Flesh Failures Lyrics – Hair

Song Overview

Review & Highlights

Review

The finale hits like a weather change. First you get Claude’s vapor-trail thoughts, tentatively spoken-sung over a steady rock pulse; then the tribe enters with Shakespeare’s last rites, and the floor tilts toward ritual. When the chant opens into “Let the sunshine in,” the harmony broadens, drums plant their feet, and the track snaps from lament into invitation. The lyrics don’t move much, but the harmony does, widening from minor smudge to open, ringing triads. That’s the trick: confrontation without bombast, uplift without sugar.

I hear three camera angles. One - Claude, small and private. Two - the tribe, braided and implacable, quoting Romeo and Hamlet like placards. Three - the crowd that’s about to stand and sing back. The 2009 band plays clean and unfussy so the voices can fuse; brass glints just enough to make the air feel taller. And yes, when the hook lands, you feel the theater change temperature.

Plot

Placed at the end, the number reveals what the show has been circling - Claude’s death in Vietnam - and makes the audience look straight at it. The tribe mourns, then wills a future into the room with that mantra of light. As stagecraft, it’s brutal and generous: grief is stated plainly, then the room is asked to carry the torch outside.

Creation History

Galt MacDermot threads rock rhythm and choral writing; Gerome Ragni and James Rado set modern prose against Shakespeare and answer it with a counterculture chorus. The 2009 Ghostlight session tightened the ensemble blend, with producers Joel Moss and Kurt Deutsch keeping the mix close and human - choir forward, rhythm section dry, brass like sun flares at the edges.

Song Meaning and Annotations

This is a hymn built from shards: street poetry, Shakespeare, and a stadium-ready hook. The message is simple - face the loss, then choose life - but the texture is layered.

“Walking proudly in our winter coats / Wearing smells from laboratories”

The line sniffs at consumer status and synthetic polish. The track’s arrangement mirrors it - clean, almost antiseptic at first - so when the choir opens up, the contrast reads as a return to air.

“Facing a dying nation of moving paper fantasy”

Paper as currency, paper as headlines, paper beliefs. In 1968 it tagged the war machine; today it scans as any brittle system that can’t hold a human weight. The chorus refuses that fragility by stacking voices until they feel load-bearing.

“Listening for the new told lies”

Mass media gets named and side-eyed. That sly groove under the line keeps it from preaching; the band lets the accusation hang on the backbeat.

“Somewhere inside something there is a rush of greatness… I fashion my future on films in space”

Optimism and naivete in the same breath. The tragic irony is built in, because by the time the chant crests, we know Claude is gone. The harmony rises anyway - defiance voiced as major chords.

“Manchester England England”

The callback flips his Act 1 intro from jaunty to haunted. Same words, slower melody, heavier air. It’s character development through reprise, no monologue needed.

“Eyes, look your last… Arms, take your last embrace”

Romeo and Juliet at the lip of death. Layered beneath Claude’s reprise, these lines turn a personal reckoning into liturgy. Then Hamlet’s “The rest is silence” lands like a blackout.

“Answer for Timothy Leary, dearie”

The counterculture name-check isn’t a wink so much as a breadcrumb. This tribe read the slogans and ran experiments on their own lives. The chant that follows feels like their lab result: community is the medicine.

“The sunshine in”

Directing light inward is the final stage direction. Onstage, productions often reveal Claude’s body during this refrain - joy and horror in one frame. The harmony refuses to collapse.

Genre, rhythm, production

Call it Broadway rock with choral pop instincts. Drums keep a square, un-showy pocket; guitars and keys leave space; brass crowns the cadence. The choir is the hook - not a garnish, the engine.

Emotional arc

Start hushed, escalate to elegy, end as rally. The refrain’s repetition isn’t filler - it’s muscle memory the audience can take home.

Language, metaphors, symbols

Shakespeare’s mortuary language makes the loss feel ancient, not just topical. “Let the sunshine in” sounds naive until a roomful of voices sings it like a vow.

Historical touchpoints

The number sits in a 1968 landscape of televised war and draft cards, but it keeps traveling. Any era with public grief and protest can plug into its voltage.

Key Facts

• Artist: Gavin Creel, Caissie Levy, Bryce Ryness, Sasha Allen, Kacie Sheik & Allison Case, with the 2009 Broadway tribe
• Composer: Galt MacDermot
• Lyric sources: Gerome Ragni & James Rado; quotations from Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet and Hamlet
• Producers: Joel Moss, Kurt Deutsch
• Album: Hair - The New Broadway Cast Recording
• Release Date: June 23, 2009
• Label: Ghostlight Records
• Track #: 35
• Genre: Broadway rock, choral pop
• Instruments: rhythm section, guitars, keyboards, brass and winds, chorus
• Language: English
• Mood: elegiac turning communal
• Adaptations: used in the 1979 film adaptation (finale, altered plot emphasis)

Questions and Answers

Does the finale directly quote Shakespeare?

Yes. The tribe sings lines from Romeo and Juliet (“Eyes, look your last…”) and closes with Hamlet’s “The rest is silence.”

Where does this sit in the show’s story?

It ends the musical, revealing Claude’s death and shifting the tribe from mourning to a call-to-action as the audience leaves.

Was this track released as a stand-alone single in 2009?

No - it appears on the full Ghostlight cast album. The major hit single derived from this material is the 5th Dimension’s “Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In” (1969).

How does the 1979 film handle the finale?

The movie uses the song but changes the casualty - Berger dies - altering the emotional vector while keeping the anthem.

Any notable covers?

Plenty. The 5th Dimension’s medley topped the Hot 100 for six weeks and won two Grammys; Diana Ross and the Supremes, Julie Driscoll & Brian Auger, and others have tackled versions tied to the era’s sound.

Awards and Chart Positions

Cast album milestones: the 2009 New Broadway Cast album debuted at no. 1 on Billboard’s Broadway/Top Cast Albums chart and received a Grammy nomination for Best Musical Show Album (2010). The revival itself won the 2009 Tony Award for Best Revival of a Musical and a sweep of major revival prizes from Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle and Drama League.

Derivative hit: the 5th Dimension’s “Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In” - built from this finale and “Aquarius” - spent six weeks at no. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1969 and later earned two Grammys, including Record of the Year.

Additional Info

• The Ghostlight album was recorded April 6, 2009 at Legacy Studios, New York, then released digitally in May before the June 23 store date - a quick capture of a cast at full fire.
• In Milos Forman’s 1979 film, the finale shifts the tragedy to Berger, but “Let the Sunshine In” still functions as a mass benediction.
• Notable covers include Diana Ross and the Supremes performing the medley on late-60s TV, and Julie Driscoll with Brian Auger folding “Let the Sunshine In” into their double LP Streetnoise.