Jimi Hendrix – The Star Spangled Banner

Happy Independence Day! Hendrix did a great version of The Star Spangled Banner in my opinion. He had served as a paratrooper in the 101st Airborne Division at Fort Campbell in Clarksville Tennessee in the early 60s.

Jimi Hendrix - Star Spangled Banner B

Yes, this is my favorite version of the song. The poem that formed the basis of the lyrics was penned in 1814 during the War of 1812 by Francis Scott Key, a 35-year-old lawyer who was sent to negotiate with the British in an attempt to gain the release of an American prisoner they were holding.

Later, Key watched the bombardment of Fort McHenry from a ship he was on. The next morning he saw the Americans take down the battle-torn US flag at the fort and replace it with a larger one.

Key’s poem was published on September 17, 1814, the day after he returned to Baltimore. The poem was sung to the music of a popular British drinking song called “To Anacreon in Heaven, ” attributed to John Stafford Smith.

Any time someone does an unusual approach to this song…there is always a lot of complaining from people. Once when Jose Feliciano did the song in Game 5 of the MLB World Series in 1968 on guitar and singing…all hell broke loose. Some listeners thought he had “desecrated” and disrespected the national anthem but when asked about it, Feliciano explained that the reason he offered a non-traditional rendition of the anthem was to get people to pay attention to it. It was a great version of the song.

Jimi Hendrix - Star Spangled Banner

Hendrix took the stage at Woodstock at 8am…only around 30,000 were left out of the huge crowd there. He had been warned not to do the anthem when he toured but did it anyway. He even recorded a studio version and after his death, the takes were put together and released but the Woodstock performance is the one that is best known. What amazes me is when he is imitating bombs dropping…he suddenly goes right back in on time and doesn’t miss a lick.

He didn’t get as much flack as Feliciano did…I think because it wasn’t on prime time during a World Series.

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Author: Badfinger (Max)

Power Pop fan, Baseball, Beatles, Alternative music, old movies, and tv show fan. Also anything to do with pop culture in the 60s and 70s... I'm also a songwriter, bass and guitar player. Not the slightest bit interested in politics at all.

56 thoughts on “Jimi Hendrix – The Star Spangled Banner”

  2. Nice post about the origin of the song. Jimi’s guitar version had to grow on me, but now I love it. A local guitarist re-created it a couple of years ago at a baseball game here, and got huge applause. I enjoy the Feliciano version, too. Honestly, I don’t remember the uproar about his performance. I’m sure I would have heard about it at the time, because I knew who he was from seeing him perform on TV shows.

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    1. I’ve read where it even affected his career. I think being played during such a huge timeslot made people notice more than Jimi’s version. I remember The Stones used it to warm up the crowd at a concert right before they came on or went off.

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  4. A very memorable rendition! You’re probably right about the context explaining why Feliciano got more flak for his version than Hendrix- it was seen by millions of ordinary, older Americans, Hendrix’s wasn’t.

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    1. His was in the morning and it wasn’t shown until a year or so later… He was on Cavett later and Cavett told him…that since they played a clip on the show they would be getting calls. Jimi asked why? He said he thought it was beautiful.

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  5. In Massachusetts, both Feliciano’s and Hendrix’s renditions are illegal: To sing the anthem “other than as a whole and separate composition or number, without embellishment or addition in the way of national or other melodies” is a crime. (General Laws, Part IV, Title I, Chapter 264, Section 9.) Since Hendrix didn’t sing, maybe he’d get a pass. How many more than 30K will claim they were there for the Woodstock rendition? The Grateful Dead sang a surprisingly accurate and in tune version at a SF Giants game. It is now my favorite. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e67T_kjc64A

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      1. Obviously, Hendrix’s performance is as bad ass as it gets, but my understanding is Houston’s performance there is iconic in terms of the US at that point in time in terms of pride, passion, and patriotism. I’ve watched that anthem maybe more than a hundred times and not one gets close in the traditional sense.

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      2. Yea….the one thing I have against Houston’s version…and this is just me personally…but she mimed it…she recorded it in a studio. That is the reason there is no slips.

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      8. Man, I just finished reading in the wikipedia page:
        Although Houston was singing live, she was singing into a dead microphone, and television viewers were hearing a non-live pre-recorded version of the anthem due to her musical director making her aware of the risks of performing live.
        I never had any idea and how it wasn’t mentioned in her documentary or in the comments is astounding.
        My apologies go out to you as I feel dead inside. Haha. I always thought it was the real deal

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      9. Sorry….I should have read this first! Yea…that gets on my nerves…I hate the NFL anyway but it should be live!

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      12. Let me tell you, I’m glad that you did! You remember as a kid when someone told you some fairytale or story wasn’t true, that you loved. That’s how I feel right now. The truth is better always. I’m indebted you told me, but it hurts to know the truth.

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      20. Do you know how many times I’ve recommended this version to people and even wrote about it on my site? What really peeves me off is this version was layed out in her documentary and in comments as the great beacon of musical live performances which instilled great passion and patriotism in America. This is before AI haha

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      22. There are parts that sounded a bit off in the beginning and towards the end in terms of key. Not the end – end. That was magnificent, but anyhows. That’s that. Sh&t happens. Done and dusted.
        By the way Max, I recommend you watch the latest video I posted on Free Solo (Part 2). Even if it scares the crap out of you the presentation of this spectacular and the chilled out conversation between the two is excellent. If you begin to watch it, I doubt you’ll stop. The production is just so good. I don’t think it’s forged haha

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      25. Really only one comment… HELL NO. I can’t believe they dont’ use a safety rope.

        Well I better get back to my wife…it’s our anniversary today…I married her on July 4 so I would remember.

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  8. Hendrix and Jose were never ever going to please the older generation with their takes on it. It was a blindly patriotic hand-on-heart song for them. No-one outside of a John Wayne version would have been acceptable to some, especially in those crew-cut verses long-haired divided days.

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  9. I wasn’t aware of the Feliciano version, but it seems to me it is being sung with feeling and respect. I think it shows the strength of the basic song that it can be interpreted in so many ways.

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    1. Yes he was….I live around 20 minutes from Clarksville so I heard the stories…I couldn’t believe it either. Thanks for stopping by!

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  11. Hope you’ve been enjoying the holiday, Max. I love both the Hendrix and the Feliciano renditions of the national anthem. Can you imagine they would do their versions these days when people get upset over each and every little fart?

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    1. Oh it would be all over social media! I do like both of them though.
      Oh…I’m almost finished with the Mellencamp doc….finishing it up now!

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  13. Pingback: Jimi Hendrix – The Star Spangled Banner – MobsterTiger

  15. Amazing song for an amazing event. Jimi does it full of complex emotions for a complex patriotism – you can hear the social chaos, the agony and machinery of war, but also genuine affection and all manner of poignant emotion. Hendrix brings the anthem into the moment in a way that might rattle rote memory patriots as well as protesters wary of anything patriotic. He brings both groups one step past their comfort zone, one step closer to the hippie ideal where we break through conventional ways of doing things and recognize that we’re all in this together.

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