IMO Hendrix is pretty overrated.
Blasphemer...and from a guitar player nonetheless /gasp
the solo at 1:18 is
godly
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it might be easy to say that Hendrix is overrated nowadays. Kinda like ppl can say Eddie Van Halen is overrated. Thats because
EVERYONE copies what they did, what they trailblazed; it didnt exist before they did it. Were ppl doing Hammer-on solos before EVH? not really. It can be easy to forget that. Nowadays for a guitar player to shred a solo it isnt a big deal because its common place, but it wasnt common place when Hendrix did it.
(nowadays 14 years olds on youtube shred guitar solos - it came from Hendrix, EVH, RRhoades) Hendrix' distortion and wahpedal may have been used by other players at the time, but not like how Hendrix used it. Players to this day still use distortion, and a wah pedal and most of this is because the Hendrix influence. Take Kirk Hammett from Metallica, he makes no bones about his use, or overuse as some ppl would say, of his hendrix-influenced wah pedal.
What Hendrix(and bands like LeD ZePpLiN, the Stones, Sabbath) did back in the late 60's and 70's is corner stone of all rock music today and that piggy backed from Bebop, and 50's rock and roll.
The thing with Jimi Hendrix was he was much more than just a 'shredder', underneath was a soulful, blues oriented musician. Alot of that is lost nowadays and its just shred-city with todays music (not all, but most). If Jimi Hendrix didnt he do what he did, then the EVH's and Randy Rhoades' of the world would not have done what they did and rock/popular music today would be different because of it.
From all this distortion and wah pedal talk, take the song the Wind cries mary....here we have a 'shredder' playing a beautiful song that doesnt shred, no distortion, and has what I think is one of the best melodic solos(less notes, more feel) in popular music. Nowadays ppl just write shredders(fast, alot of notes, less feel) and ballads; its not quite the same as the original.
A rare cat will come along, and grab onto greatness and for me it links them to the greatest musicians in the past. SRV is a guy I did not appreciate until long after he was gone. But he got the hendrix thing, prolly better than anyone (including Clapton).
SRV is the only modern player(besides Clapton) to play hendrix tunes, and NO ONE ever had a bad thing to say about it.
Here is SRV playing a 'beautiful' hendrix tune to perfection:
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