{"id":27219,"date":"2023-07-05T12:32:10","date_gmt":"2023-07-05T19:32:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=27219"},"modified":"2023-07-05T12:32:11","modified_gmt":"2023-07-05T19:32:11","slug":"the-star-spangled-banner-during-times-of-war","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2023\/07\/05\/the-star-spangled-banner-during-times-of-war\/","title":{"rendered":"THE STAR-SPANGLED BANNER DURING TIMES OF WAR"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Carolyn MacLeod<\/p>\n\n\n\n

July 30, 2019 (pbs.org)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Woodstock-Hendrix-GettyImages-599357656.jpg\"
Jimi Hendrix playing his guitar during his set at the Woodstock Music and Art Fair. Playing with Jimi Hendrix is Billy Cox. Photo by Henry Diltz\/Corbis via Getty<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

By the time Jimi Hendrix took the stage at Woodstock around 9 a.m. on Monday, August 18, 1969, many of the festivalgoers had already left. Those that stayed were witness to one of the most iconic performances at the Music and Art Festival: his \u201cStar-Spangled Banner.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI was backstage writing up some notes,\u201d recalled journalist Bernard Collier in Woodstock: Three Days that Defined a Generation<\/a><\/em>. \u201cSuddenly into my head stabbed this sound. It sounded exactly like rockets, missiles and bombs bursting in air. I\u2019d never heard anything like that in my life.\u201d  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s difficult today to separate this performance from the summer of 1969, and thanks to the Academy Award-winning 1970 documentary Woodstock<\/em>, the performance has become emblematic of the experience of Woodstock itself. At the time, however, Hendrix\u2019s performance came across as startling and utterly new.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI remember people literally tearing their hair out,\u201d said Woodstock director, Michael Wadleigh. \u201cI looked out with one eye and I saw people grabbing their heads, so ecstatic, so stunned and moved, a lot of people holding their breath, including me. No one had ever heard that. It caught all of us by surprise.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hendrix wasn\u2019t the first musician in the 20th century to surprise and disturb audiences with an artistic re-interpretation of \u201cThe Star-Spangled Banner.\u201d Before him, Jos\u00e9 Feliciano in 1968 and Igor Stravinsky in 1944 also gave audiences hitherto unheard experiences of the national anthem. Their interpretations invited controversy, but each artist saw his performance as a patriotic act. Hendrix in his performance did something further that had not been accomplished previously, not even by the original. In performing the anthem with his psychedelic take on the blues, Hendrix brought the lyrics to life and in doing so transformed the national anthem into a commentary on American ideals in a time of war.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Woodstock promised three days of peace, love and music during the turmoil of the Vietnam War and racial unrest of the civil rights movement. Through the screen of drugs and utopianism, these realities were evident, nonetheless. The political climate was reflected in music throughout the festival, from Richie Haven\u2019s \u201cFreedom\u201d in the opening performance of the festival, to Joan Baez\u2019s renditions of \u201cJoe Hill\u201d and \u201cWe Shall Overcome,\u201d to Country Joe McDonald\u2019s \u201cI-Feel-Like-I\u2019m-Fixin\u2019-To-Die Rag,\u201d to Jefferson Airplane\u2019s \u201cUncle Sam Blues,\u201d to The Who\u2019s \u201cMy Generation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Three days bled into four and Hendrix began to play \u201cThe Star-Spangled Banner\u201d that Monday morning, as the festival drew to a close.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re at the most peaceful gathering that was probably happening on the planet at the time. And he hooked us up with Vietnam,\u201d said Tom Law<\/a>, a member of the Hog Farm commune who was present that morning. \u201cIt was the devastation and the brutality and the insanity. That was a quintessential piece of art.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Three weeks later, on September 9, 1969, Jimi Hendrix walked onto the set of the Dick Cavett Show. Cavett soon turned the conversation to Hendrix\u2019s Woodstock set. \u201cWhat was the controversy about the national anthem and the way you played it?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know man,\u201d said Hendrix. \u201cAll I did was play it. I\u2019m American, so I played it. I used to sing it in school, they made me sing it in school so \u2014 it was a flashback, you know.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over the audience\u2019s laughter at Hendrix\u2019s cool response, Cavett joked, \u201cThis man was the 101st airborne, so when you write your nasty letters in\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A puzzled look bloomed on Hendrix\u2019s face. \u201cNasty letters?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWell, when you mention the national anthem and talk about playing it in an unorthodox way,\u201d Cavett explained, \u201cyou immediately get a guaranteed percentage of hate mail from people \u2014 \u201c    <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat\u2019s not unorthodox,\u201d Hendrix interrupted. \u201cThat\u2019s not unorthodox.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt isn\u2019t unorthodox?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNo. No, no. I thought it was beautiful. But there you go.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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