I'm also not a huge Jimi fan, and don't consider him to be a "perfect" technical player or comparable to some newer players in speed, or composition perhaps. But, back THEN, nobody did what he did. He took that guitar and made noises, sounds, played with chords and kicked it up far more notches, at that point in time, than few musicians have in history. I'll always totally respect him for doing so much for rock/blues guitar playing.

Might not be one of the favorite I listen to often, but I can't argue on the impact he had on the world of guitar. Same with Eddie. How can you come up with a solo like Beat It back then, NOBODY played like that and still can't. Totally original and very cool. And even though I can't stand Yngwie for that turd that he is, I also can't argue how man took that particular neo-classical style of guitar and shot through the roof before anyone else could reach that point.

Vai? He's great, but I never cared for the majority of his stuff. It just doesn't sound good to me at all, gets on my nerves to listen to it for long. I can relate to Satch much better than Vai. Although Neal Schon and Steve Lukather are two players I like listening to, they didn't break a hell of a lot of ground in that aspect. They just took what was there and refined it in their own style, which is cool too.

The phrase, "Jane....you ignorant sl*t", comes to mind (that's a joke son) There is no one who was "the best", no church, no incense......just those who are in the conversation. Hendrix was the total package: exploding barriers, songwriting, creativity, technique.....and the musical chemistry with Mitch Mitchell and Noel Redding.....Eddie Kramer on the board....inventing effects on the fly.....Roger Mayer....Chas Chandler. Name 3 records in succesion that hold up to "Are You Experienced", Axis Bold as Love" and "Electric Ladyland". Summer of 67, "Purple Haze" is a single on Top 40 AM radio ....a complete departure......

Sincerely,

Mr. Paul Caruso

I agree that Hendirix was awesome, but that some people worship him a bit too much. (Worship time could maybe be cut down to one 6 hour session a day, vice the 18+ hours that some people put in !)

Mr. Paul Caruso... The same gentleman who is involved with Wolfgang's Vault?

Not to get even more off topic here (EVH - Hendrix - ...)

But I LOVE that site. One of the greatest things to happen to music that I know of. I spend hours streaming all those great old concerts! Thanks so much to everyone who works on that! I'm always super excited to see what new shows come up on there. Strongly recommend checking out wofgangsvault.com for anyone who wants to discover a whole bunch of great music.

Who's Van Helsing I mean Halen. I heard he's not that good.

He's on every guitar magazine ever published. Also check out Youtube.

I would like to play "not that good".

I bet I wouldn't have time to be on this forum

It does not get said much, but ... to be a real legend, you have to play great guitar in the context of great songs. David Lee Roth put together -- in my opinion -- the greatest band ever, in terms of blazing musicanship (Vai, Billy Sheehan, & Greg Bisonette). Holy Moly, they were amazing. Then ... like an idiot ... he let it get away. If Roth would have kept that band together, they could have eventually grown into something really big. Instead, Roth spent 15 years tring to re-capture that fleeting magic that original band had. Along with what Dgonz was alluding to, Steve Vai's best stuff (IMO) were the two Roth albums because it allowed his formidable playing - again - in the context of great songs (and, of course, surrounded by the pinnacle in musicanship).

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Laughing out loud with fear and hope, I have a desperate plan ...

my first post on this thread was about vanhalen, and after reading through some after that i noticed it morphed into a hendrix importance thread, guess that says how important jimi was to guitar players, those who love his music expression and those who don't, in all these years i have never played a hendrix cover with one of my bands live until last thursday at cobra lounge, crosstown traffic, the response was amazing, it helps alot that our singer/guitar player is very talented and drummer revered mitch mitchel so that he played a pretty close sounding style for the song, it should be up on you tube in the not too distant future then all of my brothers and sisters here can let us (solarcoaster or sollercoaster depending on were you look for us)know if our performance of the song merits the response we got,but, no other artist that i know of music gets that kind of crowd response, people like to hear hendrix music live is the only way i can explain this.

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you can save the world with your guitar one love song at a time it's just better, more fun, easier with a fender solid body electric guitar or electric bass guitar.

I have never liked Van Halen although i can see that he is a tremendous talent for some reason there songs have just never done it for me....

He may not be everyones favorite guitarist because all of our opinions differ. Van Halen and Van Halen II seem like they were made by a bunch of kids just making music that reflected their lifestyle, and I think they were having a very good time When I saw VH last winter, Eddie looked like he was really enjoying himself, and that made it more enjoyable for me in turn. I mean, who wants to see a band that isn't happy to be onstage?

You are right about the DLR band but also remember that Sammy Hagar had quite a band too. We had the "Best of Both Worlds" and maybe couldn't even appreciate it. Those were good times.

Today on one of the local radio stations the DJ was talking about Van Halen and he said the band should have been known as Van Hagar.

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The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government.

Thomas Jefferson

Mr. Paul Caruso....."Axis Bold As Love"........"EXP".....see above post animation.

Well since I started this post I am going to end it on my opinion. There are to many genres of music for someone to be labled the best guitarist as once you get into that 5% bracket of super human players you look the fool to even question these guys skills.Hendrix burst on the scene with a bag of chops that at that period in time was unmatched and that comes from the mouths of his peers who were there at the time.He had no electric tuner or floyd locking system .So when guys say he played out of tune a lot it was not his fault as you can hear on many bootlegs him asking for the crowd to keep it down while he tuned up and his rhythm playing was art unto itself. Every lead guitarist was measured against Hendrix as people thought that was the limit of electric guitar playing until Vanhalen burst on the scene with his own bag that set the rock world and guitarist on there asses as there was nothing like him before and I cant even imagine anyone trying to say before VH1 any guitar playing sounded like that and secondly he was another rhythm genius. And in case anyone even cares Hendrix is my #1 player so Maxwell you dont ever have to tell me to listen to Hendrix and Eddie is #4 on my faves but in my mind the two most creative and inventive rock players ever are Hendrix#1 and Vanhalen#2.

At least EVH was known. Van Halen/Van Hagar what difference does it make. How many people will ever know a local DJ and what does he know about guitar players or music? Most of them are just morning talk show hosts that will say anything to get ratings.