Hairy Years

I am listening to an episode of NPR's On Point on the 50th anniversary of the musical Hair.  I enjoyed it so much that I'm listening to it again.  As the show ended, they played the closing song, and when the line about a "dying nation" starts to morph into "Let the Sun Shine," I found myself with tears in my eyes.

It's good to remember that we've had many points at which we might think the nation is dying:  1968 and then again in the early 80's when I listened to this soundtrack and memorized it.  And now, too--each day's news makes me shake my head at the astonishing juxtapositions.  Yesterday when I heard about Oliver North becoming in charge of the NRA, my first thought was, he's still alive?  He's not in jail?

And here we are at a strange point, with Iran still in the news (will Donald Trump announce the U.S. is no longer part of the nuclear deal?  stay tuned!) and Central America seems almost as messy as when Oliver North sold arms--wait, my memory is going--why did he sell arms?  And to which groups to fund which groups?  And why do these guys never seem to go to jail?

It's both comforting and maddening to realize that those in power will so often behave so badly.  But back to Hair, which has been a wondrous juxtaposition to the times--both the times in which it was created and in these times. 

As I listen to the music again, I reflect on how much of it made its way to radio stations where I heard it as a kid--and how much of it never would because it was so shocking.  Still today, it's a bit unnerving to hear songs which are essentially lists of drugs or sexual acts.  I never saw the work as a play, and I didn't see the movie until I was in college--and by then I had memorized the soundtrack, and I must admit, I almost preferred the work as I saw it in my head as I listened to the record again and again.

I confess that I've often done this--listen to a record and create a story to go along with it--it's not just with soundtracks to plays and movies.  Hmm.  I wonder if anyone else listens to music the way they read books--or the way I read books:  my brain makes movies to go along with them.

In the early 80's, I was a high school kid in Knoxville, Tennessee, a child with fairly conservative parents in a conservative part of the U.S.  How did I come to have this album?

I ordered many albums because I was part of the BMG record club--I often needed to find something to take advantage of discounts or getting something free.  I was also a drama club kid, so I knew that Hair had been important in theatre history, even if I didn't know exactly why.  I was also a voracious reader, so I had an appreciation of the 60's.

So, here I am, decades later, still able to sing all the lyrics, still with an appreciation of the politics of it all, still frustrated with the various hypocrisies, still hoping for transcendence.