Harry Chapin - Essentials

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Music reviews of Essentials

Music Review: Modern Troubadour
Rating: 5 Stars

As other reviewers have noted, the Gold Medal Collection presents two disks as compared to this one CD. However, the Gold Medal Collection also costs substantially more. So if you are on a budget, this CD is a bargain way to get a good cross-section of Harry's music. Note also that this CD contains nearly 74 minutes worth of music, thus this CD represents a very good bargain.

My personal three favorites are included on this CD: "Taxi," "Sequel," which could be called "Taxi - Part 2," and my all-time Chapin favorite, "Cat's in the Cradle." Had Harry stopped writing music after these three songs, he would have instantly been considered one of the great singer-songwriters of all time. Of course, Harry wrote many more songs, adding more excellent stories and songs to confirm his ability and place in music.

"Sunday Morning Sunshine" reminds me a bit of Harry Nilsson. The music sounds like pop fluff, but the story is Harry's story, that of a wandering performer with the blues, and the love of his life sends rays of sunshine to scatter those blues. Poignant lyrics contrasted by very light music.

"W*O*L*D" was the first Chapin song that caught my attention many years ago. While the song was frequently played on pop stations, the lyrics tell a story of someone who has been in the radio business for a long time, a story of what happens in life. The story is relevant for all times, but was even truer in the 60s and 70s when we seemed to be such a youth-driven society. The story follows what has happened to the singer as he has moved from one job to the next, and how he is perceived by his listeners, and how he longs for the love he once had, and lost.

"I Wanna Learn a Love Song" is a story of true love, and of a boy growing up to be a man. I am unable to do justice to this song with my words. You are better off listening to the song, reading the lyrics, and getting into to the story yourself.

"A Better Place to Be" is a great story, the story of a lonely watchman and either a poignant tale of an incredible night with a beautiful woman, or one of the great pickup lines of all time, or both. The watchman tells this story to a waitress about having a great night with a beautiful woman, and how it ended with her leaving when he went out to get breakfast, and as she wipes away a tear, the song sets up the watchman's next night with the waitress, and the cycle continues.

"Dreams Go By" is a story of opportunities missed, and the realization as we've grown old, that it's too late to realize those dreams. The music is upbeat, with a flavor of music from early in the last century, but the upbeat tone is deceptive, because the song is about loss.

"Sniper" is the story of Charles Whitman, focusing on September 1, 1966, when Charles climbed into the bell tower on the University of Texas, and either killed or wounded 47 people before being shot by police. The song suggests reasons for how Whitman became as he did, and the point of what Whitman did. This song is nearly 10 minutes long, and uses a variety of techniques to tell the story, from the newsy voice Harry uses to represent the media, to the petulant voice of the sniper himself, to the drums that provide the representation of the bullets. While the song may appear to be gimmicky from this description, it is a masterpiece of story telling.

The song "30,000 Pounds of Bananas" is one of Harry's more humorous songs, and yet it has such a sad ending. A song that would have made a great country song except for its nearly eleven minute length, it tells the story of a truck driver anxious to get home driving a truck full of bananas, losing control of the truck and crashing. The song has three endings in this live version, and though the topic is serious and sad, Harry makes the ending funny.

The final song on this collection is "Remember When the Music - Reprise." Of course the inclusion of this song was intended to be a statement about Harry's life and music, telling of times gone by. In this song, the times gone by include more than just thinking about how things were simpler, it includes beliefs, and truth, and values.

Harry Chapin was a master story teller in song. His songs were of a style sung by artists such as Gordon Lightfoot, Arlo Guthrie, and Randy Newman. While it seems easy to say his music was similar to those other artists, Harry let the story go where it needed to go, forsaking time limits and modern song construction. His styling truly harkened back to times gone by. There was, and always will be, only one Harry Chapin.

Description of Essentials

Folk CDs

• Music > Styles
• Pop
• Rock