jasmine3121 said:

Dayclear said:

Those days were different - people took drugs to get spiritual and Jimi was really a deeply spiritual guy. Of course drugs and drinking ended up really screwing him up and lead to his death, but his music was spiritual. Billy Cox said, "There was a spiritual side to the music we were creating." Prince is a lot like Jimi was in a lot of ways. Jimi was a very quiet man, very shy off stage, like Prince. He didn't open up too much. He was a very private person. Once he began playing, he transformed. Like Prince, his music was sexually charged and direct. Like Prince, Jimi copied a lot of his look from Little Richard. Jimi just idolized Little Richard. Jimi joined Little Richard's band in 1965. "He began to dress like me and he even grew a little mustache like mine." - Little Richard. Jimi said, "Little Richard wouldn't let me wear frilly shirts on stage. He said 'I'm Little Richard, I'm the King of Rock & Roll and I'm the only one who's going to look pretty.' He had another meeting over my hairstyle. I said I wasn't going to cut my hair for nobody." Jimi was considered a clown to the black community in the '60s. They use to call him the Wicked Witch from the East because of the hat he used to wear. "He plays white rock, for white people." Prince has gotten the same criticisms, especially with Purple Rain. Jimi wanted to stretch out. Jimi got a lot funkier with Band of Gypsys. The song Izabella was so funky. Jimi had steered in a new, more soulful direction. Jimi was trying to extend the music. Jimi provided musical backing for proto-rap pioneers The Last Poets in 1969. Like Prince, Jimi wanted to take his music in different directions. He wanted an organ player. Jimi wanted to have three or four horns. "I'm gonna do R & B. I'm gonna work with some horns and put together something like Otis (Redding), cause that's really where it's at.", said Jimi. Jimi was going to jam with Sly and the Family Stone in September 17 1970. Jimi was really excited about Sly. But he didn't show up because he died. In 1967 Eddie Kramer was playing some Jazz chords on the piano when Jimi said "Man, what are those chords? Show me those chords. I've got the put those in my music." Jimi wanted to make a record with Miles Davis but it was canceled because Miles said he wanted $50,000 before he goes in the studio. Jimi said "I like to write songs like Castles Made of Sand, personally. The ballads I really like to get together. That's what I really dig." Jimi's manager Michael Jeffery was putting pressure on Jimi to stick to rock. Jimi was deeply offended that Jeffery would interfere with Jimi's creative decisions. Jimi also had a dog named Prince in 1955.


Jimi pic is from i.realone.com.
[Edited 5/29/08 20:37pm]

Prince,just cuz I love him.

Itz a hrd comparison....both ov them r very influencial 2 me on da the guitar. I thnk the r both equally as innovative but just in different ways. I mean obviously they wre n 2 different tme periods so thy had differnt things 2 bring 2 the table. But by far P is my fav artitst and the 1 who influnces me the most. But hendrix is my #2

Man, you people can be so boneheaded. It is a FACT that Jimi is more of an innovator than Prince. Deal with it.
[Edited 5/25/08 18:20pm]

Gohi said:

blackguitaristz said:


I agree with him.
Personally, Hendrix is my choice, like I said in my original post. I just like the way jdcxc worded his/her explanation.
If Hendrix was alive now, I'd follow him and Prince would be a close 2nd. I LOVE me some Jimi!

well that depends on the person.1 person may b influenced in a different way than another.

Dayclear said:

*dies*

Jimi hands down! Jimi is Jimi he was totally original.


Prince is more or less a hybrid of a lot of artist styles....Jimi, Sly, James, Little Richard, George, Mick etc.

IAintTheOne said:

Tell me about it...
And the best part is, some of the peeps here think Prince is more of an 'innovator' between these two

Dayclear said:

So essentially you're saying your just ignorant...

Thumparello said:

Jimi's music was basic blues based rock with brilliant and revolutionary guitar leads. To say P was "more or less a hybrid" downplays the difficulty in incorporating such disparate influences (joni, jb, santana) into a new and transcendant sound. You can't listen to When Doves Cry and most of 1980/90's radio and not hear P's unique blueprint. P is so much more than his influences. His songwriting and vision are singular. Plus, all music is a hybrid.

I'd say Jimi.

I read somewhere that he was born earlier.

Gohi said:

HELL NO...Jimi is the greatest guitarist(so far)but Prince is a complete musical badass...overall more innovative than Jimi...but if the topic is about just guitars ,well...that would be close...Prince plays all styles
on guitars ...Jimi is just probably a sharper player on the few style he is known for...Prince more diverse,Jimi 'sharper" he is just known for guitars.
Prince,guitars & then some...

FlamingRaindrop said:

I'm saying, I think Prince sounds better.
[Edited 5/26/08 5:19am]

FlamingRaindrop said:

Well, you tell me how many that grew up in the 80's and 90's don't see him as just that high Woodstock-guy who played guitar or even know anything about him?

viewaskew said:

Agreed.

I prefer Prince as an artist. Sue me!

Thanks VenusBlingBling. I went over to youtube for a while to check Hendrix out and he's good, but his guitar don't move me like Prince's does. I do have a right to choose.
[Edited 5/26/08 6:08am]

It's a unfair question. Jimi and P are from two diffrent generations doing completely different styles of music. Sure there's some soul, rock, and blues and P has paid tribute to Jimi subconciously..but Jimi never got the chance to expand musically like P.

But I'm sure if Jimi was alive today, Jimi and P definetly would have had some jams recorded at Paisley.

..Oh yeah..another thing. P came out on the scene as a R&B artist and had the R&B fans. P was also able to sneak some rock stuff on his records too.

Jimi wasn't accepted by the R&B crowd and black radio wouln't play his music. Those things can hurt a black artist that's doing something different.

of course Jimi was the more innovative of the two, and that is the reason people are choosing Prince. Jimi was too innovative and experimental for a lot of people, his music is not as accessible as Prince's.
Jimi pushed the boundaries in every aspect of his life, sadly leading to his untimely death, but some of the stuff that he did way back when is still far ahead of the stuff musicians are doing now, and yes, that includes Prince.

This question is like a music history thing. Prince is a student of Hendrix's. Always has been. And, he's still appropriating Jimi's stuff to this day.

1) Hendrix was more than an innovative guitarist who changed the face of rock guitar. He, too, dabbled in various styles on his records -- and his soul turn, toward the end of his days, would have been a treat to watch evolve. But what he did in rock music alone is quite amazing. The tons of tribute albums to him that cycle through every few years is a testament to his influence. You get all these wide-ranging acts whose guitarists play, and you see how broadly this man's style has been internalized and felt. "Habibi" was his take on Hendrix's "Machine Gun," for instance.

And, in recent years, with the Strat playing, the change in styles and the face-making, Prince has been copying Hendrix HARD. "Fury" is nothing but a Hendrix song, and Prince's SNL performance and the video for it were obvious, in that regard. As Prince's amazing mobility onstage has been stymied by hip issues over the years, he's modified his stage routine to include elements of Jimi's moves, as well as Ike & Tina-style choreography.

2) Hendrix was a multi-instrumentalist, too. Folks see him and think guitar. But much has been written about his work on bass, piano and drums during sessions. He played them well enough to birth his song concept and to produce the sorts of recordings -- particularly with Electric Ladyland -- that just hadn't been done so masterfully. A lot of the studio wizardry we hear on P's stuff has its roots in Jimi's work.

The fact that people continually raise the question of someone who's been doing his thing for 3 decades versus someone whose solo career was but one-tenth as long should be a clear indicator of just how big Hendrix was in music.

I prefer Prince as a guitar player,its my taste but Hendrix is a genius an a inovator that changed the guitar history forever,we cant say the same about Prince.

Hendrix? The dude plays guitar with his teeth. aint my style at all!


Very good reasons Y Prince is better.

#1. He has more style
#2. He's still alive
#3. He has more than 1 character

Prince kicks ass!

IWouldDie4U666 said:

You, sir, are a complete ass.

IWouldDie4U666 said:

Oh sweet Jesus on a Bun.


And one more thing, Put the grape kool-aid DOWN. It's not about who'se better, its about who is more innovative.
[Edited 5/26/08 10:35am]

FuNkeNsteiN said:

Thank U!

ToraToraDreams said:

Oh my bad, Prince is more innovative!

And that joke about the Purple Koolaid is so old, almost 4got where it came from.
[Edited 5/26/08 10:54am]

blackguitaristz said:

This has turned out pretty much like I thought...this is why I suggested this was a bait thread or a thread to basically set it up for folks on here who dislike Hendrix. The sad part about it is that many people who's knocking Jimi are the same ones who doesn't know anything about Jimi. They don't own any of his music. They've never seen any specials or read any books on the man. They just choose to hang onto the only negative thing they can find on Jimi and that is he used drugs. And they don't even know about that part of it. If they knew anything about Jimi, they would know that he was murdered and not that he died of a drug overdose. This has been proven and a book about Hendrix's murder has been written about titled "Hendrix, The Last Days". I think this is why the thread was placed in this forum and not anywhere else because the author knew what the responses pretty much would be. To be honest, I'm surprised that many people on here favored Hendrix. But to the others, I can careless if u favor Big Bird over Bert & Ernie, but if you're going to try to put Hendrix down, least know what the fuck you're talking about before u try to insult the man.