Jimi Hendrix mangles "The Star-Spangled Banner"?

He had actually performed it at least three times in the year prior, often as a lead-in into Purple Haze, but Jimi Hendrix's distorted rendition of The Star-Spangled Banner at the Woodstock Festival on the morning of August 18, 1969, is often seen as a political statement against the Vietnam War, with some claiming that his solo imitated the sound of falling bombs and machine gun fire. Hendrix himself never admitted as much, although he later told talk show host Dick Cavett that he meant no harm by it, and actually found his rendition, characterized by its alternately tender and violent melodies, "pretty."