Fourth of July has been and gone but there’s never a bad time to hear a Hendrix-inspired guitar rendition of The Star-Spangled Banner, especially when the performance is by Japan’s Consul General in New York, Kanji Yamanouchi.
Here he is the 62 year old complete with bow-tie and armed with a Fender Strat and Vox amplifier.
“This year marks the 160th anniversary of the arrival of the very first Japanese delegation to the United States and New York City,” he said. “On top of that, the Fourth of July is just around the corner, so I would like to perform the American national anthem with my deepest gratitude and respect — inspired by Jimi Hendrix.”
One of the best comments on the video was in Japanese from the nearby state of Massachusetts, the Consul General of Japan in Boston, who simply wrote, “Yabai,” a word meaning something like “wow” or “oh my god”
On YouTube Gary Fujioka Sr. said “The Japanese people should be proud too. The Ambassador was an 11 year old boy in Japan the year Jimi Hendrix died. I just smile when people want to dispute the fact that our hometown kid Jimi is one of the most influential guitarists in the world even 50 years after his death.”
