Rock Heaven Guitar Duel: Hendrix vs. Harrison

In the months after the events of September 11, 2001, the music world took a hit the likes of which it hadn’t taken in over 30 years.

The world lost a Beatle.

Now, George Harrison had been sick for some time when he passed, but a death of any magnitude is never easy to handle.

Forty years before, in the months after the events of Woodstock, the world lost a very different (but equally influential) guitarist, Jimi Hendrix.

His death was more of a shock. Of course, passing out drunk on red wine and choking on your own vomit in your sleep isn’t usually a death you can see coming.

Unless, of course, you are a rock star. It happens to them quite a bit.

Regardless, both of them are up in Rock Heaven, Jimi with his Fender and George with… well, he’s probably either banging on an old 50’s Gretsch or a sitar. It’s really hard to tell.

Now, I know that one of these ethereal, eternal days, Jimi and George will stumble into the same room at the same time and they’ll probably want to use the same Marshall half-stack.

We all know that tubes are better than solid state. You just need to let them warm up first.

So, who will win when they both plug in and start picking away?

Well, if you ask Rolling Stone, they’d tell you that Jimi would come out on top. Not by much, mind you. They put George at #11 and Jimi at the coveted #1 spot.

Of course, they haven’t really done anything good since they ran Hunter Thompson’s work. Anymore, they just pander to whoever will buy their magazine. Of course… that’s another 500 words.

If you ask me, well… I really can’t say.

Jimi had a power and mystique about him that ran rampant through his playing and songwriting. He was wild and sporadic and usually stone out of his mind.

George, on the other hand, had a quiet finesse about him which made his sometimes boisterous solos to be all the more unexpected. His songwriting was  gentle and pleasant, like “Here Comes The Sun” and “Something.”

So… when it comes to guitar skills, they kind of even out. George is well-rounded. Jimi is intense. Tie.

As for song writing, it’s one of those “apples to oranges” ordeal. Jimi and the Beatles get lumped together a lot nowadays, but they were really doing two very different things. The Beatles did pop, and then they went completely off the deep end. Jimi rode the line between the two extremes.

Of course, Jimi wrote “Castles Made of Sand.”

But… George wrote “Piggies.”

Tie.

However, the one area in which there is a clear winner is overall music.

George wins because he was a Beatle, and the Beatles are better than the Jimi Hendrix Experience.

Of course, that’s just my opinion.

I still think that Frank Zappa would beat them both. Clearly, Rolling Stone doesn’t share my point of view.

 

ghjr

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This is not included in the 500 word limit.

Thanks to Leroy Brumage for the challenge. You always provide me with ones that are… let’s say “intellectually stimulating.”

READ AS: hard.

By the way, Rolling Stone put Zappa at #22.

That’s just one reason why I don’t trust them.

 

Truly ghjr