Free to Be...You and Me || An Obscure DVD Review

[@xariasys]

I was 7 when this came out. I had the book and album. I listened to it over and over. It is so wonderful that you enjoyed this! It makes this old lady's heart hug you ❤

[@markthompson180]

Yep - a kid from the 70s here. I had this record as a kid and I listened to it over and over. I never knew it was ever even made into a DVD. It's a great album.

[@markthompson180]

I haven't heard these songs in about 40 years but I know every song. I never even knew who sang them, or that they had videos. Nice to see that it was so well-done right from the beginning. It's a great album.

[@BrownEyedFish92]

Aww I love hearing that, thank you!! i'm so happy that this holds wonderful memories for so many people.

[@markthompson180]

I remember "it's alright to cry." And all the other songs on that album too. The best of the 70s progressivism.

[@markthompson180]

As someone who grew up listening to this album - and who is also gay - this collection of songs was the "inclusive" part of my life in my early childhood in the 1970s. The songs were well-done, and inspirational. And looking back as an adult 40 years later, I'm glad I had access to the album. In the 70s, the progressive culture wasn't specifically about dealing with sexuality or gender(s) - it was more general/universal, and about breaking free of racial and gender norms and being free to define yourself outside of those specific norms. That's what "free to be you and me" is all about. Nowadays, I feel like we are falling into another trap about feeling like we have to define ourselves with specific balkanized "pronouns". Thus giving more weight to pronouns than they ever had in the past. That's a mental trap in itself. I believe the 70s philosophy is better, in that it tries to transcend these pigeonholes, rather than debate them and redefine another set of pigeonhole genders which in many ways are just as limiting as the old set was. And yes- I know my view isn't popular and I'm going to get a lot of blow-back from young "lgbtq plus" kids who are going to try to school me on what the real world is like. And all I have to say is that I've been there and seen that and I don't need the sermon.

[@markthompson180]

Thank you for making this video. I grew up listening to this album and I never even knew there was video connected to it.

[@BrownEyedFish92]

This is exactly why I love being able to make content like this, even though this was before my generation I'm so happy being able to contribute in any way to keeping the media of the past alive and giving it a longer life.

[@sahmnancy]

First of all, I am 65 so I was 15 when this came out. Those little kids are probably only in their 50s. Second, the mispronunciation of some of the names made my back spasm. Alan Awl-da, not Al-da. Kris KriSTofferson. All of those people were very big at the time, and check out Schoolhouse Rock for similar animation. I was too old to watch this when it came out, to I'm actually glad to see what it was about. I'm glad that it resonated with you, even now.

[@soonermodels1173]

Our 3rd grade teacher introduced it to us in 1974

[@jamesoverholt878]

Gen xer here, we used to watch this at recess when it rained and we couldn't go outside