Swedish vocals
International relevance: **
Originally an off-Broadway production
in 1967, musical "Hair" eventually became a Broadway
blockbuster, spawning multiple domestic versions in numerous
countries of the free world. The Swedish staging was performed at the
Scala theatre in Stockholm 1968, the very same year it moved to
the proper Broadway stages (thus being the very first musical to make
that particular move).
Appallingly subtitled "American
Hippie-Yippie Love-In Musical", the musical backing was provided
by Baby Grandmothers in their later Mecki Mark Men incarnation,
although the album was technically credited to Scala-Teaterns
Ensemble. The inclusion of Kenny Håkansson, Mecki Bodemark et al is
the only thing to make this release historically interesting, but it
has to be said that it's impossible to tell the identity of the band
just by listening to the LP. While they conjure up some appropriate
groove when needed, any fairly talented group of musicians could have
achieved the same thing. The focus is on the singers, but the male
and female vocals are maddening, with the female vocals being
especially grating. After all, it is a musical, and musicals
are an inherently grating abuse of music, like a watered-down version
of the operetta which is a watered-down version of the opera which is
annoying to begin with.
Those expecting anything along the
lines of Baby Grandmothers' "Somebody Keeps Calling My Name"
or the Jimi Hendrix impersonations of Mecki Mark Men are up for
a major disappointment. "Hår" is just another provincial
below average take on a silly musical parodying starry-eyed hippies.
Which too was annoying to begin with...
The album was also released by Sonet in
collaboration with shampoo and conditioner manufacturer Sunsilk (what
else!) with a different sleeve (see below), also in 1968.