Give Me A Head With Hair and long term memory

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Give Me A Head With Hair and long term memory

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On some PBS broadcast about Broadway, some guy said that in Broadway's heyday, broadway music was pop music. In other words, when Broadway was actually about originality (instead of constant re-hashing of old ideas), the music on Boardway was the same kind of music that was popular music.

I am not an expert on the history of Broadway, but I don't think that broadway music and popular music collided again until the 60's with stuff like Hair, Godspell, Jesus Christ Superstar and later Evita. There may be music from Rent that has made the leap into popular music, but I personally can't name any music from Rent. However, my recollection is that I heard pop music versions of music from Hair and Jesus Christ Superstar on the radio long before I became aware of the fact that that music was from Broadway Plays.

According to Wikipedia, Hair the Musical opened on Broadway in 1968 and the film version of Hair was relased in 1979. For some reason, I thought that I saw the film version of Hair long before 1979. I do know for a fact that I was playing music from Jesus Christ Superstar in my high school band.

Of course, I had a clue that maybe the main theme song Hair was from the musical Hair. When I first heard Aquarius, I thought it was something written by or for The Fifth Dimension. And, I did not realize until now that Easy to be Hard was from Hair. I thought "Easy to be Hard" was written by or for Three Dog Night.

Musical: Hair Song: Aquarius

When the moon is in the Seventh House
And Jupiter aligns with Mars
Then peace will guide the planets
And love will steer the stars

This is the dawning of the age of Aquarius
The age of Aquarius
Aquarius!
Aquarius!

Harmony and understanding
Sympathy and trust abounding
No more falsehoods or derisions
Golden living dreams of visions
Mystic crystal revalation
And the mind's true liberation
Aquarius!
Aquarius!

When the moon is in the Seventh House
And Jupiter aligns with Mars
Then peace will guide the planets
And love will steer the stars

This is the dawning of the age of Aquarius
The age of Aquarius
Aquarius!
Aquarius!

Musical: Hair Song: Easy to Be Hard

How can people be so heartless
How can people be so cruel
Easy to be hard
Easy to be cold

How can people have no feelings
How can they ignore their friends
Easy to be proud
Easy to say no

And especially people
Who care about strangers
Who care about evil
And social injustice
Do you only
Care about the bleeding crowd?
How about a needing friend?
I need a friend

How can people be so heartless
You know I'm hung up on you
Easy to give in
Easy to help out

And especially people
Who care about strangers
Who say they care about social injustice
Do you only
Care about the bleeding crowd
How about a needing friend?
I need a friend

How can people have no feelings
How can they ignore their friends
Easy to be hard
Easy to be cold
Easy to be proud
Easy to say no

I remember seeing a special on PBS about a singer, Mitzi Gaynor I think, who did a lot of musicals. I think that I saw this special on PBS just before the film version of Chicago was released and I saw clips from the film on tv. One thing that stood out to me when I saw cips from Chicago was that the actors dancing were clearly wearing flat dancing shoes. In every musical I saw on that PBS special, Mitzp Gaynor was wearing high heels during her dancing numbers. It really was an amzing thing to see, it would have been a feat for a lot of women just to walk in the kind of high heeled shoes that Mitzi Gaynor was wearing while she jumping around kicking and dancing.