Jimi Hendrix: A Comparison Of The Star Spangled Banner

As the national anthem, the Star-Spangled Banner is more than familiar to Americans. Most of the time, we feel a sense of patriotism when the tune rises. Usually, our society confirms that the lyrics of the national anthem promote a sense of praise for our nation. This makes people rarely examine what other messages our national anthem wants to pass to us. However, Jimi Hendrix, the renowned rock guitarist from the late 1960s, interpreted our national anthem in a very different perspective. He used different sound effects and crafted special emphasis throughout his recreation of the song in the Woodstock music festival for one purpose – celebrating the freedom of expression in this country. The presentation of optimistic and pessimistic viewpoints …show more content…
He also forced his audiences to visualize the battlefield of Ford McHenry during the war of 1812, where the national anthem was written. By painting a vivid picture of the scene of the brave Americans fighting on the battlefield, the performance carried its audiences further into the struggle of gaining our freedom. Throughout his recreation of the Star-Spangled Banner, Jimi Hendrix utilized special guitar techniques to help listeners visualize the war scene to an extreme extent. When playing the line of “the rocket’s red glare” and “the bombs bursting in air,” Jimi Hendrix and his band simulated the scary sound of the war – the endless screaming, the brutal bombing, the terrifying shooting – to let their audience immerse themselves into a lifelike battlefield. Compared to the original national anthem, the vivid sound effect crafted by Jimi Hendrix added an even clearer sense of the severity of the struggles many Americans face. Furthermore, the stressful guitar sound corresponding to the first two lines of the song first set up the atmosphere of the battlefield – “dawn’s early light” and “twilight’s last gleaming” – making the surroundings seem so dark and hazy. As the audience, we should ask ourselves an important question at this point – what allows us to see the flag that we strive to secure in a such dark and hazy night? This confusion is …show more content…
On the one hand, just before he played the last line, Jimi Hendrix and his band stopped for a good few seconds. The sudden silence, in this case, was rather a surprise after the bombardment of the insane sound of the war. This quiet moment is the place that he tells everyone that we can walk out of this dark moment. The return of the final line represents the hope in front of us – it tells us that there is unfinished business ahead of us. That mission in front of us, with not only the sense of bitterness but also the brilliance of hopefulness, is the effort that would stop the war. On the other hand, however, the return of the last line, which asks “is America still the land of the free and the home of the brave?”, can also be perceived as the return of confusion. This signifies the danger of the approach of using war to resolve our confusions – that it will keep us in an endless and dark circle. We would never walk out of our pain in this dangerous