Guitar Gods: JIMI vs JIMMY?

i prefer jimi.

hendrix was a more well rounded guitarist than page. both played a style based on the blues, but since hendrix played the chitlin circuit he brought the rhythm and style of soul guitar playing to the table that page didn't. coming up like he did, hendrix was the real deal that many british guitarists like page and clapton wish they were. hendrix got his education in the blues firsthand, page got his second hand by virtue of being an ocean apart from the scene. not that it necessarily discounts guys like page and clapton, but it gives hendrix a quality those guys couldn't have.

both hendrix and page were great improvisational players, it's hard to say if jimi would come to favor slick studio produced albums over the improvisational style like page did later on, but i always thought jimi could have very well been part of a funkadelic or later isley brothers style band during the 70's had he lived. and last, i prefer jimi's tone, as processed it was at times it still sounds more natural than page's tone to me.

you know i don't go for that better stuff. however, greatness comes from not only what one creates or what one inspires to be done after they are gone, but also what they set on the musical table that doesn't necessarily have anything to do with the music they created or inspired. in all three respects jimi has set more on the table than page possibly could.

Both are awesome, you are correct, but jimmy page is far more amazing as a guitar player. Have you ever watch dazed and confused in the song remains the same movie. The sounds he makes with the guitar are from a different world. Then you add that in with all the acoustic songs, blues songs and just sheer metal songs, then times that by 13 albums worth (or however any there are) and it is incredable.

I am a musician. I learned guitar at 14, by playing along with zeppelin albums. I'm 45 now, and I still can play a couple dozen zep tunes, including rain song, which I've never seen anyone else able to play it (though i know there out there)

And let me tell, it is a combination of chords that are as magical as the come.

Now before I leave jimi H out of this conversation, let me say, ol jimi was a complete song write. Where as Jimmy P was a guitarist and had Robert and jonh paul to help create the over all song, Jimi did it all himself. So hats off to him for being an magical guitarist and a song writer.

The one unfortunate part of this, and why it may be impossible to fully compare the 2 is that Jimi died before he had a chance to fully develop and create a longer history. For all we know, Jimi could have blown away, what he had already done.

Jimmy page is getting real old. I think he's close to 70 now. I already have tears in my eyes for the day i hear he's died. He has been the biggest, By far, influence on my life, musically and even emotionally.

Little wing is my favorite Jimi

and probably rain song for jimmy. The lead in no quarter on song remains the same is also amazing

Jimi Hendrix > B.B. King > Jimmy Page BQ: Jimi Hendrix performing Like A Rolling Stone at the Monterey Pop Festival BQ2: No one could take out Jimi Hendrix

Hi KP!

Hendrix, as to put it simply he was the best there ever was, is, or ever will be. I do not have an intellectual answer to back up my choice, but his Music lives in my Brain and, perhaps more importantly, lives in my Heart. Carlos Santana is my #2, but even he lies a good 5 percentage points behind Jimi.

Better? Well technically Carlos was probably better, though Page I regard very highly. However, the latter would not get in my "Top 5" (I know you dislike lists, so I will not expand).

BQ: JH- Hear my Train a'Comin'. Possibly the classiest example of how to play Electric Guitar

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_y2_aDVWfJc

JP- An opposite to my Hendrix pick. Probably shows more of what a great Band LZ were, rather than what a great Guitarist he was. Superb Track though- "What is and what should never be"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xTQF89JiEJc

I prefer Jimi Hendrix.....his music sends me.

Jimi Hendrix was a better all-around artist, but as for strictly guitar, Jimmy Page wins hands down. Can't back it up. You said it's all subjective. But as for me, the way he bends just some of the strings in a full bar chord slide is amazing.

BA: Hey Joe and Hey Hey What Can I Do

Dude, you should write for a magazine or something haha, no joke. And this is a great question, it's really hard to tell who was better as to me, they were rougly the same. Both were kinda sloppy players, but that was part of their style and there was so much emotion involved in their playing that it didn't really matter. I guess Hendrix was somewhat more technical and I think it's a great feat that he was able to play at the level he did without ever learning to read music or any of that.

Now greatness? I think Page gets the win here in terms of legacy. Sure, Hendrix is often credited to have been better, but Led Zeppelin is pretty much hailed as the ultimate rock band to ever walk the earth. A huge part of that is Page's solos and guitarwork and I think he has inspired slighly more than Hendrix has, but that's really a tough evaluation isn't it?

The bottom line is that both were great and influential guitar players so you really can only go with your personal preference here. I tend to prefer Zeppelin to Hendrix so... I'll roll with Page.

BQ:

Led Zeppelin - I can't bring myself to say Stairway to Heaven lol. So I'll go with The Ocean.

Hendrix - All Along the Watchtower

Jimi had a bit more talent just as a guitarist. But here's the thing, both were more than just Guitarists. There is something of the Godlike and Celestial in Hendrix. And Page is just absolutely a Mystic Wizard. Nobody ever sounded like Hendrix, when he played it sounded like God was jamming using Venus as an amp. And what Page did with his Guitars in the studio was simply Olympian...no one's done anything like that before or since. Page created whole towering mountains of Volcanic Guitars on Zep's albums. And between them, in different ways THEY ARE the epitomy of everything a Rock Star is and should be, they DEFINE the term. So people can argue talent or whatever till their blue. Page and Hendrix are IT.

My personal favorite of the two would be Jimmy Page.

BA:

Carouselambra (Everest-Sized choral slabs)

Burning Of The Midnight Lamp (It's like drugged out Mermaids playing lyres for Hades)

*Edit*

KC Bro, ya know I love ya.

But if that's true

Then every kid in a guitar shop all over the world is better than Fripp. and Howe and Hackett and Morse

Cause Page is better than all of them.

Are we talking in terms of guitar playing only? And not the music they wrote? Jimi was a better musician, in terms of creating the whole song, being able to play the guitar rhythm and lead makes him the superior musician.

Page, well, he wrote the #1 song of all time (Stairway to Heaven, which also had the "greatest" solo of all time) and I think has been a little more influential in the guitar world (partly due to not dying young), so he is the better guitar player, in my opinion).... BUT, to be honest, I can name maybe 15 other guitar players who were better than both. Maybe not as famous in today's terms, but better techincally and musically.

Who do I prefer? Page. He inspired me to play guitar and his music has a stronger influence on my own playing/writing.

Favorite Led Zep tune - Since I've Been Loving You - Live version from How the West was Won album... followed by Achilles Last Stand... followed closely by many other songs.

Favorite Hendrix song - Little Wing.

Also, to the person above me who said "without Hendrix, there would be no Page"... is an untrue statement. Page was in the Yardbirds which was a fairly popular band that also had Jeff Beck and Eric Clapton in it during the early 1960's. THIS is what influenced Led Zeppelin, as a lot of the songs that were going to be Yardbirds songs ended up being Led Zeppelin songs since the band broke up. Page started playing in the Yardbirds in 1966. The first Hendrix album was released in 1967.

Jimi Hendrix, an absolute genius, not my favorite guitarist ever but still fantastic. Page doesn't even deserve to be mentioned in the same breath as him. There are leagues of unknown guitar players that make Page sound like a kid in the Guitar Center who just discovered distortion.

@Karl: Page wrote the riff for "You Really Got Me", and that was pretty seminal... but in his playing he rarely goes beyond standard pentatonic licks... the guys you named have shown themselves capable of playing a far greater range of ideas. If Page suddenly started inventing an entire new music theory for guitar like Holdsworth has, I'd reconsider my stance on his playing.

Id say Jimmy but while Jimmy was created hard rock, Jimi was out there creating a whole new scene with his wah wah pedal, but if he were still alive, he'd be doing alot more