The guitarist Jimi Hendrix said influenced him more than anyone: “That sweet sound”
Jimi Hendrix was a guitar-playing force unlike anything that the world had ever experienced, or will ever experience again.
He was only a mainstream artist for around four years; this is a very short space of time in the grand scheme of things, and yet it was long enough for Hendrix to be considered one of the greatest guitarists ever. When people talk about who the best to pick up a six-string was, it’s not really a question, as nobody else in the conversation has had the same impact that Hendrix did over such a short space of time.
His influence was immediate as well. The moment people went to his shows, they knew that they were watching something truly special. Nobody ever left his gigs feeling anything other than completely blown away, as Hendrix played on his knees, with the guitar behind his head and with his teeth, all of which made him stand out in a saturated market and got the biggest names in the world talking about him.
Mick Jagger, arguably one of the greatest frontmen of all time, said it was impossible to watch someone like Hendrix play and not get swept up in the whole performance. Hendrix was a force to be reckoned with, someone who heard music and saw the guitar differently than anybody else around him. It must have been incredibly exciting to watch.
“I loved Jimi Hendrix from the beginning,” said Jagger. “The moment I saw him, I thought he was fantastic. I was an instant convert. Mr Jimi Hendrix is the best thing I’ve ever seen. It was exciting, sexy and interesting. He didn’t have a very good voice, but made up for it with his guitar.”
Even Eric Clapton, who is often credited for his ability to merge different styles of guitar playing, said that Hendrix could do the same thing but in a way that was incredibly natural. No matter what subsection of rock you wanted to talk about, or what kind of style a guitarist should be playing, Hendrix had it all in his back pocket.
“He played just about every style you could think of, and not in a flashy way,” he said. “I mean he did a few of his tricks, like playing with his teeth and behind his back, but it wasn’t in an upstaging sense at all, and that was it… He walked off, and my life was never the same again.”
When you have a musician who is that innovative and has influenced people so much, it’s hard to believe that he himself had musicians he looked up to. Artists like Hendrix seem to live outside the regular sphere of music, as he comes across as someone who was sent to Earth to play and expand the parameters of human consciousness in the process. But Hendrix tuned his guitar one string at a time like everybody else, and he was inspired by the guitar players who came before. His biggest inspiration might actually come as a surprise to a lot of people.
Before he made a name for himself as a solo artist, Hendrix played lead guitar in a number of different bands. One of these groups was called The Bonnevilles, who managed to get a gig supporting The Impressions one day. Curtis Mayfield was playing the guitar during that show for The Impressions, and Hendrix was never the same again. Everything about the way Mayfield played appealed to him, and the Seattle-born shredder attested that he was the guitarist who inspired him more than anyone else.
“The best gig was working with Curtis Mayfield and the Impressions. He was a really good guitarist!” Said Hendrix, “I learned quite a lot in that short time. He probably influenced me more than anyone I’d ever played with up to that time, that sweet sound of his, you know.”
