Jimi Hendrix - Black Legacy by Corey A. Washington

Jimi saw what was going on in the country and used his artistic platform to speak out. At the Jimi Hendrix Experience concert at the LA Forum on April 25, 1969, a little over three months from his concert at Woodstock, Jimi would make Colin Kaepernick's kneeling for the anthem look very tame. Jimi's manager, Mike Jeffery, spent half of 1969 and most of 1970, doing damage control, trying to get Jimi to distance himself from The Black Panthers and other controversial leftist groups. Jimi explained that the anthem was originally written in a beautiful state, but when he plays it now, he plays it the way that America is in its current state, with lots of static and friction in the air.

Of note is Clague's recognition of Jimi 'code switching' to speak to two different sets of people, sometimes even at the same time.įor instance, when Jimi has a press conference in Harlem to announce a benefit concert for Harlem's United Block Association, a reporter asked him about his anthem performance at Woodstock. His research shows how Jimi's anthem rendition morphed into a political statement, even transforming into a call for action. He breaks down the highlights of Jimi performing the national anthem 63 times over a two-year period between August 1968 and August 1970. Clague entitled: This is America: Jimi Hendrix's StarSpangled Banner Journey as Psychedelic Citizenship (opens in new tab). There's some great research on Jimi's relationship with the national anthem by Mark A. Jimi Hendrix Winterland poster (Image credit: GAB Archive / Getty Images)

Jimi Hendrix - Black Legacy by Corey A. Washington