Jimi Hendrix 10 things he gave us

Exactly 50 years since Hendrix’s passing, John Wheatcroft shines a light on the guitar hero’s guitar hero, with 23 top players adding their thoughts on why and how Jimi was so stunning!

- John Wheatcroft

Jimi Hendrix will go down in history as one of the most significant musicians of the 20th century. Even today, 50 years after his death, his influence is still profoundly felt. For many, he was the ultimate electric guitarist. Hendrix was a musical visionary, a virtuoso, and an incendiary live performer (literally), an accomplished songwriter, and a skilled wordsmith. He was perceived as a social and cultural icon, lauded by both music fans and by his not insubstantial peers.

Jimi’s playing was bold, hip, at times brutal and at times sophisticated. Super creative, very, very loud, and incredibly exciting for any guitarist around at the time when Jimi exploded on the scene. And that included most of the members of the UK’s rock elite such as Pete Townshend, Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, and The Beatles. It’s safe to say that once people had heard and seen him play then their perception of what the guitar was capable of was irrevocably altered.

Jimi’s lead playing was explosive, bold, and beautiful, with his flamboyant style perfectly suited to the new sounds of the day. While guitarists had used these effects before, no one player had so completely assimilated these new sounds in such a compelling and cohesive package. Fuzz, wah, feedback, whammy bar dives, sirens and wails, reverse guitar, echo, stereo panning, and phasing. It’s all there on the few studio albums he released in just a four-year flurry of creativity as a bandleader, before his tragic and wasteful death on 18th september 1970, aged just 27.