Eddie Van Halen or Jimi Hendrix?

Message Bookmarked

Bookmark Removed

Which is your favorite?One used off the shelf equipment, the other modified his own to achieve his sound.One died at his peak from substance abuse,the other supposedly beat his demons but is well past his peak.Who do you think is the better guitarist?

― thomas cullen, Sunday, 2 October 2005 00:14 (7 years ago) Permalink

Trio is playing a Hendrix movie right now in which he appears to suck.

However, I have enough Hendrix bootlegs to know he could play and sound amazing if amplified correctly.

Eddie didn't seem like he really did anything too spectacular. I always had a hard time figuring out what made him a virtuoso. He doesn't seem like a great songwriter or improvisor, his solos are short and to the point and it seems like he does hammer-ons with the occasional whammy bar push-in low warp sound.

So, Hendrix.

And then dozens of other guitarist.

And then, maybe, Eddie Van Halen.

― Guitarzan, Sunday, 2 October 2005 00:35 (7 years ago) Permalink

"One used off the shelf equipment, the other modified his own to achieve his sound."

I wouldn't put it such that Hendrix used off the shelf equipment. He used all sorts of stuff, some of which like the stuff Roger Mayer built for him was only commercially available later on. Jimi also liked to take apart and tinker with his guitars.

― Earl Nash (earlnash), Sunday, 2 October 2005 01:49 (7 years ago) Permalink

and then burn them.

― AaronK (AaronK), Sunday, 2 October 2005 02:55 (7 years ago) Permalink

which achieved a helluva sound.

― blunt (blunt), Sunday, 2 October 2005 02:56 (7 years ago) Permalink

Jimmy Hendrix was part alien, I been to his grave outside Seattle and he talked to me through the future.

― Spilt Milk, Sunday, 2 October 2005 06:24 (7 years ago) Permalink

unintended hahaha from David Lee Roth's autobiography, one of many:

...Jimi Hendrix was a genius, in a sense...

Hendrix IS a genius, Eddie's a gifted technique wizzard w/no soul and Roth has always been a total douchebag.

― m coleman (lovebug starski), Sunday, 2 October 2005 10:43 (7 years ago) Permalink

Eddie Van Halen hasn't beat his demons at all, according to all reports he's a depressed chronic alcoholic. Google up the accounts of his behavior at Dimebag Darrell's funeral....

― shookout (shookout), Sunday, 2 October 2005 13:00 (7 years ago) Permalink

Hendrix

― sovietpanda (sovietpanda), Sunday, 2 October 2005 23:58 (7 years ago) Permalink

there's also that sad/funny/pathetic story about eddie van halen backstage at a nirvana concert...

hendrix by several light years.

― latebloomer (latebloomer), Monday, 3 October 2005 00:27 (7 years ago) Permalink

there's also that sad/funny/pathetic story about eddie van halen backstage at a nirvana concert...

Tell...

― Jimmy Mod wants you to tighten the strings on your corset (The Famous Jimmy Mod), Monday, 3 October 2005 03:32 (7 years ago) Permalink

from an interview with Pat Smear:

Pat: Can I tell you my Eddie Van Halen story? I actually met him. He was backstage at the final Nirvana concert at the Forum, which for me, was like,"Oh my God, I'm playing on the SAME stage as [Queen's] Brian May!" I was dying. Anyway, Eddie Van Halen comes backstage drunk out of his fucking mind, and he started begging Kurt to let him play with us. It was so disgusting. He was like, "I'm all washed up; you are what's happening now." It was horrible! He was a horrible racist pig!

Jeff: I heard he was running Mennen Speed Stick deodorant all over his face. Is that true?

Pat: Yeah [laughs]. Kurt had this deodorant, and he sniffed it or something like that, and it got on his face. It looked like he had cocaine under his nose.

Jennifer: I heard he was asking Kurt to let him come on stage and play "Eruption," but Kurt said, "no," and Eddie said, "C'mon, let me play the Mexican's guitar," referring to you.

Pat: I told Krist [Novoselic], I thought we should let him play with us. But he said no because we'd never get him off the stage. When I walked up to Eddie, he was talking to Krist. I just saw the back of his head so I didn't know who he was. And Krist goes, "Oh Eddie, you haven't met Pat. He's our new guitar player." Eddie turns around and sees me, but he doesn't say hello or anything. He just say's, "Oh no, not a dark one." At first I thought he was kidding. But he kept asking me, "What are you? Are you like a Raji or something? Are you Mexican?" Then he kept saying to Kurt," C'mon let me play the Mexican's guitar." I was horrified!

Jeff: Is he the El Duce of Metal?

Pat: [Laughs] Eddie Van Halen is the perfect example for me of not wanting to meet your heroes 'cause you'll be disappointed. I hear he's sober now. I blame that incident totally on the alcohol. I've done a lot of bad things when I was drunk, too.

Jeff: I don't think you're coming from a judgmental place at all.

Pat: I was just shocked. I was thinking, "God, Eddie Van Halen hates me.

― latebloomer (latebloomer), Monday, 3 October 2005 03:53 (7 years ago) Permalink

(this story's been mentioned in a few other places too, most notably the charles cross cobain biography).

― latebloomer (latebloomer), Monday, 3 October 2005 04:03 (7 years ago) Permalink

oh no, not a dark one?

― gear (gear), Monday, 3 October 2005 04:06 (7 years ago) Permalink

hendrix by several light years.

Indeed, and the span of which containing many other guitarists.

― polyphonic (polyphonic), Monday, 3 October 2005 04:10 (7 years ago) Permalink

the distance between Eddie Van Halen and Nuno Bettencourt is a lot closer than the distance between EVH and Jimi.

― gear (gear), Monday, 3 October 2005 04:14 (7 years ago) Permalink

U2 = Hagar-era Van Halen, so maybe The Edge and Eddie are close, too. (see Poundcake, for starters, off VH's For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge album).

― Guitarzan, Monday, 3 October 2005 04:38 (7 years ago) Permalink

prince playing purple rain is the best guitar solo ever.

― retroman, Monday, 3 October 2005 10:11 (7 years ago) Permalink

Fascinating EVH story. What an asshole! One wonders what he might've said to Michael Jackson at the "Beat It" session. (MJ being still recognizable as a black man in those days.)

Guitar-wise, I've always defended Eddie as more than just a one-trick pony (he's a four-or-five trick pony), but he's no Hendrix.

― Myonga Von Bontee (Myonga Von Bontee), Monday, 3 October 2005 18:09 (7 years ago) Permalink

So, I feel pretty funny saying this, but I just listened to a bunch of Van Halen and all of a sudden I really like them. It's like a cross between The Cars and Jane's Addiction. More fun than Hendrix. I have tons of Hendrix bootlegs where he sounds amazing, but I never want to listen to them. I guess I don't really like the way he plays that much.

― Guitarzan, Monday, 3 October 2005 23:20 (7 years ago) Permalink

like a cross between The Cars and Jane's Addiction

I never thought about VH that way but I can see it!

What do you think of "Dreams"?

― Sundar (sundar), Tuesday, 4 October 2005 00:05 (7 years ago) Permalink

(I'm not necessarily agreeing that EVH is better than Hendrix, to be clear.)

― Sundar (sundar), Tuesday, 4 October 2005 00:06 (7 years ago) Permalink

What do you think of "Dreams"?

I really don't like the Sammy Hagar stuff.

― Guitarzan, Tuesday, 4 October 2005 00:23 (7 years ago) Permalink

...But I do like quite a few songs of the David Lee Roth records (Yankee Rose, Knuckle Bones, Stand Up, Goin' Crazy, Tobacco Road, Just Like Paradise). If DLR sang for Hendrix maybe I'd like it better. Ha. But, seriously, I think of Roth as a big dork, but I can not deny that I felt happier than I've felt in years listening to that stuff again. I was shocked.

― Guitarzan, Tuesday, 4 October 2005 00:27 (7 years ago) Permalink

Fascinating EVH story. What an asshole! One wonders what he might've said to Michael Jackson at the "Beat It" session. (MJ being still recognizable as a black man in those days.)
Guitar-wise, I've always defended Eddie as more than just a one-trick pony (he's a four-or-five trick pony), but he's no Hendrix.

-- Myonga Von Bontee (scottyfield...), October 3rd, 2005.
did they meet ?

― retroman, Tuesday, 4 October 2005 00:41 (7 years ago) Permalink

Hmmm, good question! He met Quincy Jones, anyways. On the special edition of Thriller with the spoken-word reminiscences, Q tells an amusing story about trying several times to contact EVH by phone to invite him to the sessions, only to have him hang up everytime, thinking it was a prank call. Eventually they connected, of course.

I think Smear's right - it probably was more alcohol-fuelled idiocy (à la Elvis Costello) than genuine racism on Van Halen's part. But, all the same, jeez...

― Myonga Von Bontee (Myonga Von Bontee), Tuesday, 4 October 2005 01:41 (7 years ago) Permalink

I guess he must be pretty good if he can play that well drunk. I always think I can play, but I can't play shit drunk. I quickly realize it and give up before I annoy everyone in the place.

― Guitarzan, Tuesday, 4 October 2005 02:11 (7 years ago) Permalink

I'm all washed up; you are what's happening now
the humAnity

― blunt (blunt), Tuesday, 4 October 2005 02:41 (7 years ago) Permalink

Eddie's one of the great players and I think he's even underrated in a weird way (he laid down the blueprint for about 20 years of guitar rock), but there's no denying he's Hendrix's eternal second banana. There's nothing in the VH catalog that even approaches what you hear on "Watchtower", "Machine Gun", "Castles Made of Sand" etc.

― Keith C (lync0), Tuesday, 4 October 2005 02:41 (7 years ago) Permalink

The question was a joke, no?

― Nigel (Nigel), Tuesday, 4 October 2005 15:28 (7 years ago) Permalink

I'm all washed up; you are what's happening now
the humAnity

He probably thought he was being sneaky by saying shit like that to convince Kurt and then he planned to take over a new generation when he got on stage by showing 'em up.

― Hmm Drunk People Do Strange Things, Tuesday, 4 October 2005 15:36 (7 years ago) Permalink

EVH rules and u all know it. He is WAY better than Hendrix. Hendrix is Over rated. I mean cmon what did HE write?purple haze.woodstock improvisation. EVH try 5150 eruption jump panama hot for teacher dreams ect ect ect. EVH ALL THE WAY!!!

― me, Tuesday, 11 October 2005 21:12 (7 years ago) Permalink

5150 eruption jump panama hot for teacher dreams
Is this a disguised sex ad ?

― blunt (blunt), Tuesday, 11 October 2005 22:53 (7 years ago) Permalink

Steve Vai is the king.

I feel comfortable saying this now that I own bought up almost every album of his in the past week or so. I did not realize he actually put so much feeling into his playing. Warning: do not do as I did and buy Sex & Religion or Flex-Able Leftovers first. These were the 2 I had previously sold back. Everything else is pretty unreal, especially Flexable, Passion & Warfare, Alien Love Secrets, Fire Garden, Real Illusions: Reflections and Alive In An Ultra World. Then: The Ultra Zone, Flexable Leftovers and Mystery Tracks Vol. 3. For the cheapskate, the double cd Anthology has a lot of good tracks on it, but you'd be better off grabbing these one at a time from the cutout bin like I did.

― Guitarzan, Tuesday, 11 October 2005 23:24 (7 years ago) Permalink

I feel that Van Halen is underated and Hendrix is overated. If most people would realize how much destortion Hendrix uses to get his sound they would realize he is just another famous player. Eddie on the other hand, was great. He formed what rock guitar is today and everyone knows it. Anyone who doesn't think so has never really listened to VH. He is not only a spectacular guitarist but a fine pianist, and deserves to be the best

― guitar freak, Monday, 24 October 2005 19:14 (7 years ago) Permalink

Then, I am going to accuse you of never really listening to anybody else.

― Guitarzan, Monday, 24 October 2005 19:17 (7 years ago) Permalink

If most people would realize how much destortion Hendrix uses to get his sound

Is that somehow a bad thing, or an ignoble shortcut?

― joseph cotten (joseph cotten), Monday, 24 October 2005 19:20 (7 years ago) Permalink

Hendrix didn't even use that much "destortion." Certainly not on Electric Ladyland. Eddie had all kinds of effects on his guitar, though.

― Guitarzan, Monday, 24 October 2005 19:29 (7 years ago) Permalink

1 month passes...

Van Halen...How can you play when your drunk? He does and it sounds great! I just dont get it...someone tell me please...HOW?

― Duffus Stein, Sunday, 4 December 2005 10:33 (7 years ago) Permalink

The documentary "Rock School" sheds some light on the bad and good of EVH. There's this wee kid in it who is put forward as a guitar savant and all he does is play EVHstyle wank. It's the kind of thing you can often hear many small kids playing relentlessly at Guitar Centers nationwide if you're stupid enough to go in on Saturdays when their parents take them to look over gear. He gets hauled out by the teacher to do his thing in front a Frank Zappa festival in Switzerland. Plays for thirty seconds, everyone applauds at the blazing fingers of the tyke who is almost smaller than his guitar. Then they drag him offstage and the band of elder teenagers gets back to playing an amazing version of Frank Zappa's "Inca Roads."
It's kind of a stagey joke.

Everytime the kid shows up in the documentary, it's to do the same thing. When he's had an operation to repair some bone problem in his leg and he has to play sitting down, he's like a machine with one programmed algorithm, to do Eddie Van Halen fleet fingers, to impress the rubes, all the better when he does it sitting in chair because he's a little frail and sick boy. When he tries to play the part of "You Really Got Me" that isn't "Eruption" or some Santana, any rock song with feel within the context of a band, he falls on his face. And that's a lot of the legacy of EVH. Not Eddie's fault, but that's the reality of it, this load of embarrassment that's tied to young kids who've linked ability on the instrument to finger calisthenics. And where did they get it? Well, that's what Eddie mostly sold or what people chose to take from him.

As for guitar, there's no Hendrix in Rock School. The kids playing guitar don't show any. The best you get is Frank Zappa, mostly because the dean is a Zappa superfan.

― George the Animal Steele, Sunday, 4 December 2005 19:57 (7 years ago) Permalink

EVH in a wash.

― aa, Sunday, 4 December 2005 21:10 (7 years ago) Permalink

Oh, c'mon. Try harder. Jimi Hendrix wins by default with an argument as good as that.

From the Seattle Post Intelligencer, a time ago:

Seattle found itself in a media frenzy last summer when billionaire Paul Allen presented his exuberant Experience Music Project (EMP) to the world. Allen's interactive museum--an ode to guitar great Jimi Hendrix--awed, inspired and had many people shaking their heads in bewilderment over its twisted metal exterior. Some compared the architecture to a squashed tin can, but crowds still came by the thousands to discover the music inside.

Daunted by press reports of waiting lines snaking around the block and back, at first I let EMP do its thing without me. Because I'm hearing impaired, the music world has gone by pretty much without my notice for the past several decades, although I admittedly rocked to Hendrix in person at the 1969 Newport Pop Festival.

...We found ourselves among those shaking their heads at the exterior design of EMP. World-renowned architect Frank Gehry, famous for his use of bold colors and atypical shapes, stayed in character when he molded EMP. Having more of a Bach personality than a Hendrix fetish, Gehry bought several electric guitars when he first came to Seattle and cut them into pieces to study their shapes, colors and textures. These elements were the beginnings of the structure that symbolizes the energy and fluidity of music--and possibly the electric guitars that Hendrix invariably smashed during each performance.

The first impression of the interior of EMP is one of high tech design and almost industrial space. With few visitors at this mid-morning hour, it felt almost cavernous and strangely quiet for a venue dedicated to high decibel rock and roll. After navigating the ticketing area and having our hands stamped concert-like, we entered the celestial, 85-foot high Sky Church that broadcasts to the heavens on the largest indoor video screen in the world. This dramatic reception/performance area is named for Hendrix's vision of a Sky Church where all kinds of people--regardless of age, background or interests--could come together to appreciate music.

====

Hendrix has a museum/tourist trap. Nothing like that in Pasadena for Eddie. He might have to die first.

― George the Animal Steele, Sunday, 4 December 2005 21:32 (7 years ago) Permalink

Eddie Van Halen is and will be the very best guitar player in the world. No one and I mean NO ONE does it like ED. He is a genius. Jimi was great don't get me wrong but Jimi just didn't rock like ed. Everyone who appreciates rock n roll knows that Ediie Van Halen rocks the world of music....

― Ric Hamilton, Thursday, 8 December 2005 13:04 (7 years ago) Permalink

That's really sad, Ric. I'm sad for you.

― Guitarzan, Thursday, 8 December 2005 14:39 (7 years ago) Permalink

Some of the one and two line testimonials to Eddie Van Halen on this thread are coincidentally fine recommendations of Hendrix. Hey, Eddie was responsible for the meteoric rise and agonizing fall of Kramer guitars. Fickle fandom for a guitarist's style never put Fender out of business.

― George the Animal Steele, Thursday, 8 December 2005 18:02 (7 years ago) Permalink

I'm still getting over the assertion that Hendrix used off the shelf equipment. Do your fucking research, for fuck's sake. Not that what equipment one uses has anything to do with whether or not one is a great player. Tell me that any of Hendrix's Fuzz Faces were stock and you'd be a liar. Shit, part of why he sounds the way he does is cause his guitars are strung upside-down and he plays the vibrato bar on a Strat with his elbow while it's sticking up instead of down.

And as for the fuckhead who said Hendrix is somehow less for using "destortion," get one clue moron. Both Hendrix and Eddie used plenty of destortion [sic]. The difference is Hendrix is distorting the power section of a tube amp by just turning the fucker all the way up, and Eddie is distorting the preamp section by carefully tweaking the amp with a bunch of kind of interesting techniques. Neither one is inherently better and neither is inherently bad. They are just completely different.

Eddie's a fantastic player of rock and pop. Hendrix is really a jazz player in the rock idiom.

Chuck Berry kicks both of their asses in many ways.

The real question is if Hendrix had lived to face his demons, would he be a total prick? Alternately, if Eddie had died at the peak of his career, would anybody be talking smack about him now?

So anyway, I am one of the biggest Van Halen fans you'll ever talk to, but I'm still gonna have to go with Hendrix.

― martin m. (mushrush), Thursday, 8 December 2005 18:48 (7 years ago) Permalink

I'm a massive fan of both these guys, but I have to give the edge to Hendrix. Eddie is a great technician, but I get the impression that his style is largely based on Hendrix's "Star Spangled Banner" Woodstock solo (feedback, howling harmonics, heavy signal processing). Though Eddie never cites Hendrix as an influence, he obviously picked up on Jimi's style. What's more, Hendrix's songs are timeless. Tunes like "Little Wing," "Castles Made of Sand," "Machine Gun" and "Manic Depression" (among others ) are truly poetic songs that use the guitar to make timeless socio-political statements. With all due respect, EVH just writes party-hearty heavy rock. It's very good stuff, but it's not transcendent.

― b. bruce, Saturday, 10 December 2005 12:07 (7 years ago) Permalink

Eddie may have said "I'm all washed up; you are what's happening now."
but Cobain is the one that is dead!

EVH is the master! Cobain.. worm food.

obviously Cobain was depressed too? YA THINK?

― sheri j, Sunday, 11 December 2005 06:35 (7 years ago) Permalink

Hendrix is really a jazz player in the rock idiom.

I've heard this meme before and it's nonsense. Hendrix was a blues and R&B player. His playing comes directly out of that music -- and I don't mean this to be in any way denigrating. But there's hardly a lick of jazz in anything he plays.

As for EVH, well, unlike the kid in Rock School and the minions making after-school trips to guitar center, he actually COULD groove as well. And he could play a really memorable, catchy guitar solo, which is one of my ultimate measures of a guitarist. I'll take Hendrix over him, but I wouldn't want to live in a world without Hot for Teacher.

― Abbadavid Berman (Hurting), Sunday, 11 December 2005 06:51 (7 years ago) Permalink

Eddy's paradox is that he does rock, while his legacy kids -- the Rock School savant by example -- don't. Of course, they get delivered as rocking, certainly in the movie. But you look who it's for and the overawed are rubes, parents and a motley assortment of dolts out to see a freak show. I liken Eddy fascination in many as a variety of the American fascination with huge elaborate and dangerous weapons and militaria. There's an engineering poetry in the B-2 bomber, much like there's a poetry of engineering in EVH's guitar calisthenics.

― George the Animal Steele, Sunday, 11 December 2005 18:53 (7 years ago) Permalink

Skipping 266 messages at this point... Click here if you want to load them all.

guy was really the whole package.

You're right, when Jimi played, he was "one" with his instrument. You can tell by his movements, including his facial expressions, that only one thing was happening.

It's easy to underrate Jimi because when we hear music today, and then we hear Jimi's music, he doesn't sound as unusual as he did when he was around because a lot of the music we hear today are copied or influenced from Jimi's music. The thing we need to take into consideration when judging a famous artist's music is the time period in which they were around. That is the same reason why the Beatles are so underrated by some people.

― Alton Wong, Monday, 23 July 2012 18:41 (10 months ago) Permalink

you're preaching to the choir. if there's one thing that everyone on ILX agrees about, it's that the beatles are criminally underrated.

― contenderizer, Monday, 23 July 2012 18:54 (10 months ago) Permalink

i think we're missing an opportunity to ponder how amazing it would have been if david lee roth was the lead singer of the jimi hendrix experience

― wack nerd zinging in the dead of night (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Monday, 23 July 2012 19:10 (10 months ago) Permalink

really great video

― tylerw, Monday, 23 July 2012 19:17 (10 months ago) Permalink

i like hendrix's method of comping, playing chords, coming up with fills and passing phrases. maybe this isn't an underrated part of his repertoire but it seems like it, still.

i don't have much of an opinion on EVH. i like the solo on 'beat it' a lot.

― goole, Monday, 23 July 2012 19:24 (10 months ago) Permalink

eddie i think an unheralded rhythm player, real light touch and unique style, plays a lot of fingerstyle for a "metal" guitarist

― wack nerd zinging in the dead of night (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Monday, 23 July 2012 19:33 (10 months ago) Permalink

yeah i guess that's true too. he does a lot of country-derived stuff.

― goole, Monday, 23 July 2012 19:38 (10 months ago) Permalink

i mean this is cool shit

― wack nerd zinging in the dead of night (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Monday, 23 July 2012 19:43 (10 months ago) Permalink

The Beatles are grossly underrated and they have changed music more then anybody. Actually, they seem to have changed everything. Jimi is definitely in good company.

― Alton Wong, Monday, 23 July 2012 21:01 (10 months ago) Permalink

― Sig Sig Ruman (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 23 July 2012 21:10 (10 months ago) Permalink

grossly underrated by who? martians?

― scott seward, Monday, 23 July 2012 21:10 (10 months ago) Permalink

pizza also grossly underrated iirc

― the alternate vision continues his vision quest! (Shakey Mo Collier), Monday, 23 July 2012 21:11 (10 months ago) Permalink

if there is one thing i have learned on the internet though EVERYONE is underrated. every single person who ever made a record. forever.

― scott seward, Monday, 23 July 2012 21:11 (10 months ago) Permalink

i take it back. i thought you were talking about the bootles.

― contenderizer, Monday, 23 July 2012 21:18 (10 months ago) Permalink

You're right, every recording artist has been underrated. That includes people like the Dave Clark Five, and Donny and Marie Osmond. I like your high standards.

― Alton Wong, Monday, 23 July 2012 21:27 (10 months ago) Permalink

is this where I post Crazy Horses youtubes

― the alternate vision continues his vision quest! (Shakey Mo Collier), Monday, 23 July 2012 21:29 (10 months ago) Permalink

yes please

― Neil Jung (WmC), Monday, 23 July 2012 21:31 (10 months ago) Permalink

Altgeir Wongro

― Marco YOLO (Phil D.), Monday, 23 July 2012 21:34 (10 months ago) Permalink

― the alternate vision continues his vision quest! (Shakey Mo Collier), Monday, 23 July 2012 21:35 (10 months ago) Permalink

^ UNDERRATED

― contenderizer, Monday, 23 July 2012 21:36 (10 months ago) Permalink

like the bootles

― contenderizer, Monday, 23 July 2012 21:36 (10 months ago) Permalink

"You're right, every recording artist has been underrated. That includes people like the Dave Clark Five"

TOTALLY! i've gone on and on about how underrated they are. so sad. one of the greatest bands ever.

― scott seward, Monday, 23 July 2012 21:38 (10 months ago) Permalink

i mean people know who they are and they were big in their day but nobody listens to them. and they really should. so great.

― scott seward, Monday, 23 July 2012 21:39 (10 months ago) Permalink

re: david lee roth as leader of jimi's band, we have the technology to make that happen now...

― Philip Nunez, Monday, 23 July 2012 21:41 (10 months ago) Permalink

― contenderizer, Monday, 23 July 2012 21:49 (10 months ago) Permalink

all this machinery making modern web posts can still be open-hearted

― Euler, Monday, 23 July 2012 21:50 (10 months ago) Permalink

Pretty good video of the Osmonds. I've never seen him so rocking and a rolling. Roll over John Smith.

― Alton Wong, Monday, 23 July 2012 22:30 (10 months ago) Permalink

correction: Joseph Smith

― Alton Wong, Monday, 23 July 2012 22:35 (10 months ago) Permalink

often mistaken for his grandad, john smith is rolling over in his grave!

― Philip Nunez, Monday, 23 July 2012 22:45 (10 months ago) Permalink

Mike Smith too!

― Sig Sig Ruman (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 23 July 2012 23:16 (10 months ago) Permalink

Joseph E Smith and Your Seven Grannies on Bongos

― wack nerd zinging in the dead of night (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Monday, 23 July 2012 23:27 (10 months ago) Permalink

Sounds like something the underrated Vivian Stanshall announced on that underrated track "The Intro And The Outro"

― Sig Sig Ruman (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 24 July 2012 00:31 (10 months ago) Permalink

Listening to some of Eddie's best stuff, I didn't hear anything at all new from where Hendrix left off. Eddie had his own guitar licks of course just like different guitarists have their own solos also, but Eddie certainly didn't take the guitar any further than Hendrix. Compared to wild, but smooth Jimi, Eddie looks like he was trying too hard.

― Alton Wong, Tuesday, 24 July 2012 22:18 (10 months ago) Permalink

WILD BUT SMOOTH ALTON WONG!

― contenderizer, Tuesday, 24 July 2012 22:23 (10 months ago) Permalink

I'm only recounting to you what I saw in the youtube which is just my opinion.

― Alton Wong, Tuesday, 24 July 2012 23:26 (10 months ago) Permalink

i kid, alton. we're all family here.

― contenderizer, Tuesday, 24 July 2012 23:27 (10 months ago) Permalink

I can tell, and that's good.

― Alton Wong, Tuesday, 24 July 2012 23:30 (10 months ago) Permalink

"eddie might have been the most influential american guitarist after hendrix. on hard rock and metal. for better or worse."

Yup. Rapidly played sequences of single notes which, were they slowed down, would be revealed as basically uninteresting--thanks, Eddie!

― theStalePrince, Tuesday, 24 July 2012 23:55 (10 months ago) Permalink

― contenderizer, Wednesday, 25 July 2012 01:01 (10 months ago) Permalink

still interesting

― goole, Wednesday, 25 July 2012 01:05 (10 months ago) Permalink

Not a big EVH fan myself, but don't think Alton is making his case very well.

― Can Ruman Sig The Whites? (James Redd and the Blecchs), Wednesday, 25 July 2012 01:19 (10 months ago) Permalink

Actually, I like this slowed down version of Eruption better. In contrast to the regular version, this one is at least something different.

― Alton Wong, Wednesday, 25 July 2012 01:49 (10 months ago) Permalink

It's super cliché to say that Hendrix is overrated, so I won't say that

it's not "super cliché" so much as it is "completely fucking stupid."

― (The Other) J.D. (J.D.), Wednesday, 25 July 2012 02:03 (10 months ago) Permalink

i like slowed down eddie. sounds awesome. i do think he's very entertaining on his own. or was. plus, he was kind enough to include a bathroom break for half the crowd!

― scott seward, Wednesday, 25 July 2012 03:55 (10 months ago) Permalink

they wore it well.

― scott seward, Wednesday, 25 July 2012 04:07 (10 months ago) Permalink

6 months pass...

Eddie Van Halen had some good guitar solos in the late 70's and 80's like all great lead guitarists have, but it wasn't anything new, just different like there are many different songs. Jimi Hendrix, when he was around in the late 60's came out with something totally original and powerful. This was out of this world and it changed the face of the earth as far as popular music was concern. As I said before it hard to imagine how music would sound today without Jimi. Eddie's in denial about the fact that if there was no Jimi, there would be no
Eddie. Well, there still would be a Eddie Van Halen, but he might have been just tuning guitars or something for a living. Jimi Hendrix played everything that was possible, so no one could ever take it any further.

― Alton Wong, Wednesday, 6 February 2013 04:01 (3 months ago) Permalink

Hendrix might be the better player or better at crafting unique sounds, but Eddie was miles better as a song writer there's easily seven Van Halen albums I would listen to over Jimi's stuff.

― a_little_hello, Wednesday, 6 February 2013 15:06 (3 months ago) Permalink

Who's a better songwriter is a matter of personal taste. They were both excellent at it. Paul McCartney is something else.

― Alton Wong, Tuesday, 19 February 2013 21:30 (3 months ago) Permalink

3 weeks pass...

I've never seen Jimi live, only on film and audio sound. A couple of my friends who have seen Jimi live said that when they saw Jimi playing, no one ever went to the restroom, even during break if there was one.

― Alton Wong, Saturday, 16 March 2013 00:39 (2 months ago) Permalink

Only 3,000 people went to the bathroom during a Jimi Hendrix show, but every one of them avoided a UTI.

― Johnny Too Borad (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 16 March 2013 01:08 (2 months ago) Permalink

You must be logged in to post. Please either login here, or if you are not registered, you may register here.