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.

Cold War Beginnings: Chuck Berry

Well, I'm so glad I'm living in the U.S.A.
Yes. I'm so glad I'm living in the U.S.A.
Anything you want, we got right here in the U.S.A.

           Chuck Berry, being an African American artist in the late 1950s and early 1960s defied the odds and made a mark on the music, and on the culture, of American life. In that, he truly appreciated life in the U.S. as revealed by his lyrics in "Back in the U.S.A." released in 1959. Chuck Berry was born in St. Louis in the late 1920’s and grew up in a lower middle class African American family. Although he escaped the rural poverty that was prevalent in the blues music of the black artists, he had a true love of this music. Berry wrote “Ida Red”, a “countrified blues song” and attempted to record it at the Chess brothers’ studio in Chicago. After reshaping this song into a “rhythmical rock and roll” style,” Maybelline” became a national hit reaching number five on the charts in 1955. Berry attempted to release a few other bluesy style songs, unsuccessfully, and he, therefore, began to write songs that appealed directly to the white teenage record-buying audience and became a very successful early rock and roller.

            Although Berry’s success in the late 1950’s was short lived due to his prison term, Berry broke ground in the rock and roll world, tearing down racial barriers and appealing to white audiences. Berry was the first African American rock and roller to get white airplay with “Maybelline” due to his carefully enunciated lyrics allowing him to pass for white in a strictly segregated society. Berry knew how to appeal to the white teenage world, and specifically targeted them in his music, making his appeal to a larger unsegregated audience. Berry’s musical style was also new, basically defining rock and roll with his unprecedented compositions of blues beats, country runs, and humorous lyrics. Berry’s influences can be heard in many artists who came after him, including the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, and Bob Dylan.

           But our focus here is on the patriotism of the lyrics, of which Berry was an early example leading into the Vietnam conflict, when it seemed that most of the public supported any efforts the U.S. made in combating Communism. Chuck Berry's lyrics in "Back in the U.S.A." ooze with patriotism and pride for the United States. This is not surprising if we place Berry's song within the socio-political context in which it was written - The Cold War. In this context, America was competing with the Soviet Union in all aspects, and in that regard, America was encouraging its citizens to believe that the United States was the best in the world.  America offered be best of everything including the simple things, as Berry shows us, like drive-ins, jukeboxes, and sizzling hamburgers. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame credits Berry with appealing to the masses and appreciating life in the United States:

During this high-spirited decade [of the 1950s], Berry hailed America as a land of fun and opportunity. The mid-Fifties was a period of rising prosperity for the growing middle class, and the social landscape was slowly improving for African-Americans as the civil rights era dawned. In the lyrics for “Back in the U.S.A.,” written after returning from an Australian tour, Berry saluted such everyday pleasures as the drive-ins and corner cafes “where hamburgers sizzle on an open grill night and day/Yeah, and a jukebox jumping with records like in the U.S.A.”

           Berry's lyrics are a perfect example of those that promoted Americanism and set up the United States citizens to fully back its country in all affairs both foreign and domestic, especially when these affairs furthered democratic ideologies by preventing the spread of the feared Communism that appeared to be taking over Asia. But not all songs penned during this time promoted American patriotism, which we shall explore further in our next post.

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.