Hair

It's always a nice feeling to be watching a movie from a while ago, see a somewhat familiar face, and think, "Hey, isn't that...?" It's especially nice when it's their first movie.

Got this twice in Hair. The scrawny, skinny, pasty-white character of Sheldon is played by Michael Jeter, who I remember from Evening Shade and The Green Mile. And one of the three girls singing the White Boys song is Nell Carter, two years (and maybe 100 pounds) before Gimme A Break. Speaking of which...

...that song is hilarious. A split scene between the park and the recruiting office, with girls alternating lines with army officers. Whites (male and female) sing about black boys, and blacks (male and female), sing about white boys.

Black boys are delicious
Chocolate flavored love
Licorice lips like candy
I keep my cocoa handy
I have such a sweet tooth
When it comes to love
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White boys are so pretty
Skin as smooth as milk
White boys are so pretty
They're like Chinese silk
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It's an enjoyable movie, I think, with choreography by Twyla Tharp, who's rather well-known in the field, to say the least. I would guess that certain dance routines needed serious dancers with a lot of training, but much of it seemed very easy and fun ("easy" in attitude, not execution). Treat Williams and Beverly D'Angelo are the most recognizable faces. My parents saw the stage production many moons ago, complete with all the naked people on stage.

It's a bit shameful to say, but the song I was most looking forward to is the one with all the racial slurs, most of which I'd heard before. The newest one was "cotton pickin' swamp guinea". I know where the cotton and guinea parts come from, but I don't know what the swamp has to do with anything. Sung by Hud, whose real name turns out to be Lafayette.