The Country's Memory: Jimi Hendrix, Strange Fruit, and American Music at 250

Jimi Hendrix played "The Star-Spangled Banner" at Woodstock in 1969 and let the war in around the melody. This year the United States turns 250. This Groundwater special steps back from the map to ask what twentieth-century American music has been for: the country's memory, the part of the record that didn't get edited.At its center is Billie Holiday's "Strange Fruit" — the song that held a mirror up to lynching, and the song the state went after its singer over. Around it: the Fisk Jubilee Singers and the spirituals; Woody Guthrie's "This Land Is Your Land" and the verses America stopped teaching; Sam Cooke's "A Change Is Gonna Come"; Nina Simone's "Mississippi Goddam"; and Louis Armstrong refusing to carry the flag abroad after Little Rock. The dark and the joy are the same record.Music and sound, in order of appearance:- "Guitar Rag" — Sylvester Weaver — OKeh, 1923 (theme; public domain)- "The Star-Spangled Banner" — Jimi Hendrix — Woodstock, 1969- "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" — Fisk University Jubilee Quartet — Victor, 1909 (public domain)- "This Land Is Your Land" — Woody Guthrie — Asch, 1944- "Strange Fruit" — Billie Holiday — Commodore, 1939- "A Change Is Gonna Come" — Sam Cooke — RCA Victor, 1964- "Mississippi Goddam" — Nina Simone — Philips, 1964Excerpts used briefly for criticism and commentary.