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<p align="center"><span style="text-decoration: underline">Woodstock ‘69 with a Little Bit of Jimi Hendrix</span></p>
            A lot of things took place in the 1960’s within the United States of America. Some of them were good things and some of them were not such good things that we like to talk about too often. One of those “things” that can be controversial depending on who you are talking to about is “The Star Spangled Banner” done by Jimi Hendrix at Woodstock in 1969. Someone that you talk to might say that “This is one of the coolest things that happened at Woodstock” and someone else might tell you that “It is a sign of disrespect to our country and the Star Spangled Banner”<!--more-->

To start you off I feel like you need to know a little background about what was taking place in the year 1969. For starters Richard Nixon became President. The U.S. was in the heart of fighting the Vietnam War (A lot of controversy behind that). Woodstock took place and had over 350,000 people attend the venue to watch performers. “Buzz Aldren and Neil Armstrong became the first men to have ever stepped on the on the moon” (Kid-Port).

The Vietnam War was the biggest thing that was going on during this time that had the hugest impact on what was taking place with the people in this country. The war started in 1954 and didn’t end till 1974, and by the end of 1969 more than 35,000 soldiers had been killed. The Americans back in the states were putting on a lot of protest events to show the government that they were not in support for the war. Most of the reasoning behind the U.S. citizens not showing support for the war is that people were told and sort of forced with propaganda showing the U.S. soldiers killing families that were defenseless. Musicians were attending these protest for different reasons, some of them used it to get more people to want to listen to their music and support them, and some for simply because they were against what they thought was taking place over in Vietnam.

One large musical event that took place was Woodstock. Woodstock could be a comparison to ACL (Austin City Limits) music festival. Had a large group of people come to a venue (or open field) to listen to music for 3 days and then all go home afterwards with the only remains trash and ruined field. Woodstock took place only in 196every year on a dairy farm in Bethel, New York.  It was put together by a “bunch of kids, with the oldest one being 27 years old” (Rosenberg) and the one thing that was a first for Woodstock was in 1969 after the shows were over the owners “were $1 million in debt and faced up to 70 different lawsuits.” (Rosenberg) A lot of things took place during the 1969 shows and one thing that upset the fans was when Jimi Hendrix showed up late to his show time. It was reported that Jimi Hendrix was supposed to have shown up on stage at midnight on the last day and play till the end of the concert, but Hendrix reportedly didn’t show up to stage and play till 9a.m. after many of the fans of the concert had already begun to leave the venue. (DigitalDreamDoor.com)

When Hendrix played the “Star Spangled Banner” he was doing something that musicians were doing all over the country, by playing a national anthem at an event for everyone to hear. People were making this as a traditional thing that during every big event of some sort that the national was to be played.

When Hendrix played the “Star Spangled Banner” on his guitar could be compared to a Puerto Rican musician Jose Feliciano who played the national anthem Tiger Stadium in Detroit when he “when he strummed a slow, bluesy rendition of the national anthem before Game 5 of the World Series between Detroit and St. Louis.” (Gettings) Feliciano was the first person to perform the national anthem to a different beat than what it was written to, so when Hendrix played the “Star Spangled Banner” on his guitar as a solo it was the first time that a musician had played the song in front of a group of people on a guitar with no lyrics being said. It was a start of a new generation taking this song and turning it into its own piece of work.

Hendrix started something new, well Jose Feliciano did but Hendrix gets the credit for his being more of a movement than what Feliciano’s was. People every day are changing the national anthem into their own style. Someone to point out would have to Christina Aguilera when she sang at Super Bowl XLV she had changed (butchered) the national anthem to where it would be different and be best for her to sing, and well in my opinion it didn’t work out into her favor.

When Jose Feliciano sang the national anthem people had a mixed feeling to what had taken place and the alterations to their national anthem; for Hendrix it was the same feelings. People were both for and against what he had done. People that were against felt like this was an act out against the government for what was taking place in the Vietnam War, and would like to have seen Hendrix be punished copyright infractions. The other side of it was people loved mostly “the hippies who supported the protest of the war” (Protasker) that when Hendrix played the national anthem it was to help push for the ending of Vietnam and help the people’s voices to be heard by the government.

If you go up to a teenager today and ask them about their perspective on the national anthem done by Jimi Hendrix majority of them will reply with “that’s the coolest thing” they know nothing about the reasoning why it was played (well at least most of them wont). They love the way Hendrix played the national anthem and think that it was very innovated. If you were to go up to someone who is in the military and old enough to have been around when Hendrix played the national anthem at Woodstock they might have a different feeling towards the piece of music. For example my friend loves the way it was played and try’s to mimic it as well when he plays on his electric guitar, but his father (who fought in Vietnam) thinks that it was innovated but very disrespectful to the reasoning behind why he did it.

In my personal opinion of this is that I loved what Hendrix did I thought it was very innovating.  This blog that was written by someone with the screen name “PJ” wrote that the “Jimi Hendrix’ version of “The Star Spangled Banner” is one of the most passionate pieces of modern rock guitar ever committed to tape.” (PJ) where he at first states that he really isn’t for people doing the national anthem with adding their own style to it, but after he listens to the Hendrix version is loves what he did at Woodstock. Well I am kind of like that too. I don’t like when people change the national anthem so much that it sounds nothing like the original, but what Hendrix did was pretty innovated and sweet.

Do I think that Hendrix didn’t anything wrong with doing it at an event that was primarily put together to protest the war no, he knew it would get the biggest hit there if he did it. He was known to go to protest against the war just to get popularity because of the people that would attend those were the people that would mostly like be the ones jamming out to his music while they were on cloud nine. I think the way it was played was pretty sweet, and just about all my friends who play the guitar have tried to play it once or twice on the guitar. I also like the fact that I’m sure someone told him that it would be a bad idea to probably play it because you could tick off a lot of people and he went ahead and it know it would earn him a lot of respect from a lot of people and crap from a lot of others.

When you say something about Jimi Hendrix the first thing that comes to my mind is the Star Spangled Banner done on the guitar by him, then comparison between him and Stevie Ray Vaughan. I feel that his performance should be remembered because it was his way of doing the national anthem that truly did start a revolution of followers behind him. People will probably never remember the reasoning or care to know the reasoning behind why he did it, but they will always remember the fact that he did it and how innovating it was and out of the norm at the time, and for that alone it should be preserved.
<p align="center">Bibliography</p>

<ol>
	<li>Jimi Hendrix “The Star Spangled Banner” , written by PJ, Every day I write the blog,  January 12th, 2010, seen on November 7th, 2011; <a href="http://every-day-i-write-the-blog.blogspot.com/2010/01/jimi-hendrix-star-spangled-banner.html">http://every-day-i-write-the-blog.blogspot.com/2010/01/jimi-hendrix-star-spangled-banner.html</a></li>
	<li>Digital Dream Door; November 20, 2011; <a href="http://digitaldreamdoor.com/pages/music0_woodstock.html">http://digitaldreamdoor.com/pages/music0_woodstock.html</a></li>
	<li>Infoplease, Star-Mangled Banner, by John Gettings, November 21st, 2011 <a href="http://www.infoplease.com/spot/starmangledbanner.html">http://www.infoplease.com/spot/starmangledbanner.html</a></li>
	<li>he Moon Landing, Kid-Port, November 20th, 2011 <a href="http://www.kidport.com/reflib/science/moonlanding/moonlanding.htm">http://www.kidport.com/reflib/science/moonlanding/moonlanding.htm</a></li>
	<li>The Woodstock Festival of 1969, By Jennifer Rosenberg, About.com Guide, November 21st, 2011, <a href="http://history1900s.about.com/od/1960s/p/woodstock.htm">http://history1900s.about.com/od/1960s/p/woodstock.htm</a></li>
	<li>Jimi Hendrix, My guitar solo.com, November 21, 2011 <a href="http://www.myguitarsolo.com/Players/JimiHendrix.htm">http://www.myguitarsolo.com/Players/JimiHendrix.htm</a></li>
	<li>3 Days of Peace and Music, by Protasker, November 21st, 2011, <a href="http://www.squidoo.com/woodstock">http://www.squidoo.com/woodstock</a></li>
</ol>