Share This Post: listening once more to the Mary Schmich-Baz Luhrmann collaboration, with Renzie Baluyut.
About ten years ago, I remembered pushing for this song to get more airplay at the radio station I was working for then.
The song was “Everybody’s Free (To Wear Sunscreen)” by Baz Luhrmann. It came out in one of those international samplers the station subscribed to, and I loved it the first time I heard it.
It was inspirational, it was different, it had a positive message to it, and it made for great listening. At the time, the prevailing rumor was that it was taken word-for-word from a Kurt Vonnegut commencement speech he gave for the graduating class of MIT.
Much later, it turns out that Kurt Vonnegut had nothing to do with the song. The original piece of work was by Mary Schmich, a columnist for the Chicago Tribune.
From Wikipedia:
Luhrmann explains that Anton Monsted, Josh Abrahams and he were working on the remix when Monsted received an email with the supposed Vonnegut speech. They decided to use it but were doubtful of getting through to Vonnegut for permission before their deadline, which was only one or two days away. While searching the internet for contact information they came upon the “Sunscreen Controversy” and discovered that Schmich was the actual author. They emailed her and, with her permission, recorded the song the next day.
However, “Everybody’s Free (To Wear Sunscreen)” wasn’t radio-friendly- the single ran for more than 7 minutes (you can play 2 songs in 7 minutes), and it wasn’t backed up by any significant marketing effort from the local recording companies.
I managed to sneak the song in several times within some of my special programs, but Baz Luhrmann’s “Everybody’s Free (To Wear Sunscreen)” unfortunately, never saw the heavy radio rotation I felt it deserved.
Nevertheless, the song remains very inspiring even to this day. So here it is, along with the spoken-word lyrics to it. I hope it inspires you too.
Continue reading “Baz Luhrmann’s “Everybody’s Free (To Wear Sunscreen)””
Renzie Baluyut Online 