In August of next year we will reach the fiftieth anniversary of Woodstock Festival, that three-day concert (which rolled into a fourth day) involving lots of sex, drugs, rock ‘n roll and mud, and which became an icon of the 1960s hippie counterculture. Held at Max Yasgur’s dairy farm in Bethel, New York State, the Woodstock Festival, billed as “three days of peace and music”, featured a roll-call of big acts of the day: Joan Baez, Santana, Canned Heat, the Grateful Dead, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Janis Joplin, the Who, Jefferson Airplane, Crosby, Stills and Nash, and Jimi Hendrix (it’s interesting to read the roll-call of cancelled acts and declined invitations too, but that’s another story).
When Hendrix stepped onto the stage, it was 9 o’clock on the morning of the fourth day — technical and weather delays had caused the festival to stretch into Monday morning. The organisers had given Hendrix the opportunity to go on at midnight, but he opted to be the closing act (by 1969 he had earned the traditional headliner’s position). The morning light made for excellent filming conditions, which may be part of the reason this particular Hendrix performance is so well known. In any event, Hendrix embarked upon an uninterrupted set lasting nearly two hours, one of the longest performances of his career. It concluded with a long medley that included the solo performance of The Star-Spangled Banner that would become emblematic not only of Woodstock, but of the 1960s themselves.
When most people think of Hendrix and Woodstock, it is this performance of the national anthem that comes to mind. It was not the first time Hendrix had performed it (in fact, there are nearly 50 live recordings of Hendrix playing it, 28 made before Woodstock) but no other version is so iconic. The idea of incorporating the sounds of bombs and jets and cries of human anguish into his country’s national anthem was brilliant. As a protest against the Vietnam War it was unambiguous and powerful: raw, jarring, soaring, and discomforting in equal measure (though in fact performed in front of a relatively small crowd since so many people had left Woodstock to return to work or college that Monday morning!). So 49 years on, and from the comfort of your mud-free armchair, here is Hendrix’s guitar-torturing rendition of the Star-Spangled Banner. It’s not comfortable to listen to, frankly, but its cultural impact is clearly understandable. It’s followed by an interesting snippet of Hendrix discussing the performance on the Dick Cavett chat show a year later.
