Galt MacDermot, who died Monday a day before his 90th birthday, is best known as the composer of the musical Hair, which helped define a generation, and changed the sound of Broadway, where it ran for more than four years, and has been revived several times since.
But as obituaries make clear (in Playbill, and Rolling Stone, among others), his music had great breadth — other musicals, movie scores, jazz, funk/r&b…and hip-hop. And great influence.
Questlove wrote on Instagram: “The broadway community is mourning his passing this morning (#Hair will love forever) but best believe he was the hip hop community’s too.”
MacDermot wrote the score while James Rado and Gerome Ragni wrote the book and lyrics.”I never even heard of a hippie when I met them.”
1969 medley by original cast of Hair, introduced by Harry Belafonte with a comment afterwards by Zero Mostel!
