The five bands that Jimi Hendrix absolutely hated: “They don’t sound like nothing”
There are a lot of artists who have been and gone who are responsible for showing people different ways to look at music. Many artists have used sound differently or expanded upon what is in the charts, but no artist has changed the world as Jimi Hendrix did. He provided a different dimension to sound that few had ever been exposed to. If the music at the time was a wall, Hendrix gave people a step ladder they could use to see over it, exposing them to another layer of the sonic landscape altogether.
The public was in awe of Hendrix, and other musicians were too. People heard his sound, saw him perform, and wanted to be more like him. Jeff Beck took from his stage presence when in The Yardbirds, The Beatles used more distortion to replicate his sound, and Jimmy Page called him the greatest guitarist ever to live. Never has an artist been such a commercial and critical success; he is truly one of a kind.
However, just because Hendrix had a unifying quality in how much he could bind people through his music doesn’t mean he didn’t come with controversy. Hendrix had an excellent understanding of sound and was always quick to criticise when he thought a band or an artist weren’t authentic.
Some of the artists he wasn’t a fan of were massive names at the time, and his opinions were met with raised eyebrows and, in some instances, uproar. What’s your opinion? Here are five bands that Jimi Hendrix absolutely hated.
The bands Jimi Hendrix hated:
Led Zeppelin
Though many consider Led Zeppelin one of the best rock bands ever to pick up instruments, Hendrix was never a fan. His main criticism came from the fact that he didn’t believe the band did enough original material to receive the praise they did. In 1970, Hendrix commented, “I don’t think much of Led Zeppelin – I mean, I don’t think much about them.”
The Vanilla Fudge drummer Carmine Appice reaffirmed Hendrix’s disdain towards the band in 2006 when he said, “Jimi Hendrix personally told me that he didn’t like Zeppelin because they were like excess baggage and they stole from everybody,” he said. “’You Shook Me’ was on Jeff Beck’s record. ‘Dazed and Confused’ has a bit of Vanilla Fudge on it, and it has parts of ‘Beck’s Bolero’ in it. I think I was told by a member of the band that the ‘Good Times Bad Times’ riff came from Tim Bogart’s bass line.”
If there was one thing Hendrix held in the highest regard, it was originality. For Page and the band to rely so heavily on the inspiration of others was always a sore point of contention.
Pink Floyd
Hendrix had a mastery over music that not many other guitarists have come close to touching. His live show became a must-see, as musicians worldwide were told about the trans-dimensional experience that came with watching someone so other-worldly play guitar. Hendrix treated playing the guitar like this as fine art and had no time for bands that cheated their way around creating some psychedelic. This was his issue with Pink Floyd.
“Here’s one thing I hate, man,” he said in an interview when reflecting on the acid-rock scene that began to dominate London when the guitarist arrived from America. “When these cats say, ‘Look at the band. They’re playing psychedelic music!’ All they’re doing is flashing lights on them and playing ‘Johnny B. Goode’ with the wrong chords. It’s terrible.”
Pink Floyd fell into this category, with Hendrix discussing their live show and saying, “I’ve heard they have beautiful lights, but they don’t sound like nothing.”
The Monkees
Hendrix and The Monkees both represent different but important aspects of the 1960s. The former was a unique talisman of creativity, rarely playing the same notes twice in the same breath and always championing his cause for individuality. The latter were a band created in the confines of a studio executive boardroom and, therefore, always likely to clash with Hendrix.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, The Monkees were big fans of Hendrix, so they asked him to tour as their support; however, the feeling wasn’t mutual, and despite agreeing to be a part of the tour in the hope of cracking his native US, Hendrix always held a special sense of irritation toward the group.
The rationale for having Hendrix as the support was that he was very theatrical in his performance; therefore, the two acts had that aspect in common, even if their music was different. The tour ended up being a disaster, and it confirmed Hendrix’s disdain towards the band. “Oh God, I hate them!” He said, “Dishwater… You can’t knock anybody for making it, but people like The Monkees?”
Jim Morrison
Despite being massive voices in the counterculture, Hendrix and Jim Morrison never got along, and the two times they met perfectly personified that. The first time was at a jam night at The Scene, where Hendrix and Morrison took to the stage to play music together. Morrison was in no fit state, as while high and stoned (actually drunk!), he collapsed to his knees and started miming performing oral sex on Hendrix while shouting, “I wanna suck your cock!” The jam ended with Janis Joplin, who was also jamming that night, smashing a bottle over Morrison’s head and a brawl ensuing.
Apparently, Hendrix never forgot that night, as he and Morrison never shared the stage again. When Hendrix was performing later down the line, soul legend Geno Washington remembers Morrison trying to initiate another performance. “The place was fuckin’ packed, the people were going ape shit, Jim Morrison is drinking his drink and staggers up to the front of the stage,” he recalls, “’Hey Jimi! Jimi! Let me come up and sing, man, and we’ll do this shit together.’ So Jimi goes, ‘That’s okay, fella, I can handle it myself’.”
While Hendrix was never afraid of a little hedonism, he respected his craft enough to try and curtail his excess and keep it confined to the backstage of the show. Hendrix regarded his audience as a part of the process of his poetry and felt Morrison was disrespecting that bond when he took to the stage so deeply inebriated.
Most Motown Bands
Jimi Hendrix wasn’t a stranger to working with Motown bands, as during his rise to fame, the guitarist worked with the Isley Brothers. However, just because he worked with some of these artists doesn’t mean he was a fan, as he was known for criticising Motown music, saying it was “artificial” and “synthetic.”
As someone frequently praised for the way his sound came across in production, Hendrix was always keen to offer up his opinions on what he believed to be the transparency of Motown music. “To me, the Motown sound is very artificial and very commercial,” he said, “And very, very electronically made. A synthetic soul sound.” He concluded, saying, “It isn’t the real sound of Negro artists… It’s so commercial, and put together, [so] beautifully I don’t feel anything from it.”
That is the crux of Jimi Hendrix in totality. The guitarist felt everything. Whether it was his own playing or the work of others, if the music didn’t connect with his mind, body and soul, then it wasn’t worth the effort of listening to it.
