Lit Me With Music

Sherman Alexie wrote a short story with a very long title: “Because My Father Always Said He Was the Only Indian Who Saw Jimi Hendrix Play the Star-Spangled Banner at Woodstock.” The story mentions four musicians (Jimi Hendrix, Elvis Presley, Hank Williams and Robert Johnson), a specific performance of the American anthem and a country song. Reading the title, we understand that Jimi Hendrix is the central musical figure in the story. Do the characters compare him to other musical icons? Yes, an anecdote involving Hank Williams leads a perplexed narrator to tell to his father:    “Hank Williams and Jimi Hendrix don’t have much in common[.]” For the narrator’s father, what the two musicians have in common is their intimate knowledge of heartaches. The father deplores his son’s ignorance and then shifts to the subject of music. This leads the father to share his personal take on instrumentation. The drums are the culprits, largely responsible for the younger generation’s in