Fuck the Hendrix comparisons

[Nickdfresh]

I guess both autodidact savants that couldn't read music either, but I sort of believe that in Jimi's case but think Ed is sort of full of shit about that as the son of a professional musician...

[ZahZoo]

As a general comment here, Hendrix was a great artist and player in his own way. But the similarities between Ed and Jimi erode after the obvious that they were both virtuosos that influenced others playing their instrument. I think what pisses people off here is the rather ignorant perception that somehow Ed just usurped Jimi's legacy or something. They were two very different players with different, distinctive styles. Eddie was influenced by Hendrix but then again, Hendrix was heavily influenced by Pete Townsend's style of using feedback and playing an overall blend of lead and rhythm guitar, to the point that Townsend chased him down on a few occasions and chided him for it...

Hendrix wasn't influenced by Townsend... the primary connection between those two was purely a competition of live performances in which band could pull off the most outrageous stunts on-stage. They were contemporaries battling for headliner billings at the same time... neither wanted to open or follow the other due to who could out do the other on stage. Musically they were on two different planets...

Hendrix' influences came from his working/touring on Chitlin Circuit in the mid 60's playing for the Isley Brothers, Little Richard and Curtis Knight. That time spent in the US South and Upper Mid-West playing in segregated venues in the middle of the Civil Rights era is where Jimi built his foundation in Blues and R & B...

How they hell could you arrive at the conclusion that Hendrix was influenced by some white guy from the UK..?

May want to research the history of the birth of distortion in rock music... look up the history Willie Kizart and Ike Turner's release of Rocket 88 in 1951. This within the Blues genre is where distorted guitar was born and the realm from which Hendrix spent his early career until he ventured off to the UK in 1966...

[Seshmeister]

I guess both autodidact savants that couldn't read music either, but I sort of believe that in Jimi's case but think Ed is sort of full of shit about that as the son of a professional musician...

I can personally vouch that it's possible to be able to read music for piano but that not to translate usefully at all to guitar at least for sight reading.

[Vinnie Velvet]

Hendrix is Hendrix and EVH is EVH. Both highly influential and changed the course of rock guitar forever.

But goddamn, I listen to Fair Warning and the stuff Ed was doing there.....its mind blowing....like from another planet.

No mortal can produce those sounds, riffs, solos, melodies than what is on Fair Warning.

NOTHING comes or will forever come close.

[Hardrock69]

Apples and Oranges.

Both changed the face of Rock Guitar.

One thing they had in common: THEY WERE THEMSELVES.

Also, as for Van Halen having a sound never heard of before, blame some of that on Templeman/Landee.....for instance, having Ed's guitar on one side, with the slapback echo on the other side, etc.

The instruments were raw sounding but had mucho highs which added a sizzling clarity to the mix. And they were given much use of Sunset Sound's reverb chamber on mixdown.

So the sonic end result (VH l) was quite unique.

But there was much that Hendrix did that Van Halen did not.

As I said, apples and oranges.

I feel Hendrix took the first step towards modernizing electric guitar, and then Ed just took it a step further.

I love them both.

[ZahZoo]

Even early Hendrix had a lot of unique compositions... what's amazing is they captured all of that on simple 4 track tape.

Here's a great behind the scenes clip for Are You Experienced... on how they'd compose and record the backwards guitar parts.

[Heater]

They both had a fair number of tricks which they used along the way. Ed's main one was the tapping, which at first was jaw dropping while quickly becoming his calling card. That technique, which almost bordered on gimmick, was probably the thing that set him apart from other players more than anything else he did.

[Hardrock69]

Like you mindlessly drooling as you fap to videos of your mother sucking off a buffalo?

[Romeo Delight]

Edward Van Halen Changed the face of music forever , and he was 22...

[ZahZoo]

Yeah, Hendrix was a late bloomer at 23... it's a shame he passed at 27. Imagine what he may have produced if he'd had 4 decades and the technology available today.