The world’s most famous guitarist!
Above Eric Clapton, David Gilmour, Jeff Beck, Gary Moore, Joe Walsh, Jimmy Page, Stevie Ray Vaughan, and B.B. King. Above them towers the great Jimi Hendrix, the world’s most famous guitar player.
And all those guys would most definitely admit this undeniable fact too. There is simply nobody like Jimi.
During his short career, which started with The Animals bass player, Chas Chandler who after hearing Jimi play a cover of Hey Joe, realized he just had to record him (1966).
Funnily enough, Chas actually left Jimi during his recordings of Electric Ladyland, claiming he was becoming too indulgent.
What Chas missed was the birth of spending months in the studio to create masterpieces, something everyone subsequentially did in the 70s.
Let’s take a look at the most important tunes Jimi released during his 4 short years in the limelight, up until his death in 1970 from a misadventure, when he joined the 27 Club.
First up was the aforementioned Hey Joe, recorded in 1966, which launched Jimi to the world.
Strangely, it didn’t feature on the U.K. edition of the debut album. Considering both the U.S. and U.K. versions, we find these legendary tunes on his debut, Are You Experienced:
Foxy Lady, Manic Depression, Red House, Fire, Hey Joe, Purple Haze, and The Wind Cries Mary – not bad for a debut album!
The follow-up, Axis: Bold as Love came the following year, 1967. Here we find Spanish Castle Magic, Wait Until Tomorrow, Little Wing, If Six Was Nine, and Castles Made Of Sand.
If the first album was all about power and his legendary Fuzz tone, the follow-up had a clean tone which guitar players have been yearning for ever since.
The third album, which is when Chas had enough, was Electric Ladyland. Here we get Crosstown Traffic, Voodoo Chile (slight return), and the unbelievable Bob Dylan cover All Along The Watchtower which in my book is the best recording ever made, by anyone, ever.
Jimi’s final album was made with new musicians and called Band Of Gypsies, it only had one great tune on it in Machine Gun.
Apart from all these great tunes mentioned, Jimi also played a bunch of covers he didn’t record.
Check out Sunshine Of Your Love, a Cream tune he played live on TV without rehearsal. He did so because he found out Cream had split up.
He also did Johnny B. Goode (Chuck Berry), Wild Thing (The Troggs), Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (The Beatles), House Of The Rising Sun (The Animals), Born Under A Bad Sign (Albert King), and Like A Rolling Stone (Bob Dylan).
Of course, let’s not forget his cover of the American National Anthem – The Star Spangled Banner, which he played at Woodstock.
Why are there so few Jimi Hendrix guitar lessons online?
Shortly after I started to create guitar lessons for the online world in 2007, YouTube became the platform where we all would be destined to spend our online lives.
In the early days, there were still a lot of issues with copyright, nobody really knew how to deal with it all and YouTube’s philosophy was: If the copyright owner says no, you get banned.
I had an account called Spytunestunes, and all my song lessons were there, including Purple Haze, Hey Joe, and AC/DC tunes like Highway To Hell, Led Zeppelin’s Stairway To Heaven, etc, etc.
The managers and publishers representing these people/bands were still living in the past, banning everything that popped up online. I got hit and my account disappeared, and there was nothing I could do about it.
During that time I was doing very well, after my account was removed it was all over, I gave up and joined a band instead. Since I returned, I’ve been wary of uploading anything to do with Hendrix, AC/DC, or Led Zeppelin.
It is because of this that below, you only see covers that Hendrix did.
It’s also because of this that you see so few guitar lessons online about Jimi Hendrix guitar playing, the world’s greatest guitar player.
Perhaps his estate should remember what Jimi himself said: When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace. But they’re probably too busy fighting over the money.
Jimi Hendrix Tunes | Related Pages
All Along The Watchtower
You can learn how to play All Along The Watchtower by Jimi Hendrix using chords, lyrics, chord analysis, and the original recording.
| C#m B | A B |
There must be some kind of way outta here…
Born Under A Bad Sign
You can learn how to play Born Under A Bad Sign by Albert King using chords, lyrics, chord analysis, and a Spytunes video guitar lesson.
| Db7 | Db7 | Db7 | Db7 (Gb G) |
Born under a bad sign, been down since I began to crawl…
Hey Joe
You can learn how to play Hey Joe by Jimi Hendrix/Billy Roberts using chords, lyrics, chord analysis, TAB, and the original recordings.
| C G | D A | E7 | E7 |
Hey Joe, ah where you goin’ with that gun of your hand…
House Of The Rising Sun
You can learn how to play House Of The Rising Sun by The Animals using chords, lyrics, TAB, chord analysis, and the original recording.
| Am | C | D | F |
There is a house in New Orleans…
Johnny B. Goode
You can learn how to play Johnny B. Goode by Chuck Berry using chords, lyrics, chord analysis, and the original recording.
| Bb6 | Bb6 |
Deep down in Louisiana close to New Orleans…
Like A Rolling Stone
You can learn how to play Like A Rolling Stone by Bob Dylan using chords, lyrics, chord analysis, and the original recording.
| C Dm |
Once upon a time you dressed so fine…
Sunshine Of Your Love
You can learn to play Sunshine Of Your Love by Cream using chords, lyrics, chord analysis and video guitar lessons.
| D blues scale riff | D blues scale riff |
It’s getting near dawn…
Jimi Hendrix on the web
Artists & Bands
Behind every single tune you learn, there’s an artist or band with an entire catalogue of music, waiting to be discovered.
Find out more about these great Artists & Bands, and let their tunes guide you to success.
About me | Dan Lundholm
This was an article about Jimi Hendrix tunes, by Dan Lundholm. Discover more about him and learn guitar with Spytunes.
Most importantly, find out why you should learn guitar through playing tunes, not practising scales, and studying theory in isolation.
