Music Talk: Harry Chapin
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Harry Chapin was not the greatest songwriter of his generation. That was Bob Dylan.
He was too pop for the hardcore folkies, but his songs were too long and too wordy to be played on the radio back in the 70s, for the most part.
He never put out a disco album like everyone else did around 1974 or 1975. Instead, he put out an album that had a 7 minute long song about the Texas tower sniper.
Most people only know one song of his: “Cats in the Cradle”. And a lot of those people think it’s a Jim Croce song anyway.
He didn’t sing as much as recite his songs. He was an accomplished guitar player, and worked in a band with his brothers and some amazing musicians, like Big John Wallace (who is a superhero; Go ahead, google him and get back to me). But he wasn’t a guitar great, nor was he a crooner.
Basically, Harry was a singer-songwriter from a period in pop music that was lousy with singer-songwriters. He wasn’t the most successful, and he tragically died in 1981 in a car accident on the Long Island Expressway, when I was 14 and was only just learning about music. Yet, for better or worse, I would not be anything like the same person I am today were it not for Harry Chapin.
And I’m not the only one.
First of all, Harry had 9 studio albums and two live albums. He sold over 16 million records in that time. He had two grammy nominations and won a posthumous Grammy for life accomplishments in 1987. He also wrote the music for a Broadway play called “Cotton Patch Gospel”, and wrote and performed in a play of his own called “What made America Famous”.
More importantly, he was an activist for world hunger far before it was made “cool” by the Live Aid people.
But none of that is why Harry changed my life.
I listened to his records from my stepfather’s collection when I was a kid. Most notably, “Heads and Tales” which included a song called “Taxi”. It’s about a guy who’s driving a taxi and he ends up picking up a lovely rich lady who turns out to be an old flame of his youth. They eventually recognize each other and have a moment, then move on with their lives. It’s a brilliant song, incredibly well arranged with contributions by the incredible John Wallace on background vocals, and once you hear it, it sticks with you and you want to listen to it again. And every time you listen to it, the music is soothing and engaging and you hear some nuance in the lyrics that make you think or smile…
Harry grew up among the folk singers of the 50s and 60s. His father was a travelling musician and he was playing various instruments as a kid. He knew and wrote songs about Pete Seeger and Phil Ochs. The song about Pete is a hero’s homage, called Old Folkie…it’s the kind of song you sing about a mentor and friend when you’re there with them in a group, and you want to flatter and also embarrass them a little. I listened to it many, many times and it made me drag my teenaged ass out to the used record store in town and ask for Pete Seeger records. Lester behind the counter assumed I meant Bob Seger, but when I corrected him, it made him raise his eyebrows and smile, and he brough out some woody and Arlo Guthrie albums of his own and let me borrow them. Lester loved folk music (I later found out he and I shared a negative view of Bono and U2, but that’s another story).
The Phil Ochs song is called “The Parades still going past”, and it’s sad and tragic. Harry struggled with the death of Phil Ochs; he was a hero who was flawed and a young Harry felt his flameout with alcohol as a betrayal, in the selfish way kids will. I felt much the same about Harry, and had to figure that out. It was many years later, relistening to “the Parade…” that I realized that I was mad at harry, and he was mad at Phil. It changed the way I considered grief and how heros fit in your lives.
Old Folkie sounds like a musical statue to Seeger
Yeah, for forty years now he's been pushin' on
Carrying the dream 'cause Woody's long gone
He's the last voice singing that
Bound for glory song
And if you never seen him you might take a look
He's the man who put the meaning in the music book
Yeah, the world may be tired
But Pete's still going strong
He loves Pete and he wants you to know how important he is. Like a father figure, only one that you actually want to be like.
With the Phil song, it’s more like a friend who you love and honor, but some days he just drives you fuckin’ crazy.
You weren't no leader
You were more like a bleeder
Who was trying to cry for us all
You weren't no sage
But your sense of outrage
Sounded like a trumpet call
Fifteen years ago
In the old folky show
You were just one voice in the crowd
But now with so few singing
Your voice would have been ringing
Out 'bout twice as loud
You love them both, and they can both save you or hurt you.
Harry got very involved with the movement to end world hunger. And he didn’t do it in the way a lot of celebrities do, where they make it part of their brand. Harry studied and learned about it, and did what he could do to solve it. This was a time before people were obsessed with “raising visibility” for subjects. Harry would have chuckled at this. He was violently practical and dedicated.
In the last three years of his life, he averaged 300 concerts per year. For fully half of those shows, he’d pay the band and the crew and whatever other expenses there were, and then the proceeds all went to World Hunger Year, the charity that he started. He didn’t do press conferences about it, he didn’t wear t shirts showing it off at awards events. He figured out what the problems were, how they could be fixed, and he engaged with people who were doing it.
Not those who were talking about it…doing it.
There was a senator from Tenessee who showed up at a concert during the sound checks, asked if he could introduce Harry to start the show.
Harry acknowledged that he knew the senator, remembered him from the hearings about world hunger that he had testified in a couple months before. He remembered that he had asked that senator to help pave the way for education in the grade schools about hunger in the schools, and the senator had said he would have his office reach out to Harry’s team to have someone come in and talk to the school board about the issue.
The senator had not followed through. Harry told him he could introduce Harry to the school board tomorrow so that he could present to them if he wished, but for tonight, he’d go it alone.
He followed around other musicians, trying to get them involved. They didn’t have to work with him, or even on the same cause, but he wanted them to use their voice and their resources to do something other than be rock stars. It had mixed results, as you can imagine.
But, about 5 years after he passed, the seeds he planted did take root with Bob Geldof and Midge Ure putting together the Live Aid concerts and events. It didn’t change the world, as people had hoped…there’s only so much celebrities and money can do for such a huge and long standing problem… you need people to put it on their backs and keep grinding just because it needs to be done. That’s what Harry taught me.
I’d like to think Harry inspired me to do good things. But I can’t play guitar worth a lick, and my support for causes rises and falls with my life’s events and distractions. Still, I believe in persistence even when people tell you you’re wrong or you’re full of shit, and I love harry’s music even when people tell me he was too pop, or songs are too long and boring, or he didn’t play guitar like Slash.
Local musicians who know me are entirely sick of hearing me talk about Harry. Some have had the grace and kindness to add a Harry song or two to their sets, probably to shut me up, but I’ll take it and I’m grateful nonetheless.
Harry was a great songwriter, performer, and story teller. He was also a great man. There haven’t been a lot of them walking around in my lifetime. Without him, I wouldn’t love music like I do, I wouldn’t write stories, and however screwed up and mixed-bag as I am, I’d be the worst for it without him.
Go look up Harry on streaming sites. Listen to something other than Cats in the Cradle. I suggest Taxi, or Cory’s Coming, or 30,000lb of Bananas, or A Better Place to be… I could go on for a long time. Ping me or reply to this if you want to know more, or if you want to talk about Harry.
While you’re at it, go to Ploughman and ask for the Yardbird. And when you’re there, and whoever is playing asks for requests, see if they know any Harry. They probably don’t…but maybe they will learn some. That’s how you get things done. You put your head down and keep doing what you can do.
Love you, Harry.