I am blocked. Obstructed, hindered, barricaded. From any useful thoughts on the subject of Moristotle, Morisco, Acting Citizen, Fourth Saturday, Fifth Dimension, Marilyn McCoo, Age of Aquarius…. what is the proper tone for the final musical number in Hair?
Let us consider the plight of the artist for a moment. Tasked with bringing order to chaos, evoking thought, wrenching emotion, and creating works that will stand for eternity. Heart on sleeve, the artist plunges into the task and gives the viewer everything. If you encounter this person, run.
Let us consider the plight of the art consumer. Here in the U.S. of A., art is the first thing to be cut from education. Millennials, thrown into the free market, having never experienced Van Gogh, or at the least a Van Gogh peer, assume anything on television must be art. We are reaping the harvest of this fiscal blunder – Real Housewives are now art.
Consider the plight of the monthly contributor to a blog, facing the wrath of the continually outraged for suggesting that housewives are devoid of artistic relevance.
Fox News Talking Head: Sooooo, it’s your belief that the creativity of hard-working, God-fearing, suburban housewives should be ignored in favor of secularist tv shows that promote elitist, liberal ideology and the harvesting of adrenochrome from infants by lizard people in lab coats?
Monthly Contributor: I never said that—
Fox News Talking Head: You implied— That’s all the time we have. Up next, Why should Patriotic Americans be forced to drink diet soda made in socialist, unionized factories? We’ll be right back.
Monthly Contributor: I never said that—
My point is that, in Hair, “The Flesh Failures (Let the Sunshine In)” should be performed with a sense of hope. It’s written in a major key fer chrissakes! And the production I saw in 2000, with the cast exiting up the aisles of the theatre, singing it like a funeral dirge, just got it wrong.
| Copyright © 2021 by James Knudsen |
Love how this illustrates the active creative mind, how even when you get ideas that could become the greatest piece you have ever written, it usually comes out with many other pieces of afterbirth that need to be cleaned up so you can share the one you spent so much time with in gestation.
ReplyDeleteJames, you dare think in terms of order instead of chaos and creating for eternity, when politicians routinely deny they just said what a video proves they just said - and millions of people believe them - and a man can become the richest person in the world by becoming CEO of a 21st century automobile company that manufactures and sells less cars then did Studebaker when it failed as a business long before 'Hair' came to life?
ReplyDeleteHow, oh HOW could "Let the Sun Shine In" be sung like a dirge?? The horror! I saw a production of it in my own church (GREAT acoustics) by the Melbourne High School choir and I was so jealous-I went to Eau Galiie High and we were singing stuff like "Oro pro nobis" and they did Hair?? They too lined the outer isles for the finale, and I couldn't help it-I HAD to sing the background lead sung at the end by the great Billie Davis Jr., (married to Marilyn McCoo for 52 years now!) where he's singing "oh, let it shine, come on and sing along with the 5th Dimension"...one of the most upbeat songs ever!
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