A true master of the electric guitar, Jimi Hendrix missed the era of MTV Unplugged by almost 20 years and video & audio clips of him playing an acoustic guitar can be difficult to find. Open Culture recently collected a pair of videos of Hendrix unplugged.
While Hendrix did more than anyone before him to turn guitar amps into instruments with his squalls of electric feedback and distorted wah-wah squeals, when you strip his playing down to basics, he’s still pretty much as good as it gets.
A YouTube commenter said:
Jimi could make an acoustic sound like an electric, and an electric like something else.
P.S. Here are several clips of another otherworldly musician playing an acoustic guitar…his name is Prince (and he is funky).
I linked to this in the recent David Bowie post, but it’s worth pulling out separately: the 100 greatest BBC musical performances. This is an incredible trove of late 20th and early 21st century musical greatness. Some selections just off the top of my head:
Blondie โ Atomic/Heart of Glass (The Old Grey Whistle Test, 1979):
Talking Heads โ Psycho Killer (OGWT, 1978):
Daft Punk โ Essential Mix (Radio 1, 1997):
Hole โ Doll Parts/He Hit Me (And It Felt Like A Kiss)/Violet (Later, 1995):
Joy Division โ Transmission (Something Else, 1979):
Radiohead - Paranoid Android (Later Archive 1997):
The Jimi Hendrix Experience โ Sunshine of Your Love (Happening for Lulu, 1969):
Patti Smith Group โ Because the Night (OGWT, 1978):
Arlo Parks and Phoebe Bridgers โ Fake Plastic Trees (Radio 1 Piano session, 2020):
Bob Dylan โ live at BBC studios (BBC One, 1965), apparently Dylan’s last acoustic concert:
Dizzy Gillespie โ Chega de Saudade (Jazz 625, 1965). Don’t miss the musician intro at the ~13:15 mark:
Nirvana โ Smells Like Teen Spirit (TOTP, 1991):
And Rihanna (Umbrella, 2008) and Prince (1993) and Lorde (Royals, 2013) and and and… If you’re anything like me, this list will keep you busy for a few hours.
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