Anniversary of Jimi Hendrix death

[Slothead56]

Today marks 50 years since the death of Jimi Hendrix. I was never a huge fan but have grown to appreciate his playing and his contribution to guitar music.

As to the “Greatest” title? I don’t know....

[Kerbie]

50 years... wow. I stay away from discussions of "the greatest," but I particularly enjoyed his stuff that was kinda blues-based. Certainly an excellent guitarist and I still like his music.

[Dru Edwards]

Jimi's contribution to guitar is huge. One of the biggest influencers ever. I started listening (and playing) to Jimi in the late 80s when I was in High School. Played Purple Haze in a band at that time... like most every other electric guitarist did.

RIP Jimi.

[raysachs]

I tend to stay away from "the greatest" also, but I'll definitely go with "nobody greater". I just figure there are a small number of players who hit a transcendent level that most of us will never even sniff. Among those, who's the GREATEST is largely a matter of personal taste and preference. And he was definitely in that group at the very top. Enormously influential by any measure, largely re-wrote the language of the electric guitar in ways that are still really important 50 years later.

-Ray

[KenL]

Just 27 years old. Such a shame.

[Silly Moustache]

Oh I remember that awful news.

I knew Mitch Mitchell slightly - I met him when he was a Saturday boy at the Jim Marshall shop in Ealing, and I took him along to one or two of our gigs, to try to pass on what Charlie Watts did for me (I didn't realise at the time that he was older than me).

I never had the opportunity to see them play as every time they were playing in our area, our gigs clashed.

I didn't even go to the Isle Of Wight festival in August 1970 - I reckon I was about the only 22 year old left in London that weekend!

So it was even more of a personal loss to me to hear of his passing 18 days later.

I only realised recently that Noel died in 2003 aged 57, and Mitch died in 2008 aged 62.

Strange days.

[Dru Edwards]

Originally Posted by KenL

Just 27 years old. Such a shame.

Part of the infamous 27 club.

[Brucebubs]

Strange Australian connection.

FORMER Australian Greens leader Bob Brown has sought to clarify, once and for all, his role in the death of rock legend Jimi Hendrix in London in September 1970.

He was then a resident doctor at St Mary Abbot's hospital when Hendrix's body was brought in, he told the National Press Club in Canberra yesterday.

"He had been dead for some hours," Senator Brown said.

"He'd had a bit too much to drink and whatever else and had inhaled vomitus."

He said another Australian doctor signed the musician's death certificate while he went off to look after a patient who had fallen under a train but was still alive.

[seannx]

Originally Posted by raysachs

I tend to stay away from "the greatest" also, but I'll definitely go with "nobody greater". I just figure there are a small number of players who hit a transcendent level that most of us will never even sniff. Among those, who's the GREATEST is largely a matter of personal taste and preference. And he was definitely in that group at the very top. Enormously influential by any measure, largely re-wrote the language of the electric guitar in ways that are still really important 50 years later.

-Ray

I totally agree with you!

[MakingMusic]

I was stunned when I heard the news. And just as that reality began to sink in, Janis Joplin died just a few weeks later. Two legends indeed.

[FrankHudson]

For much of this century I've marked this day by plugging in an electric guitar and turning the amp up loud.

So today I worked out heavy drum track in Logic Pro's drummer, picked up one of my basses and laid down a bass line groove to lock in with it and then I played my reverse Stratocaster with the upside down neck and reverse slanted bridge pickup into an old Line6 modeled Marshall over that loop. All of this was on headphones, since my teenager was home remote learning and my wife needs to rest after a day in health care work.

While I admire the slower more subtle Hendrix, those Curtis Mayfield chords and such, that's not a style I can approach for whatever reason. What I play on September 18th tends to be more an approximation of the live jamming excess element his work. Frankly, I'm still mad that he died, and that's what I feel on this day, and that enters into my playing as a remembrance.

It was not the same without being able to work with the amp speaker cone moving in the air and the resulting guitar feedback interaction with that, but I was still following my tradition. I played for about an hour until my high E string didn't take kindly to a repeated extreme bend and snapped.

After I put everything away I checked in with my wife sitting and reading. I told her "It's getting harder to do that at my age. Maybe that's why Hendrix did live into his Seventies."

[rokdog49]

Jimi’s use of triads and inverse chords to creat melodious passages is a thing of beauty. It wasn’t exactly new, but uncommon and he took it to a level that has been emulated ever since.
My contextual ratings of “greatest guitar players” is almost always predicated on creativity. Jimi holds his own place in that regard and it’s a pretty darn exclusive club.

[Mr. Jelly]

Originally Posted by rokdog49

Jimi’s use of triads and inverse chords to creat melodious passages is a thing of beauty. It wasn’t exactly new, but uncommon and he took it to a level that has been emulated ever since.
My contextual ratings of “greatest guitar players” is almost always predicated on creativity. Jimi holds his own place in that regard and it’s a pretty darn exclusive club.

Agreed.

The ground breakers and pioneers are few and far between. They are usually the ones that didn't learn or play the guitar in a standard sort of way. Their style is taught from then on and known by their name.

[archerscreek]

He kicked butt on his live albums. I also love the BBC Sessions CD, especially Killing Floor on that one.

[MakingMusic]

Originally Posted by archerscreek

He kicked butt on his live albums. I also love the BBC Sessions CD, especially Killing Floor on that one.

Yes. Killing Floor. What a great recording!