Wave that Freak Flag high
Dissecting a song can be a dangerous but rewarding task. It’s useless to argue your song analysis is more right than another’s. Music has a message, and it differs for every person. In looking closer at song meanings, though, you can start to see patterns develop. You get a better glimpse into the songwriter’s head, and if careful enough, can find a common theme or subject matter that no fellow analyst can deny.
Hendrix, to me, firstly represented the common counterculture. His thoughts on marriage and relationships also surface frequently, and he did this by writing about himself.
If 6 was 9 is Hendrix’s most straightforward and obvious attempt at capturing the attitude of the counterculture. He mentions the resistance the hippies encountered by the “White collar conservatives” who hope “my kind will drop and die,” in the second verse.
The song can be taken as a rally cry to all the hippies /counterculture /Vietnam protesters to unite against “the man” and “wave [your] freak flag high.” To an extent his tactics worked. It’s as if the title If 6 was 9 was a foreshadow to the year 1969, when the counterculture made their pilgrimage from middle America to Woodstock, NY for one final, over-the-top blowout where the cause was at its peak.
Whether Jimi was taking on the role of everyman in the song or if the lyrics he wrote were exclusive to his life is not important. What is important is that he embodied the counterculture and helped define it, so he was able to so clearly articulate the feelings of era. He lived that life; therefore he’s a justified storyteller or preacher of his material. His background checks out.
Much like If 6 was 9, Stone free reflects on the free spirit of the ‘60s through the eyes of a drifter, a transient who roams America and meets attempts to conform with resistance. “Everyday in the week I’m in a different city/If I stay too long people try to pull me down/They talk about me like a dog/Talkin’ about the clothes I wear/But they don’t realize they’re the ones who’s square,” he wrote.
Women too, were not enough incentive for him to stay put: “Listen to this baby/A woman here a woman there try to keep me in a plastic cage/But they don’t realise it’s so easy to break.”
Those eight lines capture the core of the counterculture’s campaign. The same attitudes were apparent in Jack Kerouac’s On the Road, written a generation earlier. The book, which is an account of Kerouac’s encounters as he travels America, laid down the foundation for the ‘60s. Hendrix took what the beat generation created and rolled with it.
His attitudes toward relationships is probably best revealed in 51st Anniversary.
“Ten years they’ve been married/And a thousand kids run around hungry/Cause their mother’s a louse /Daddy’s down at the whiskey house,” states one verse. Those lines are a revealing look into Hendrix’s unstable childhood. The song is a bitter take on relationships. There are several other songs (including If 6 was 9) that reiterate Hendrix’s disdain for marriage.
“So you, you say you wanna get married/ Oh baby trying to put me on a chain/ Ain’t that some shame/ You must be losing your, sweet little mind,” states 51st Anniversary. The song also includes a march-style drum beat during the line, “And then you come saying So you, you say you wanna get married.” This could be in reference to the wedding march theme, but the march is so rigid and military-esque that it’s probably Jimi’s satirical protest against marriage.
Hendrix realised the potential of his power. He knew his words would be listened to and he did not want to waste them. He didn’t cater to his fans and write songs for them, but at the same time he didn’t waste their time. He stayed away from the trivial and wrote what mattered to him, it just so happened millions felt (and feel) the same way.
