# Jimi's vocals **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 23, 2017, 4:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jimis-vocals/794430 "2017-08-23T04:38:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Guest-starring\_Id](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guest-starring_id/32/21736_2.png) [@Guest-starring\_Id](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guest-starring_Id)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2017, 4:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jimis-vocals/794430/1 "2017-08-23T04:38:44Z")
A couple days ago I was roped into a temporary conversation with a total dunderhead friend of a friend who tried to foist on me that “Hendrix could never sing.” I tried to explain to the young imbecile that his vocals were perfectly appropriate for the blues-based hard psychedelic rock that he played. I wanted to explain to him that - what - expect him to use Paul McCartney’s melodic style? Or to explain to him how _particularly_ fine Jimi’s singing is in “Drifting” and “Angel”, which I’m pretty he sure he had no idea about, anyway. I wouldn’t have been surprised if “Purple Haze” was the only JH number he ever heard, and a couple of distracted times, at that. The only thing more annoying is that those songs are NOWHERE to be found on the frickin internet. The original studio _Cry of Love_ recordings, that is. Really? Anyone have a problem with his vocals? 😕 ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2017, 4:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jimis-vocals/794430/2 "2017-08-23T04:52:25Z")
I’ve always thought his singing was perfectly fine. He’s not a “belt it out” kind of melodic singer, but that’s fine for his material. I like the mood his voice sets: I find it intimate and conversational vs a theatrical type of blues rock approach a la Robert Plant or Janis Joplin or someone like that. There’s room for all sorts of vocal palettes. At any rate, his voice has never distracted or detracted from his music, IMHO. I’ve never noticed him to be horribly out of tune or anything like that. ---
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2017, 5:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jimis-vocals/794430/3 "2017-08-23T05:19:24Z")
> [@Eddie The Horrible](#): > > Really? Anyone have a problem with his vocals? > 😕 I don’t, but I can see where some might. An older friend of mine once related the story of when he heard the JHE for the first time on the radio without any other context and thought “this band has a great guitarist, but they need a decent vocalist” ;). Some people just have a particular taste for the technically accomplished. Which also can extend to musicianship. For example apparently Johnny and Edgar Winter would sometimes get into arguments over people playing out of key and the like. It drove Edgar nuts to hear, say, some blues musician dropping notes and whatnot. But Johnny would argue that the emotion of the performance could overcome the technical failings. ---
**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2017, 9:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jimis-vocals/794430/4 "2017-08-23T09:17:44Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > I’ve always thought his singing was perfectly fine. He’s not a “belt it out” kind of melodic singer, but that’s fine for his material. I like the mood his voice sets: I find it intimate and conversational vs a theatrical type of blues rock approach a la Robert Plant or Janis Joplin or someone like that. There’s room for all sorts of vocal palettes. At any rate, his voice has never distracted or detracted from his music, IMHO. I’ve never noticed him to be horribly out of tune or anything like that. I would agree with this. He was basically in tune and the sound of his voice was fine, so I had no issues and thought of it as cool, since he was able to have that much more control over his music to go with his amazing guitar work. ---
**Author:** ![jerez](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c68b51/32.png) [@jerez](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jerez)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2017, 12:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jimis-vocals/794430/5 "2017-08-23T12:13:57Z")
Very good singer, considering the nuances in Manic Depression, If 6 Was 9, All Along the Watchtower, Red House… ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2017, 12:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jimis-vocals/794430/6 "2017-08-23T12:34:00Z")
He was perfectly fine as a singer. I think this is a reflection of listening to singing on _American Idol_ and that ilk. They favor certain narrow styles of singing and anything that doesn’t fit is considered bad. Hendrix had personality, and that’s considered a flaw by many. ---
**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2017, 12:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jimis-vocals/794430/7 "2017-08-23T12:39:07Z")
I always quite liked his vocals but apparently he hated them. > [@](#): > > While his vocals obviously aren’t as virtuosic as his guitar playing, they’re more than capable – but Hendrix was intensely self-conscious about them. “We had a constant row in the studio,” Chandler remembers, about “where his voice should be in the mix. He always wanted to have his voice buried and I always wanted to bring it forward. He was saying, ‘I’ve got a terrible voice, I’ve got a terrible voice.’ I’d say, ‘You may have a terrible voice, but you’ve got great rhythm in your voice.’” [Five Things PBS Could Teach You About Jimi Hendrix](http://www.rollingstone.com/tv/news/five-things-pbs-could-teach-you-about-jimi-hendrix-20131106) ---
**Author:** ![somepumpkin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/7feea3/32.png) [@somepumpkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/somepumpkin)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2017, 12:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jimis-vocals/794430/8 "2017-08-23T12:41:17Z")
> [@Eddie The Horrible](#): > > … perfectly appropriate for the blues-based hard psychedelic rock that he played.\ This is a very appropriate answer with which I agree completely. I don’t think we’ll find many Susan Boyles or Andrea Bocellis singing psychedelic blues rock.\* \*but that could rock! ---
**Author:** ![Novelty\_Bobble](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Novelty\_Bobble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Novelty_Bobble)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2017, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jimis-vocals/794430/9 "2017-08-23T17:05:32Z")
Coincidence, just listening to “the wind cries Mary” about 15 minutes ago and I’ve always thought he gave that _exactly_ the right phrasing and tempo. Couldn’t give a stuff if he was technically perfect as he was perfect for\* his \*songs. ---
**Author:** ![Orwell](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/dfb087/32.png) [@Orwell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Orwell)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2017, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jimis-vocals/794430/10 "2017-08-23T17:58:47Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > He was perfectly fine as a singer. > > I think this is a reflection of listening to singing on _American Idol_ and that ilk. They favor certain narrow styles of singing and anything that doesn’t fit is considered bad. Hendrix had personality, and that’s considered a flaw by many. I agree. There is room for all types, as long as it fits the song and music style. Think of Ray Davies, Mick Jagger, Tom Petty, Johnny Cash, Billie Joe Shaver and lots of others. Their singing is far from good, sometimes pretty crappy, but it generally suits their songs. I left Bob Dylan and Tom Waits off the list, because for me their singing is often so bad it detracts from the wonderful songwriting. But others will surely disagree. ---
**Author:** ![Don\_Draper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b2d939/32.png) [@Don\_Draper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_Draper)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2017, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jimis-vocals/794430/11 "2017-08-23T19:10:12Z")
I tried to find a cite, couldn’t, but swear I’ve heard this: Jimi spent years in bands as a guitarist, but was reluctant to be a frontman for a long time because he, himself, thought his singing voice was weak. Then he listened to a few Bob Dylan records. He said to himself (paraphrasing) “Well if that cat can go so far with THAT voice, I guess I’ve got a shot.” ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2017, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jimis-vocals/794430/12 "2017-08-23T19:18:38Z")
BTW, one of the things people praised when Bob Dylan first came up [was his voice](http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/music_box/2017/03/bob_dylan_is_a_great_singer.html). > [@](#): > > In fact, when Dylan first came to New York in the early 1960s, it was his voice that people praised. When he played for his folk-singing hero Woody Guthrie in his hospital room in 1961, Guthrie reportedly remarked, “That boy’s got a voice. Maybe he won’t make it with his writing” (!) “but he can sing it, he can really sing it.” And even among critics, the “hard time” about his singing wasn’t, as Dylan claimed at MusiCares, “from Day One.” The New York Times writer Robert Shelton, in his liner notes for Dylan’s first album (mostly of covers) in 1962, called him “one of the most compelling white blues singers ever recorded.” ---
**Author:** ![FoieGrasIsEvil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foiegrasisevil/32/16638_2.png) [@FoieGrasIsEvil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FoieGrasIsEvil)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2017, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jimis-vocals/794430/13 "2017-08-23T23:32:30Z")
At the extreme end of hated rock and roll voices you have Neil Young and Geddy Lee…both of whom I find perfectly appropriate for the music for their songs. The real question becomes “Whom else could you ever imagine singing a Hendrix song?” ---
**Author:** ![Orwell](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/dfb087/32.png) [@Orwell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Orwell)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2017, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jimis-vocals/794430/14 "2017-08-24T02:09:18Z")
Yeah, I can’t stand Neil Young. Hate his singing. For some reason, though, I don’t mind Geddy Lee. Or used to, anyway. The last few years have not been good for his voice. I do wonder, however, what Rush’s songs would have been like with a different, more conventional, singer. ---
**Author:** ![Guest-starring\_Id](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guest-starring_id/32/21736_2.png) [@Guest-starring\_Id](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guest-starring_Id)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2017, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jimis-vocals/794430/15 "2017-08-25T01:56:16Z")
> [@FoieGrasIsEvil](#): > > At the extreme end of hated rock and roll voices you have Neil Young and Geddy Lee…both of whom I find perfectly appropriate for the music for their songs. > > The real question becomes “Whom else could you ever imagine singing a Hendrix song?” Steve Earle? Randy Hansen? Frank Marino? Franklin Pangborn?