RateItAll: The Opinion Network

Your list and comments make one wonder which guitarists are underrated. Everyone is a product of their age and Hendrix was lightyears ahead of anyone else in guitar at his time. It's not just about how fast your fingers move over the neck of the instument, it's about how well you dominate you intrument and achieve the sound/rythym/effect that your music demands. Hendrix has no peer in that regard. People have come after him that may be greater technicians or play with more lighting speed. But that's like comparing Emerson Lake and Palmer's version of Hoedown with Aaron Copeland's recording of his own work. (Gee, Keith Emerson can play that faster than the Philadelphia Philharmonic - he must be a better musican).

fitman - would love to know if you can find a recording of the piece you refer to.

Jimi Hendrix is overrated only when somebody with limited knowlege says (hyperbolically), "Hendrix is the greatest guitar player of all time.". He definitely deserves to be listed among the greatest even though some of his recordings are uneven (perhaps because his side men were sometimes not up to the challenge of the material), but nobody is 'the greatest guitar player of all time'.

BTW, I have heard another guitarist match Jimi note for note. I don't know his name, but he played in a late '70s band called "Electric God" that was fronted by Jack Hammer (who, with Otis Blackwell, had written Great Balls Of Fire for Jerry lee Lewis) . In their over-the-top show, a spotlit Hammer - who looked and sounded eerily like Jimi - sang and wielded a left-handed white Strat (that wasn't plugged in) as a prop while a sideman back in the shadows played Hendrix songs note for note. Hammer claimed the same birthday as Hendrix, said they were cousins, and swore he was channeling Hendrix on stage. I took his hype with a grain of salt.