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Harry Chapin Quotes
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Harold Forster Chapin was an American singer-songwriter, philanthropist, and hunger activist best known for his folk rock and pop rock songs. He achieved worldwide success in the 1970s. Chapin, a Grammy Award-winning artist and Grammy Hall of Fame inductee, has sold over 16 million records worldwide.

Chapin recorded a total of 11 albums from 1972 until his death in 1981. All 14 singles that he released became hits on at least one national music chart. Chapin's best-known songs include "Taxi" and "Cat's in the Cradle."

As a dedicated humanitarian, Chapin fought to end world hunger. He was a key participant in the creation of the Presidential Commission on World Hunger in 1977. In 1987, Chapin was posthumously awarded the Congressional Gold Medal for his humanitarian work.



Wikipedia  

✵ 7. December 1942 – 16. July 1981
Harry Chapin photo
Harry Chapin: 90   quotes 0   likes

Harry Chapin Quotes

“I never really drove a cab, but I do have a hack license in case of emergencies – like no money.”

Harry Chapin

"Chapin Takes 'Taxi' Wherever He Can", Rolling Stone http://harrychapin.com/articles/rsprofile.shtml (July 6, 1972)

Money

“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.”

Harry Chapin

Better Place to Be
Song lyrics, Sniper and Other Love Songs (1972)

World , Girl , Fight , Night

“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."”

Harry Chapin

Flowers are Red
Song lyrics, Living Room Suite (1978)

Way , Flowers

“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."”

Harry Chapin

Better Place to Be
Song lyrics, Sniper and Other Love Songs (1972)

Beauty , Dogs , Home , Loneliness

“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.”

Harry Chapin

Remember When the Music
Song lyrics, Sequel (1981)

Love , Time

“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?”

Harry Chapin

I Wonder What Happened to Him
Song lyrics, Dance Band on the Titanic (1977)

Dreams , Lovers , Thinking , Future

“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."”

Harry Chapin

I Wanna Learn a Love Song
Song lyrics, Verities & Balderdash (1974)

Love , Learning , Singing , Happiness

“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.”

Harry Chapin

Somebody Said
Song lyrics, Living Room Suite (1978)

“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.”

Harry Chapin

I Wanna Learn a Love Song
Song lyrics, Verities & Balderdash (1974)

Children , Dreams , Learning , Singing

“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?”

Harry Chapin

I Wonder What Would Happen to this World
Song lyrics, Living Room Suite (1978)

Question

“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.”

Harry Chapin

There Only Was One Choice
Song lyrics, Dance Band on the Titanic (1977)

Age , Star , Birthday , Problem

“The Mayor of Candor lied
When he offered me his only daughter
The Mayor of Candor tried
To take her off across the water
What a thing to do to a young man in love
What a thing to do to your daughter.”

Harry Chapin

The Mayor of Candor Lied
Song lyrics, On the Road to Kingdom Come (1976)

Love , Water , Daughters

“He looks at the city where no one had known him.
He looks at the sky where no one looks down.
He looks at his life and what it has shown him.
He looks for his shadow it cannot be found.”

Harry Chapin

Sniper
Song lyrics, Sniper and Other Love Songs (1972)

Life

“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.”

Harry Chapin

30,000 Pounds of Bananas
Song lyrics, Verities & Balderdash (1974)

God , People , Dreams , Cars

“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."”

Harry Chapin

Sequel
Song lyrics, Sequel (1981)

Dreams , Flying

“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.”

Harry Chapin

If You Want to Feel
Song lyrics, Living Room Suite (1978)

Life , Youth , Lovers , Learning

“I've long since retired and my son's moved away.
I called him up just the other day.
I said, "I'd like to see you if you don't mind."
He said, "I'd love to, dad, if I could find the time.
You see, my new job's a hassle, and the kid's have the flu,
But it's sure nice talking to you, dad.
It's been sure nice talking to you."
And as I hung up the phone, it occurred to me,
He'd grown up just like me.
My boy was just like me.”

Harry Chapin

Cat's in the Cradle
Song lyrics, Verities & Balderdash (1974)

Love , Boy , Time

“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.”

Harry Chapin

Story of a Life
Song lyrics, Sequel (1981)

Life , Dreams , Hell

“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.”

Harry Chapin

I Wonder What Would Happen to this World
Song lyrics, Living Room Suite (1978)

World , Life , Time