Eddie Van Halen or Jimi Hendrix?

"but I will say that I reach for Van Halen records far more often than I do Hendrix. Just great songwriting."

i think hendrix's songwriting is kinda the genius part of his genius. i think he was a great composer. i mean not that he wasn't in his a league of his own as a guitarist, he was. okay, i guess he was just a genius. or let's just say he was very very gifted.

yeah people who talk about hendrix as some kind of one-dimensional instrumental genius/showman piss me off, guy was really the whole package

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.

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.

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

really great video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQW81FJYeJw

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.

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

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

i mean this is cool shit

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsqywc7fnqE

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.

http://afterride.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/haruki-murakami-the-wind-up-bird-chronicle.jpg

grossly underrated by who? martians?

pizza also grossly underrated iirc

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

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

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.

is this where I post Crazy Horses youtubes

yes please

Altgeir Wongro

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMM3MgS4yxc&feature=related

^ UNDERRATED

like the bootles

"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.

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.

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

http://i274.photobucket.com/albums/jj242/donaldparsley/Dave_Clark_Five_1966.jpg

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

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

correction: Joseph Smith

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

Mike Smith too!

Joseph E Smith and Your Seven Grannies on Bongos

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

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.

WILD BUT SMOOTH ALTON WONG!

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

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

I can tell, and that's good.

"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!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CSZei5O2DbI

still interesting

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

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

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."

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!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJ6jy3L0B70&feature=related

they wore it well.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ppLk2bPNTkc&feature=relmfu

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.

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.

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