Talk:If 6 Was 9
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Origin of term "Freak Flag"
[edit]According to Wiktionary this song may be the source of the term "freak flag", though it cites no source. Housecarl (talk) 22:07, 7 April 2024 (UTC)
- It's possible, but I doubt it. Songs of this era tended to incorporate ideas and imagery that were already part of the countercultural lexicon. If anything, CSNY popularized the expression four years later on "Almost Cut My Hair". Were they referring back to Hendrix? No idea. Viriditas (talk) 23:18, 7 April 2024 (UTC)
- As far as I can tell, author Jeffrey Melnick is the only one who has attempted to trace the origins of the term. See the book Creepy Crawling (2018). Our article on the freak scene pretty much parallels his findings. To summarize: Hendrix popularized what had already been in wide use for some time. Viriditas (talk) 23:29, 7 April 2024 (UTC)
- What's fascinating to me about this whole thing is how rooted it is in new forms of music, dance and drugs. I'm currently writing about the birth of modernism in relation to the counterculture of Montmartre in the late 19th century, and the same exact thing occurs, almost exactly a century before. In this instance, the "freaks" are playing around with new forms of cabaret music, new kinds of music-hall dancing, and new kinds of alcohol (absinthe). It's incredibly interesting to me how history seems to keep repeating itself over and over again. To paraphrase the famous quote: "Each generation thinks it invented sex". On the one hand, this is humorous, but on the other hand, it is kind of sad, as if humanity is stuck in some kind of rut that it is unable to get out of it, always returning back to its familiar, hedonistic impulse of creation and destruction. Science fiction of the 20th century often addressed this philosophical dilemma, and to bring this back on topic, I think, in many ways, Hendrix was getting at this idea in his music, particularly with later songs like "1983... (A Merman I Should Turn to Be)". I'm not a Hendrix expert by any means, but there is something there. Viriditas (talk) 23:40, 7 April 2024 (UTC)
- Thinking about it further, I think it is obvious that CSNY are referring back to this song given the numerous coincidences with the lyrics. Viriditas (talk) 23:44, 7 April 2024 (UTC)
- What's fascinating to me about this whole thing is how rooted it is in new forms of music, dance and drugs. I'm currently writing about the birth of modernism in relation to the counterculture of Montmartre in the late 19th century, and the same exact thing occurs, almost exactly a century before. In this instance, the "freaks" are playing around with new forms of cabaret music, new kinds of music-hall dancing, and new kinds of alcohol (absinthe). It's incredibly interesting to me how history seems to keep repeating itself over and over again. To paraphrase the famous quote: "Each generation thinks it invented sex". On the one hand, this is humorous, but on the other hand, it is kind of sad, as if humanity is stuck in some kind of rut that it is unable to get out of it, always returning back to its familiar, hedonistic impulse of creation and destruction. Science fiction of the 20th century often addressed this philosophical dilemma, and to bring this back on topic, I think, in many ways, Hendrix was getting at this idea in his music, particularly with later songs like "1983... (A Merman I Should Turn to Be)". I'm not a Hendrix expert by any means, but there is something there. Viriditas (talk) 23:40, 7 April 2024 (UTC)
- As far as I can tell, author Jeffrey Melnick is the only one who has attempted to trace the origins of the term. See the book Creepy Crawling (2018). Our article on the freak scene pretty much parallels his findings. To summarize: Hendrix popularized what had already been in wide use for some time. Viriditas (talk) 23:29, 7 April 2024 (UTC)