A watercolor of Jimi Hendrix.

American Icons: Jimi Hendrix’s ‘Star-Spangled Banner’

How Jimi Hendrix summed up the Vietnam War in a single guitar solo.

American Icons

dieKleinert/Alamy Stock Photo

In 1969, Jimi Hendrix’s performance of the national anthem at Woodstock hit like a shock wave.

With its distortion and chaos, it sounded like a rupture in something sacred. Two music scholars and two rock guitarists put together the pieces.

(Originally aired November 19, 2010)