Jimi Hendrix.
Briefly (LITERALLY this time!) speaking, what do we think of this late American guitar LEGEND and his music, thanks. :)
shareAn incredible guitarist and musician. Contrary to some people, I loved his singing voice (The late Leslie West was also an admirer of Hendrix's singing...said he had a real "black man's voice" and I think there's a lot of truth to that). Died way, way too young at 27...would have liked to have seen what direction he would have gone with his music had he lived.
shareHe was criticized for his "singing voice"?
shareYes, he was...Hendrix basically came out and said that the main reason he sang was because of Bob Dylan. Something like, " If Dylan can sing on his songs and get away with it, then I can too!" 😃 Like the other great artists, his voice just really seemed to fit his music.
shareThat's surprising, because Hendrix's voice was basically good. No training of course, but a bit of natural power and resonance, and enough style to use what he had well enough. His voice isn't skilled, but it's attractive.
Unlike Dylan, whose voice was ugly in every possible way.
I actually like Dylan's singing on some of his older songs ("Tangled Up In Blue," " Shelter From The Storm," "Like A Rolling Stone, " the great live recording of "My Back Pages" at Dylan's 30th anniversary concert, etc.). However, at some point in the 90s, his "singing" just got to the point where it was just about unintelligible (probably not long after "Time Out Of Mind" was released). And I do think his singing voice didn't always work back in his earlier days as well.
I agree about Hendrix. I love his singing voice. He had a lot of soul in it ( like he did in that fantastic guitar playing of his as well).
Well, it's nice that one person likes Dylan's singing, or some of it! Back in the day, people used to say that it was a public service for Joan Baez to sing so many of Dylan's songs, so that people could hear them well-sung for once.
But Hendrix did have a good voice. It would have been good with more training, but it was also good without it, because like I said he had enough natural power to always sound good. Although, without training Hendrix's voice may not have stayed good if he'd lived longer.
Yes, I'm the oddball, I guess! 😃 Joan Baez did have a beautiful voice...but I'm partial to The Byrds' Dylan covers. The way Roger McGuinn's 12-string guitar sounded...I just love that sound!
You make good points regarding Hendrix and his voice. Someone else who I think had a great singing voice (that was overshadowed by his guitar playing) was Stevie Ray Vaughan. They may not have been "technically great" singers, but their singing just "struck a chord" with me (pun intended) and fit their music so well.
Yeah, popular musicians don't need to be well-trained, what matters is if they can put the song over well enough to interest the listeners. And better to listen to a Dylan than some modern pop tart that's had all the humanity autotuned out of their singing, right? Hendrix as a singer was in the happy medium between the two extremes of unpolished and too-polished, he was unpolished but with a good voice.
I wonder what he sounded like live?
From what I've read and heard, he sounded great live. He did a lot of "extended jams" during his shows, but he supposedly sounded vocally like he did on his records.
His legendary Woodstock performance is so fascinating to me. He actually didn't play until Monday morning, well after most people had gone home. Everything I've read about his performance has been along the lines of "magnificence." But most people weren't there to see it!
I really love this performance of Hendrix playing "Hear My Train A' Comin'" on a 12-string acoustic:
https://youtu.be/Vrs0XgnXsxk
Thank you, that does confirm my opinion that he was a good or decent singer, and not a great one. But since he was a great guitarist, songwriter, and performer, he didn't need to be a great singer as well!
I'm willing to allow that there really have been great singers in the Rock/Pop field, like Robert Plant and Janis Joplin back in the day. Or Adele now.
Yes, very true. I think music/singing is such a "subjective" topic. I have a horrible singing voice myself (I make Bob Dylan sound like Pavarotti!), so it's hard for me to be too critical of someone singing!
On the "flip side" of what you wrote...I will acknowledge that someone like Whitney Houston, Celine Dion, Mariah Carey, et.al., has a great singing voice. However, in general...I am not a fan of their music. It's just not my "cup of tea," so to speak. Again, it's a really subjective area, I think...i.e., why some singers resonate with a person more than others.
Yeah, singers like Mariah or Adele are very talented and well-trained as singers, and if their music isn't to my personal taste, well, there's never any sense in arguing over subjective judgments or personal tastes.
As for Hendrix, I think he began his career at a time when popular singers were expected to have some training. As far as I know all the Motown singers were technically accomplished, and the girl groups and British Invasion bands of the early sixties had singers who somewhere between good and damn good. But he started to get popular at the time when tastes changed, and untrained vocalists like Mick Jagger and Dylan were suddenly everywhere. Hendrix was a better singer than a lot of his competitors.