The Official Harry Chapin Thread

for some reason, harry's delivery reminds me of another harry - nilsson.

He has one of those voices that is completely forgettable, imo, like this weird generic/bad mix of Cat Stevens and Glen Yarborough and whatever a guy who is into hot carls sounds like.

I'm sorry, it's spelled Glenn Yarbrough.

Hmm, a google reveals that a hot carl is also slightly different than the contents of his poem "Baptism."

Sorry everyone, please ignore me.

Okay for real Harry Chapin of all people has a poem about how his first sexual experience was a girl shitting on his chest when he was 17. It's called "Baptism," from his collection "Looking and Seeing."

― Abbott, Monday, November 12, 2007 9:42 PM (7 years ago)

Baptismal

I used to think
that girls never went
to the bathroom,
and that by some
incredibly intricate 
phenomena 
no waste came 
from their magically 
forbidden orifices.
 
Then at sixteen 
my first love
a seventeen year old
gum chewing angel,
with deadly accuracy,
shat on me.

(https://books.google.com/books?ei=P4DiVIm9DIjBggTf0YDQAg&id=zx5XAAAAYAAJ&focus=searchwithinvolume&q=baptismal

Shit's In The Cradle

Another man might have been angry. Another man might have been hurt.

One of the big Canadian banks, Toronto Dominion, has a commercial running that uses a not particularly good "Cat's in the Cradle" cover: fathers and sons, getting older side by side, invest in the future, etc. Either they don't know what the song's about, or they're assuming no one watching knows what it's about.

No redeemable features.

The Sniper is truly insane. It's also undeniably musically impressive. Why is this not better known?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GWKpblxejWE

"deadly accuracy" in that poem is really bothering me.

Dave Marsh:

I’ve had very intense friendships with people whose music I can’t stand. I mean, I was very close to Harry Chapin. And Harry and I just agreed that we didn’t agree about the quality of his music. And I miss him. He was a really good friend. It was funny, there was a record store about a block from my house, and I went down there to get something one day, this was in the summertime, and one of the clerks who knew me said, “Oh well, did you hear that Harry Chapin just died in a car accident out on Long Island? I’m sure that’s a great day in rock criticism for you,” or something. Totally legitimate thing for him to say. And I literally ran out of the store to go home and find out, could this be true?