Wait, you think Jesse's not influenced by Hendrix?

He kinda sorta... really is.

Well hell, let me go ahead and post NOW before I get an avalanche of orgnotes saying "C'mon bgz! You HAVE to post on this one!" Many of u all have already read my posts and or threads dealing with both Jesse and Dez. I don't usually like to compare people who are great at what they do. It's all subjective anyways because it's always based on who someone "prefers". And that's always going to ring different depending on each person. I thought the thread on Stevie Ray vs Jesse was more fitting because both of their styles are more blues based and there are some similar aspects to their playing. In this case though, TOTALLY seperate TYPES of players. I once ran a thread on here a long time ago about how Prince, Dez and Jesse ALL were influenced musically as well as visually by Hendrix. And I asked, out of the 3, which were the MOST Hendrix-like? My point is that's the ONLY similarity between the 3 is their love for Hendrix and being influnced by Hendrix. Now this thread is about just 2 of the 3 that I was talking about but my opinion is STILL the same. Other than Dez and Jesse both digging and emulating Hendrix, their totally two different types of players. Dez obviously is more rock oriented and all of his lead playing echoes this fact. Jesse, who definately is a rock guitarist, is more blues based so that gives him a different sound. So besides Hendrix, they have totally different influences. So therefore, THAT dictates their style of playing. Now as far as technique and skill, as a lead guitarist, to me, I have to say Jesse. I have seen both Dez and Jesse live many times in the early 80's when they played with P and The Time. And I have seen Dez and Jesse live as solo artists later in the mid 80's and in Jesse's case, the late 80's & mid 90's. As MUCH as I LOVE Dez as a player and his image, to me, in my opinion, seeing them in a live setting as guitarists in those situations, Jesse is the more skilled as a guitarist. As good and as cool as Dez is, Jesse absoulutely BLAZES on the axe. But I love them both and both of them have been an influence on me.
[Edited 8/9/09 17:57pm]

What it is, Thread?

Really????!!!!! Name one major rock star jesse johnson was called to perform with as tour guitarist?????

The room goes silent....Dez is the man!!!

It's all in this brother's headband where he gets his powers!

I do...he's said so but I thought he's mentioned clapton and King and I just wonder why Hendrix is the only guitarist referred to as an influence in these type threads. there were/are so many great guitarists that have become icons. Bringing up Hendrix all the gatdang time is...i dunno...suspect.

How in the world can anybody come up with what I stated as "suspect" or "racist" because I mentioned that Dez and Jesse were influenced by Hendrix? When in fact my ONLY reason for even mentioning Hendrix in the first place was to state the fact THAT'S the ONLY thing as lead guitarists that Dez and Jesse truly have in common. My point with mentioning Hendrix had NOTHING to do with who else Dez and Jesse were influenced by. I was simply stating that Dez and Jesse's playing styles couldn't be further apart from each other's. And that Hendrix was the only link Dez and Jesse had in common. That's WHY I even mentioned Hendrix in the first place. I even went on to state that Dez and Jesse, besides Hendrix, obviously had other and different influences. Which is what dictated their playing styles. Dez is a Zeppelin NUT so he's always dug Jimmy Page. And he also loved Mark Farner from Grand Funk Railroad. It's obvious that Dez had "rock" influences just like I also stated that Jesse, although he too is a rock guitarist, his influences are more "blues based". I stated THAT. Jesse has said that he loves Stevie Ray Vaughn. BUT that doesn't have anything to do with the sole point that I was making. And that's the MAIN thing that links Dez and Jesse is that their BOTH influenced by and patterned themselves after Hendrix. It goes without saying, at least for ME anyways, that bruthas have OTHER influences besides Hendrix. I'm a prime example of that. I'm a black lead rock guitarist who have always had influences who were not black. Besides Hendrix, Eddie Hazel and Ernie Isley, I have also been heavily influenced by Santana, Brian May, Ulrich Roth, Neal Schon, David Gilmour, Jimmy Page, Matthias Jabs. So either u didn't read my entire post or u totally mistook the very thing I was pointing out. BUT either way, you couldn't have been more OFF.
[Edited 8/11/09 2:06am]

Um actually, I wasn't even addressing you i was conversing with splank so you're off. I said these types of threads (not BGZ) always throw up Hendrix like there is no other guitarist/icon that influenced either Jesse, Dez or Prince for that matter. Yeah you mentioned Hendrix but in the larger perspective, he will always be mentioned on the org by somebody when referring to guitar styles of either Dez, Jesse, Prince or Wendy and it gets old. I've seen it here and at HQ blah blah. Hendrix was cool but he was not the end all be all of guitar players. That's what I'm talkin' bout. And yeah I still think when folk throw him up like that with reference to Prince and his crew it still seems suspect to me like you can only mention Hendrix in context with another black guitarist.

thanks for the latter part of your posts though. I like the props to other guitarists and it's important to acknowledge them because a lot of people may have never heard of them.

Well there was NO way for me to NOT think that you WEREN'T addressing me since I was the ONLY cat on THIS specific thread that even mentioned Hendrix. And no one, certainly not me, EVER stated that Hendrix was the end all of guitarists. You can think whatever u wish is suspect, that has nothing to do with me. But I felt you were attempting to try to tag all of THAT off onto my post. And if you were, then again, you couldn't have been more off. Because ANYBODY who had read my post could CLEARLY see what I was saying.

That's funny! I think you'll find BGZ knows ALL about THAT (with the headband)

I think in terms of guitar skill.....it's close enough that to really be able to make that call, you would have to be a guitarist yourself. And since I'm not, I'm inclined to believe blackguitaristz when he says that Jesse edges it.

So instead I'm gonna talk about them as songwriters, since I am a songwriter and therefore can make an informed judgement as far as that goes

Jesse wins because he's one of my favorite artists of all time and all his solo albums are severely underrated. He proved himself as a great and diverse songwriter, whether it was writing hard funk jams like "Be Your Man", beautiful love songs like "I'm Just Wanting You", pop tunes like some of the Ta Mara & The Seen material (and even "Heart Too Hot To Hold" which was used in The Breakfast Club), or even going on a socio-political tip with "Black In America".

HOWEVER - There's something about Dez's songwriting that just kills me! Dez had something going in the early 80's that possibly had even MORE pop potential than a lot of Prince's stuff, if he had explored it a little more. There's a pop bounce present in The Time's "After Hi School", "Wild & Loose" and Vanity 6's "He's So Dull" (all written by Dez) that is just amazingly infectious. Not to mention "Modernaire", and The Time's "Cool" (he wrote the lyrics to that one).

Personally I would have loved to see just Dez and Prince at the helm of the Vanity 6 album if it would have meant more tunes along the lines of "He's So Dull". Prince obviously saw the commercial potential in Dez's writing which is why that song became a single.

Who do ya think was playing alot of those solos with Prince on Uptown, private joy back in the day in concert while prince was holding down vocals most of the the time....


All I have to say...check out Uptown live and sit yo jerri curl down somewhere Jesse!!!!



MONEYMADE