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Question: Why HENDRIX as the number1!?
why do people call jimi hendrix the best guitrist of all time!? he was ok with speed and was ok with tecnique but not amazing!. His style came in his amazing phrasing and solo phrasing and picking to legato playing but i know a lot of guitarists out there that can match this!. now take jimmy PAGE or stevie ray or steve vai or jeff beck even!. Those guys move with emotion they play guitar crazy! i would say hendrix was in the top ten guitrists of all time !.!.!. but BEST!?!?!? common!?!Www@QuestionHome@Com
Best Answer - Chosen by Asker:
Hey
Totally agree on Jeff back!. This guy was ahead of his time and was even finger-tapping before van halen!. Hendrix had one thing all other guitarist had!., He had style and his phrasing was not loke anybody else!.
Having said this, he used to tune his guitar different and not standard which accounted for his weird licks!. You could see the position where he plays and if you tried to do the same, it didn't sound the same which accounted for the tuning!.
I agree that BEST is far stretched!. I like Frank Gambale and Paul Gilbert!. They are, in my book two of the BEST in the top 5!. Do you knwo them !?Www@QuestionHome@Com
Haters!. Jimi Hendrix was much more than an ok guitarist!. He was far ahead of his time!. I challenge any of you so called "studio or professional guitarist" to play what he played the way he played it!. You may think you can but no amount of formal training can teach you the passion that Hendrix conveyed through his fingers!. However, you will argue for eternity on the matter of who is the best of all time!. You can list most innovative or the most inspirational, but even then you will never come to a unanimous agreement on any of this!. Each musician has his own taste and his own influences!. We have no right to push ours on others!. Www@QuestionHome@Com
You have to take Hendrix in context, only then can you realise how brilliant he was!. Think of a musical world where all you have to listen to is Creedence, the Beatles, Elvis, The Byrds, Cream, The Doors!. Suddenly Hendrix arrives and Creates a whole new radical vocabulary for the guitar from blues roots!. No one since (in second place Van Halen/ Al di Meola) has innovated so much in such a short time on the guitar!. That's why he is great!. I agree that when you listen to a best of collection the guitar is not mind blowing because all the players after him diluted his impact by absorbing what he did!. Listen to the Voodoo Chile solo and buy the Band of Gypsys album for his best playing!.
Not shredding but amazing nonetheless!.Www@QuestionHome@Com
This question resonated with me, because I've often wondered what was so darn great about Hendix myself!. Like you say, He was Ok at some things and very good at some other things!. But CLEARLY not the BEST, or frankly with some of today's guitarists, I'd not even say he was in the top 10!.
His guitar solo on "Purple Haze" is a total joke!. But then you have to listen to "Little Wing" or Voodoo Chile" and give him his props!.
I had a friend who had a large collection of posthumous recording releases and stuff he did just before his death !. Some of it was quite tasty playing!.
But Hendrix REALLY Number One!.
NO WAY
I'll give the reasons why people usually say he was!.(even if they aren't aware of the reasons themselves)
1!. He's DEAD!.
Nothing makes you a "great Musician" more than tragically dying young!. (or in most of those 60's rockers, stupidly dying from drug overdoses!.)
Look at Kurt Cobain for example!. What was so great about him other than that he wrote crappy pop/thrash music that was popular for a couple years!. Now he's regarded as some kind of music "poet/god"
Piffle!
2!. He did do stuff that no other guitarist had done before!.
He was a very innovative guitarist for his time!. And I believe that if he hadn't been a junkie, he may actually have lived up to number one status!. But he was basically No!. 1 in his time!.( But Eric Clapton fans would argue with you on that one!.) And since he died, he became cemented there in the minds of all folks over 50 years old!.
3!. He wrote some pretty cool songs that rocked pretty good!.
You can be a great guitar player, but if you play crappy music you won't get noticed!. If you write good songs you can be an OK guitar player and people think you're great!. Look at Pete Townsend of The Who!. Great songwriter!. not that great of a guitarist!. Good rhythm guitarist!. Crappy soloist!. But people all think he's a great guitarist!.
4!. All the chicks liked him because he had a HUGE organ!.
Of course this is my own opinion and a bunch of people may read this and think I'm full of poop!.
That's their opinion!. and they have every right to it!.
My opinion is that I could name at least 10 guitar players that blow Hendrix's doors off!.
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