User:Michaelbrandon1523/Culture during the Cold War

In 1969, on August 18th, Jimi Hendrix performed a rendition of "The Star-Spangled Banner" during his set at the Woodstock Music and Art Fair. The performance was strictly instrumental and featured tones from distortion pedals that expressed a feeling of chaos, war, and suffering. The tone of the performance was inspired by Hendrix's opinion towards the Vietnam War and his wanting for peace throughout the world. Hendrix opened the performance of the National Anthem by holding a peace sign up in the air with his left hand as the final note of the melodic rendition for the opening line "O say can you see" rang out. He continued the performance with the same tone up until the melodic rendition of the line "And the rockets' red glare." As this line was played, Hendrix adjusted his distortion pedal settings, giving his guitar the sound of screams, exploding bombs, and chaos, while his drummer, Mitch Mitchell, added his own sounds using his bass and snare drum s to imitate gunfire. The sounds of the performance added a sense of musical imagery, executing a feeling and experience of what was happening in and during the Vietnam War. The performance was an effort by Hendrix to show that even though he loved the United States, he believed that the country still had issues to work out. The performance was a showing of protest, not in a violent manner, but in a musical manner that showed his audience the true feelings and sounds of war, making the world understand what the experience of war is really like.