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I ran across this old woodstock era song by Crosby, Stills and Nash + Young that many probably have or have not heard and thought I would share, but why was it referred to as a "Freak Flag"back then?
imho, a Freak is not someone with long hair, but very strange looking people that look like they belong in a circus.
long hair is normal imho.
Crosby, Stills, Nash + Young - Almost Cut My Hair
On the contrary, hippies were formally speaking people who lived communally (like in Haight-Ashbury), whereas freaks were the people who most people ('straights') thought were hippies, but actually lived a more normal lifestyle. Ergo, it makes perfect sense that long hair was the 'freak flag'.
I never ob ject to being called a hippie, but really I'm only a freak (and proud of it).
I ran across this old woodstock era song by Crosby,Stills and Nash+Young that many probably have or have not heard and thought I would share, but why was it referred to as a"Freak Flag"back then? imho,a Freak is not someone with long hair,but very strange looking people that look like they belong in a circus.long hair is normal imho.
... it's now on my iTunes = YAY !!!
"Almost Cut My Hair"
Almost cut my hair, it happened just the other day.
It's getting' kinda long, I coulda said it wasn't in my way.
But I didn't and I wonder why, I feel like letting my freak flag fly,
Cause I feel like I owe it to someone.
Must be because I had the flu' for Christmas and I'm not feeling up to par.
It increases my paranoia, like looking at my mirror and seeing a police car.
But I'm not giving in an inch to fear cause I missed myself this year.
I feel like I owe it to someone.
When I finally get myself together, I'm going to get down in that sunny southern weather.
And I find a place inside to laugh, separate the wheat from the chaff.
I feel like I owe it to someone.
Terminology can mean different things to different people, changing its basic meaning not only over time; but also changing from one region and/or country to another -- it can vary a lot.
For example, recently there was a TV series on the FX station called AMERICAN HORROR STORY -- "FREAK SHOW" being the 4th season, airing last fall / winter. None of the "freaks" were long-haired -- they mostly had physical abnormalities (actually, in most cases actors who played the role of such), limited to a life of working in a circus that exploited their physical oddities (like a 2-headed female who shared the same body, AKA "Siamese twin").
An opposite example can be narrated from my own first-hand experience: several years ago I attended a social event with my brother & sister-in-law, down in a conservative wealthy suburb of San Francisco. Although I dressed up in a burrowed tux in order to fit in with the formal dinner & dance that evening, I obviously couldn't hide my long hair; so I tied it back with a segmented ponytail...
"I didn't know they allowed freaks at this event!", some guy kiddingly shouted at me from a nearby table. I just smiled and said something silly back to him -- basically acknowledging the fact that when he said "freaks", it was in reference to my hair being extremely long -- especially in comparison to the other men attending this event (all of which were very short-haired).
Other than that, I don't know the history of how the term "Freak Flag" first started; but my guess is that when a man's long hair flies openly in the wind, it probably looks pretty damn wild & crazy (especially to the more socially conservative types)!!
- Ken in San Francisco
I almost cut my hair
'Twas just the other day
It was gettin' kinda long
I could-a said, it was in my way
But I didn't and I wonder why
I want to let my freak flag fly
And I feel like I owe it to someone
As someone who grew up in the 1960s and started growing my hair long in 1964 there were those who considered us freaks for growing our hair long and being hippies.
But depsite all the oomplaints and hassles from the adults I loved bucking the esatablishment and growing my hair long.
Every time someone complained about my long hair I considered it an incentive to grow it longer. And so I did.
So yes during the 1960s i was one of those long haired hippie freaks. And I loved every minute of it.
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=freak+flag
Definition
Also look for "Signs" by Five Man Electical Band from 1970.
I can't answer the question about why freaky was conjoined with long-haired back then. It just was.
I dunno but I remember an interview where Ted Nugent was asked why he had long hair and he said he just liked to fly his freak flag.
I would like to add something here. I came of age in the 70's and had some experiences that helped shape my sense of self that relate to this.
I am only guessing here and would like input from others about it but;
It should be remembered that 1960 was only 15 years post-WW2. Most of the hippies/freaks were sons and daughters of returning service-people who had surrendered their identity to the war-cause. Thus they were strict about appearance and structured living let's say.
I can easily imagine in that sense that to them (the parents) "These d*mn kids drop out of school or college and just hang around and sing and... d*mn freaks!" They hitchhike all over creation, barely keep a job, smell like hemp for some reason, flee to canada to avoid the draft, act like they gonna join a commune....
After awhile these 'freaks' started to view being a freak almost as a badge of honor.
This was reflected in the artists of the time, after the Beatles and the Rolling Stones started growing their hair out in the mid-60's, every musician and band had to do it too.
"By the time we got to Woodstock we were half a million strong" and everyone there had long hair. CSN&Y captured that moment in their song and perhaps coined the phrase 'letting my freak flag fly'.
I think it was 1972 when a little known band travelled to Nashville to record their second album which contained the 'protest' song "Golden Country" with the lyric:
"Golden Country your face is so red
with all your money your poor can be fed
you start around and you flirt with disaster
never really caring just what comes after
well your Blacks are dying but your back is still turned
And your Freaks are crying but your back is still turned
you better stop your hiding or your Country will burn
And the time has come for you my friend
To all this ugliness we must put an end
before we leave we must make a stand"
That's about half the song but it needs to be remembered that in 72 the Vietnam war was winding down and was close in time to the Kent State Riots. The Freaks and their counter-culture had developed and had helped force our withdrawal from Vietnam by making the war very unpopular at home. By 74 we were out of Nam and Nixon was nearing his end.
A half-generation(musically) later (my time) LongHair was required to be taken seriously by any band from the former Allies. AC/DC from Australia, Rush from Canada, pretty much every band from the UK and the States, not so sure about France and of course the Soviet Union was behind the Iron Curtain (not to be confused with the Steel Curtain) and the youth over there had to go to the black market to buy modern music, but some still grew their hair if they dared.
Well there's my 2 cents worth, what do y'all think?
As an aside, another term from about the same time was 'head'. meaning someone who gets high. I believe on Cheech and Chong's Big Bamboo album they used this term on at least 1 of their skits. It was one of the skits from on the street and a passerby says "something for the head?" meaning he was either asking if they had some or asking if they wanted something for the head.
In school we were called the heads and that term had replaced freaks by that time. I did belong to the heads (not to be confused with a head in the Navy).
Again, any comments?
Just checking in from Memphis, took an hour to write all that and I hope this long of a post is not taboo, it was all relevant I believe to the question.
Just want to say I met long hairs in France, but they have a strange attitude to beards. In French they use "avoir une barbe" (have a beard) when they mean "to be angry", and they tend to take it literally, i.e. to believe that if someone has a beard they must be angry about something. Many longhaired anglophones have beards, but the French? Not so much.
Not sure I understand this completely. Maybe Jacques Huard could explain better, although he's French Canadian, not actually French. I note, however, that although he has a moustache he does not have a beard.
I was one of those kids, 12 years old at the time, in early 1964, who started combing his hair differently and letting it grow. I was called a freak, and Hippie and a Queer. for having longer hair than thought proper for a male. Many of my friends adopted te term "freak", but altered the spelling to "Freek" as we were free spirited and free to be ourselves. "freak" became common terminology for members of the counterculture and was fairly well accepted by the media of the time as in the underground comic "The Fabulous Furry Freak brothers" This was when one could be pulled over for DWLH (Driving with Long hair) in the late 60s and well into the mid 70s.