Jimi Hendrix

you have to twist your face to show that you're playing from the soul. Jimi got credits from Rambo for wearing those rages on his head to show bad a$$ image. Have an orgasm with his guitar just to show all of the great guitar players after him are his son. Sour grapes that didn't ripe. lame duck, sitting bull. Terrible, just 110% terrible.

I have to go with Clapton

Talented, yes. Greatest, hardly. Yes, he pioneered the fuzzbox-on-11 feedback sound. Unplugged, he was simply a good guitarist. Most who idolize him do not play guitar, and have no idea what they are talking about.

I think Hendrix is one of the most overrated guitarists of all time. His guitar has a terrible sound, his music is not good and his riffs are way too raw. I often compare him to my favourite guitarist, Mark Knopfler. There's a huge difference between those two; Knopfler is a better songwriter, a much more rhythmic guitarist and has a better sound.

Ahead of his time, yes. Ahead of his instrument? Probably not.

YES JIMI, BUT DO YOU KNOW WHO'S JIMI'S FAVORITE GUITARIST WAS, TERRY KATH-CHICAGO

Jimi was able to put together some incredible songs: Crosstown Traffic, All along the Watchtower, Voodoo Child, Red House, and others, however, he also put together some playground stuff that appeared to be more from his drug trip than his heart and soul. He was an interesting kind of player, in that, he seemed to be able to put things together in a manner that seemed so natural and easy for him. I suppose that this would mean that he was a natural talent on the guitar. When he attempted to do some straight music it was good but never great, Band of Gypsies comes to mind. I don't think that this was in his heart. Maybe he just never consistently found his heart in the music but was strewn about by the social and business aspects of his trade. A very good guitar player but limited from being great by being limited in being able to put his music to the 'moving' experience.

He was NOT the best. He was totally overrated and frankly his Star Spangled Banner sounded like crap. I am sure if I could put up a guitar, i could do distortion as good as him. I do feel he was a better blues musician than a rock musician.

What a sham, imagine if he had someone who could have got to him and saved his short life.

wat can i say that hasnt been said ,,,

What I would pay to see Jimi Hendrix at a Festival in the UK right now live. There is absolutely no denying this man played the guitar like it was second nature to him. He made it looks so easy and for me that shows someone with serious skills. The very idea that Jimi could play with his teeth when half the people on this list couldn't even play a guitar properly and rightfully with their own hands speaks volumes to me.

When he was on Johnny Carson that was great, yeah, but I don't listen to him now. totally dig his talent.

The King of guitar!

I will never understand the outrageous hype about Hendrix. He wouldn't even recognize a guitar without heroin. Yes, he paved the way for distortion and I thank him for that, but his music has never impressed me. And the solo he did of the star spangled banner was the most annoying 9 min of my life.

Fucking legend man

Wow, I actually read in this blog where someone wrote Hendrix was "incapable of original or intelligent thought". I find it sad and shocking that natural selection has somehow missed this person. This is a prime example of someone who's trying really hard to sound like they know what they're talking about, without the benefit of an actual brain, and without having really listened to any Hendrix music. Here's my advice. DON'T BRING A KNIFE TO A GUNFIGHT, DORK. The fact of the matter is, ever since Hendrix took the stage in London every other guitarist on earth was immediately second best. That has not changed, nor will it ever. If you asked Page, Clapton, Beck, the Kings, and anyone else who REALLY plays and understands the instrument's complexity, 'who is the most gifted person to pick up the instrument?, they would all say Hendrix, without a second thought.

Kohl's?

What can one say

There has already been enough great reviews on Jimi, everything that can be said has been said, I am merely giving my review and five star rating, because something is extremely wrong when Eddie Van Halen is rated higher than Jimi as best guitarist of all time. (No disrespect to Eddie, but even he would agree Jimi was better, come on, Eric Clapton even admits it).

Trying to frame Hendrix in an accurate display is like trying to define the sixties from one single viewpoint. You hear all the angst, violence, confusion and innocence of the period in every note he pulls out of his instrument. We are speaking here of his artistic capabilities. As a pioneer, well there were no black guys with soul-music background growing their hair long, playing psychedelic versions of Bob Dylan in silk scarves and old band uniforms with a couple of English geezers. Hendrix brought all these eclectic elements together in a way that had never been done before and in doing so defined the era! Not that he was trying to, so much as he wanted to bring his particular vision forth. Like Van Gogh, he painted with a broad, emotional stroke. Sometimes heavy-handed but full of life and the energy of the moment. He was not tentative in his ground-breaking and drew upon diverse influences from Albert King to Bob Dylan to the Beatles. Ask any of the top guitarists of the day who t... Read more

I'm not the only soul who's accused of hit and run Tire tracks all across your back I can see you had your fun But darlin' can't you see my signals turn from green to red And with you I can see a traffic jam straight up ahead You're just like crosstown traffic So hard to get through to you Crosstown traffic I don't need to run over you Crosstown traffic All you do is slow me down And I got better things on the other side of town

It is really strange how a lot of people just don't get Hendrix - even some people who are otherwise capable and credibly good musicians. I can remember listening to Hendrix for the first few times (at 16) after after a diet of Eric Burdon, Stones, Kinks and Beatles - it sounded like a din - at first! Then as the ear and brain tuned in to it I started listening more and more - and then found I could listen to little else. My cousin, a few years younger laughed at me for being hooked on it - and then at the age of 25 sheepishly admitted that I was right. No other musician I am aware can achieve that vibe - what seems like an almost perfect translation of brain to instrument (then to ear to pleasure centres of the brain). If you don't get it - you aren't listening right! And it still works for me nearly 40 years later. “Brits make up half the top 10 in the "100-greatest" list compiled by Total Guitar magazine from thousands of votes by readers and celebrities. Left-hander He... Read more

Jimi Hendrix was, and still is, "light-years" ahead of all rock guitarist. Period ! Anyone that debunks that is either deaf, or a complete racist.

hi jimi hendrix was not just a genuis on playing guitar with so much style,he was also one of the best frontman of rock music.He was the first ever guitar god the world ever saw. By far no guitarist in this world can ever have skills and technique to play like him.

only heard of him before?

JIMI HENDRIX IS THE GREATEST , MOST INFLUENTIAL , MOST INNOVATIVE GUITAR PLAYER OF ALL TIME , THREE MASTERPIECE ALBUMS 1. ARE YOU EXPERIENCED ? 2. AXIS BOLD AS LOVE ! 3. ELECTRIC LADYLAND ! JIMI HENDRIX PAVED THE WAY FOR LED ZEPPELIN DUDE !

The best ever to touch a guitar

I'm a little young to know him, but he sure knew how to wow the crowd and play a guitar in strange manner.

now c'mon people--the most amazing things about this guy--he was black, he strung his guitar backwards to play it left handed, and he did enough drugs that he didnt get bothered by the flaming guitar as he played--he was ok, but honestly , not a guitar god

An amazing guitarist comming from nowhere, expressing the soul of his mind, the soul of his music. Always authentic, always 100% of him. His talent, underestimate by some suposely narrow experts, fly over the mediocrity of the today music. Hendrix you was then you remain the best !

I cant believe some of the nonsense I am reading here. Jimi Hendrix is hands down the best guitar player to ever live. There is no comparison. Some of the morons who post here are obviously extremely desperate for attention. The bottom line is, if you think that Hendrix is untalented and unlistenable, then you are just someone who really should not be playing or for that matter even listening to music. To say Jimi had no talent is like saying that Leonardo Davinci's paintings are garbage. It is something that is just so ridiculous that you must question the intentions and sanity of the people writing this shit. Some one who thinks Hendrix had no talent is someone who thinks the world is flat. His music is powerful and some may fear and not understand it, so they go into their hole of ignorance. Jimi was, is, and will always be the best guitar player ever. What he innovated in his short career was more than a whole two generations would have done on their own. Jimi will live ... Read more

So glad to see Jimi Hendrix, despite his premature death as far back as 1973, as the best guitarist of all time, I am so pleased to be old enough to have seen JH play live, truly awesome, yet unsurpassed talent! Philippe

I do think he was good. I liked the music. I didn't buy his album. I think there was talent there. It brings memories back. It's like nothing else. My other friend liked him. His music is used in Withnail and I and it really makes the movie good. It stands for the generation.

jimi hendrixx roxxx my soxxx off he is a great guitarists i love his song the wind cries mary i played it on guitar hero but i sucked

... imagine him with today's recording technology. ... chills down the spine.

sweet guitar playin

Well count me as being incapable of original or intelligent thought, but I don't think I have ever read a rock and roll biography, or interview where some legend doesn't mention the first time they heard Jimi Hendrix and that they were totally turned upside down by what they heard. He's remembered as a guitar hero but was also developing into a great songwriter during his short career. Songs like Little Wing and Wind Cries Mary hinted at a future far beyond the bluesy sonic blast that caught every one's attention at first. Of all of the rock legends of the era who died too soon, I think his was the greatest loss. He probablly would have done much more interesting work as he progressed.

another one of the natural prodigys , a must for any collector

A legend. Foolishly ended his music career at a young age and at his prime.

Jimi was indeed a guitar god a legend that will be remembered for ever.

OMG this guy is fantastic on the guitar....... he can make it cry it is sooo amazing!

Hendrix at Woodstock. That was a daze.

Brilliant. Magic. As a kid, I never related to his music in a personal way because he always seemed to be singing about Unicorns and Sand Castles in the sky and other topics I couldn't really relate to (Black Sabbath singing "Snowblind" or the NY Dolls singing "Pills"-- now, that I could relate to!), but watching him perform when he was at the top of his musical game was like watching a shamanic witch-doctor wizard casting a spell. I never get tired of watching him at Monterrey, or Woodstock; blows my mind every single time. Impossible not to contemplate what more he might have been able to accomplish had he lived.

I'm on the watch tower with you man

Seems that this guitar-rating thing has come down to Hendrix vs. Van Halen, live on Pay Per View. I was a big Van Halen fan, but....sorry....gotta go with Hendrix here. He was an innovator who inspired a whole new sub-genre of music. The same cannot be said for Ed. Update: Welcome back Chris. That said, once and for all...Eddie Van Halen, while a decent guitar player, is not fit to wash out the headband of Jimmy Hendrix. Funny that Hendrix has been called perhaps the best of all time by the likes of Prince, Jimmy Page, and Jeff Beck (to name just three) Anyway, glad we are back to something important here.

BEST!!!!!! BEST WAS, IS, and will always BE!

I bought my first hendrix album in 1971...Rainbow Bridge

The greatest guitarist in rock history.

Of course he was a tremendous innovator and had great technical skill.  He was an extremely articulate player and wrote some very solid tunes.  He played with passion, great style and elan.  His version of "All Along The Watchtower" is one of the greatest covers ever.  His songs, "Little Wing" "If Six Were Nine," and "The Wind Cries Mary" are truly grreat pieces.  To get a deeper appreciation of this guy's talent, get the CD compilation on which he only plays blues guitar.  You'll see that he is a master of virtually every major blues guitar style, and you'll get a feel for his influences.

Master of the Stratocaster, fuzzbox and whawha pedal.