Hair

by Gerome Ragni, James Rado

This review is for the first printing 1969 of HAIR: THE AMERICAN TRIBAL LOVE-ROCK MUSICAL book. I found the book used and in good condition through an Amazon third party seller. The vintage paperback was published by "Pocket Books" and is written in play format i.e. dialogue with some stage directions. The words to the songs are also written out in all-caps to distinguish between dialogue and song. "Hair" was based on the counter-culture hippie movement of the 60s and focused on a group of friends called a "tribe," and one of the character's (Claude) decision to accept being drafted into the military. It revolutionized Broadway by bringing rock music to the theater crowd and broke conventional story telling in non-linear fashion. It also dealt with sexuality, war, drugs, race and stereotypes, and the divide between generations. I was too young to see it on Broadway, so I'm happy to have found this book. My copy has 16-pages of black & white pictures of the original cast performing "Hair," which was a pleasant surprise since it was not listed in the book's description. I understand that "Hair" went through a series of changes after it took off and I know there are dramatic changes from the Broadway musical to the Hair film by Milos Forman, so this first run book might be different than what was finally put on the stage. Some of the lyrics to the songs are slightly different and/or appear in different order, so that's another thing I thought you'd like to know. I've been a fan of the musical "Hair" ever since I've heard the songs and saw the film so this is just another piece of the puzzle to add to my collection. If you can find a copy for cheap, I advise picking it up.

Genres: Plays, Musicals, Drama, Fiction, Theatre, Music, The United States Of America

Paperback

First published January 1, 1967

Reviews

[Manny · Rating 3 out of 5]

We saw the Milos Forman movie version on Saturday at the open-air cinema (vive Ciné Transat!) So here's the thing that baffles me. As quite a few people have pointed out, it seemed clear that it's a provocative religious allegory. We see a whole long sequence shot in a cathedral, and there are many explicit and implicit references to the Christian Church; a clear example is the early number "Sixteen Year Old Virgin" with its chorus "Hey (Ma)Donna".

So who's supposed to be Jesus? To me, it couldn't be anyone except Berger: I mean, his name means "shepherd" in French, he's the leader of a small group of counter-cultural protesters who preach a gospel of peace and love, and he dies at the end to save Claude, who looks like a pretty standard Everyman. Berger's even got long hair. Like, everyone knows Jesus had long hair, right? But when I google it, the only people I can find who offer an opinion seem to think Claude is Christ.

Huh?

[Realini Ionescu · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hair- The American Tribal Love-Rock Musical by Gerome Ragni, James Rado and Michael Weller, direceted by glorious Milos Forman – another note on this is here http://realini.blogspot.com/2017/05/n...

8 out of 10



To Summerize my take, it is looking at Flower Power Versus Idiot Power, The Days of the Hippies against the Time of the ‚very stable genius’ and his MAGA crowd



Milos Forman was one of the greatest film makers the world has ever seen, he blessed audiences with a few masteprieces, one of them is Amadeus http://realini.blogspot.com/2023/07/a... such a stupendous biopic that we can forget the (minor) criticism



We always have artistic licence, evidently, nobody knows what Mozart talked with his wife, father, or Salieri, then the latter seems to have had no role in the death of the great composer (Amadeus, Salieri was a celebrated in his age, but modest one) but for the tension, the success of the plot, it made sense to have him as the pure villain

Let us have the spoiler alert here, because i see that i am already off from the topic and intend to move even further (for the time being, maybe i will return to...what was it, oh, yes, Hair) and the message might be ‚do not read this’, you are much better off elsewhere, there is so much worthy writing in books, and less on the net



What came to mind, after mentioning that Milos Forman enetered the history of cineam with Amadeus, among others, was the fact that Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is a ‚case study’ in the magnificent Outliers http://realini.blogspot.com/2013/05/o... by Malcolm Gladwell

The luminary is one of the most influential (maybe at number one, tied with Daniel Kahneman, winner of the Nobel Prize for...Economics) psychologists, and he argues in his book that with ten thousand hours of exercise, practise, over ten years, which translates into at least three hours of intense work every day, you could rise to the top (Insha’Allah, and other factors being met) of your domain.



Thus, Malcolm Gladwell looked at Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (The Beatles, Steve Jobs, Bill Gates and many others) and saw that if the composer had started at a very tender age, as his father took him on tours, making music, but the compositions from childhood might be the creation of his father (Leopold was the name, or maybe i am making this up) and are anyway not valuable nowadays, excpet for historical reasons

What orchestras around the world are playing is from the time when Mozart was over twenty, so in the scheme proposed by Malcolm Gladwell he was a ‚late bloomer’, it took him about two decades, not one, to reach that elusive top – incidentally, i have started putting dwon these notes in the hope that with a lot of practice (and look, I am number two in my realm, in terms of sheer volume only) i will become (much) better...



Now, let us try for a line or two to get back to Hair, which was not excessively fabulous, but it is a landmark and prompted me to think about how things have changed, from the Age of the Hippy, Flower Power, Make Love Not War and the rest of it, to Woke, Cancel Culture, and why not, the era of Trump and Idiot Power

Alas, i was born into a communist regime (and you get at the end the link and the pompous showing off of my role in the revolution that killed Ceausescu and changed – sort of – that awful sytem with something else...you see, i do not take every chance to veer off, it is very tempting to go on and explain about the fuckers that took power, after the death of the old tyrant, but i restarin myself) thus missing on Flower Power



Eventually, i would have my chances, but just like in the joke we had, it was delayed – the summary of the blague is that when the end of theworld will come, first Bezos and repellant Musk will blast off into their space ships, the American and Chinese leaders will talk about leaving the planet and at the same time, eteranl Ceausescu will say ‚do not worry, we are at least one hundred years behind’- perhaps for a bigger bang- i would have the chance to be the lover of (the first) Miss Our Country, if only for about eight months

The time of Hair was one of freedom, liberation, and we could say that this happens with women more now – also with the multitude of genders we apparently, or evidently have in our midst – in thsi sense, the reading of The 2019 Co-Winner of the Booker Prize, Girl, Woman, Other http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/06/g... by Bernardine Evaristo can be illuminating



The author explains how ‚gender is one of the biggest lies of our civilization’ and then we have two spirits, non gender and the notion that gender is actually fluid, it changes from one minute to the next, which is obviously chalnged, if this is maybe something hard (almost impossible) for retrograde people like yours truly (sixty is the new forty, but still) the violence with which the MAGA mobs attack the idea is proof of their thickness

Humanity has moved, progressed on many fronts, but if we compare the Flower Power with the Trump crowds (more that sevnty million have voted fro him last time, and abhorent as this is, it looks as if the same or more will take him up next year) in my view, the world has decayed in the emantime, if so many fools embarce these ‚values’, and it is not just Trump – cretins are not that rare, it is a ctastrophe when an especially proud pythecanthrop becomes the role model for multitudes- the list of vile creatures is long, Putin, HAMAS, Xi, Lula and Bolsanaro, let us just stop here...





Now for a question, and invitation – maybe you have a good idea on how we could make more than a million dollars with this http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/02/u... – as it is, this is a unique technique, which we could promote, sell, open the Oscars show with or something and then make lots of money together, if you have the how, I have the product, I just do not know how to get the befits from it, other than the exercise per se



As for my role in the Revolution that killed Ceausescu, a smaller Mao, there it is http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/r...



From To The Heritage:

‘Fiction is infinitely preferable to real life...As long as you avoid the books of Kafka or Beckett, the everlasting plot of fiction has fewer futile experiences than the careless plot of reality...Fiction's people are fuller, deeper, cleverer, more moving than those in real life…Its actions are more intricate, illuminating, noble, profound…There are many more dramas, climaxes, romantic fulfillment, twists, turns, gratified resolutions…Unlike reality, all of this you can experience without leaving the house or even getting out of bed…What's more, books are a form of intelligent human greatness, as stories are a higher order of sense…As random life is to destiny, so stories are to great authors, who provided us with some of the highest pleasures and the most wonderful mystifications we can find…Few stories are greater than Anna Karenina, that wise epic by an often foolish author…’

‚parturiunt montes, nascetur ridiculus mus’

“the Meaning of Life...Well, it's nothing very special. Try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations.”

[Samantha · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have been wanting to read the book version of this musical for quite a long time. Now that I am almost at the end of writing my research paper on theatre in the 1960's, I am glad that I read this book just a few weeks back. I saw the actual musical revival of "Hair" a few months ago and completely fell in love with it, and like with many shows that I see on Broadway, I try to read the book version afterwards to gain a deeper comprehension of the plot and songs. This book was written by Galt MacDermot who also wrote the music of the show and is supervising the music of the current revival on Broadway. This book details the story of a tribe of hippies in downtown New York City, but the story revolves around the story of one man, Claude. Claude is drafted into the Vietnam War but is also a member of the hippy tribe who tries to persuade him to burn his draft card to rebel against the war values of society. This is seen through many songs and melodies throughout the book, but the dialogue truly reflects the time period of the show (the late 1960s). I found the dialogue very interesting in the story because when a person sees a show on the stage, he or she might not be able to understand every word or conversation at first. By reading the book version, one can completely view a piece of dialogue that they might not have heard, and for me, that gave me a true understanding of Claude's emotions and a perspective on the people of the 1960's. Before reading this book, I just thought that the hippies were carefree and crazy with no intentions behind those actions, but now I can see that they wanted peace and an end to an unwanted war by the people of America. In addition, it was enjoyable to read another book in a play format with each characters name, a colon and then their words. I love to read plays because they are quick reads and have a very unique style, and therefore I would recommend this play to anyone who wants to read a play or has seen the production and/or movie of "Hair."

[Kenneth Starcher · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hair is an instance where the film adaptation is vastly superior to the stage play. I saw a live stage production of Hair a few years ago, and although I enjoyed it, I felt the film was vastly superior. This 1969 publication of the 1966 draft of the stage play script is a mess of a script. It's incoherent, all over the place, and it seems to go nowhere. There are so many things that were modified and fine tuned over the years to make the show better. This print version is really only worth reading if you're a long time fan of the work, like I am.

[Erik Graff · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think I saw this one with Ed Erickson after it had come to Chicago and after the album had been released. Although entertaining, I was somewhat appalled at the commercialization of what we thought of as "our" culture.

[Mike Shier II · Rating 4 out of 5]

First, this is a PHENOMENAL show when seen live. The text, as with most musicals, just simply does not do the work justice. The soundtrack for the 2009 revival is wonderful and usually tops my "Most Played" on iTunes.

[Melissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

loved the musical- loved the book

[Paige · Rating 3 out of 5]

Best musical ever! Makes me cry at the end during the best song flesh failures. AMAZING!!!

[Martin Denton · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's been 55 years since the dawning of the Age of Aquarius; the stuff we were promised--"Harmony and understanding / Sympathy and trust abounding"--well, it just hasn't come true. What happened to us?

This was the first and also the last thing that resonated in my mind when I revisited the "American Tribal Love-Rock Musical." Hair conjures the innocence and passion of an era that feels as distant as mimeograph machines or the entire family sitting down together on Sunday night to watch the Ed Sullivan Show on TV. In 1967, authors Gerome Ragni and James Rado, composer Galt MacDermot, directors Gerald Freedman and Tom O'Horgan, and producers Joseph Papp and Michael Butler summoned up the energy of a generation and put what amounted to a 2-1/2 hour happening on the New York stage. Taboos toppled: actors sang about sodomy and used the "f" word; draft cards were burned on stage and the American flag was used irreverently as a prop; Blacks and Whites kissed each other and talked about having sex; young men and women took off all their clothes and faced the audience, defiantly naked (albeit in silhouette) at the first act curtain.

Hair nowadays turns out to be not a museum piece but a time capsule. With protests of our era paling beside the protests of their era, and with a scary Establishment suppressing a complacent polity far more smoothly and covertly than Rado and Ragni could ever have imagined, the show's raw subversiveness is a pleasure. It has, of course, lost its power to shock, but it nevertheless produces a huge jolt. Its second act, in particular, which includes a long drug-induced hallucination in which the ostensible protagonist, Claude Bukowski, imagines the horrors that await him should he be sent to Vietnam, is a harrowing, bitter, and stark condemnation of war, and also, not at all incidentally, a biting criticism of the hypocrisy of American imperialism. The only difference between then and now is that a lot more kids went overseas in those days; there's a moment in the show when Claude, about to get mustered into the army, is hugged long and hard by his roommate/best friend Berger that made me think how lucky most of us in the United States still are--how relatively few of us were touched personally by the unnecessary war being fought thousands of miles away in our name by our government.

Hair is anarchic--it revels in that fact--but it does also have a bit of a story line. Claude ("human being number 1005963297 dash J, Area Code 609") lives in the East Village with his hippie pals Berger and Sheila, where they smoke pot, make out, protest the Johnson administration, and make out some more. Claude's sort-of girlfriend Jeanie is pregnant (but he's not the father). Claude has been called up by the Draft Board; though Berger and a couple of their other friends, Hud (who is black) and Woof (who may be gay), have burned their draft cards, Claude is ambivalent. In sketches and vignettes, Claude and his friends explain their ideals to us and illustrate their way of life. Part circus and part rebuttal to every well-shaped musical comedy in the Rodgers & Hammerstein mode, the play breaks all the rules of narrative and the fourth wall along with it. A stranger (billed as "Margaret Mead") asks a question from the audience and gets invited onto the stage, where she and her husband Hubert participate in a couple of silly musical numbers. Act One is all about exploding assumptions about how a musical--and by extension, a society--should operate, and it reaches a dizzying climax at a "Be-In" in Central Park, with Claude leading the company in asking

Where do I go
Follow the river
Where do I go
Follow the gulls....
Where will they lead me
And will I ever
Discover why
I live and die

Act Two changes course dramatically, picking up on Claude's question; after a giddy opening, it focuses very squarely on this young man facing up to growing up, making this very adult decision to serve his country or run away. I was honestly startled by how emotionally involved I got; Hair turns out to be far more serious and far more mature than it ever lets on.

One interesting side note: I was surprised by the female characters in Hair, who are mostly portrayed as girlfriends--in fairly dysfunctional relationships, to boot--rather than as strong-minded individuals. For example, we see Sheila helping to organize the Be-In; but the only time we really hear her is when she sings"Easy to be Hard" to Berger, chiding him for neglecting her. I mention this only to point out that in this one respect, times perhaps have changed (hurrah!): when the next generation wrote their Hair--I'm talking about Rent--strong women abounded.

[David Harris · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hair: The American Tribal Love-Rock Musical is an electrifying and iconic production that captures the essence of the 1960s counterculture movement with its powerful music, heartfelt storytelling, and stunning performances. The cast's vocal harmonies are as vibrant and mesmerizing as a balayage, seamlessly blending together to create an unforgettable experience. This groundbreaking musical not only entertains but also inspires, reminding us of the importance of love, freedom, and embracing our true selves. From the energetic choreography to the thought-provoking themes, Hair is a timeless masterpiece that continues to resonate with audiences, leaving them uplifted and captivated from start to finish.

[L. H. Q. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Love how abstract this material is, along with the progression from the first act to the second. But since the material is so abstract, it’s really up to the reader to decide on the imagery, which makes sense as to why it’s either a hit or miss when translated onto the stage.

Was in this show as part of the ensemble and loved doing it though.

[Strawberry Witch · Rating 2 out of 5]

I’m glad I saw the polished movie version of this. This is the original stage production and it’s nuts. It’s all over the place and makes next to no sense. It’s sort of like You Can’t Do That on Television but with hippies instead of kids.

[Leylamaría]

Some glowing moments for fucking sure but it’s funny how there’s nothing white kids from the 60s love more than orientalism

[Fred Klein · Rating 2 out of 5]

I didn’t enjoy reading this. It’s nonsensical on the page. It must be more cohesive when performed. I love the music, so I would still give that a high rating.

[Tyler Marsolais · Rating 3 out of 5]

Really out there and radical. kinda confusing but interesting trying to read music with only lyrics

[Castor · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoy 60s and 70s musicals, so it's a bop~

[iris · Rating 5 out of 5]

genuinely one of the best musicals ever.. themes are ever relevant and explicitly tackles lots of difficult topics
COME WATCH HAIR 5-8 MARCH

[Jason Newburger · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked the movie better, but the songs are the same. I think it is amazing the play was written in the 60's.