Was he the first to make the electric guitar sound, well, electric? I know it was used before him, but never to the same effect (Beatles, Stones?)
I dunno that I’d go that far. You’ve got Li’l Johnny Lennon coaxing feedback out of his AC30 amp at the start of “I Feel Fine” in 1965.
I think the guy from the pre-Hendrix era who was really getting some amazingly fucked-up feedbacky sounds from his guitar was Townshend. The guitar break on “Anyway Anyhow Anywhere” is crazy with his Rickenbacker feeding back, while Pete pounds on various sound-cutoff knobs to make it “phase”.
Then there’s also the surf guitarists. Link Wray and Dick Dale sure kicked up a hell of an electric racket on their guitars back in the day.
Hendrix is great though…absolutely no argument here on that.
Yeah… I was gonna say that Townshend did a lot of loud, distorted stuff back in the day.
But, Hendrix gives off the impression of a guy who honed his craft and built up all these ideas and such. You can see it in the progression of albums he made. With ‘Electric Ladyland’ as the last album, you got this 75 min masterpeice, self-produced that spins out some of the wildest stuff you’ve ever heard.
Sorry… I’ve been on like a month or two long Hendrix kick.
That’s a great call on the surf guitarists. Those guys–especially Dick Dale–did some amazing guitar work almost a decade before Hendrix. I’ve always been sort of meh about Jimi. Technically brilliant, but I’ve never felt any real emotion in his songs, and the production seems really flat, even for the time.
Thank-god someone said it first. I’ve always admired Jimi as a guitarist and performer but never particularly liked his songs.
There are definitely some bad production things going on in Hendrix’s early catalog, especially on EXPERIENCED. The bass and drums sound as if they were mixed onto the same track originally, so the drums sound like Quaker Oats boxes being hit with wooden spoons, while the bass has all the low-end rumble of an 8 year old girl at recess.
…I was never a Hendrix fan, until a buddy convinced me to really give ELECTRIC LADYLAND a full-on listen. It’s a pretty incredible piece of work, actually.
According to ol’ Barney Hoskyns, at the time of his death Hendrix was totally smitten by black psychedelic comrade-in-arms Arthur Lee’s band Love and their meisterwerk Forever Changes . Sure would’ve been interesting to see what Jimi cooked up in response to that influence if he’d lived.
That’s interesting — ironically, the Arthur Lee 70s solo stuff I’ve heard ([edit]the album Vindicator[/edit]) is blatantly Hendrixized, sort of Hendrix with the occasional nursery rhyme thrown in. The grass is always greener, it seems.
I’ve read opposite claims by guitar geeks that before his death Hendrix was embarrassed by his psych output and wanted to become a “pure blues” artist. Wishful thinking on the geeks’ part, I’d guess — they’d rather have Robert Cray than Arthur Lee.
Thank-god someone said it first. I’ve always admired Jimi as a guitarist and performer but never particularly liked his songs.[/quote]
Wow, I feel just the opposite. For me, his songs are his strength, and the best part of his playing isn’t the pyrotechnics but the odd chords and rhythm playing that came from being self-taught, which are expressive precisely because they’re played loose.
It just goes to show that…we’re different. :D
Well, I think once Art got out of prison and was on his solo career, the inspiration that produced the pre-drug bust FOREVER CHANGES was long gone…but I think your assessment of his solo seventies stuff is pretty accurate. CHANGES is just one of the most “where the fuck did this come from?” albums of all time, though. A garage punk band (“Little Red Book” and “7 & 7 Is” were already hit singles) decides they can do PET SOUNDS…and it works? Craaazy.
I think Hendrix, at the time of his death, was sick of the trio format, and pretty much felt like he’d pushed that as far as it would go. Plenty of quotes from him at the time about using the studio itself as an “instrument”…that lends me to believe that he wasn’t going to turn into 1970’s version of John Lee Hooker.
That’s interesting — ironically, the Arthur Lee 70s solo stuff I’ve heard ([edit]the album Vindicator[/edit]) is blatantly Hendrixized, sort of Hendrix with the occasional nursery rhyme thrown in. The grass is always greener, it seems.
I’ve read opposite claims by guitar geeks that before his death Hendrix was embarrassed by his psych output and wanted to become a “pure blues” artist. Wishful thinking on the geeks’ part, I’d guess — they’d rather have Robert Cray than Arthur Lee.
Thank-god someone said it first. I’ve always admired Jimi as a guitarist and performer but never particularly liked his songs.[/quote]
Wow, I feel just the opposite. For me, his songs are his strength, and the best part of his playing isn’t the pyrotechnics but the odd chords and rhythm playing that came from being self-taught, which are expressive precisely because they’re played loose.
It just goes to show that…we’re different. :D[/quote]
I don’t mind if you don’t. But it’s this cruel, cruel world that’s keeping us apart. Like I said though, as a guitarist, self taught or otherwise and as one of the most visible pioneers of the distorted, electric guitar I have a lot of respect for him. As a songwriter I’ve always been left a little disappointed.
I’ve listened to the key Hendrix albums a lot, too. Way back when, I worked at a weekly newspaper with an editor who always took over the stereo when we were pasting the paper up (which sort of gives you an idea how long ago this was…). He was a huge Hendrix freak, and he’d get on specific album kicks and play stuff over and over again. I think I’ve heard Axis: Bold As Love about 400,000 times and Electric Ladyland maybe twice that and god knows whatever else. Just never grabbed me, though I bought one of the remastered greatest hits packages one time when I couldn’t get Wind Cries Mary out of my head. No If 6 Was 9 on the disc, though, which sucks, because that is a great song. Little Wing, on the other hand, can fuck right off.
One good thing about my editor buddy, though…he was also a huge Warren Zevon fan. He played Sentimental Hygiene non-stop the summer after it was released, and I went out and bought all the Zevon I could find. Man, I still can’t believe there aren’t going to be any more Zevon albums. I still can’t bring myself to listen to The Wind, either, or to watch the VH1 special. Had both sitting here for going on a year now.
As an aside, I saw Bob Dylan a couple of months ago. I found it interesting that he’s using Hendrix’s arrangement of “All Along the Watchtower.” He even had a guitarist who did justice to the loopy guitar work.
We saw Dylan last year and noticed that too.
Little Wing, on the other hand, can fuck right off.
What the fuck are you talking about? Thats one of Hendrix’s finest songs. In two minutes the guy encapsulates so much emotion. Oh, and that glockenspiel… man… I get teary just thinking about it.
I hate that song, that’s what I’m talking about. Glad you love it, but I think it’s overexposed, overglorified crap. YMMV, y’know?
Ok, overexposed I agree with. Overglorified? Yeah, maybe. But it’s still a damn good song.
One man’s pudding is another man’s piss…or something like that.