I'm currently serving as dramaturg for MSU's upcoming production of the musical Hair. Here are some links I sent to the cast a while back, to give them some resources for immersion in the 1960s
counterculture.
General 1960s History:
Literary/Spoken Word Sources:
Timothy Leary: “Turn On, Tune In,
Drop Out”
Alan Ginsburg, reading “Wichita
Vortex Sutra” over music by Philip Glass:
Ginsburg’s poem “Howl” also seems
relevant: http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/179381
Arlo Guthrie, “Alice’s Restaurant”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OIz8f3b1KqQ
1960s Music:
Here’s a playlist someone created on
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SBmAPYkPeYU&list=PLuK6flVU_Aj5EJ9Pp-C9N7XA0YJr_GrJI
You could also create your own 1960s
station on Pandora or Spotify. Some
things to consider:
Harmonies in groups like We Five;
The Mamas and the Papas; Simon and Garfunkel; Peter, Paul, and Mary.
Folk-rock singer-songwriters: Pete
Seeger, Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Joni Mitchell, Judy Collins.
British Invasion: The Beatles, The
Who, The Rolling Stones, Herman’s Hermits
Girl Groups: The Angels (“My Boyfriend’s Back), The
Shangri-Las (Leader of the Pack), Lesley Gore, the Shirelles, the Supremes,
Martha and the Vandellas. Here’s a
documentary about Girl Groups: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jyzL6D-5znY
Also
check out http://hairdramaturgy.blogspot.com/ which was created for a production at UC Santa Cruz in
2010.
Films to Consider:
Days of Wine and Roses (1962)
8 ½ (1963; dir. Federico Fellini)
Dr. Strangelove (1964)
A Hard Day’s Night (1964)
Blow-Up (1966; dir. Michelangelo Antonioni)
Bonnie and Clyde (1967)
The Graduate (1967)
Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner (1967)
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
Barbarella (1968)
Rosemary’s Baby (1968; dir. Roman Polanski; Polanski’s 1971 Macbeth is also interesting, as is The
Ninth Gate)
Wild in the Streets (1968)
Yellow Submarine (1968)
Easy Rider (1969)
Midnight Cowboy (1969)
Hair (1979); dir. Milos Forman
Hairspray (1989)
A Mighty Wind (2003)
Across the Universe (2007)
Some
of these are suggested by Scott Miller’s book Let the Sun Shine In: The Genius of Hair (2003);
others are just things I thought might be interesting.
