Jimi Hendrix is not the best guitarist of All Time

First off, you look like an emo Keemstar. Secondly, you just admitted he isn't the best guitarist, albeit you said 'in the technical sense' and so your argument hinges only upon his influence (which I shall soon move upon shortly) on others, so I suppose this debate is already over due to you pretty much admitting defeat. I, however, will continue to blow you out of the water because I only typed a sentence in Round 1. Thirdly, before I address your last post, allow me to talk about his technical skills, which you and I both agree are not the best. In fact, I would say they they are atrocious. Jimi couldn't even tune his freaking guitar. Yeah, he broke out into cool solos, but they'd be cooler if he didn't always rely on the pentatonic blues scale (in case my audience doesn't know what a pentatonic scale is, I'm saying he only played the same five notes over and over again in his solos) which is the easiest scale to "master." On the technical side though, I will admit that he did something cool - he used his thumb to pluck the bass string of his guitar while he simultaneously used his pick to strum chords as well as individual notes; this meant he played both crude bass lines (if you think one note is a bass line, but still it's something) and chords in the higher register at the same time. This effectively made him both a rhythm and lead guitarist at the same time, but I want to point out another thing - this isn't new nor an innovation, it's just the most advanced technique he used. It's called Travis Picking and was used in country music for 20-30 years prior to Jimi. Here is a video of Chet Atkins playing TWO melodies at once (). Chet Atkins is older and better than Jimi so it's not like Jimi was a master of this technique, but I will give Jimi credit he does deserve. Other than this one technique, which by the way is rarely mentioned, people also remember Jimi for using feedback (which was used back in the 50s) and doing fancy tricks such as playing behind his back (done before him) as well as playing with his teeth (again, done before him). Both of these fancy tricks he learned while playing in the American South blues circuit from other guitarists. Furthermore, proponents of Jimi will point out that he led one of the first rock trios ever and it was incredible he was able to sound the way he did with only one guitarist in the band. To counter this, I want to bring up Cream. They were an actual equal group of three amazingly talented people. In contrast, The Jimi Hendrix Experience was a band made for the purpose of backing Jimi. They only existed to give the spotlight to Jimi and to prop up his guitar sound which was the front and center of the band. Fourthly, I want to state the real reason why Jimi is famous. Jimi Hendrix is a good poster child for the 60s generation. He played for years in the American South and even was in Little Richard's band, yet was never famous in the USA. It wasn't until he was discovered by Chas Chandler, former bassist for the Animals, who managed Hendrix. Chandler brought Jimi over to England where he attempted to make money from Jimi by playing to people's emotions and curiosity. He purposefully booked gigs to get attention. For example, here is a video of him playing to a bunch of white people dressed conservatively while him and his band are playing provocatively and in psychedelic dress (). Chas wanted to shock people. This is exactly how he made Jimi famous: he brought a flamboyant black man to England. In fact, Jimi's posters billed him as the "Wild Man of Borneo" (by the way, Jimi is not from Borneo) as if he were discovered from the jungle. Jimi also embodied the spirit of the 1960s. His fame was helped by him dying at the age of 27 from drugs. People don't see Jimi as a real human being, but as some kind of rock n' roll Jesus who was beamed down from heaven to liberate us from our sins by playing guitar. He was a symbol was all he was. But once you start looking at Jimi as a man, you find a mediocre and overrated guitar player. Finally, let me turn against your argument about his influence. Yes, he influenced a lot of people, but I have two things to say. Firstly, some of the best players never left their garages. These mystery guitar players may have been able to best Jimi in a guitar duel, but never had the opportunity. These virtuosos died without fame. Along the same lines, consider the great classical composers and players of the Baroque era. You must agree with me surely that Rondo Alla Turca or 1812 Overture are superior compositions than "Hey Joe," but they're not as popular as Jimi. Secondly, I bring up Johnny Ramone. He sucked. The only three things he did which I can commend him on were his use of minor and major barre chords rather than power chords, him playing fast, and him using all down strokes. In fact, his down stroke technique was such a simple innovation. Before him, people only down stroked sometimes in a song, not all the way through. And Johnny Ramone started an entire genre called punk which further influenced grunge, alternative rock, and indie music. I bring Johnny up because he was famous without being good and perhaps his popularity and influence may challenge your perception of Jimi being the best guitarist solely on account of his fame. In conclusion, Jimi is a competant guitarist but he is not the greatest of All Time. He is clearly not a technical genius and his fame is both overrated and undeserved. I believe had he lived out his entire life he wouldn't have been as famous nor would he be considered the greatest.