ABSTRACT
This chapter explores sounds of ironic counterpoint in three musical pieces concerning the religio-metaphysical themes of God, Flag, and Country. The first religio-metaphysical theme to succumb to Newman's sardonic ironizing is divine authorial intent: that is, the ultimate meaning of human existence as authorized by the Wholly Other the Holy Author. God responds in the most theologically unexpected of ways: the meaning of human existence is its meaninglessness to God. Hendrix's quotation and its association with funerals and flag ceremonies in the military, Hendrix supplies the critical stroke of sonic irony. Thus, we have flags and funerals, freedom and death ironizing the ideology of uncritical nationalism and unbridled militarism. In the process of singing about Jesus in this great land of freedom, a refrain emerges in this songs recapitulation of the variations on, and dangers of, the metaphysical themes in God, Flag, and Country.
