Beatles or Hendrix?
 

The Beatles and Hendrix are both legendary. But the real question is, which one is better? I can’t decide, I’ll leave it up to you guys. :wavey:

Saucerful of Bendrix

Jimi!!!!!!!!!!!

Ye

The Beatles were a talented and creative group at the right place at the right time. Hendrix was a revolutionary force of nature.

Church

Helter Skelter >

Hendrix on acid > John Lennon on acid

Racist.

Technically they’re both unassailable

In those cases we have to turn to the Freak Fighter Forty

Fair

.

Whole Lotta Helter Skelter...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZbXPscPdD8

Once the question is "which one is better", I'm gonna take that technically and stick with Hendrix, by far a better musician to me.

Cream.

One man vs an entire band of men. Ok, lessee here...

Jimi was good on guitar, and I've never heard him on any other instrument, but his songwriting was depressing af. He 'borrowed' a lot from other artists too. The Beatles were extremely proficient songwriters and blazed a musical trail of their own.

So given that knowledge, on a scale from 1-5, with 5 being great and 1 being crap, here's my ratings:

Bass
Jimi=0 | Paul=3

Drums
Jimi=0 | Ringo=2

Vocals
Jimi=2 | John/Paul/George/Ringo=4

Guitar
Jimi=4 | George/John/Paul=3

Overall Songwriting
Jimi=3 | Beatles=5

Jimi=9
Beatles=17

^ Hey, I like the idea of reducing the vexing question of "better" to a system of numbers. That's science!

My personal preference is for the Beatles material, but as you point out, there were four of them contributing to the whole, whereas Hendrix, afaik, didn't get a lot of creative help from his band.

When it comes to guitar pyrotechnics, Hendrix is a clear winner, but John Lennon, I recently learned, was quite a sly craftsman on guitar:-

wtf Plank

That guy sucks at the guitar.

lol

wut?

Not impressed with a lot of his wankery, actually. Sure, he could feel his way through a lot of what he did, but technically there's way better imo. There's never been a moment in my life where I've said to myself: "You know... I think I'll listen to some Hendrix today". If I hear a Hendrix tune come on the radio, I change the station. I just don't care for his music, but I do recognize his abilities on the guitar, hence the 4.

That is a you problem. Hendrix is a 12 on that scale, at least. You'll come around.

phhht lol no I won't

I've done this dance way too many times already. Consider it like the TH and the OS argument except I've heard every JH tune there is in existence, and I just don't care for any of it.

So it's definitely a you problem.

Say what you will about the songwriting or style, but his playing is impeccable. No ifs ands or buts about it.

Is it? That's great.

Technical skill =/= good music

Beatles

I like Jimi but come on.

100%, but what's that got to do with Hendrix?

Beatles made much better music? And Hendrix, relative to any single Beatle, had much more technical skill.

Since you asked: they're obviously great but the Experience albums are impeccable outside of a couple of filler tracks. Hendrix's style just nails it, man. I'm the last person to make that argument that technical skill = quality, but I won't deny that skills used effectively can be amazing. The Beatles were technically brilliant songwriters, but technical ability =/= quality my dude.

Huh? I've never heard people ever talk about "technical songwriting". It's not a physical process (that can be performed live), it's a mental one.

Would you be so kind as to cite your favorite Jimi songs? I admit, my knowledge on him is quite stale, and my personal discography of his has deteriorated over the years, as I kind of stopped listening to him in my early 20s. The songs of his that I do still have are pretty unremarkable.

EDIT: 5000 posts @ 1.25 / day since 08-12-2008. Woo arbitrary number.

I was being ironic.

If 6 Was 9, Bold as Love, Castles Made of Sand, Machine Gun, and Manic Depression are my top Hendrix tracks.

It’s a frustrating mess!

That’s a great pick

Hendrix... eff the beatles, hate that band

The Beatles beat Hendrix. Technical skill aside, the Beatles are simply just more listenable on their worst day than Hendrix was on his best. Star Spangled Banner and Revolution 9 being the obvious exceptions to that.

Agree, Clapton is God, he's the only one who would deserve 5/5.

Jimi Hendrix took the electric guitar to another level. The Beatles took popular music to another level. So I'm gonna go with The Beatles on this one.

Why is this a decision?

Because they felt like asking it and discussing.

And I feel it’s a dumb choice. Both are great.

Feel free to not comment or read about "dumb choices" in the future.

Both very good but I was brought up listening to the Beatles on 8 tracks back in the 1970s so they will always be the greatest for me.
Jimi was absolutely brilliant though, he just made the guitar communicate with us in ways we hadn't seen before.