In hon­or of the 40th anniver­sary of the Wood­stock Fes­ti­val, we have Jimi Hen­drix play­ing the U.S. nation­al anthem. It’s not your usu­al anthem. Nope, this is the anthem played dis­so­nant­ly in a new counter-cul­ture style, the anthem turned into a blis­ter­ing com­men­tary on the Viet­nam War. No doubt, con­ser­v­a­tives and the silent major­i­ty did­n’t like it. But, like it or not, it remains one of the mem­o­rable rock state­ments of the 60s. For more Hen­drix at Wood­stock, check out here, here, and here.

Oliv­er Sacks, the famous neu­rol­o­gist and author of Musi­cophil­ia, a study that looks at the human brain and music, speaks in Harpers about the land­scape alter­ing iPod:

As Daniel Lev­itin has point­ed out, pas­sive lis­ten­ing has large­ly replaced active music-mak­ing. Now that we can lis­ten to any­thing we like on our iPods, we have less moti­va­tion to go to con­certs or church­es or syn­a­gogues, less occa­sion to sing togeth­er. This is unfor­tu­nate, because music-mak­ing engages much more of our brains than sim­ply lis­ten­ing. Part­ly for this rea­son, to cel­e­brate my 75th birth­day last year, I start­ed tak­ing piano lessons (after a gap of more than six­ty years). I still have my iPod (it con­tains the com­plete works of Bach), but I also need to make music.

via The Dai­ly Dish