I Got Life Lyrics – Hair

Song Overview

Gavin Creel’s take on “I Got Life” doesn’t tiptoe. It sprints. The 2009 Broadway revival locked the song’s grin-and-bare-it spirit to a tight rock-band engine and a gospel-schooled call-and-response, bottled on Hair (The New Broadway Cast Recording) for Ghostlight Records and released in stores on June 23, 2009. Producers Joel Moss and Kurt Deutsch keep the band hot and the voices forward, so the joy hits first and the subtext lands second.

Underneath the whoops, the number still does what it always did in Hair: flip deprivation into abundance. Where “Ain’t Got No” catalogs what’s missing, “I Got Life” answers with a roll call of everything a body can still claim. Onstage, Claude’s declaration doubles as a dare to his worried elders and to a country at war.

Review & Highlights

Review

Creel leads with a grin you can hear. The arrangement kicks like late-60s rock filtered through Broadway’s staging instincts: crisp kit, supple bass, bright horns, and a Tribe that functions as a responsive choir. The track breathes - verses tumble, the chorus pops, and the vamp dares you not to move. The production leaves edges intact, which is key for a song built on body-first immediacy. Listen for how the backing voices egg Claude on; that dialogue is the song’s moral center.

Plot

The scene is simple: Claude rattles off what he does have. It’s funny, a little rude, and completely focused on the physical self. The list becomes a shield and a sermon. Dramaturgically, it answers “Ain’t Got No” with a joyous inventory, turning lack into possession and anxiety into motion. In the revival, that turn lands with added warmth - you feel a community catching him midair.

Creation History

Composer Galt MacDermot wrote the first Hair score in a lightning three-week burst, starting with “I Got Life,” “Ain’t Got No,” “Where Do I Go,” and the title song. That speed shows in the tune’s bones: a vamp you can loop forever and a lyric device that scales with the crowd.

The 2009 cast album was recorded April 6 at Legacy Studios and fast-tracked for a late May digital bow and a June in-store date. Produced by Kurt Deutsch and Joel Moss with Bill Rosenfield as executive producer, the release captured the hit revival then packing the Al Hirschfeld Theatre.

Song Meaning and Annotations

At heart, the song is reclamation. It reframes scarcity through the most basic proof of wealth: a living body. That body list isn’t just cheeky; it’s political. In 1968, saying “this is mine” cut against a culture sending young bodies to war.

Musically it’s a fusion a few beats ahead of its time: rock rhythm section, R&B phrasing, and gospel call-and-response. The groove is steady, not flashy, because the ritual matters more than virtuosity. By the last vamp, the crowd becomes the band’s extra instrument.

The emotional arc starts playful, turns blunt, and ends exultant. That sharp left into anatomical specifics isn’t shock for shock’s sake; it asserts total ownership, not just of mind or heart, but of everything else too. It’s anti-shame theater.

“Claude and the Tribe justify their minimalist hippie lifestyle to their concerned parents.”

I read that note as a compass for staging choices. When Claude sings out his inventory, he’s not only self-soothing; he’s reporting to authority figures who think he’s lost the plot. The lyric flips the frame: maybe having less stuff isn’t poverty if you have your body, your voice, your people.

Culture touchpoint: Nina Simone’s 1968 rework turned the show’s two halves into one punch - “Ain’t Got No, I Got Life” - and blasted into the UK top 2 and the Dutch top spot. Her version distilled resistance into three minutes of swing and steel, and it’s now the cover that shadow-teaches listeners how the original functions.

Historical context matters. Hair arrived as protest theater with pop instincts. The show broke the fourth wall, invited the audience in, and used songs like this as communal exercises. Revival productions, including 2009, kept that permeability; the track preserves it.

Production & instrumentation

Drums lock the pocket, electric bass moves like a second melody, and brass functions as exclamation marks. The Tribe vocals are the refrain’s spine, trading phrases with Claude so the message sounds owned by many, not just one.

Language, images, and little shocks

That body-part cascade is a catalog form as comedy and claim. The blunt words aren’t provocation for its own sake; they’re anti-euphemism. The song insists that a full human includes parts people prefer you not say out loud, and that saying them is part of the freedom.

From stage to screen

In Miloš Forman’s 1979 film, “I Got Life” survives the translation, sung by Treat Williams. The tempo is a touch sleeker, the orchestration more cinematic, but the same grin powers it.

Key Facts

• Artist: Gavin Creel & ‘Hair’ Tribe
• Producers: Joel Moss, Kurt Deutsch
• Composer: Galt MacDermot
• Lyricists: James Rado, Gerome Ragni
• Album: Hair (The New Broadway Cast Recording)
• Release Date: June 23, 2009
• Label: Ghostlight Records
• Length: 3:02
• Genre: Broadway rock, pop-soul inflections
• Track #: 12
• Language: English
• Mood: celebratory, body-positive, communal
• © Copyrights: © 2009 Ghostlight Records

Questions and Answers

Who produced this 2009 recording?

Joel Moss and Kurt Deutsch produced the cast album session that features “I Got Life.”

When did this version come out?

The album hit stores on June 23, 2009, after a late May digital release.

Who wrote the song?

Music by Galt MacDermot, words by James Rado and Gerome Ragni.

Did the 2009 cast album chart?

Yes. It debuted at No. 1 on Billboard’s Top Cast Albums and cracked the Billboard 200 at No. 63.

What’s a notable cover that reached the pop charts?

Nina Simone’s 1968 “Ain’t Got No, I Got Life” medley hit No. 2 in the UK and No. 1 in the Netherlands.

Awards and Chart Positions

- The 2009 Broadway revival won the Tony Award for Best Revival of a Musical; Gavin Creel was nominated for Best Actor.

- The New Broadway Cast Recording debuted No. 1 on Billboard’s Top Cast Albums and at No. 63 on the Billboard 200.

- The album received a Grammy nomination for Best Musical Show Album.

- In cover-song history, Nina Simone’s “Ain’t Got No, I Got Life” reached UK No. 2, Netherlands No. 1, and US No. 94.

Additional Info

Screen life: in the 1979 film adaptation, “I Got Life” is performed by Treat Williams, proof the number survives a camera’s stare as easily as it does a stage’s.

Backstory footnote: MacDermot reportedly began the Hair score by sketching “I Got Life” first. No wonder it feels like a thesis statement.

Recent history: the Broadway community now hears this cut through the lens of loss. Gavin Creel died on September 30, 2024, at 48, and tributes flooded in across stages and papers. His Claude remains a lodestar for how to sing this - fearless, generous, inviting you in.