Side 1
01 Manchester
02 Aquarius
03 Ain’t Got No
04 Air
05 What Piece Of Work Is Man?
06 Can I Tell You
07 Hare Krishna
Side 2
08 Flesh-Failures
09 Good Morning Starshine
10 Walking In Space
11 I Got Life
12 Love Is True
13 Soul House
14 3500
The accents on this version of Hair are German and so is the label. So is it really a London Theatre Ensemble and Chorus? Perhaps it’s Les Humphries and his troupe – a fact that’s frequently cited when the LP comes up in conversation.
Three tracks were not written by Ragni-Rado-MacDermott. Two appear towards the end of the second side. The catchy Love Is True is credited to Ralph Bonda (a pseudonym for Dr Andreas Beurmann) while Soul House is a Les Humphries concoction. Funky greatness. Can I Tell You also has a Bonda credit and is the weakest of the bunch.
There’s an unusual start with Manchester before the usual run through beefy versions of Aquarius, Ain’t Got No and Air. What A Piece Of Work Is Man has a sparse orchestral feel while Walking In Space is a dubbed-out masterpiece. An edgy version of 3500 has last word on this most interesting entry in the Hair canon.
Comments and feedback are welcome.
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