John Erck - Woodstock '69
Mick Jagger stated that Jimi Hendrix’s version of the Star Spangled Banner was the finest piece of political rock and roll of the 1960’s. I agree with this statement but I don’t believe it was the finest piece of political rock and roll by design. In this blog I will argue that it became one of the finest pieces of political rock and roll by chance. It’s often noted that, “timing is everything”. With regard to Jimi Hendrix’s performance of the Star Spangled Banner, that couldn’t be truer. During the first week of class, it was mentioned during the lecture portion that Jimi personally stated he did not intend for the rendition of the national anthem to be a political statement. He simply thought it was “beautiful”. Jimi’s interpretation of the song was entirely different than the way the rest of the world interpreted it. Woodstock drew a distinct demographic. In specific, it drew people of the same age range as did the Vietnam draft. The “kids” attending Woodstock ’69 were more than aware of the death and destruction that was occurring in Vietnam. Their peers were overseas fighting a war they didn’t believe in and dying for a cause that didn’t exist. When Hendrix played a rendition of the national anthem that he considered beautiful, the members of the audience experienced something entirely different. To them, the screaming tones and chaotic nature of the performance perfectly represented the United States of America dumping insane amounts of napalm, mowing people down with machine guns, and launching rockets in Vietnam. To associate such graphic and violent images into the nation’s anthem was a slap in America’s face. Members of the audience saw it as a particularly apt musical analogy. An analogy that represented the government’s insane motives and ridiculous actions; The “kids” at Woodstock felt the politicians of the time were destroying what America stood for and Jimi’s rendition of the national anthem couldn’t have represented their viewpoint more succinctly. And it’s because of this reasoning that, in my opinion, Jimi’s rendition of the Star Spangled Banner was the finest piece of political rock and roll of the 1960’s.