Jimi Hendrix appreciation

Psychedelic Paul wrote: "Dolly Dagger" - from Jimi Hendrix' second posthumous solo album: Rainbow Bridge (1971)

Hi folks, here I am back again and Happy New Year ! ;-)

Just to clarify my "Hendrix wasn't very good" post, which I absolutely knew was going to ruffle a few feathers, for which apologies. 

Let me clarify. Not here to upset anyone, but let me explain what I meant. 

I'm standing here at the moment with a 1987 Partscaster Strat, Ernie Ball 10's, Wilkinson hardware, Fender Noiseless pickups. Note "1987", that's 35 years ago. So I've got a bit of experience here. The Strat was built locally by A1 Music in Manchester, I'd been mainly playing sax for nearly 10 years before that, which is my main instrument. I dabble in keyboards and bass as well. (Actually, what I have in my hands here is a cut above what Jimi had back in the sixties. Lucky me. ;-) ) 

So what ? I hear you ask. Well, the problem with "Hendrix is a superb guitarist" is that most comments come from non musicians. "I don't know what he's doing, but I like it." 

Well, if that's your measure, great. Whatever keeps you happy. Hendrix certainly was innovative in terms of stage presence and use of effects, and - let's be honest, gimmicks. I'll show you how to play with your teeth if you like, a hint is, you don't actually use your teeth. 

But the chicks dig it, man. 

I've read so much drivel about Hendrix over the years that it's untrue. One of the rumours was "Jimi Hendrix drilled a hole in his head so he could inject LSD directly into his brain". Yeah, wow. ;-) Over here, the shops were absolutely filled with Olympic White Strats so that an endless progression of wannabe's could "play like Jimi Hendrix", the ticket to doing so was to just buy a white Strat and the rest happened by osmosis. 

"Jimi Hendrix is not a fantastic guitarist". I'll qualify that (whilst incidentally improvising along to Voodoo Chile (slight return) by the way. Blues in E.) 

When you strip away a lot of the showmanship which non guitarists seem to think "is the sign of a guitar god", Hendrix is good - but it's a Curate's egg. It's excellent in places. He's fluent, he's got a nice touch, he can improvise. (This from the 2022 perspective when most guitarists can't improvise, even at gunpoint.) He listened to an eclectic mix of music - dominant seventh sharp nine chord*, anyone ? - straight from jazz. You could catch him listening to anyone, from Bach to Rahsaan Roland Kirk. So there's quite a range of influences there. 

Hendrix certainly came up with a few memorable tracks, and was probably the de facto "cool counterculture figure" of the late 60's. He ripped up the rulebook for how guitarists sounded and behaved..... I hate to mention this, but you can stand on stage motionless wearing a donkey jacket and play well. I've certainly seen some horrifically bad gigs he played - he was a spotty performer. Whilst there's a few absolutely iconic tracks in there, a lot of his output was .... well. Ahem.

If you look at Hendrix, the influences which come through are Buddy Guy, Muddy Waters, BB King.... and he does them very well. Technically, he's using very light strings, how Stevie Ray Vaughan imitated him using 12-17 gauge strings, I'll never know (and I met SRV and shook his hand once, a hell of a nice guy and a hell of a handshake. ;-) ) - believe it or not, the 64 Strat Hendrix had has long been bettered in terms of quality by modern Fenders. Hendrix played high gain, with all amps set up to full, and playing high gain is quite a skill, you have to be extremely accurate and careful. His use of effects and feedback was highly innovative. He moved the role of the guitarist on from a bunch of clean cut musicians in suits doing little dance numbers - the Shadows, for example. We've got a lot to thank him for that.  

But was he some kind of guitar genius ? Technically, no. He was good. But he wasn't that good. Others much more talented have come along in the interim. 

One thing he was good at was improvisation. Now, if you see a guitarist play a solo, that solo has been rehearsed and rehearsed 500 times before a note was played on stage. Hendrix improvised. "With composition, you have a lifetime to fill 12 bars. With improvisation, you have 12 bars." But no marks for improvisation, folks, there are five positions to a pentatonic blues scale and you're supposed to learn them before you go on stage. "Master the instrument, master the music and then.... just play" to quote Charlie Parker. 

It would have been interesting to see how he progressed, if he'd not died so tragically young. I had the impression that he was beginning to burn out, a la Peter Green. 

So, that's my take on Hendrix, from someone who plays guitar and is unimpressed by the fancy jackets, on stage antics, theatrics and mythology. He's good. He's innovative. He has his moments. So, no WTF moment, sorry, folks, just honesty. Ignore the mythology. Ignore the stagecraft. 

Good in parts, terrible in others, innovative, but basically..... no god. If you like him, great. That's you happy. ;-) 


 

I think most people on this thread have talked about Hendrix as an innovator, songwriter and performer, instead of a guitar god. That has been mentioned, of course, but only once or twice I think. 

I get your point. I wasn't sure if we were talking about the same thing at first. 

Jimi Hendrix background as a guitar player involved learning "Soul guitar style of playing. It required accuracy with the picking hand rhythmically. You had to master up and down strokes at a funky fast pace with syncopated rhythms that were percussive. If you messed up the guitar sounded sloppy and could transform into something organizationally impaired.

The fingering hand played inverted triads chords that you sometimes had to form a melody out of or adding other notes to each triad chord on an "off-beat" to the on going rhythm. Guitar players like Tito Jackson were smooth and jazzy at this style. Hendrix mastered this style overtime working with Ike and Tina Turner, The Isley Brothers, even Little Richard.


Hendrix chose to use that style of chord playing in ballads like "The Wind Cries Mary" but he also injected the style of guitar playing into Psychedelic Music ...which I don't recall anyone else in music doing that. Even on 1983 I hear it. One of Jimi Hendrix' influences was the guitar playing of Buddy Guy. He inspired Hendrix...however Hendrix was ..in the end...a more inventive guitar player than most and he had ideas that literally shocked other guitar players like Mike Bloomfield and Frank Zappa. Several guitar players in the 60s music scene in the U.S. and Europe wanted to learn how to play like Hendrix simply because no one had never heard anyone approach guitar playing like him. Les Paul and Frank Zappa held him in high regard.


His feedback phased in and out of the right and left channel of stereos and this .was influential to Psychedelic Music, Progressive Rock, and regular Rock. His style of improvisation and pedals/sound effects turned up years later in the music of Tangerine Dream and on the live album Encore Edgar Froese's sound is similar to Hendrix' later approach. Hendrix' guitar playing was full of fire and passion. Certain solos that he played on live recordings were absolutely killer phrasing. He was an unorthodox type of guitarist, breaking the rules by making new ones and for several years famous guitarists tried to catch up with him or learn what he was doing ...however only in bits and pieces.


One of his most creative and outstanding solos is in "Bleeding Heart" from CONCERTS issued by Alan Douglas in the 80s. At that point it becomes a realization that other guitarists were attempting to emulate his style adding it to their own music, but obvious that not many of them could pick up the guitar and express themselves in the way Hendrix did in completeness..as on the slow and gentle "Bleeding Heart" on "Concerts" or the strange and bizarre sounding guitar ideas on "I Don't Live Today" ..also from "CONCERTS".