|
Galt MacDermot, a composer who gave the Age of Aquarius its rock and roll soundtrack in the Broadway musical “Hair,” wrote the score to a Tony-winning adaption of “Two Gentlemen of Verona” and became a widely sampled staple of 1990s hip-hop died Dec. at his home on Staten Island, one day before his 90th birthday.
The precise cause was not immediately known, said his daughter Elizabeth MacDermot.
A onetime church organist and choirmaster in Montreal, MacDermot was perhaps an unlikely choice to compose the music for “Hair,” which opened on Broadway on April 29, 1968 – a date chosen by the producer’s astrologer – and featured hallucinogenic drug use, draft-card burning, frank discussions of homosexuality and an infamous nude sequence at the close of the first act.
Then 39, living in a quiet Staten Island neighborhood with his wife and children, he had received two Grammy Awards as a jazz composer and was a far cry from the production’s lyricists, Gerome Ragni and James Rado, who wrote the musical’s book and starred as two of its long-haired, tie-dye-clad leads.
Yet drawing from his student years in South Africa, where he fell in love with the rhythmically complex music of artists such as Hugh Masekela and Miriam Makeba, MacDermot gave “Hair” a funky, guitar-filled score that made it one of the most successful productions of its era, as well as one of the earliest rock musicals in Broadway history.
“The show is the first Broadway musical in some time to have the authentic voice of today,” wrote New York Times reviewer Clive Barnes, “rather than the day before yesterday.”
Directed by Tom O’Horgan, “Hair” ran for 1,750 performances and raked in tens of millions of dollars, playing in around 20 cities around the world. Its cast album won a Grammy Award in 196, and the musical was adapted into a 1979 film directed by Milos Forman, revived on Broadway in 2009 and will be rebroadcast live on NBC next spring.
For many listeners, songs such as “Aquarius” and “Let the Sunshine In” because generation-defining anthems, joyous numbers that heralded a new era of peace, love and understanding. A medley of those two tracks was recorded by the 5th Dimension and spent six weeks at the top of the Billboard charts in 1969; one year later, the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers announced that the medley was played more than any other son on U.S. Radio and television.
Other “Hair” numbers, recorded by artists including Liza Minnelli, Diana Ross, Barbra Streisand, Nina Simone and Quincy Jones, were nearly as successful. The musical’s title song, recorded by the Cowsills, rose to No.2 on the charts; “Good Morning Starshine,” sung by Oliver, hit No. 3 and was performed by Bob McGrath on an episode of “Sesame Street”’ and “Easy to Be Hard,” covered by Three Dog Night, reached No.4
. . .
|
