Battle of the power trios: Jimi Hendrix Experience vs. Cream

[bobthedrummer]

Think about it, lol.

[TZ]

1. Gonna go with Cream

cause my musician stepfather actually met them once! :woohoo:

[bobthedrummer]

2. All 3 of them are alive and playing. All of the Experience are dead and still influential.

For me it's JHE.

[abq e streeter]

3. As brilliant as Clapton is, Hendrix virtually reinvented the electric guitar...

to me its not even close. Clapton and Cream: great musicians..... Hendrix and Experience: visionaries

[bobthedrummer]

4. Yep.

:fistbump:

[no name no slogan]

6. I've said nearly the exact same thing in this very forum

(except substitute Beck for Clapton).

Hendrix did re-invent the electric guitar. Clapton is no slouch, but he's no Hendrix.

[XNASA]

11. Sure. After he copied everything he did from Buddy Guy...

...and Guitar Slim.

To say that Hendrix reinvented the electric guitar is to slight the ones who came before him. Hendrix, like Clapton, Page and SRV were good mimics. Nothing more.

[redqueen]

17. +1

So happy to see this posted. :)

[abq e streeter]

18. Everbody's copied from someone else. Is raving about Buddy or Slim a slight on Robert Johnson?

Jimi Hendrix did things no one ever had even dreamed of doing, including Buddy and Guitar Slim ( and certainly did some things that were new only to white audiences). And this is coming from a big Buddy Guy fan, in fact the last time I saw him, an old bandmate of mine was his keyboard player, so I'm not exactly inclined to dismiss Buddy Guy, but we'll just have to disagree on this ; Hendrix, in my opinion, was a visionary and a genius.

[XNASA]

29. Robert Johnson didn't develope his style on electric.

Buddy Guy's and Magic Slim's styles were nothing like Johnson's.

But Hendrix's style is almost exactly like Buddy's.

[abq e streeter]

32. Too bored with this silly game of "I know more than you do about blues"

to continue, so will not bother to refute these and any further easily refutable "points" you attempt to make.

[XNASA]

34. You're right,..... what do I know........

I'm just a guy who's been playing guitar for 40 years and lives on the South-Side of Chicago and you're from Alburquerque.

[abq e streeter]

36. guess silly game time isn't over

born and raised in Chicago---have performed with blues artists ranging from Bo Diddley to Tommy Castro to the Albert Collins Band, and opened for a list of artists that includes Willie Dixon, Junior Wells , Johnny Copeland, A.C. Reed, Albert Collins.......all the way to the Average White Band, Taj Mahal and the Dixie Chicks. Have done more gigs than I could even count playing with Albert Collins' late sax player Sam Franklin, and at least a dozen with Rolling Stones sax player Bobby Keys. But you live on the south side so I guess that outweighs all the above. Your opinion re: Hendrix is your opinion, and I really don't give a fuck one way or another, but don't try to pull this I know more than you hicks in New Mexico shit.

[GReedDiamond]

5. Gotta go with the Experience...

...but I've always liked Ginger Baker a lot.

Really love the "Blind Faith" LP.

[Radical Activist]

7. Cream were hacks

playing second rate imitations of much better American blues bands. I can't believe anyone would even compare the two. If American radio had been desegregated 10 or 20 years earlier Clapton would have been a minor figure here.

[kwassa]

10. Incorrect. Cream was the greatest rock band of all time.

Bar none.

Far better than the Experience, though Jimi was a greater innovator than Eric or anyone else.

[taterguy]

8. No Ben Folds Five?

:wtf:

[hellbound-liberal]

9. My favorite power trio: Rory Gallagher with a bass player and a drummer

Clapton said Rory got him back into the blues and Hendrix supposedly called him the best guitarist in the world. I don't know if any of that is true but he has been my favorite since I saw him on the Midnight Special back in the 70s: Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LSzsDWTc4mY

[redqueen]

26. It's a shame he's not more well-known.

He deserves better.

[sammythecat]

12. Hell. Hard to say,

but if I had to pick one song from the two groups as my favorite it would be Cream's "Spoonful" from "Wheels of Fire". Incredible 16 minute performance. Ginger Baker was great and Jack Bruce was perfect. I've read where Clapton said he didn't like his guitar performance, but he doesn't know what the fuck he's talking about. He was great.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

13. What, no Police????

:shrug:

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

14. This is not a fair fight. Love Clapton, but it's no real comparison in my mind.

I've been listening to Hendrix again recently, and I've listened to a fair amount of Cream.

Not a fair fight.

On Edit: Cream has nothing to measure up against an "All Along the Watchtower", "Castles in the Sand" or "Hey Joe".

[Kat45]

15. I love them both and I refuse to choose.

[old mark]

20. Me, too. Totally different approaches to music, and there is no

reason to dismiss one or the other.

mark

[FKA MNChimpH8R]

16. Hendrix in the studio. Cream live.

My first and most enduring bass hero was Jack Bruce, which probably skews my judgment. Bruce was Dog's own bone-eating monster on stage. Noel Redding was good, but he wasn't in Jack's class. Not many have been.

Hendrix and Kramer did so many amazing things in the studio, and as much as I liked Felix Pappalardi's production of Cream, the JHE had the upper hand. Four words: All Along The Watchtower.

[Lethe]

19. Hendrix

Cream was nothing.

Albert King shat on Cream. And Clapton turned around and made a gold record out of it.

[rucky]

21. Cream was essentially a pop band for its day...

Hendrix was truly an experience.

I love Cream - don't get me wrong - but in terms of influence there's no contest.

[Chemical Bill]

22. BOTH!!!

Why can't we all just get along? ;-)

Bill

[RadiationTherapy]

23. This poll is bullshit. There is only the Experience.

There is only Hendrix. Clapton can plink away a bit but he is a shite performer.

[livetohike]

24. I thought about it for 1/10 of a second

and still came up with Hendrix :hi:.

[Bluzmann57]

25. James Marshall Hendrix and his boys win this hands down

Clapton was, and is, a good guitar player, but Hendrix was better.

[Iggo]

27. Cream by a mile.

[RetroLounge]

28. You said "power trio"

so I gotta go with cream.

Hendrix was much more innovative and made the electric guitar something it never was before him.

But he would have done the same no matter who was his bassist and drummer.

I think Cream would have been nothing without Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker, and their songs were far better written and superior IMHO.

RL

[EastTennesseeDem]

31. Disagree

There were times where I thought the rhythm section was carrying the song. Listen to the first Voodoo Child and tell me Mitch Mitchell wasn't kicking some serious ass.

[GCP]

30. Cream

They had the best line-up. Clapton as lead, Jack Bruce, the best bass man around with an ethereal but very powerful voice, and the great Ginger Baker on drums - looking like a manic spider with arms and legs gong in all different rhythms.
Hendrix was Hendrix, but the rest of the group were ordinary.

[datasuspect]

33. hendrix had more soul

the cream were tight production-wise, but it was largely insipid. they were good though, don't get me wrong, songs like SWALBR had a psychedelic boogie groove.

but hendrix more or less made love to and communicated at a very basic level with his guitar.

[harmonicon]

35. how is this even debatable?

It's like: who's a better composer - J.S. Bach, or some guy who did the incidental music to one episode of Doogie Howser?

(oh, and for the completely dense, the answer is Hendrix)

[friendly_iconoclast]

37. JHE, fer sure- but Hendrix liked Cream and played "Sunshine Of Your Love"....

....on the "Live at Winterland" album upon the occasion of Cream's breakup.

[kwassa]

38. Comparing these two bands is fairly pointless, as it compares apples and oranges

Though I obviously side on the Cream side of this ...

Both of these bands were very great bands, both were historic bands, both were innovative bands, both very influential.

They were great, and they were different from each other.

Why not just love both of them?