Woodstock Moments

Greatest guitar performance at Woodstock

  • Santana (Soul Sacrifice)

  • Jimi Hendrix (Star Spangled Banner)

  • Alvin Lee (Going Home)


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Hurdy Gurdy Man

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Greatest guitar performance at Woodstock-Santana "Soul Sacrifice" VS Hendrix set feat."Spangled Banner" VS Alvin Lee for "Going Home"............
 

Dave78

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There were a lot of great moments throughout the weekend, but Jimi performing the Star Spangled Banner has to be the highlight of the entire weekend to me. And not because I thought the song was all that great, but because of what it represented.

Considering the anti-war theme of that generation of hippie-kids (as well as the festival itself?), Jimi's rendering of that patriotic song became something that maybe unified those kids that were there if only for a few minutes, and maybe on film would also go on to represent something bigger than the event itself - like some sort of social collective-consciousness that has lasted ever since.

I personally think Jimi's version of the song would have been better had he just stuck to the parameters of the National Anthem itself instead of going off on tangents, but I guess that's the nature of the rock star and he couldn't help himself. But to see people do that song these days I think only reinforces how significant and lasting Jimi's performance was. The End.
 
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BikerDude

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There were a lot of great moments throughout the weekend, but Jimi performing the Star Spangled Banner has to be the highlight of the entire weekend to me. And not because I thought the song was all that great, but because of what it represented.

Considering the anti-war theme of that generation of hippie-kids (as well as the festival itself?), Jimi's rendering of that patriotic song became something that maybe unified those kids that were there if only for a few minutes, and maybe on film would also go on to represent something bigger than the event itself - like some sort of social collective-consciousness that has lasted ever since.

I personally think Jimi's version of the song would have been better had he just stuck to the parameters of the National Anthem itself instead of going off on
tangents, but I guess that's the nature of the rock star and he couldn't help himself. But to see people do that song these days I think only reinforces how significant and lasting Jimi's performance was. The End.

Yeah except Jimmy supported the war in Vietnam.
He served there.
Jimi Hendrix's hawkishness on the issue of the Vietnam War is less surprising when you consider that he had served in the Army from 1961 to 1962 as a paratrooper in the 101st Airborne Division. While in the Army, he probably got exposed to a lot of indoctrination about the Communist menace from the USSR and China, which could explain why he would rely on Yellow Perilrhetoric when talking about the Vietnam War. According to Eric Burdon, the lead singer of The Animals, Jimi Hendrix had "a right-wing attitude when he first arrived in England." One day, when Eric Burdon was sitting on the roof of Jimi Hendrix's apartment watching an anti-Vietnam War demonstration near the American embassy in London, Hendrix told him,

When the Reds come down from China and they take over North Vietnam, and South Vietnam, and then they go for Japan, and beyond, then are you going to understand why the U.S. is there fighting these guys?
 

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