40th Anniversary of the Death of Jimi Hendrix

[willpower]

Sept 18th, 1970

Died in a hotel in Notting Hill, London
Death certificate: Inhalation of vomit; barbiturate intoxication; insufficient evidence of circumstances; open verdict

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-11349374

 

[Rambo]

Greatest Ever

 

[Connemara]

SRV was a better guitarist.

 

[Rambo]

Originally Posted by Connemara

SRV was a better guitarist.

You can't be serious. The only people who could possibly compare would be Eric Clapton and Jimmy Page.

 

[willpower]

Originally Posted by Connemara

SRV was a better guitarist.

But not a better songwriter

 

[The Deacon]

Originally Posted by Rambo

You can't be serious. The only people who could possibly compare would be Eric Clapton and Jimmy Page.

If memory serves, SRV and Clapton were both performing at the same venue one stormy night and upon facing the prospect of following Stevie's (last) performance Clapton's quote was "How am I supposed to follow that?". Later, Stevie took a chance and boarded a risky flight out, Eric didn't take that chance.

Both EC and SRV are commonly ranked as top seven thru top 3 all-time with Duane Allman and others also comparable. I didn't say better.

I'd love to hear contributions from some musicians.

 

[XenoX101]

Funny, I've had a recent resurge of interest in his stuff. Absolutely love his style, epitome of effortless cool. Some think he wasn't the best singer, but I think this was ideal because it drew your attention to his magnificent guitar, and in a way I think the imperfections in his voice complimented his style, kind of like Bob Dylan (though lets end the comparison there

). Electric Ladyland should be prescribed listening for anyone with a semblence of musical interest.

 

[Albern]

Here's my take on Hendrix and SRV from a musical perspective (a fellow guitar player myself who's played works from both):

- as a composer, I think Hendrix was much more gifted. SRV focused on blues and grammatically it is quite limited (12 bar blues structure); a lot of his songs, even on the same album start to overlap one another.
- On guitar chops - I think SRV was better. He could play a lot faster and more consistently. Hendrix had some interesting solos and neat melody / accompanying lines with the guitar. Hendrix playing was a mixed bag of good and bad - I blame it on the drugs.
- Music education - were both on the same page since neither were formally trained; however, each had a good understanding of music sufficient enough to get by (if that makes sense).
- Do I think one is "better" than the other - No, they are both great in their own right and it isn't an apples to apples comparison.

 

[grundletaint]

don't soil a hendrix memorial thread with any S*V bullshit. he was an overrated copycat cocksmoker and GTFO with that ****. no comparison.
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[MetroStyles]

Slash was just as good as Jimi technically, but obviously much less influential/creative. Way less legacy with Slash as well.

But if I go down that path then I have to include all the other technically proficient guitarists who didn't really have much else to their resume like Vai, Satriani, etc. And SRV would be up there for technical skills too.

 

[Albern]

Originally Posted by MetroStyles

Slash was just as good as Jimi technically, but obviously much less influential/creative. Way less legacy with Slash as well.

But if I go down that path then I have to include all the other technically proficient guitarists who didn't really have much else to their resume like Vai, Satriani, etc. And SRV would be up there for technical skills too.

Exactly, these are all very competent guitarists. Learning Vai's stuff is very difficult initially but at the end of the day it is just all speed and very little by way of musical vocabulary.

These days I'm always trying to find musical talent by way of how well someone composes. There are a lot of great players out there but out of that group, how many can write interesting music? To me Hendrix was great because he was an excellent composer first, and a neat guitarist second.

To this day Purple Haze is "simple" tune technically but is nonetheless an amazing song.

 

[Piobaire]

I would say, make a thread to talk about who is better, compare and contrast, etc. In this one, just RIP a major talent that died too early and left an incredible legacy, in his short time.

 

[Tokyo Slim]

 

[Hombre Secreto]

He made Little Wing. Little Wing...

 

[Brogued]

Originally Posted by Albern

Here's my take on Hendrix and SRV from a musical perspective (a fellow guitar player myself who's played works from both):

- as a composer, I think Hendrix was much more gifted. SRV focused on blues and grammatically it is quite limited (12 bar blues structure); a lot of his songs, even on the same album start to overlap one another.
- On guitar chops - I think SRV was better. He could play a lot faster and more consistently. Hendrix had some interesting solos and neat melody / accompanying lines with the guitar. Hendrix playing was a mixed bag of good and bad - I blame it on the drugs.
- Music education - were both on the same page since neither were formally trained; however, each had a good understanding of music sufficient enough to get by (if that makes sense).
- Do I think one is "better" than the other - No, they are both great in their own right and it isn't an apples to apples comparison.


Nice analysis. That sums it up for me pretty well. Don't really see the point in saying who was better. Music is not a race.