I don’t know why it is so, but Harry
Chapin is rarely included in the Rock and Roll Too Young to Die articles. I
think he is as influential as Buddy Holly or Jim Croce, and definitely more so
than the Big Bopper or Richie Valens. Maybe not musically, but as a
humanitarian.
Harry Chapin, when he died at 38,
was a great influence to the World Hunger movement. Harry’s manager, Ken
Kragin, was one of the driving forces behind USA for Africa and hands Across
America, two of the biggest do-gooder forces of the 1980s.
I first remember hearing “Taxi” on
WVFV, the all request station in West Dundee that we listened to when I worked as a janitor at
Crown High School (see # 10) in the summer of 1972.
I also remember my folks giving me
god-natured sh-t for listening to his first album because of the last line of “Taxi”…”…takin’
tips and getting’ stoned, I go flyin’ so high when I’m stonnnnnnned”. I say
good-natured, because I was like the kid in “Sixteen Candles”, seen briefly as Samantha
(Molly Ringwald) enters the gym for a dance, saying, “I want to stay at home
with you guys!”, as they forced him to go to the dance.
My high school years were dance and
concert free, and I don’t think I ever attended a football game. I played basketball
all 3 years, polishing the bench with my backside (see # 74), but rarely
attended school functions. I was so afraid of being turned down that I never
asked a girl out on a date in high school, never.
This attitude led to my making my
mom cry for the only time I can remember (until my dad died 16 years later). I
usually went out with my b-ball friends and cheerleaders after almost every game,
usually to Masi’s a bowling alley/pizza place in West Dundee. One time I
decided I didn’t want to go out for some reason and told my folks so. They
tried to make me go, but I walked away from them.
They went home, thinking I was walking
home from Crown (about 3 miles), but I decided to go out with the group and
when I came home at 1 AM or so, I walked in and found my mom and dad sitting up
waiting for me in the living room. I just walked past them to my room, and that’s
when I heard my mom crying, “I was so worried!!!”. My dad came into my room and
chewed me out a little.
I deserved it.
Harry Chapin also addressed issues
that no other folk artist did, that I can recall. Such as “Sniper” from his
second album, about a Charles Whitman-like sniper. I also enjoyed “Mr. Tanner”,
which showcased his bass player, “Big” John Wallace, who had a 5-octave range
voice. And this one, “WOLD”, about a has-been, or never was, DJ, trying to get
back together with his ex-wife and trying to find his way in a changing landscape.
This particular live version has him ending up playing “…disco bullsh-t.”
My wife, Lynn, was also a fan of
his. She met him and was kissed by him, backstage when he appeared at Illinois
State University.
No comments:
Post a Comment