Jimi Hendrix (in case you somehow missed him) was born in 1942 and spent the last four years of the 1960s being the world's most influential guitarist.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TLV4_xaYynY
He used overdrive, feedback, high gain and phasing to create a sound out of everything else that every other guitarist had previously tried to eliminate. The result is the distinctive distortion and wailing electric guitar sound that rails against the Vietnam war and reminds a certain generation of amphetamines.
Now, there is no doubt that Hendrix revolutionised the electric guitar and swerved the course of popular music. In that respect, he is probably the greatest guitarist that has ever lived, and it almost seems sacrilegious to suggest anything else.
However, I'm not afraid of that, so I asked around. I asked some people I know whether they thought Hendrix was 'overrated'. I got some interesting replies, all the way from furious outrage (those people might never speak to me again) to mild muted agreement.
For me, Jimi Hendrix was technically a revolution all by himself. But just like other revolutions, this left-handed genius belongs to a unique time and a unique place, where everything was changing with breathtaking speed and freedom.
Hendrix captured the sound of something in the air and turned it into a phenomenon - and nobody that I can think of has come anywhere near doing that since.
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