I was 12 years old when I heard my first Harry Chapin song. A budding social justice activist, I was in the midst of locking horns with my 7th grade school principal over a teacher who made a habit of making ugly slurs about AIDS victims. It was the early 80s, needless to say his opinions were more popular than mine, something that even at a young age was reprehensible to me. I was all "us" and "them" over it, and struggling with the budding realization that not all adults were as mature and appropriate as I needed them to be. My mom sat me down one day and played "What Made America Famous" for me off of Verities and Balderdash. While it wasn't musically my favorite song, or my favorite Chapin song in the long run, I was taken by the universality of his story, his social commentary, his realness. I was also intrigued by his storytelling methodology, and blew through the rest of the album fairly quickly. I moved on to Short Stories and fell in love love love with W.O.L.D., which remains, to date, my very favorite Chapin song. Also fabulous from that album are Mr. Tanner and Mail Order Annie. From there I discovered Greatest Stories Live and never looked back. In addition to telling great stories against a background of great music, Harry Chapin is a man who isn't afraid to show his less than perfect, sometimes flawed but always with good intent "everyman" side. In his stories, his protagonists are average people just looking for a little peace, a little happiness, a little way around their own insecurities and failures. I adore him. His music speaks to my own relationship with my success and failure and vulnerability, particularly in songs like Taxi and W.O.L.D. Most people know him through the only song that every really got radio play, Cat's in the Cradle. The bulk of his songs were too long for radio. Even so, he had and continues to have a faithful following. Harry died in 1981 in a car crash which many fans don't feel was an accident, believing instead he was assisinated for his high profile political interest in social justice issues. His music reflects his passion, and I can't say what an influence he had on my own activist development. Below are three favorites, just because I couldn't choose just one. W.O.L.D. is probably my favorite song of his in both music and story; it tells the tale of a radio DJ who spent years looking for fulfillment on the airwaves and realizes later in life his ache was about family and stability more than anything.A Better Place to Be tells the tale of a meek and insecure midnight watchman who meets a homely waitress in a bar one morning and tells her the story of picking up a beautiful woman one night, his pride at being a man, her man, only to fall flat when she leaves the next morning. The waitress offers herself to him, acknowleding herself as far from beautiful or classically desireable, and the two take solace in each other. Gorgeous. In the vid, the screen is blank for about 50 seconds while Harry introduces the song, with a slideshow following once the music begins. Wait for it, it's worth it.Taxi tells the story of two estranged people, once lovers as kids, who meet one night as adults (a taxi driver and his passenger) and confront the disappointments in their lives as each realizes neither has lived the dreams they spoke of in their youth. This video is one of the few live clips of Chapin himself performing the song, and is simply wonderful.Enjoy...W.O.L.D.A Better Place to BeTaxi
SWozniak says
Sorta off topic, are you still an activist?
The only Harry Chapin song I can say I know is Cats in the Cradle. I didn't know he was an activist, and that's honestly enough to make me check him out more. Thanks for the post.
lemontwist says
W.O.L.D. is a fantastic song. I was brought up listening to my parent's Harry Chapin record, I don't remember which one (even though I have "borrowed" it), but I always remember, as a kid, wanting to hear Dance Band on the Titanic. That was always the one that stuck out in my mind, even though I didn't (at the time) understand the words. I didn't listen to Chapin for awhile, and then in the course of dating my current boyfriend, he would listen to Chapin in his car's CD player, which was always cool. He was definitely a fantastic musician, sadly underrated.
Julie says
SWozniak, in answer to your question, yes I am. I find my activism now takes different shapes then it did when I was in my 20s, but I'm just as firmly entrenched in social justice work now that I was then. I live in Brooklyn, and especially, ESPECIALLY when the RNC came to town two years ago I did a lot of protesting, picketing, non-violent demonstrating. I've always done a lot of writing in different places, organizing, mobilizing. I'm a social worker professionally (and part time theatre-director) and I've always been drawn to work that strives towards human rights and works to overturn all the ugly ways we as people tear each other down.
Re: Harry Chapin, his main cause was World Hunger, and he spent a lot of time and gave a lot of money toward ending hunger in the US and abroad. Towards the end of his life, he worked relentlessly lobbying congress and working to change legislation about US government spending and trying to divert money into solving world hunger rather than military spending. His established his own food bank (Long Island Cares, it remains the biggest food bank on the island today), he worked at food banks all over NY, he was instrumental in the creation of the Presidential Hunger Commission in 1977. He was pretty rad. He died at age 38 in a car crash on the Long Island Expressway. He had his emergency blinkers on and was slowing down and crossing lanes to pull over onto the berm when he was hit by a big trailer. It ignited his gas tank and the whole car caught on fire. His autopsy showed that he actually died of a heart attack, and speculation goes that he may have been pulling over because of the heart attack, not vice versa. Who knows. Anyway, listen to everything you can of his. He's, in my opinion, a great man and a great musician.
Lemontwist, thanks for your comments. I'm always suprised when I run into Chapin fans now, rock on. I love W.O.L.D. it's my complete favorite, and Dance Band is great too, in the same vein as What Made America Famous. Happy car listening!
I was 12 years old when I heard my first Harry Chapin song. A budding social justice activist, I was in the midst of locking horns with my 7th grade school principal over a teacher who made a habit of making ugly slurs about AIDS victims. It was the early 80s, needless to say his opinions were more popular than mine, something that even at a young age was reprehensible to me. I was all "us" and "them" over it, and struggling with the budding realization that not all adults were as mature and appropriate as I needed them to be. My mom sat me down one day and played "What Made America Famous" for me off of Verities and Balderdash. While it wasn't musically my favorite song, or my favorite Chapin song in the long run, I was taken by the universality of his story, his social commentary, his realness. I was also intrigued by his storytelling methodology, and blew through the rest of the album fairly quickly. I moved on to Short Stories and fell in love love love with W.O.L.D., which remains, to date, my very favorite Chapin song. Also fabulous from that album are Mr. Tanner and Mail Order Annie. From there I discovered Greatest Stories Live and never looked back. In addition to telling great stories against a background of great music, Harry Chapin is a man who isn't afraid to show his less than perfect, sometimes flawed but always with good intent "everyman" side. In his stories, his protagonists are average people just looking for a little peace, a little happiness, a little way around their own insecurities and failures. I adore him. His music speaks to my own relationship with my success and failure and vulnerability, particularly in songs like Taxi and W.O.L.D. Most people know him through the only song that every really got radio play, Cat's in the Cradle. The bulk of his songs were too long for radio. Even so, he had and continues to have a faithful following. Harry died in 1981 in a car crash which many fans don't feel was an accident, believing instead he was assisinated for his high profile political interest in social justice issues. His music reflects his passion, and I can't say what an influence he had on my own activist development. Below are three favorites, just because I couldn't choose just one. W.O.L.D. is probably my favorite song of his in both music and story; it tells the tale of a radio DJ who spent years looking for fulfillment on the airwaves and realizes later in life his ache was about family and stability more than anything.A Better Place to Be tells the tale of a meek and insecure midnight watchman who meets a homely waitress in a bar one morning and tells her the story of picking up a beautiful woman one night, his pride at being a man, her man, only to fall flat when she leaves the next morning. The waitress offers herself to him, acknowleding herself as far from beautiful or classically desireable, and the two take solace in each other. Gorgeous. In the vid, the screen is blank for about 50 seconds while Harry introduces the song, with a slideshow following once the music begins. Wait for it, it's worth it.Taxi tells the story of two estranged people, once lovers as kids, who meet one night as adults (a taxi driver and his passenger) and confront the disappointments in their lives as each realizes neither has lived the dreams they spoke of in their youth. This video is one of the few live clips of Chapin himself performing the song, and is simply wonderful.Enjoy...W.O.L.D. A Better Place to BeTaxi
Locating MOG account...
Comments (3)