'Free To Be You And Me' At 40

“From the album’s opening sounds — the jaunty strumming of a banjo on the title track — Free To Be posited a world in which every boy ‘grows to be his own man,’ and ‘every girl grows to be her own woman.’ The land of Free To Be was a place where girls could grow up to be mommies and doctors, and they didn’t have to get married if they didn’t want to. It was a place where boys could cry or play with dolls without fear of scorn. It was a place where boys and girls could be friends, no matter what they looked like or acted like — unless the girl was a prissy princess, in which case she would be eaten by a tiger.”
 — Awl pal Dan Kois takes an extensive look back at Free To Be You And Me

on that record’s 40th anniversary. Hands up if you only learned that Rosey Grier was a football player years after the fact.