Harry Chapin

Harry Chapin was an American singer, songwriter, and social activist.

Sourced

• Thanksgiving. Remember junior high school, high school, elementary school, everybody bringing in cans for the hungry people? Remember that? Just imagine, if somebody, when you were in fifth, sixth grade, if the principle had the gonads to say on Monday: 'Children, it was the most single, wonderful outpouring of generosity that this school has ever seen. More cans of food feeding a hundred and ninety-three families came to this school than ever before.'
  • On Thanksgiving hunger drives

• I spent a week there one afternoon.
  • about the town of Watertown, New York featured in "A Better Place to Be"

• I never really drove a cab, but I do have a hack license in case of emergencies – like no money."
  • On "Taxi" to Rolling Stone; July 6, 1972

• Here’s a song that I could probably talk about for two weeks.
  • On "Sniper"

• Frankly, this song scares me to death.
  • On "Cat's In The Cradle" relating to his relationship with his son, Josh.

I have a little trouble getting my songs are the radio cause they’re too long, but this one snuck onto the charts for about fifteen minutes.

• • On "W*O*L*D"

Songs

• You see, I have no real complaints of how you've left your past behind
  I guess what gets me worried is you've erased him from your mind.
  • "I Wonder What Happened to Him"

• You see, dream-lover of a lady, what shakes me to the core
  Is the thought as you caress me, you've done this all before
  I think about the future with me out and others in
  Will I, too, have disappeared like I've never ever been?
  • "I Wonder What Happened to Him"

• I'm in the danceband on the Titanic
  Singing "Nearer my God to thee"
  and the iceburgs on the starboard bow
  Won't you dance with me?
  • "Danceband On the Titanic"

• And I know you're frightened
  By my laughter
  But you're not afraid
  To hold my pain
  You see I'm never sure
  Just what you're after, Babe
  But it seems you only love me
  When it rains.
  How come you only love me when it rains?
  • It Seems You Only Love Me When It Rains

• Music was his life, it was not his livelihood,
  And it made him feel so happy and it made him feel so good.
  And he sang from his heart and he sang from his soul.
  He did not know how well he sang; It just made him whole.
  • "Mr. Tanner"

• Mr. Martin Tanner, a baritone, of Dayton, Ohio made his Town Hall debut last night. He came well prepared, but unfortunately his presentation was not up to contemporary professional standards. His voice lacks the range of tonal color necessary to make it consistently interesting.
  Full time consideration of another endeavor might be in order.
  • "Mr. Tanner"

• She sings the songs without words
  Songs that sailors, and blind men, and beggars have heard
  She knows more of love than the poets can say
  And her eyes are for something that won't go away.
  • She Sings Songs Without Words

• Short stories
  that's all it's ever been
  Don't you worry 'bout the ending
  Babe, before we begin
  I have seen the sun
  That's behind the rain
  I have felt the joy
  That's behind the pain.
  • "Short Stories"

• You know I need a dream
  Like I need my breath
  We need to take the life
  Before we get the death
  You know I need your love
  Like I need the light
  Yes I need the chance
  Can it be tonight?
  • "Short Stories"

• There's a vacancy, won't you come to me
  And fill my empty spaces
  I'm a motel man in a promised land
  That's filled with empty faces
  So won't you bring your sorrows bring your dreams,
  It's a place for you to be
  There's no more tomorrow or that's how it seems
  Won't you come to me? I've got a vacancy
  • "Vacancy"

• Why did the little girls grow crippled
  While the little boys grow strong
  The boys allowed to come of age
  The girls just came along
  The girls were told sing harmonies
  The boys could all sing songs
  That's why little girls grew crippled
  While little boys grew strong.
  • "Why Do Little Girls?"

• Why were the little girls all frightened
  To be just what they are
  The boys were told to ask themselves
  How high how far
  The girls were told to reach the shelves
  While the boys were reaching stars
  That's why little girls were frightened
  To be just what they are.
  • "Why Do Little Girls?"

• I am the morning DJ... At W.O.L.D.
  Playin' all the hits for you... Wherever you may be.
  The bright good morning voice... Who is heard, but never seen!
  Feelin' all of 45.... Goin' on 15.
  • W*O*L*D

• Sometimes I get this crazy dream
  And I just take off in my car
  But you can travel on ten thousand miles
  And still stay where you are.
  • W*O*L*D

A Better Place to Be

• And the broad who served the whisky
  She was a big old friendly girl.
  And she tried to fight her empty nights
  By smilin' at the world.

• She said, "I don't want to bother you,
  Consider it's understood.
  I know I'm not no beauty queen,
  But I sure can listen good."

• "I am the midnight watchman down at Miller's Tool and Die.
  And I watch the metal rusting, and I watch the time go by.
  A week ago at the diner I stopped to get a bite.
  And this here lovely lady she sat two seats from my right.
  And Lord, Lord, Lord she was alright.
  Oh she was so damned beautiful that she'd warm a winter's frost.
  But she was long past lonely, and well nigh unto lost.
  Now I'm not much of a mover, or a pick-em-up easy guy,
  But I decided to glide on over, and give her one good try.
  And Lord, Lord, Lord she was worth a try."

• "And it shamed me into silence, as quietly she said,
  'If you want me to come with you, then that's all right with me.
  Cause I know I'm going nowhere, and anywhere's a better place to be.
  Anywhere's a better place to be.'"

• "The moonlight shown upon her as she lay back in my bed.
  It was the kind of scene I only had imagined in my head.
  I just could not believe it, to think that she was real.
  And as I tried to tell her she said 'Shhh.. I know just how you feel.
  And if you want to come here with me, then that's all right with me.
  'Cause I've been oh so lonely, lovin' someone is a better way to be.
  anywhere's a better way to be.' "

• "I did not want to share her with the world or break the mood,
  So before she woke I went out and brought us both some food.
  I came back with my paper bag, to find out she was gone.
  She'd left a six word letter saying 'It's time that I moved on.'"

• The waitress took a bar rag, and she wiped it across her eyes.
  And as she spoke her voice came out as something like a sigh.
  She said "I wish that I was beautiful, or that you were halfway blind.
  And I wish I weren't so dog-gone fat, I wish that you were mine.
  And I wish that you'd come with me, when I leave for home.
  For we both know all about loneliness, and livin' all alone."

Cat's in the Cradle

Cat's in the Cradle was written with his wife Sandy Chapin.

• My child arrived just the other day,
  He came to the world in the usual way.
  But there were planes to catch, and bills to pay.
  He learned to walk while I was away.
  And he was talking 'fore I knew it, and as he grew,
  He'd say, "I'm gonna be like you, dad.
  You know I'm gonna be like you."

• And the cat's in the cradle and the silver spoon,
  Little boy blue and the man in the moon.
  "When you coming home, dad?" "I don't know when,
  But we'll get together then.
  You know we'll have a good time then."

Circle

• All my life's a circle;
  Sunrise and sundown;
  Moon rolls thru the nighttime;
  Till the daybreak comes around.

• All my life's a circle;
  But I can't tell you why;
  Season's spinning round again;
  The years keep rollin' by.

• No straight lines make up my life;
  And all my roads have bends;
  There's no clear-cut beginnings;
  And so far no dead-ends.

• I found you a thousand times;
  I guess you done the same;
  But then we lose each other;
  It's like a children's game;
  As I find you here again;
  A thought runs through my mind;
  Our love is like a circle;
  Let's go 'round one more time.

Corey's Coming

• I was quite surprised to find out all the places that he knew
  And so I asked the townfolk if his stories were true
  They said— Old John was born here, he's lived here all his life
  He's never had a woman, let alone a wife.
  And very soon you'll find out as you check around
  That no one named Corey's ever lived in this town
  So I chided the old man 'bout the truth that I had heard
  He smiled and said— Reality is only just a word.

• They put the cold dirt over him and left me on my own
  And when at last I looked up I saw I was not alone
  So I said— If you're a relative, he had a peaceful end.
  She said— My name is Corey— you can say I'm just a friend.

• Corey's coming, no more sad stories coming
  My midnight-moonlight-morning-glory's coming aren't you girl?
  And like I told you, when she holds you
  She enfolds you in her world.

Flowers are Red

• The little boy went first day of school
  He got some crayons and started to draw
  He put colors all over the paper
  For colors was what he saw
  And the teacher said.. "What you doin' young man?"
  "I'm paintin' flowers" he said
  She said... "It's not the time for art young man
  And anyway flowers are green and red
  There's a time for everything young man
  And a way it should be done
  You've got to show concern for everyone else
  For you're not the only one."

• And she said...
  "Flowers are red young man
  Green leaves are green
  There's no need to see flowers any other way
  Than they way they always have been seen."

• But the little boy said...
  "There are so many colors in the rainbow
  So many colors in the morning sun
  So many colors in the flowers and I see every one."

• But there still must be a way to have our children say...
  "There are so many colors in the rainbow
  So many colors in the morning sun
  So many colors in the flower and I see every one." (Live version)

I Wanna Learn a Love Song

• I come fresh from the street,
  fast on my feet, kind a lean and lazy;
  not much meat on my bones, and a whole lot alone,
  and more than a little bit crazy.
  The old six string was all I had
  to keep my belly still,
  and for each full hour lesson I gave
  I got a crisp ten dollar bill.

• She was married for seven years
  to a concrete castle king.
  She said she wanted to learn to play the guitar
  and to hear her children sing.
  So I'd show up about once a week
  in my faded tight-legged jeans
  with a backlog full of hobo stories
  and dilapidated dreams.

• She said, "I wanna learn a love song full of happy things."
  She said, "I wanna learn a love song; won't you let me hear you sing?"
  She said, "I wanna learn a love song, I wanna hear you play."
  She said, "I wanna learn a love song before you go away."

I Wonder What Would Happen to this World

• Now if a man tried
  To take his time on Earth
  And prove before he died
  What one man's life could be worth,
  Well I wonder what would happen to this world.

• And if a woman
  She used a life line
  As something more than
  Some man's servant mother wife time
  Well I wonder what would happen to this world.

• And if our future
  Lies on the final line
  Are we brave enough
  To see the signals and the signs?

• If we say that no one's out there
  And we say we're goin' nowhere
  And we avoid the question
  Is this all that it means?

• Oh, if a man tried
  To take his time on earth
  And prove before he died
  What one man's life could be worth,
  I wonder what would happen to this world.

If You Want to Feel

• Oh God they got you gun shy
  You know your skin's as cold as ice
  Your eyes are double filtered babe
  You're so afraid to be nice
  There's no way you're ready
  To let your defenses down
  Though I won't come on heavy
  There is a lesson that I've found.

• If you try to look
  But you don't touch
  Then you won't touch
  But you'll never feel
  And if you don't feel
  You'll never cry
  And if you don't cry
  Then you'll never heal

• There are lessons to life
  That the lovers got to learn
  There are corners out there
  You know they're waitin' somewhere
  And you've got to be prepared to turn
  There are callouses that come
  That the lovers got to earn
  In the years of your youth
  You can't be fire proof
  You know you've got to get burned.

Remember When the Music

• Remember when the music
  Came from wooden boxes strung with silver wire
  And as we sang the words, it would set our minds on fire,
  For we believed in things, and so we'd sing.

• Oh all the times I've listened, and all the times I've heard
  All the melodies I'm missing, and all the magic words,
  And all those potent voices, and the choices we had then,
  How I'd love to find we had that kind of choice again.

• And I feel that something's coming, and it's not just in the wind.
  It's more than just tomorrow, it's more than where we've been,
  It offers me a promise, it's telling me "Begin",
  I know we're needing something worth believing in.

The Rock

• "The rock is gonna fall on us," he stood and told the class
  The professor put his chalk down and peered out through his glasses
  But he went on and said; "I've seen it, high up on the hill
  If it doesn't fall this year then very soon it will!"

• We've more important studies than your fantasies and fears
  You know that rock's been perched up there for a hundred thousand years.

• He went up on the mountain beside the giant stone
  They knew he was insane so they left him alone
  He'd given up enlisting help for there was no one else
  He spent his days devising ways to stop the rock himself
  One night while he was working building braces on the ledge
  The ground began to rumble the rock trembled on the edge.

• He ran under it with one last hope that he could add a prop
  And as he disappeared the rock came to a stop.

• The people ran into the street but by then all was still
  The rock seemed where it always was or where it always will be
  When someone asked where he had gone they said: "Oh he was daft.
  Who cares about that crazy fool." And then they'd start to laugh.

• But high up on the mountain
  When the wind is hitting it
  If you're watching very closely
  The rock slips a little bit...

Shooting Star

• Oh, he was the sun burning bright and brittle
  And she was the moon shining back his light a little
  He was a shooting star
  She was softer and more slowly
  He could not make things possible
  But, she could make them holy.

• He was dancing to some music
  No one else had ever heard
  He'd speak in unknown languages
  She would translate every word
  And then when the world was laughing
  At his castles in the sky
  She'd hold him in her body
  Till he once again could fly.

Six String Orchestra

• The very day I purchased it,
  I christened my guitar
  as my monophonic symphony,
  six string orchestra.

• I'd play at all the talent nights,
  I'd finish, they'd applaud.
  Some called it muffled laughter,
  I just figured they were odd.
  So I went up for an encore,
  but they screamed they'd had enough.
  Or maybe I just need a group
  to help me do my stuff.

• And so I'd dream a bass will join me,
  and fill the bottom in. And maybe now some lead guitar
  so it would not sound so thin.
  I need some drums to set the beat
  and help me keep in time.
  And way back in the distance,
  some strings would sound so fine.

• And we would play together,
  like fine musicians should,
  And it would sound like music,
  and the music would sound good.
  But in real life I'm stuck with
  that same old formula,
  me and my monophonic symphony,
  six string orchestra.

Somebody Said

• Somebody said...We got to find the words
  Got to, got to be an answer there
  Somebody said that...You never get heard
  'Cause nobody really cares

• Somebody said...Where are the dreamers
  Somebody said...Dead
  Somebody said...Here comes the holy rollers
  Tryin' to sell us all the screamers instead.

Story of a Life

• And the wind will whip your tousled hair,
  The sun, the rain, the sweet despair,
  Great tales of love and strife.
  And somewhere on your path to glory
  You will write your story of a life.

• And all the trips you know you missed
  And all the lips you never kissed
  Cut through you like a knife.
  And now you see stretched out before thee
  Just another story of a life.

• Now sometimes words can serve me well
  Sometimes words can go to hell
  For all that they do.
  And for every dream that took me high
  There's been a dream that's passed me by.
  I know it's so true
  And I can see it clear out to the end
  And I'll whisper to her now again
  Because she shared my life.
  For more than all the ghosts of glory
  She makes up the story,
  She's the only story
  Of my life.

Taxi

• It took a while, but she looked in the mirror,
  And she glanced at the license for my name.
  A smile seemed to come to her slowly,
  It was a sad smile, just the same.
  And she said, "How are you Harry?"
  I said, "How are you Sue?
  Through the too many miles
  and the too little smiles
  I still remember you."

• There was not much more for us to talk about,
  Whatever we had once was gone.
  So I turned my cab into the driveway,
  Past the gate and the fine trimmed lawns.
  And she said we must get together,
  But I knew it'd never be arranged.
  And she handed me twenty dollars,
  For a two fifty fare, she said
  "Harry, keep the change."
  Well another man might have been angry,
  And another man might have been hurt,
  But another man never would have let her go...
  I stashed the bill in my shirt.

• And she walked away in silence,
  It's strange, how you never know,
  But we'd both gotten what we'd asked for,
  Such a long, long time ago.

• You see, she was gonna be an actress
  And I was gonna learn to fly.
  She took off to find the footlights,
  And I took off for the sky.
  And here, she's acting happy,
  Inside her handsome home.
  And me, I'm flying in my taxi,
  Taking tips, and getting stoned,
  I go flying so high, when I'm stoned.

Sequel

Sequel (to the song "Taxi")

• You see, ten years ago it was the front seat
  Drivin' stoned and feelin' no pain.
  Now here I am straight and sittin' in the back
  Hitting Sixteen Parkside Lane.

• And the look on her face as she opened the door
  Was like an old joke told by a friend.
  It'd taken ten more years but she'd found her smile
  And I watched the corners start to bend.

• She said I've heard you flying high on my radio
  I answered "It's not all it seems"
  That's when she laughed and she said, "It's better sometimes
  When we don't get to touch our dreams."

• That's when I asked her where was that actress
  She said "That was somebody else"
  And then I asked her why she looked so happy now
  She said "I finally like myself, at last I like myself."

• I guess it's a sequel to our story
  From the journey 'tween heaven and hell
  With half the time thinking of what might have been
  and half thinkin' just as well.
  I guess only time will tell.

There Only Was One Choice

• Strum your guitar sing it kid
  Just write about your feelings
  not the things you never did
  Inexperience, it once had cursed me
  But your youth is no handicap
  it's what makes you thirsty

• When I started this song I was still thirty-three
  The age that Mozart died and sweet Jesus was set free
  Keats and Shelley too soon finished, Charley Parker would be
  And I fantasized some tragedy'd be soon curtailing me
  Well just today I had my birthday
  I made it thirty-four
  Mere mortal, not immortal, not star-crossed anymore
  I've got this problem with my aging I no longer can ignore
  A tame and toothless tabby can't produce a lion's roar

• Hello my Country
  I once came to tell everyone your story
  Your passion was my poetry
  And your past my most potent glory
  Your promise was my prayer
  Your hypocrisy my nightmare
  And your problems fill my present
  Are we both going somewhere?

• Step right up young lady
  Your two hundred birthdays make you old if not senile
  And we see the symptoms there in your rigor mortis smile
  With your old folks eating dog food and your children eating paint
  While the pirates own the flag and sell us sermons on restraint

• And while blood's the only language that your deaf old ears can hear
  And still you will not answer with that message coming clear
  Does it mean there's no more ripples in your tired old glory stream
  And the buzzards own the carcass of your dream?

• B-U-Y Centennial
  Sell 'em pre-canned laughter
  America Perennial
  Sing happy ever after

• Good dreams don't come cheap
  You've got to pay for them

Thirty Thousand Pounds of Bananas

• He was a young driver,
  just out on his second job.
  And he was carrying the next day's pasty fruits
  for everyone in that coal-scarred city
  where children play without despair
  in backyard slag-piles and folks manage to eat each day
  about thirty thousand pounds of bananas...

• He was picking speed as the city spread its twinkling lights below him.
  But he paid no heed as the shivering thoughts of the nights
  delights went through him.
  His foot nudged the brakes to slow him down.
  But the pedal floored easy without a sound.
  He said "Christ!"
  It was funny how he had named the only man who could save him now.
  He was trapped inside a dead-end hellslide,
  riding on his fear-hunched back
  was every one of those yellow green
  I'm telling you thirty thousand pounds of bananas.
  Yes, there were thirty thousand pounds of bananas.

• And he said "God, make it a dream!"
  as he rode his last ride down.
  And he sideswiped nineteen neat parked cars,
  clipped off thirteen telephone poles,
  hit two houses, bruised eight trees,
  and Blue-Crossed seven people.
  it was then he lost his head,
  not to mention an arm or two before he stopped.

• You know the man who told me about it on the bus,
  as it went up the hill out of Scranton, Pennsylvania,
  he shrugged his shoulders, he shook his head,
  and he said (and this is exactly what he said)
  "Boy that sure must've been something.
  Just imagine thirty thousand pounds of bananas.
  Yes, there were thirty thousand pounds of mashed bananas.
  Of bananas. Just bananas. Thirty thousand pounds.
  of Bananas—not no driver now. Just bananas!"

What Made America Famous

• It was the town that made America famous.
  The churches full and the kids all gone to hell.
  Six traffic lights and seven cops and all the streets kept clean.
  The supermarket and the drug store and the bars all doing well.

• Something's burning somewhere. Does anybody care?

• We were the kids that made America famous.
  The kind of kids that long since drove our parents to dispair.
  We were lazy long hairs dropping out, lost confused, and copping out.
  Convinced our futures were in doubt and trying not to care.

• He rolled on up in the fire truck
  And raised the ladder to the ledge
  Where me and my girl and a couple of kids
  Were clinging like bats to the edge.
  We staggered to salvation,
  Collapsed on the street.
  And I never thought that a fat man's face
  Would ever look so sweet.

• I went to sleep with the hope that made America famous.
  I had the kind of a dream that maybe they're still trying to teach in school.
  Of the America that made America famous...and
  Of the people who just might understand
  That how together yes we can
  Create a country better than
  The one we have made of this land,
  We have a choice to make each man
  who dares to dream, reaching out his hand
  A prophet or just a crazy God damn
  Dreamer of a fool

• There's something burning somewhere.
  Does anybody care?
  Is anybody there?

About Harry Chapin

• "Harry, it sucks." ~ Steve Chapin on hearing Harry's alternate ending to 30,000 Pounds of Bananas.

• "I believe that my brother was a great man. But, unlike most other great men, his greatness did not come from diminishing those around him. He made himself great, in part, by finding the best in those around him." ~ James Chapin

• "There's been a lot of talk about 'How can we fill Harry's shoes?' The answer to that is that the challenge of Harry's life was NOT one of 'following in his footsteps' or 'filling his shoes.' The challenge is in filling our OWN shoes: We carry on Harry's work not just because we loved and admired him. We do so because it is the proper work of us all." ~ James Chapin