As for the question of whether or not Jimi belongs in the Prog Archives, I still voted no, but it's not because his music was not progressive enough. It certainly was, but he died before "prog Hendrix" could become a reality. It's yet another of those "what ifs" had he lived.

reading the last couple of posts.... remember.... it is a NON prog category he is being considered for.

The question isn't whether he was prog.... but rather if he significantly influenced the development of prog rock.


Edited by micky - August 02 2007 at 23:15

1983 was the closest thing to prog Jimi ever played imo, though that's not a song that a lot of people remember him by. I suspect he might have made full-blown prog, had he lived longer (he almost joined ELP, mind you).

ghost_of_morphy wrote: Jimi signficantly influenced everybody.  I don't think that you claim that any part of that influence was somehow more relevant to prog than anything else.  Hence, I think he should be excluded.

There are a lot of prog bands with a strong hendrixian influence, such as "Guru guru".

Edited by oliverstoned - August 13 2007 at 05:17

Easy Money wrote: A lot of you have a very shallow knowledge of what Hendrix was really about and about the amazing prog-rock songs he put out in addition to his more well known blues and pop-hard rock stuff. Hendrix along with Zappa, Fripp, Pink Floyd, Soft Machine, Procol Harum and the Beatles invented prog-rock. One thing Hendrix had over many artists on this site is some very real lyrics.

This is a very unfair thing to say. If many people here don't think Hendrix is prog, it is because their view of what constitutes prog is not the same as yours. We are talking about art, not hard science, and art is a very subjective thing. Many of the members of this site have an incredibly extensive knowledge of music, so I think that calling their knowledge "shallow" is very untrue, as well as slightly rude.


Edited by Ghost Rider - September 13 2007 at 23:29

Ghost Rider wrote: Easy Money wrote: A lot of you have a very shallow knowledge of what Hendrix was really about and about the amazing prog-rock songs he put out in addition to his more well known blues and pop-hard rock stuff. Hendrix along with Zappa, Fripp, Pink Floyd, Soft Machine, Procol Harum and the Beatles invented prog-rock. One thing Hendrix had over many artists on this site is some very real lyrics. This is a very unfair thing to say. If many people here don't think Hendrix is prog, it is because their view of what constitutes prog is not the same as yours. We are talking about art, not hard science, and art is a very subjective thing. Many of the members of this site have an incredibly extensive knowledge of music, so I think that calling their knowledge "shallow" is very untrue, as well as slightly rude.

OK, from reading these posts some have a good knowledge about Hendrix and some don't, I was referring to the one's that don't.

Atavachron wrote: Hendrix didn't influence Prog, he was influenced by it, but died before he could make a substantial contribution to the fledgling form.   In fact, many of the 'prog rock' artists were moving away from the music of Hendrix and others.  He didn't influence the majority of prog musicians at the time and didn't have the chance to participate in it.  He is neither ProtoProg nor ProgRelated.

Jimi was "Blend[ing] characteristics of Progressive Rock with mainstream elements creating a final product that despite not being part of the genre is evident that are close to Prog" before "Prog" really even existed... sort of in a way (before the movement was recognised). Now that's progressive!

But he's not suitable for Proto-Prog, nor does he really fit the Prog-related definitions.  Perhaps there should be a new category for such artists?  Like maybe "Not Prog"? or "Not Progressive Rock, but not crap either"?

Like his music muchly... Band of Gypsies is my favourite project of his, and I must say that I've always associated him with progressive rock music to an extent even if I don't think he fits this site as it now stands.

Cream is more closely related to Prog, imo.  Yeah, I always mention that even if it's rather a case of apples and oranges.

Hendrix Created Blues-rock, and influenced Later Psychedelic/Hard-rock bands, IMO

Interesting point Micky.