instrumentalist of all time.”
True or not, James Marshall
Hendrix of Seattle was inarguably an
original whose supernatural mastery
of the electric guitar—and unprec-
edented deployment of high-volume
amps and feedback—made him a musi-
cal revolutionary who roiled rock ’n’
roll in the same way saxophone genius
Charlie Parker transformed jazz. After
moving to Britain, the Army vet scored
three U.K. Top 10 hits with his band the
Jimi Hendrix Experience—“Hey Joe,”
“Purple Haze,” and “The Wind Cries
Mary.” Back in the States, Hendrix
made a sensational impression at the
Monterey Pop Festival and was the
world’s highest-paid performer when
he closed out the Woodstock festival,
at nine a.m., entertaining some 40,000
remaining concertgoers. In trade-
mark red bandana, the lithe guitarist
blasted away for two hours, includ-
ing signature classics such as “Foxy
Lady” and “Gypsy Woman.” But the
pièce de résistance—and a counter-
culture landmark—was his psyche-
delic, feedback-distorted rendition of
“The Star-Spangled Banner,” which
seemed alternately respectful and dis-
turbing and for many encapsulated the
conflicted emotions of a divided, war-
weary nation. Hendrix segued into
“Purple Haze,” then launched into a
long instrumental piece later titled
“Woodstock Improvisation,” followed
by “Villanova Junction,” before clos-
ing the Woodstock Music and Art Fair
around 11:15 a.m. with “Hey Joe.”
“It was over,” Lang wrote. “What had
seemed an eternity now felt like the
blink of an eye. Nothing would ever be
the same again.”
AFTER WOODSTOCK: Just 13 months
after Woodstock, Jimi Hendrix, 27,
died in London on September 18,
1970, asphyxiated by his own vomit
after overdosing on sleeping pills. His
music remains as popular, and his gui-
tar work as revered, as during his life-
time, and his influence on a range of
genres—hard rock, heavy metal, funk,
grunge, hip-hop—is incalculable. l
84 LIFE WOODSTOCK