Venerdì 31 Ago 2012, 10:56

Seederman is very loathe to admit this, but he answers music related questions (usually, but not always) posed by teenagers at Yahoo! Answers. I'm one of a handful of people there who sometimes put thought into an answer (other times, I am an arrogant, loud, opinionated bully, but it is for their own good…) I hate wasting them, so I'll repost some of my favorites here. The question, which will be in quotes, will always be in the asker's own words and spellings.

Note: although I try to answer questions correctly, and usually double-check whenever there is a doubt, I'm sure my answers are full of mistakes. Don't bug me about corrections, I really don't care. Unless you do it nicely…

Seederman's Rock and Pop Reprints #8: What Sets Jimi Hendrix Apart from Other Great Guitarists?

What sets Jimi Hendrix apart from other great guitarists?

The immediate and far reaching impact he had on rock music, and even jazz.

You have to imagine the setting when he had appeared. He had quietly honed his chops in a series of rhythm and blues bands that flew completely under rock's radar in the mid-60's. Rock, circa 1966, was a fairly timid and tuneful place. The British Invasion had started dying out, gentle folk-rock like The Byrds was in, the psychedelic scene in San Francisco hadn't yet broken nationally, and most people still thought of rock music as "teen" music, but that was on the cusp of changing.

Then, you have to imagine him when he appeared for the first time on the national stage at Monterey Pop. Nobody had ever heard of this guy, and he comes out with his guitar, and in between screwing it, burning it, and smashing it to pieces he unleashed a voodoo brew of psychedelic soulified "hard rock" before anyone had really conceived of the term. He blew everyone's minds, as they used to say in those days, in a flash. A whole new vocabulary for rock music unfolded on the Monterey Pop stage that day that nobody, literally nobody, had conceived of before (and it took decades to catch up to him)

Then, you have to consider his influence. Pete Townshend has said in interviews that he became buddies with Eric Clapton, whom he had never been especially chummy with, within days of Hendrix's debut in England. Townshend said that Hendrix scared them both with his brilliance; they suddenly felt like they had been instantly rendered old and obsolete. Both immediately upped their own playing in response, pushing themselves far further than they had ever before. Every major guitarist active at the time was instantly transformed. Jimmy Page and Jeff Beck were never the same again either, and many others. Hendrix had opened up a galaxy of new ideas.

Certainly his image as a black ex-paratrooper from Seattle set him apart from other guitarists too.

Hendrix was also one of the very very few rock musicians to gain respect in the jazz world, despite the fact that he didn't play jazz. His method of improvisation appealed to jazz sensibilities; Miles Davis was known for dissing most rock stars as "non-playing mf's", reserving praise for only two: Jerry Garcia and Jimi Hendrix (with whom he was rumored to have been considering recording, at the time Hendrix died)

Hendrix' contribution to the ultimate sound, shape, and image rock and roll took for much of the next decade was as large as any other rock group you can name, as important as the Beatles, the Velvets, The Stones, Dylan…

Hendrix also evolved fast; in 3 short years of activity, he had gone from psychedelia to hard rock to funk and his death (he didn't use heroin btw, contrary to popular belief) was one of the most tragic in rock history, because probably nobody has died with so much unrealized potential, except maybe Buddy Holly.

A lot of uninformed people dis him for a variety of reasons: they say he wasn't "technical" (to which I say, thank god he wasn't), they say he was limited (yeah, sure…) they say he couldn't sing (he sang just fine, he had a voice full of character and could storytell too. A fine songwriter, too) All that does is demonstrate a lack of understanding of just what Hendrix accomplished.

He's earned his distinction as a giant in rock history. And the fact that 3 generations have found value in his music (which only a limited number of rock artists ever achieve) despite his releasing a mere four albums in his lifetime, shows that Hendrix will endure through time.