Happy Independence Day, everyone!
In honor of this week's holiday, I originally — and simply — wanted to share a grainy, vintage video of my all-time favorite guitarist, Stevie Ray Vaughan, performing "The Star-Spangled Banner" in ancient times.
But then I noticed Steve Vai's particularly awesome version of the song ... and Yngwie Malmsteen's recent version ... and Eric Johnson's version — and then I found versions by Slash and Dave Mustaine ... and, of course, there's the granddaddy of them all, Jimi Hendrix at Woodstock.
So I figured the more, the merrier! I could've kept on going (There's always Cliff Burton's version, and a commenter mentioned Neal Schon), but I think eight versions of the same song gets the point across, and this represents a nice mix of styles.
Feel free to compare and contrast!
Happy holiday!
TED NUGENT
STEVE VAI
YNGWIE MALMSTEEN
SLASH
DAVE MUSTAINE
ERIC JOHNSON
STEVIE RAY VAUGHANNOTE: This one needs to be edited!
JIMI HENDRIX
Damian Fanelli is the online managing editor at Guitar World.