“Easy to be Hard”
My mom went and saw the movie “Hair” with my dad and their then best friends, who lived in the house behind us. After she saw it she went and got the soundtrack and later my dad got her a bootleg video of the movie.
I don’t think she ever saw the stage play but she loved the movie.
We kids watched it a lot even though we were really too young — I was nine when it came out and the bootleg video shows up pretty soon after. A lot of the more adult stuff (drug use, sex) went over my head anyway. (Although there were some awkward times when one of us would be singing some of the risque lyrics in public and my mom would have to shush us.)
This was her favorite part (go to the 1 hour 20 minute mark — about 13 seconds past that is when the song starts). I dare you to watch this young woman belt out that song without getting chills. (If it’s too much work to see it on Hulu, here’s the youtube link — the sound quality is better on Hulu.)
My mom used to play that song all of the time. She’d sit on the step that led to our sunken living room and sometimes I would go and sit next to her and listen with her. She’d play it over and over.
When I rewatch this movie I think about what it must have meant to my mother. She was about the age of those characters at that time in the sixties but she was also married and starting to have kids. When Hair came out — when she went to see it — her marriage was ending. She must’ve spent a lot of time thinking “what if” when she listened to the soundtrack.
It’s still one of my favorite songs both for Cheryl Barnes’s amazing voice and for the memory of my mom sitting on the step listening with tears in her eyes.
(I have to add that Madison, watching this, said: “She looks like celery. Some people just look like vegetables. She’s straight like a stick of celery.”)
I love Madison.
Madison cracks me up! Celery!
The thing that hits me so hard with that scene is that she’s so young. They were all so young and vulnerable.
1) I LOVED that movie when it came out. I think I saw it with my parents. I’ve been wondering lately if it is appropriate for my kids, though come to think of it I must have been about M’s age when I first saw it…
2) This summer, on my birthday, I was walking across Central Park with a friend around 9:30 at night, coming back from going to the Met and having dinner on the Upper East Side with other friends, when we heard this loud music that we couldn’t quite figure out. Intrigued, we walked toward it. Turned out it was a preview of Hair at the Public. By the time we got there, it was intermission. We tried to sneak in for the second half, but that was no go, so we sat on a bench right outside the theater and listened. It was great.
Too funny about the celery! When my sis and cousin were little they named everyone in the extended family after vegetables. Still remember that cousin N was carrot (he’s got black hair, not red) and Z was mashed potatoes.
we owned that movie when i was in junior hs, and i watched it 500 times. love the soundtrack still.
So… I didn’t even read this post (I will later, when I have more time), but I wanted to comment on the previous one — what an interesting and lovely discussion about Madison!! I always ADORE hearing stories about her, but this was so intense (like she is, probably), it tasted like the icing on the cake (OK, I don’t like icing… like whipped cream on strawberries ;-).
And again… I really hope I can get to meet you all someday
P.S. and I hope you feel better soon, it’s not fun to be sick
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