Rewinding Jimi Hendrixs National Anthem – The New Yorker
Posted By admin on January 28, 2021
The summer before seventh grade, I started wearing my dads Stetson hat and paisley bathrobe, which I believed approximated the bell-sleeved garment that Jimi Hendrix wore in the poster on my bedroom walla strange rendering in iridescent pastels, with Jimi looking like a dandified cowboy, playing a righty guitar lefty so that it was, fascinatingly, upside down. I wore the outfit for a class presentation that fall, brought in my own electric guitar and amp, and did the opening ten or twelve bars of Purple Haze. The amp was way too loud for the room, the window casings rattled, my classmates looked frightened. But I had put work into learning the song and was determined to share the entire solo. A vinyl copy of Are You Experienced?, found at the public library the year before, had led to hours spent hunched over a turntable, slowing down the r.p.m.s to make it easier to parse the solos on Hey Joe, Third Stone from the Sun, and The Wind Cries Mary. By going full Talmud on Hendrix, Id taught myself to play the guitar, and had become an indefatigable Hendrix proselytizer. Kids had spray-painted Clapton Is God on the walls of the London Tube station, I explained to anyone who would listen, but the real God was Jimi.
I knew that he had performed at Woodstock, that mythic experiment in living free from status-quo strictures held on a farm somewhere in New York (I tried to imagine the farms in the Wisconsin village where I lived holding such an event), and soon I was able to acquire a VHS cassette of Michael Wadleighs epic documentary of the festival. After all the footage of scaffold assembly, the interviews with stoned pilgrims, the endless P.A. announcements (watch out for that brown acid), the rain and mud, and the often great music, there came, near the end, footage of Jimi playing Voodoo Child (Slight Return), a tune I knew well, which then segued into The Star-Spangled Banner. There are lots of examples of song renditions whose power and uniqueness make them definitive versions: Miles Davis doing Thelonious Monks Round Midnight; John Lennons ecstatic run through Chuck Berrys Rock and Roll Music, from Beatles for Sale; Judy Collinss harpsichord-drenched take on Joni Mitchells Both Sides Now; Willie Nelsons near Sprechstimme Stardust; John Cales demolition of Heartbreak Hotel; Devos cubist (I Cant Get No) Satisfaction. (Feel free to make your own list.) What Hendrix did with The Star-Spangled Banner at Woodstock, in August of 1969, was something else altogether. It was, among other things, an act of protest whose power and convincingness were inseparable from its identity as a fiercely nonconformist act of individual expression.
Hendrix had been a paratrooper in the 101st Airborne (from which he was honorably discharged), and the young men fighting and dying in Vietnam are evoked in the sounds that start eating away at the tune at about the place the words rockets red glare would be sung. Bombs, airplane engines, explosions, human cries, all seem to swirl around in the feedback and distortion. At one point, Hendrix toggles between two notes a semitone apart while burying the guitars tremolo bar, turning his Fender Strat into a doppler warp of passing sirens, or perhaps the revolving blades of a helicopter propeller. A snippet of Taps toward the end makes explicit the eulogy for those left on the battlefield, transcending Vietnam and becoming a remembrance of all those lost to the violence of war.
The solo might also be registering a different war, one that had been going on at home. The previous year, Martin Luther King, Jr., had been fatally shot at the Lorraine Motel, in Memphis, and the blow delivered to the civil-rights movementcentrally inspired by Kings dream of a time when people will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their characterseems somehow part of the rage flying out of Hendrixs amplifiers. All the exalted ideals of the American experiment, and the bitterness of its contradictions and hypocrisies, are placed in volatile admixture through an utterly American contraption, a device you might say is the result of a collaboration between Benjamin Franklin, Leo Fender , and Sister Rosetta Tharpe, the mongrel machine that Hendrix made into a medium for a new kind of virtuosity. In the Woodstock performance of the national anthem, we find that an electric guitar can be made to convey the feeling that the countrys history could be melted down, remolded, and given a new shape.
The Star-Spangled Banner was at its inception already a mashup, already a rendition. A setting of the lawyer Francis Scott Keys 1814 poem, Defence of Fort MHenry, to a melody from a British gentlemens club sing-along, the anthem memorialized the battered flag (then with only fifteen stars) that flew over Fort McHenry during its bombardment by the British. Yet the freedom that the song celebrates tends to stop when it comes to unorthodox arrangements. Igor Stravinsky, freshly arrived in the United States in 1939, did his own orchestration, adding a quirky dominant seventh chord over the word landand was asked by the Boston police to desist. (He politely removed the arrangement from subsequent performances.) The contralto Marian Anderson sang the anthem with regal classicism at Eisenhowers second Inauguration, in 1957, the first Black woman to sing for such an occasion; her performance was doubly notable, as she had sung My Country Tis of Thee eighteen years earlier at the Lincoln Memorial, because the Daughters of the American Revolution would not let her perform at the D.A.R.-owned Constitution Hall. More recently, the tune has served as a provocation to adopt a position: to raise a fist or take a knee (or to protest those very actions). But songs do not reduce to statements of ideology. They are fluid, elastic atmospheres that allow for multiple inflections, hospitable to those contradictions that Walt Whitman celebrated when he said, in his own Song of Myself, that he contained multitudes. During a Dick Cavett appearance, in 1969, Hendrix was asked about his own unorthodox take on the anthem. All I did was play it, he said, sounding cool and abstracted, Im American, so I played it . . . its not unorthodox. I thought it was beautiful.
Jimis Woodstock anthem was both an expression of protest at the obscene violence of a wholly unnecessary war and an affirmation of aspects of the American experiment entirely worth fighting for. In If 6 Was 9, from his second album, Axis: Bold As Love, Hendrix sings that he has his own world to live through and I aint gonna copy you, finally deciding to wave my freak flag high, at which point he unleashes a spastic, flickering, birdlike spray of notes from a guitar soaked in reverb. His rendition of The Star-Spangled Banner turned it into a blazing freak flag, a protective shield for eccentrics, oddballs, weirdos, outsiders, marginal people of every sort. Precisely because the tyranny of opinion is such as to make eccentricity a reproach, John Stuart Mill wrote, in On Liberty, it is desirable . . . that people should be eccentric. Eccentricity has always abounded when and where strength of character has abounded. Mills use of character here should be heard with the emphasis that Dr. King placed upon it, and his warning about tyrannical conformism should be heard as of a piece with Hendrixs vow that he is not going to copy you.
My son is now about the age I was when I wore the Stetson and the bathrobe and frightened my classmates with the window-rattling version of Purple Haze. I made him sit down with me the other day to watch the footage of Hendrix playing the anthem. After some questions about the people in the audience (were they homeless?), he asked, with what struck me as real wonder, how someone could make all those sounds using just a single guitar. I began to explain how feedback worked, what tube amplification and overdrive were, but I was droning on over the footage; I caught myself and stopped, and we both sat and watched in silence. When it ended, he offered the taut verdict that the whole thing was cool, to which I agreed, and he went off to do something else. It was only then that I had a better answer to the question about how all those sounds could be made to come from a single guitar: because the guitarist was Jimi Hendrix.
Here is the original post:
Rewinding Jimi Hendrixs National Anthem - The New Yorker
- Death Is Nothing to Celebrate - The Atlantic - February 23rd, 2021
- Leadership Lessons from Shushan | Charles E. Savenor | The Blogs - The Times of Israel - February 23rd, 2021
- Procrastination, Colors, And The IKEA Effect - The Jewish Press - JewishPress.com - February 21st, 2021
- CLERGY CORNER: Is there a blessing for the COVID-19 vaccine? - newportri.com - February 21st, 2021
- What kind of Jew are you? - comment - The Jerusalem Post - February 21st, 2021
- Commentary: Looking for 'blind spots' when it comes to race - Canton Repository - February 21st, 2021
- Time to shift attitude to one of belonging - Cleveland Jewish News - February 19th, 2021
- Adam Grant and The Case for Nuance in Jewish Education - Jewish Journal - February 19th, 2021
- A rabbis open letter to his haredi brethren - The Jerusalem Post - February 19th, 2021
- Terumah: Elevating our intentions - The Jewish Standard - February 19th, 2021
- Limmud AZ set for its first virtual event - Jewish News of Greater Phoenix - February 19th, 2021
- My son, Mohammed El Halabi, is innocent of funding Hamas - opinion - The Jerusalem Post - February 19th, 2021
- Yiddish professor goes viral in town hall with President Biden - Forward - February 19th, 2021
- The power and the mystery of the cherubim, explained J. - The Jewish News of Northern California - February 19th, 2021
- ASTROLOJEW Month of Adar: Milk the magic for all it's worth - The Jewish News of Northern California - February 19th, 2021
- At one JCC, new classes make it easy for adults with disabilities to tune in - Forward - February 19th, 2021
- Guest Opinion: America can heal when it works to become righteous - GoErie.com - February 16th, 2021
- Angry at discrimination, a rabbi creates a shul, and seminary, serving the Deaf community - Forward - February 16th, 2021
- Comments on: Drinking on Purim (or not)? Read This First - Jewish Journal - February 16th, 2021
- Parashat Mishpatim: The soul and the law - The Jerusalem Post - February 12th, 2021
- The Bigness of Little Things - Jewish Exponent - February 12th, 2021
- Parshat Mishpatim: Voices in the Gates - Jewish Week - February 12th, 2021
- Hershey Felder Creates a Grand Celebration of Sholem Aleichem and a Seductive Fiddler - WTTW News - February 12th, 2021
- PEARRELL: Stay true to the core of Christianity - Rockdale Newton Citizen - February 12th, 2021
- The Rebbe Everyone Is Talking About! - Yeshiva World News - February 12th, 2021
- Prince of the Torah - Arkansas Online - February 12th, 2021
- Soldiering on for the Jews and Israel - JNS.org - February 12th, 2021
- Israeli President Reuven Rivlin: In an era of divisons, Jews must emphasize our ties to one another - Forward - February 12th, 2021
- Karen Lewis and Rahm Emanuel: Rocky relationship started in one place and ended in another - Chicago Sun-Times - February 12th, 2021
- Chabad course explores life, death and the afterlife in the age of COVID-19 - The Columbus Dispatch - February 1st, 2021
- How did the letter ayin become a vowel in Yiddish? - Forward - February 1st, 2021
- The tragedy for haredim from COVID has created a crisis for Judaism itself - JNS.org - February 1st, 2021
- Rabbi Dr. Abraham J. Twerski, 90, Leading Authority on Substance Abuse - Author of more than 60 popular books and founder of Gateway Rehabilitation... - February 1st, 2021
- A Rabbi's Message on Coping With Covid | Jewish & Israel News Algemeiner.com - Algemeiner - February 1st, 2021
- New Class on the Jewish Perspective of the Afterlife Detroit Jewish News - The Jewish News - February 1st, 2021
- Youve probably never heard about the worlds first female rabbi. Sigal Samuel wants to change that - Forward - February 1st, 2021
- Free Will Astrology | Astrology - North Coast Journal - February 1st, 2021
- Worlds 1st female rabbi led a 16th century Mosul yeshiva for Kurdish Jewry - The Times of Israel - February 1st, 2021
- Andrew Yangs $1000-a-month stipend reminds me of a time-honored Jewish tradition - Forward - February 1st, 2021
- Tu B'Shvat connects us to the beautiful world outside - Jewish Community Voice - January 28th, 2021
- Individual Consciousness, Lengthy Biographies and Other Letters to the Editor - The New York Times - January 28th, 2021
- Israel's ultra-Orthodox and the future of the state - The Jerusalem Post - January 28th, 2021
- Parashat Bo: The Miracle of Mixed Multitudes - My Jewish Learning - January 28th, 2021
- 52 years ago, 9 Jews were hanged in Baghdad. Today, their descendants risk losing everything they left behind. - JTA News - Jewish Telegraphic Agency - January 28th, 2021
- Is It Proper? Is it ever appropriate to get drunk? - The Jewish Press - JewishPress.com - January 28th, 2021
- Tu B'Shevat: An annual reminder to appreciate the beauty of the land of Israel - Jewish News of Greater Phoenix - January 28th, 2021
- Tu B'Shevat the original Arbor Day: And a recipe for fruitcake that will never get re-gifted - Worcester Telegram - January 28th, 2021
- Three Ladies, Three Lattes: Still coffee-ing after all these years - The Jerusalem Post - January 28th, 2021
- Live Intentionally This Shevat - Atlanta Jewish Times - January 28th, 2021
- Free Will Astrology: Week of January 28, 2021 - Newcity - January 28th, 2021
- JUF News | Jewish Women's Foundation allocates $413000 in grants supporting women and girls - Jewish United Fund - January 22nd, 2021
- Israel tops 4,000 coronavirus deaths since the start of the pandemic - The Jerusalem Post - January 22nd, 2021
- I resisted the call to include non-male voices every time I taught Torah. Then I tried it. - JTA News - Jewish Telegraphic Agency - January 4th, 2021
- Law professor Ray Bernstein, 56, dies in bike accident - The Jewish News of Northern California - January 4th, 2021
- Let's head into the new year in a new frame of mind - The Jewish News of Northern California - January 4th, 2021
- The Purpose Of Chassidus In The Alter Rebbe's Own Words - The Jewish Press - JewishPress.com - January 4th, 2021
- Opinion/Keep the Faith: Hanukkah reminds us of light and hope, even in dark times - Worcester Telegram - December 19th, 2020
- Opinion: The true meaning of Hanukkah (hint, it's not about joy) - The Detroit News - December 19th, 2020
- Is the Temple Menorah Hidden in the Vatican? - Questions & Answers - Chabad.org - December 19th, 2020
- Circumcision, Berzerkeley, and the Power of Five Minutes - Chabad.org - December 19th, 2020
- He Flew in From London for Reasons He'd Never Imagined - Chabad.org - December 19th, 2020
- Rabbis and Jewish ethicists hail vaccine for COVID-19, encourage its use - Jewish News of Greater Phoenix - December 19th, 2020
- Why it's kosher to go a little wild with the Hanukkah swag - Los Angeles Times - December 16th, 2020
- Increasing the Light of Allyship This Hanukkah - Jewish Journal - December 16th, 2020
- Why it's kosher to bring a little zing to the Hanukkah celebration - Bangor Daily News - December 16th, 2020
- Is the Menorah Hidden in the Vatican? - Chabad.org - December 16th, 2020
- Community mourns the passing of former CJC president Goldie Hershon - The Suburban Newspaper - December 16th, 2020
- Perseverence Vs. Perfection - An Essay on Vayigash - Kabbalah, Chassidism and Jewish Mysticism - Chabad.org - December 16th, 2020
- The New Generation of LGBTQ Jews and Tattoos - jewishboston.com - December 16th, 2020
- Men have dominated Jewish texts for most of history. These women are trying to change that. - JTA News - Jewish Telegraphic Agency - December 11th, 2020
- I knew Hanukkah celebrated defeating the Greeks. Then I moved to Athens and the story got complicated. - JTA News - Jewish Telegraphic Agency - December 11th, 2020
- What are good vegetarian dishes to have on Shabbat? - opinion - The Jerusalem Post - December 11th, 2020
- Five Brave Men and One Brave Woman - Judah the Maccabee and his siblings - Chabad.org - December 11th, 2020
- Hanukkah in Fall River Zooming live courtesy of Temple Beth El - Fall River Herald News - December 11th, 2020
- You Take Christmas, I'll Take Hanukkah | Michael Harvey | The Blogs - The Times of Israel - December 11th, 2020
- Bursting the bubble: Even the Rabbis perpetuated a "hoax!" - jewishpresspinellas - December 11th, 2020
- All up in lights - The River Reporter - December 11th, 2020
- Hanukkah This year and next - Forward - December 11th, 2020
- Dozens of Impressive Siyumim for Volume 5 of the Mishnah Berurah, In the Second Cycle of the Daf Hayomi in Halachah Were Held - Yeshiva World News - December 11th, 2020
- To Be A Wise Guy (Part I) - The Jewish Press - JewishPress.com - December 11th, 2020
Comments