Jimi Hendrix Talks to Dick Cavett About Playing ‘Star-Spangled Banner’
by Best Classic Bands Staff
If you’ve never seen this Classic Video, we urge you to invest a few minutes of your time and watch it. You’ll never grow tired of it.
It’s Jimi Hendrix visiting the Dick Cavett Show on September 9, 1969, to talk about the guitarist’s performance of the “Star-Spangled Banner” at Woodstock, several weeks’ earlier.
Hendrix had famously served in the U.S. Army, enlisting as a 19-year-old in 1961. Following basic training at Ford Ord in California he was assigned to the famed 101st Airborne at Fort Cambell, KY, where he underwent paratrooper training and earned the 101st’s “Screaming Eagle” patch.
Cavett acknowledged Hendrix’s military service to the TV audience and then asked his guest: “What was the controversy about the National Anthem…?”
Guitar God: “I don’t know, man. All I do is play it. I’m American so I play it. They made us sing it in school so it’s a flashback.”
This was Hendrix’s second visit to Cavett’s show and it’s clear the pair had already developed a warm relationship. “Do they ever send that shirt back with too much starch in the collar,” the host asks, as Hendrix laughs.
“You’re considered one of the best guitar players in the world,” Cavett says at one point. Hendrix’s reaction is priceless.
Watch Jimi flash the peace sign to the camera. He then pretends to scare Cavett. Beautiful…
Related: Cavett’s archives are in the Library of Congress
The erudite Cavett was born November 19, 1936. Hendrix was born November 27, 1942. He died on September 18, 1970.
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