Closing out Side One of the Jimi Hendrix Experience's sophomore album, Axis: Bold As Love, this counterculture anthem finds Hendrix waving his metaphorical freak flag as a symbol of his individuality. He's not interested in joining the ranks of long-haired hippies ("I ain't gonna copy you") or white-collared conservatives ("They're hoping soon my kind'll drop and die") - he just wants to live his life on his own terms.
After Hendrix introduced the phrase "freak flag" in this tune, it quickly became part of the late '60s lexicon. For hippies, their refusal to cut their hair was an act of rebellion against outdated social norms perpetuated by their conservative parents, so their flowing manes became their freak flags.
In Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young's 1970 tune "
Almost Cut My Hair," David Crosby opted to keep his long locks so he wouldn't betray the cause. He sang:
I feel like letting my freak flag fly
And I feel like I owe it, to someone, yeahThis was recorded in two parts, titled "Section A" and "Section B," and edited together to create a single track. The next day, Hendrix and drummer Mitch Mitchell revisited the second half, now dubbed "Symphony Of Experience," and improved the rhythm track with new drum and guitar parts.
The book Ultimate Hendrix by John McDermott includes the guitarist's recollection of the recording session, including the foot stomping percussive effect created with the help of some famous guests. "I adore 'If 6 Was 9,'" Hendrix said. "That was a complete jam session, then we put the words on afterwards. That's me on the flute. Gary Leeds (also known as Gary Walker of The Walker Brothers) and Graham Nash did some foot stomping, and that's (Chas) Chandler's big feet on the fade-out. 'If 6 Was 9' is what you call a great feeling of blues."
The flute Hendrix is talking about is a beat-up recorder he bought from a London street vendor and added to the mix.
Hendrix lost the original mixes for the first half of the album when he took the masters with him to a party and left them in a taxi. The next day, all of Side One had to be remixed within 11 hours. Thankfully, bassist Noel Redding had a tape of the rough mix of this tune, but it was falling apart.
"Before we put it on the machine, I had to iron out the wrinkles," engineer Eddie Kramer recalled in Ultimate Hendrix. "It was recorded at 7 ½ i.p.s. (inches per second) and the tape was just a nightmare. That tape, though, was transferred to 15 i.p.s. and that's the version that you hear."
Although they were able to salvage it, Kramer lamented that they were never able to recapture the quality of the original.
Axis: Bold As Love was released in 1967, the same year the band issued their debut, Are You Experienced. Both albums were produced by Chas Chandler, who was the original bassist for The Animals. He was on tour with that band when he saw Hendrix perform at a Greenwich Village nightclub in 1966. Impressed by his talent, Chandler convinced him to come to London, where they put together the rest of Hendrix's band.
This was used in the movies Easy Rider (1969) and Point Break (1991). It was also featured on the TV series Mad Men in the 2014 episode "Field Trip."
Graham Nash's unexpected contribution to Jimi Hendrix's "If 6 Was 9" came about thanks to a few well-placed friendships and a bit of rhythmic footwork. Nash told Mojo magazine he was staying in an apartment with Gary Leeds, drummer for the Walker Brothers, who happened to know Hendrix. Nash also had history with Mitch Mitchell, the Experience's drummer, having shared a flat with him for about eight months.
One day, Leeds and Nash were invited down to Olympic Studios where Hendrix was recording. "Jimi said, 'Can you walk?'" Nash recalled. "I said, 'What do you mean? Of course, I can walk.'" Hendrix then laid a piece of plywood on the floor and said, "'Walk in rhythm with this.'" And just like that, Nash - better known for harmonies than percussion - ended up contributing foot stomps to one of Hendrix' most iconic tracks.
