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Steve Banks, CC BY-SA 4.0 , via Wikimedia Commons
Jimi Hendrix, 1968
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National Anthem
The music was loud;
the air was loud.
The New York State Thruway was closed—
a sea of young people, covered in mud.
In the days and weeks after,
the hate mail started coming in.
Hendrix said:
“I don’t know, man.
All I did was play it.
I’m American, so I played it.”
South of Woodstock,
between Voodoo Child and Purple Haze.
Someone said:
“It was unorthodox.”
Jimi said, “No, no. Not unorthodox.
It was beautiful.”
***
The music was loud;
the air was loud.
I looked at Jimi’s sad eyes
and thought:
it’s a song we all grew up singing in school
but now
I’m in a wormhole,
an Einstein-Rosen Bridge,
falling.
Over there’s Harriet Tubman,
also with sad eyes.
And the Edmund Pettus Bridge, too.
Selma isn’t that far from Woodstock
when you think about it.
Psychedelic. Our National Anthem
morphs into Taps.
Was it the LSD
or were those gunshots I heard?
Martin Luther King lay lifeless on a balcony in Memphis.
I couldn’t breathe.
***
The music was loud;
the air was loud.
Jimi said, “When I feel down,
I want to play.
It’s alright, it’s part of life.
I’m digging it.
It was a turn on, you know?
I hope we have more of them.” And
a year later,
he walked off the stage.
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Martin Agee’s career as a professional violinist has brought him to the major concert venues, recording studios, and theatres of New York City for over thirty-five years. During his years as a professional musician, he has remained active as a writer of poetry, fiction and critical essays. His works have appeared in Belle Ombre, Idle Ink and Allegro, among others.
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Listen to Jimi Hendrix play Star Spangled Banner [Legacy Recordings]
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