Jimi Hendrix and the Star Spangled Banner

   

When one thinks of Jimi Hendrix's rendition of "The Star Spangled Banner," one instantly thinks of Woodstock, the concert that defined the generation of the counterculture.  Woodstock was a three-day concert event that touted communal living, peace, free-spirit, and, above all else, music.  There were numerous performers, but the one that really defined Woodstock was Jimi Hendrix, who closed the show.  Hendrix performed on Monday morning, delayed due, in part, to inclement weather.  In fact, his audience was small in comparison with the throes of youngsters who had stayed through the weekend.   Over half a million people had been in attendance during the event's peak, but only about 30,000 were there when Hendrix took the stage. Even as Hendix played, the audience continued to thin, as people had weekday commitments and real lives to return to.  But those who stayed heard a version of "The Star Spangled Banner" that would become a symbol of a generation.

       It is interesting to note that Hendrix rendition was not planned.  Hendrix even admitted to the crowd just before breaking into that song: “You can leave if you want to. We’re just jammin’, that’s all.” The song was an impromptu jam session, but it really meant so much more to so many people, including Hendrix himself.

        The Hendrix version of "The Star Spangled Banner" was representative of the time.  It not only highlighted the reactions to the perceived immorality of the Vietnam War as a protest song, but it appropriately broke from tradition.  If we think about the concept of a "counterculture," it implies just that - a break away from traditional norms, values, and expectations.  Hendrix did that and so much more by playing his own artistic version of the traditionally American anthem.  Aside from the obvious war references, including the sound of bombs falling, fighter jets overhead, people screaming, and the infusion of Taps, the song represented a break from tradition because it was not played traditionally.  No one had thought to do this before Hendrix.  Whether or not you like the interpretation, it cannot be denied that Hendrix made a statement about the sociopolitical atmosphere of the time that goes way beyond that of an anti-war statement.

The Jimi Hendrix Experience

        For Hendrix himself, the song appropriately made another statement - that of Civil Rights.  Jimi Hendrix was a very successful African American rock singer who had been backed by an all-white band, the Jimi Hendrix Experience, which had recently broken up and was playing for the first time with his new, mixed-race band, Gypsy Sun and Rainbows.  Hendrix included black performers, bassist Billy Cox, guitarist Larry Lee, and percussionist Juma Sultan in the new ensemble he called his Gypsies.  Hendrix also performed songs from his early years, songs including Gypsy Woman and Aware of Love, which were written or co-written by Curtis Mayfield, with whom Hendrix had performed with in the early 1960s. It was the only Hendrix concert that included these songs. It would seem that Hendrix wanted to point out that he was a successful rocker, but also that he was African-American.  "The Star Spangled Banner" performance only served to highlight this point.  Hendrix himself even drove that point home when interviewed about his rendition of  "The Star Spangled Banner" on Dick Cavett a few days after the performance:

“I don’t know, man. All I did was play it. I’m American, so I played it. I used to sing it in school. They made me sing it in school, so it was a flashback.” Cavett interrupted the interview to point out to the audience, “This man was in the 101st Airborne, so when you send your nasty letters in …” Cavett then explained to Hendrix that whenever someone plays an “unorthodox” version of the anthem, “You immediately get a guaranteed percentage of hate mail.”

Hendrix then respectfully disagreed with Cavett’s description. “I didn’t think it was unorthodox,” he said. “I thought it was beautiful.”

Hendrix underscored the fact that he played the song because he was an American.  In that instance, Hendrix explained so much in so few words as did his artistic rendition of an American anthem.

The Peace Songs - The Cold War Connection

The Vietnam War soundtrack featured an abundance of anti-war songs, including Edwin Star’s “War” (1970) and Country Joe’s “Fixin’ to Die Rag” (1968).  These songs fit squarely into the box dubbed “Vietnam War Protest Songs.”  But it is not so well-known that many of the peace songs that became popular in the later 1960s were actually written in response to the Cold War and fear of nuclear annihilation rather than as a reaction to America’s involvement in Southeast Asia. For example, Bob Dylan’s “Blowin’ in the Wind,” (1962), “Masters of War,” (1963), and “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall” (1963) were all written as peace songs well before America entered the hot war in Vietnam and well after America’s exit from Korea.  In fact, Dylan himself stated before playing “Blowin’ in the Wind” at a Greenwich Village nightclub “This here ain’t no protest song or anything like that cause I don’t write no protest songs.”  Of the three, “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall” is the most obvious of the nuclear testing warnings.  Just by the title alone it is easy to see how the song is related to the realization that the nuclear fall-out from testing was being washed out of the sky through the rain and was literally poisoning the environment.  If anything, this song can actually be considered an early pro-environmental song.  The Vietnam War was barely on the horizon and not on the minds of songwriters like Dylan who were considered the writers of “Protest Songs” at this particular time.

 It is true that the Vietnam War hurried along the popularity of such songs, especially as they found a place in anti-war protests.  But the fact that these songs were written as Cold War offerings actually puts many of these songs in a different category than “Anti-War Songs.”  Indiana University Emeritus Professor of History Ronald D. Cohen concedes “potential devastation from atomic weapons, rather than the looming Vietnam War, mostly occupied the minds of songwriters” in the early to mid-1960s. Promoting peace in light of the Cold War and protesting American involvement in a hot war in Southeast Asia are two very different entities with very different undertones.  The “Peace Movement” did shift to an anti-war stance as things heated up in Vietnam. And there were many songs that were written in this light.  Phil Ochs penned “I Ain’t Marchin’ Anymore,” “The Men Behind the Guns,” and “Draft Dodger Rag,” specifically to protest America’s involvement in Vietnam.  But it was not until “Eve of Destruction” was released by Barry McGuire in late August of 1965 that the union between song and anti-war protest was really cemented, but this was purely an accident, and not the intention of the songwriter.

 The P.F. Sloan-penned “Eve of Destruction” as recorded by Barry McGuire reached Number 1 on the pop charts.  This was the first time that a protest song had reached a wider audience, indicating that the general public was dissatisfied with America’s foreign policies.  However, P.F. Sloan admitted that the song was not an anti-Vietnam War song.  Sloan writes:

The song 'Eve of Destruction' was written in the early morning hours between midnight and dawn in mid-1964. The most outstanding experience I had in writing this song was hearing an inner voice inside of myself for only the second time. It seemed to have information no one else could've had. For example, I was writing down this line in pencil 'think of all the hate there is in Red Russia.' This inner voice said 'No, no it's Red China!' I began to argue and wrestle with that until near exhaustion. I thought Red Russia was the most outstanding enemy to freedom in the world, but this inner voice said the Soviet Union will fall before the end of the century and Red China will endure in crimes against humanity well into the new century! This inner voice that is inside of each and every one of us but is drowned out by the roar of our minds! The song contained a number of issues that were unbearable for me at the time. I wrote it as a prayer to God for an answer.

I have felt it was a love song and written as a prayer because, to cure an ill you need to know what is sick. In my youthful zeal I hadn't realized that this would be taken as an attack on The System! Examples: The media headlined the song as everything that is wrong with the youth culture. First, show the song is just a hack song to make money and therefore no reason to deal with its questions. Prove the 19-year old writer is a communist dupe. Attack the singer as a parrot for the writers word. The media claimed that the song would frighten little children. I had hoped thru this song to open a dialogue with Congress and the people. The media banned me from all national television shows. Oddly enough they didn't ban Barry. The United States felt under threat. So any positive press on me or Barry was considered un-patriotic. A great deal of madness, as I remember it! I told the press it was a love song. A love song to and for humanity, that's all. It ruined Barry's career as an artist and in a year I would be driven out of the music business too.

Sloan even asserted that the song’s intention was not to protest the Vietnam War nor the American government and its foreign policy.  Sloan cites the Cold War as well in his inspirations for the song as the enemies to American freedom are the Communist countries of Russia and China.  Although “Eve of Destruction” became a symbol of protest against the American government and its foreign policies specifically in Southeast Asia, this was not the songwriter’s intention.  Therefore, “Eve of Destruction” was just as much a “peace song” written in response to the Cold War as was “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall.”  In fact, “Eve of Destruction” addresses the threat to American freedoms, much as the country-western songs of the time reminded their listeners of pride in the American way of life.  In this light, "Eve of Destruction" can actually be compared to the rockabilly Chuck Berry's “Back in the U.S.A” as a patriotic song about America's greatness.

Soundtrack to the Vietnam War

       There was no time in American history where music played a more important role than during the Vietnam War era.  That era was wrought with social changes - the women's movement, black power, anti-war demonstrations, and youth empowerment in general as embodied by the counterculture.  Music is still associated with the counterculture, even today, but music also shaped the attitudes going into the war, both supportive of American involvement in Southeast Asia and in demonstrating anti-war attitudes.  Less well known is the “frontier myth” and its connection to support of the Vietnam War through country/western music, a genre that was rich with patriotism. This blog will explore music with a focus on the country/western contributions and attitudes in particular, as well as displaying both positive and negative attitudes about the Vietnam War through social shifts, consumerism, and the transition from manic post-World War II attitudes through the Vietnam War, creating a conversation between pro- and anti-war attitudes through music.