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Harry Chapin citations

Harold Forster Chapin dit Harry Chapin est un auteur-compositeur et chanteur américain de folk-rock. Auteur de Taxi, W*O*L*D, Sniper, Flowers Are Red et de Cat's in the Cradle , il est également connu pour son engagement humanitaire. Il a notamment participé à la création Commission présidentielle américaine sur la faim dans le monde en 1977 et, le 20 mai 1986, il a été décoré à titre posthume de la médaille d'or du Congrès pour son travail humanitaire. Wikipedia  

✵ 7. décembre 1942 – 16. juillet 1981
Harry Chapin photo
Harry Chapin: 90 citations0 J'aime

Harry Chapin: Citations en anglais

“Well another man might have been angry,
And another man might have been hurt,
But another man never would have let her go…
I stashed the bill in my shirt.”

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Harry Chapin

Taxi
Song lyrics, Heads & Tales (1972)
Contexte: There was not much more for us to talk about,
Whatever we had once was gone.
So I turned my cab into the driveway,
Past the gate and the fine trimmed lawns.
And she said we must get together,
But I knew it'd never be arranged.
And she handed me twenty dollars,
For a two fifty fare, she said
"Harry, keep the change."
Well another man might have been angry,
And another man might have been hurt,
But another man never would have let her go...
I stashed the bill in my shirt.

“Somebody said…Where are the dreamers
Somebody said…Dead
Somebody said…Here comes the holy rollers
Tryin' to sell us all the screamers instead.”

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Harry Chapin

Somebody Said
Song lyrics, Living Room Suite (1978)

“But high up on the mountain
When the wind is hitting it
If you're watching very closely
The rock slips a little bit…”

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Harry Chapin

The Rock
Song lyrics, Portrait Gallery (1975)

“My child arrived just the other day,
He came to the world in the usual way.
But there were planes to catch, and bills to pay.
He learned to walk while I was away.
And he was talking 'fore I knew it, and as he grew,
He'd say, "I'm gonna be like you, dad.
You know I'm gonna be like you."”

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Harry Chapin

Cat's in the Cradle, written with his wife Sandy Chapin
Song lyrics, Verities & Balderdash (1974)

“Good dreams don't come cheap
You've got to pay for them.”

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Harry Chapin

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

“All my life's a circle;
But I can't tell you why;
Season's spinning round again;
The years keep rollin' by.”

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Harry Chapin

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

“I am the morning DJ… At W. O. L. D.
Playin' all the hits for you… Wherever you may be.
The bright good morning voice… Who is heard, but never seen!
Feelin' all of 45…. Goin' on 15.”

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Harry Chapin

W*O*L*D
Song lyrics, Short Stories (1974)

“All my life's a circle;
Sunrise and sundown;
Moon rolls thru the nighttime;
Till the daybreak comes around.”

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Harry Chapin

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

“And while blood's the only language that your deaf old ears can hear
And still you will not answer with that message coming clear
Does it mean there's no more ripples in your tired old glory stream
And the buzzards own the carcass of your dream?”

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Harry Chapin

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

“And if a woman
She used a life line
As something more than
Some man's servant mother wife time
Well I wonder what would happen to this world.”

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Harry Chapin

I Wonder What Would Happen to this World
Song lyrics, Living Room Suite (1978)
Variante: Oh, if a man tried
To take his time on earth
And prove before he died
What one man's life could be worth,
I wonder what would happen to this world.

“There's a vacancy, won't you come to me
And fill my empty spaces
I'm a motel man in a promised land
That's filled with empty faces
So won't you bring your sorrows bring your dreams,
It's a place for you to be
There's no more tomorrow or that's how it seems
Won't you come to me? I've got a vacancy”

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Harry Chapin

Vacancy
Song lyrics, Verities & Balderdash (1974)

“We've more important studies than your fantasies and fears
You know that rock's been perched up there for a hundred thousand years.”

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Harry Chapin

The Rock
Song lyrics, Portrait Gallery (1975)

“The very day I purchased it,
I christened my guitar
as my monophonic symphony,
six string orchestra.”

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Harry Chapin

Six String Orchestra
Song lyrics, Verities & Balderdash (1974)

“And it shamed me into silence, as quietly she said,
"If you want me to come with you, then that's all right with me.
Cause I know I'm going nowhere, and anywhere's a better place to be.
Anywhere's a better place to be."”

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Harry Chapin

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

“But there still must be a way to have our children say…
"There are so many colors in the rainbow
So many colors in the morning sun
So many colors in the flower and I see every one."”

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Harry Chapin

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

“No straight lines make up my life;
And all my roads have bends;
There's no clear-cut beginnings;
And so far no dead-ends.”

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Harry Chapin

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

“And the look on her face as she opened the door
Was like an old joke told by a friend.
It'd taken ten more years but she'd found her smile
And I watched the corners start to bend.”

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Harry Chapin

Sequel
Song lyrics, Sequel (1981)

“You see, ten years ago it was the front seat
Drivin' stoned and feelin' no pain.
Now here I am straight and sittin' in the back
Hitting Sixteen Parkside Lane.”

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Harry Chapin

Sequel
Song lyrics, Sequel (1981)

“I'd play at all the talent nights,
I'd finish, they'd applaud.
Some called it muffled laughter,
I just figured they were odd.
So I went up for an encore,
but they screamed they'd had enough.
Or maybe I just need a group
to help me do my stuff.”

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Harry Chapin

Six String Orchestra
Song lyrics, Verities & Balderdash (1974)

“And the cat's in the cradle and the silver spoon,
Little boy blue and the man in the moon.
"When you coming home, dad?" "I don't know when,
But we'll get together then.
You know we'll have a good time then."”

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Harry Chapin

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

“The rock is gonna fall on us," he stood and told the class
The professor put his chalk down and peered out through his glasses
But he went on and said; "I've seen it, high up on the hill
If it doesn't fall this year then very soon it will!”

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Harry Chapin

The Rock
Song lyrics, Portrait Gallery (1975)

“She sings the songs without words
Songs that sailors, and blind men, and beggars have heard
She knows more of love than the poets can say
And her eyes are for something that won't go away.”

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Harry Chapin

She Sings Songs Without Words
Song lyrics, Verities & Balderdash (1974)

“Hello my Country
I once came to tell everyone your story
Your passion was my poetry
And your past my most potent glory
Your promise was my prayer
Your hypocrisy my nightmare
And your problems fill my present
Are we both going somewhere?”

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Harry Chapin

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

“And we would play together,
like fine musicians should,
And it would sound like music,
and the music would sound good.
But in real life I'm stuck with
that same old formula,
me and my monophonic symphony,
six string orchestra.”

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Harry Chapin

Six String Orchestra
Song lyrics, Verities & Balderdash (1974)

“Oh, he was the sun burning bright and brittle
And she was the moon shining back his light a little
He was a shooting star
She was softer and more slowly
He could not make things possible
But, she could make them holy.”

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Harry Chapin

Shooting Star
Song lyrics, Verities & Balderdash (1974)

“Why were the little girls all frightened
To be just what they are
The boys were told to ask themselves
How high how far
The girls were told to reach the shelves
While the boys were reaching stars
That's why little girls were frightened
To be just what they are.”

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Harry Chapin

Why Do Little Girls?
Song lyrics, Living Room Suite (1978)

“He was a young driver,
just out on his second job.
And he was carrying the next day's pasty fruits
for everyone in that coal-scarred city
where children play without despair
in backyard slag-piles and folks manage to eat each day
about thirty thousand pounds of bananas…”

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Harry Chapin

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

“I spent a week there one afternoon.”

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Harry Chapin

About the town of Watertown, New York featured in "A Better Place to Be"

“Step right up young lady
Your two hundred birthdays make you old if not senile
And we see the symptoms there in your rigor mortis smile
With your old folks eating dog food and your children eating paint
While the pirates own the flag and sell us sermons on restraint.”

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Harry Chapin

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

“Strum your guitar sing it kid
Just write about your feelings
not the things you never did
Inexperience, it once had cursed me
But your youth is no handicap
it's what makes you thirsty”

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Harry Chapin

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

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