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Comment by zigman1 | Hacker News Reader

> I only saw Hendrix play live one time

I love how nonchalantly you threw this one in. I am proper jealous, how was it?

On your first remark, I agree. This is why I love Dire Straits and Mark Knopfler. The studio recordings are amazing, and then you listen to their live stuff and it's even better.

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Interestingly, to me Hendrix and Knopfler feel kinda like creative opposites. Knopfler plays much cleaner and with much more variety, he has written many songs that are catchy in different ways (which is almost impossible for any musician), he basically achieves every goal that a beginner musician could choose to chase. And yet his stuff feels like a creative dead end, a dreary road leading to adult contemporary. While Hendrix has no songs to speak of and only one sloppy screechy sound, but it's the sound that launches a thousand bands and feels inspiring even now. Maybe the lesson we're supposed to learn is that we shouldn't choose what goal to chase, we should just feel it.

I think what you are trying to say is that Hendrix captured a specific sound and won over a generation of listeners, while Knoplfer displayed a mastery of the instrument, rarely seen in the mainstream. However, don't underestimate him, they sold out Wembley 16 nights in a row in '85, I am sure that spring some bands. It's now a bit forgotten, but for a period of few years, Dire Straits were the biggest band in the world. Knopfler is usually associated with saying "your favorite guitarist's favorite guitarist" :)

The guitarist most frequently named as favorite by famous guitarists is Hendrix, second is Van Halen. Also often named are SRV, Jimmy Page and so on. I don't know anyone famous who names Knopfler as favorite.

It's subjective, guitarists such as Knopfler, Clapton, Belew, Fripp, et al all rank highly for many.

I', m not sure I'd trust the judgement of any with a single absolute favourite <anything>, reality is generally rich with competing strengths and weaknesses.

Hendrix seemed like a really nice guy. His vibe was that he loved everyone in the audience. I was close to the stage and took some nice pictures using Anschrome 500 that I developed myself pushing it to 1000 ASA. Treasure those pictures.

Same with Pat Metheny, Al Di Meola and some others of that vintage.

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