desertdudeshj wrote:Agreed Marley made reggae mainstream and popular.
Hendrix, other than stringing a stratocaster the wrong way round for left handed use and playing it with his willy didn't do much. Maybe a few decent tunes here and there. As Orb says he wouldn't be half as famous if he hadn't died as any rock star of the 60's and 70's worth his salt of an overdose.
Its a little more than that.
Being a guitarist, I can tell you that his songs are technically brilliantly constructed and the sounds he created were completely revolutionary at the time. He was brought to the UK as no-one in the US could get what he was doing even though he had built a solid reputation as a blues performer working with many famous names such as the Isley Brothers, Little Richard and Sam Cooke.
The record producer Chas Chandler, who played as a member of the UK band The Animals, heard his work and teamed him with 2 equally well respected musicians in the shape of Mitch Mitchell on drums and guitarist Noel Redding...who was unceremoniously told after his audition he would be playing bass. This was the Jimi Hendrix Experience. They were signed to Polydor Records and this is when the magic began. it was also at this time he was introduced to the Fender Stratocaster. Being left handed, he re-strung the standard right handed guitar to suit his style. The combination of tones this created, due to the bias on the string tensioners being the opposite to the way it was designed, also developed a new and unique sound quality.
He was a perfectionist, often taking more than 50 attempts to get a recording right, and experimented with sounds using electronic effects pedals built specifically for him. These are now the standards used by every guitarist since. He discovered the Vox Wah Wah pedal when lent the first prototype by Frank Zappa and made it his own, influencing the growing number of funk musicians of the 70's. He used Overdrive, and a pedal called Octavia was designed for him. He played with feedback created by pushing amps to the max, subsequently used by every heavy rock band since.
Possibly the single most important technique he created was stereo Phase. In those days stereo was in its infancy and everything was recorded on simple 4 track tape in mono. Hendrix developed the method of double tracking performances and guiding the sound directions in the final stereo mix so that the sound rotated around the listener or appeared to crossover from side to side.
Many people never appreciate the changes he made to the culture, fashion and technology of rock music.
I do.
Knight