Playlist Harry Chapin

harry chapin - a better place to be

harry chapin - 30 000 pounds of bananas

It was just after dark when the truck started down
the hill that leads into Scranton Pennsylvania.
Carrying thirty thousand pounds of bananas.
Carrying thirty thousand pounds (hit it Big John) of bananas.

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.
Yes, just about thirty thousand pounds (scream it again, John) .

He passed a sign that he should have seen,
saying "shift to low gear, a fifty dollar fine my friend."
He was thinking perhaps about the warm-breathed woman
who was waiting at the journey's end.
He started down the two mile drop,
the curving road that wound from the top of the hill.
He was pushing on through the shortening miles that ran down to the depot.
Just a few more miles to go,
then he'd go home and have her ease his long, cramped day away.
and the smell of thirty thousand pounds of bananas.
Yes the smell of thirty thousand pounds of bananas.

He was picking speed as the city spread its twinkling lights below him.
But he paid no heed as the shivering thoughts of the nights
delights went through him.
His foot nudged the brakes to slow him down.
But the pedal floored easy without a sound.
He said "Christ!"
It was funny how he had named the only man who could save him now.
He was trapped inside a dead-end hellslide,
riding on his fear-hunched back
was every one of those yellow green
I'm telling you thirty thousand pounds of bananas.
Yes, there were thirty thousand pounds of bananas.

He barely made the sweeping curve that led into the steepest grade.
And he missed the thankful passing bus at ninety miles an hour.
And he said "God, make it a dream!"
as he rode his last ride down.
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.
And he slid for four hundred yards
along the hill that leads into Scranton, Pennsylvania.
All those thirty thousand pounds of bananas.

You know the man who told me about it on the bus,
as it went up the hill out of Scranton, Pennsylvania,
he shrugged his shoulders, he shook his head,
and he said (and this is exactly what he said)
"Boy that sure must've been something.
Just imagine thirty thousand pounds of bananas.
Yes, there were thirty thousand pounds of mashed bananas.
Of bananas. Just bananas. Thirty thousand pounds.
of Bananas. not no driver now. Just bananas!"

From Greatest Stories Live: Ending #1

Yes, we have no bananas,
We have no bananas today
(Spoken: And if that wasn't enough)
Yes, we have no bananas,
Bananas in Scranton, P A

From Greatest Stories Live: Ending #2:

A woman walks into her room where her child lies sleeping,
and when she sees his eyes are closed,
she sits there, silently weeping,
and though she lives in Scranton, Pennsylvania
She never ever eats ... Bananas
Not one of thirty thousand pounds .... of bananas

harry chapin - a lot of lonely people tonight

Holdin' on tight to my pillow
Wish it had a life of its own,
Starin' at the ceilin,'
Such a funny feelin,'
But nobody's home.
But I know you're out there somewhere
And that you feel the same way too,
Now my only problem is trying to find
A way of getting through to you.

There's a lot of lonely people tonight,
Trying to make it through 'til the morning light.
There's me and you, babe, that's alright,
There's a lot of lonely people tonight.

I guess we share the same old dream
Or maybe it's the same old lie,
There's only one thing I'm sure of, babe
And that's our time keeps rolling by.
And far too many days run out
And nights begin this way,
With my half of a hopeful couple
Trying to hold the dark at bay.
Meet me on a city street
Meet me by a country stream,
Meet me on a mountain top
But don't you meet me in my dreams.
Meet me tomorrow morning
Baby, maybe you met me back when,
You can meet me now inside this song
'Cause I don't wanna sleep alone again.

harry chapin - a quiet little love affair

When I met America, I didn't know her name
But it seems she was something special even then
I knew it just the same

Yes, I loved the things she stood for
Help the helpless make people free
And I knew that an American is what I wanted to be

It was the start of a little love affair
between my country and me
Oh, oh, my country tis of thee

Well we both grew up, things were good
Things that we had known
Some said we had lost something
Some said we had grown

Well time keeps rolling by my friend,
Things can never die.
But I had always wonder what would happen,
Wondered when and why,

What would happen to our little love affair,
Between my country and me,
Oh, oh, my country tis of thee,

Oh, time went by and I forgot,
Why I fell in love,
Though I still pledge my allegiance,
And soon I would wave the flag above,

Didn't know why what we'd done,
Didn't know where it flowed,
Well I never knew if we had lost,
If we had grown,

It was the last of a little love affair,
Between my country and me,
(back ground: Oh say can you see, my country tis of thee)
Oh, oh, my country tis of thee.

harry chapin - and the baby never cries

Well, I've sung out one more evening,
and I'm wrung out, feeling beat.
I walk on out the door once more
to an empty city street.
A Good guitar will serve you well
when you're living in the lights
but it's never going to warm you
in the middle of the night.
And so I come and go with her in whispers.
Each and every time she says she dies.
When she is reborn again
I kiss her.
And the baby never cries.
She works in the daytime,
she leave her baby with a friend.
I sing every evening,
I only see her now and then.
I come to her at midnight,
when 'bout half the world's asleep,
and she puts me back together,
in the hours before I leave.
Her apartment is down on Perry Street,
there's a tree in her backyard.
Her old man had left her,
he just took off for the coast,
and I caught her on the rebound
when I needed her the most.

harry chapin - anthem

She wasn't very pretty,
She wasn't very smart,
But everything she said to him came strait from her heart.

Write a song about me,
Sing a song that's of my day,
Everybody special in there ordinary way.

CHORUS:
Looking for an anthem,
He was looking for a song,
Looking for a melody singing brings the world along.

He was strumming his guitar,
He was searching their eyes,
If he can't find his anthem will he buy the compromise.

One child was brown and hungry,
One a red injun girl,
One child was black and angry,
One from the other half the world.

And as he heard their silent screams,
That they have sounded there for years,
It had been lost among the whispers,
And drowned out by their tears.

CHORUS

He kept looking for a story,
Looking for a plot.
He kept on looking in the wonder,
If he was blind or not.

All he found was bugle fragments,
That he'd left there in his youth.
But he never found the music,
To accompany the truth.

Now the old man had been young once,
The old man had been strong.
He once had a family, but they'd grown up and moved a long.

The old man told him loneliness, is what the years would bring,
But the old man couldn't tell him,
How to make the long years sing.

CHORUS

harry chapin - any old kind of day

Turning on my pillow, thinking kind of strange.
The color is of midnight in this room.
The cars outside are coughing and it's kind of hard to sleep
and there's neon out the window, not the moon.

And it was just an any old kind of day,
The kind that comes and slips away,
The kind that fills up easy my life's time.
The night brought any old kind of dark,
I heard the ticking of my heart.
Then why'm I thinking somethings left behind?

I whistled round today and I skipped off a footloose jig
to the hurdy gurdy music of the street.
I looked past those rooftops and I saw the cloudless sky,
But I keep on asking why my life is passing by,
And I'm left up high and dry,
But it ain't no good to cry,
So I shrug my useless sigh,
And I trust to things that other days will meet.

And it was just an any old kind of day,
The kind that comes and slips away,
The kind that fills up easy my life's time.
The night brought any old kind of dark,
I heard the ticking of my heart.
Then why'm I thinking somethings left behind?

The night has had it's laughing,
when the street lights blind the stars,
So now it's shedding rain to sing it's sorrow,
It's time for me to sleep and to rest these thoughts away,
There's gonna be another day, hey!
when things will go my way,
And there's other things to say,
And there's other songs to play,
And there'll be time enough for thinking come tomorrow.

And it was just an any old kind of day,
The kind that comes and slips away,
The kind that fills up easy my life's time.
The night brought any old kind of dark,
I heard the ticking of my heart.
Then why'm I thinking somethings left behind?

harry chapin - babysitter

When I rearrange the pieces of the puzzle of my past
I sigh at the heartaches, relive the laughs
And I think about the moments that have left their mark
And the too few faces that shine a little light in the dark

If you don't mind I'm gonna tell you a story
And I think that it won't bore you
For it's a tale that I've never told
To anyone before you-- `cause it's for you

The sun of sixteen summers had put halos in your hair
If anything was in my head, twelve winters put it there
A dollar an hour is what Mama paid you to come and mind her kids
But no one could really pay you enough for what you really did

Many happy things keep happening
On my journey through this world
And in many ways, that I will never understand
I was much too late
To be the first to make you a woman
But you were the one
Who made my mother's son a man

You know I used to read myself to sleep when I went to bed
I guess I was a dreamer then who lived inside my head
But the nights that you came you talked of things, I found I had a friend
You brought my fears of people to a sure and gentle end

Many happy things keep happening
On my journey through this world
And in many ways, that I will never understand
I was much too late
To be the first to make you a woman
But you were the one
Who made my mother's son a man

Do you remember the night when you turned out the light
And said to me: "Please hold me"
I did not know which way to go
So I did just what you told me "Please hold me"

When I think about you now it's not that my memory fails
There's just no need for graphic telling of all the details
Let's just say you taught me something that brought me from my shell
You gave to me that first sweet taste of the heaven here in this hell

Many happy things keep happening
On my journey through this world
And in many ways, that I will never understand
I was much too late
To be the first to make you a woman
But you were the one
Who made my mother's son a man

harry chapin - barefoot boy

Oh, barefoot boy,
once he came unto a land of forests,
and of streams
that tumbled through the meadows to the sea.
He called it home for many were its wonders
and he learned to live upon the land
taking only what he needed.
Barefoot boy
he don't like the concrete
seek the country any way he can.
Barefoot boy
fading down the street.
I know he'll never come this way again.
Time passes on,
in this life of always changing
people coming
building cities
cut your forest
pave your highway.
Oh barefoot boy,
wraps his blanket 'round his shoulders,
says goodbye to misty valleys,

harry chapin - basic protest song

CHORUS:

So your 13 and there's a silent scream out there,
And you can hear it.
Just your basic protest song.

Now your 16 and there's a danger in the air,
And you can see it.
Just your basic protest song.

Turnin' 20 and it's around you everywhere,
And you can feel it.
Just your basic protest song.

Now your 30 and it's to late now to care,
And you can taste it.
Just your basic protest song

Well, I just turned 13 don't know what I wanna be,
I don't have much experience but I'll tell you what I see.
When I hear the record sing and baby, baby I love you,
It seems to me we all got so much lovin left to do.

And at 16 I don't know to much but I'll tell you what I do know,
If you do not give a damn I'll tell you where to go.
There is something truly crazy with our patriotic song,
We know to wave the flag round the week begins a strong.

CHORUS

Oh now that I am 20 got my first full time job,
My boss, upstanding citizen, finds legal ways to rob.
They say forget what you believe forget what you have seen,
But I know I lost the best of me when I forgot my dreams.

I'm passin' on through 30 got two kids of my own,
Got a wife, house, a car, and dog but still I am alone.
And I'm tired of only selling cause it's myself that I sell,
I'm glad of always buying cause I can't buy it ourselves.

I know none of us is perfect I can see myself to well,
If we can't push for paradise we're settled in for hell.
CHORUS

harry chapin - better place to be

It was an early morning bar room
And the place just opened up
And the little man come in so fast and started at his cup
And the broad who served the whiskey
She was a big ol' friendly girl
And she tried to fight her empty nights by smiling at the world
And she said, "Hey, bub, it's been awhile"
"Since you've been around"
"Where the hell you been hidin'? And why ya look so down?"
But the little man just sat there like he'd never heard a sound
The waitress, she give out a cough
And acting not the least put off she spoke once again
She said, "I don't wanna bother you"
"Consider it's understood"
"I know I'm not no beauty queen, but I sure can listen good."
And the little man took his drink in his hands
And he raised it to his lips
He took a couple of sips
And he told the waitress this story
"I am the midnight watchman down at Miller's Tool and Die
And I watch the metal rusting
And I watch that time go by
A week ago at the diner, I stopped to get a bite
And this here lovely lady, she sat two seats from my right
And Lord, Lord, Lord she was alright
She was so damn beautiful she could warm a winter frost
But she was long past lonely, and well nigh' onto lost
Now I'm not much of a mover or a pick-up easy guy
But I decided to glide on over and give her one good try
And Lord, Lord, Lord she was worth a try
Tongue-tied like a schoolboy I stammered out some words
But it did not really matter much, 'cause I don't think she heard
She just looked clear on through me
To a space back in my head
And it shamed me into silence as quietly she said
'If you want me to come with you, then that's alright with me
Cause I know I'm going nowhere
And anywhere's a better place to be'
I drove her to my boarding house and I took her up to my room
And I went to turn on the only light to brighten up the gloom
And she said 'Please, leave the light off
For I don't mind the dark
And as her clothes all tumbled 'round her
I could hear my heart'
The moonlight shone upon her as she laid back in my bed
It was the kind of scene I only had imagined in my head
I just could not believe it, to think that she was real
And as I tried to tell her she said
'Shhh....I know just how you feel
And if you want to come here with me
Then that's alright with me
Cause I've been oh, so lonely
Lovin' someone is a better way to be'
Morning came so swiftly, asI held her in my arms
And she slept like a baby, snug and safe from harm
I did not want to share her with the world or break the mood
So before she woke I went out and brought us both some food
I come back with my paper bag
To find that she was gone
She'd left a six word letter
Sayin 'It's time that I moved on'."
The waitress took her 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 doggone 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"
And the little man looked at the empty glass in his hand
And he smiled a crooked grin
He said, "I guess I'm out of gin
And I know we both have been so lonely
And if you want me to come with you then that's alright with me
'Cause I know I'm goin' nowhere
And anywhere's a better place to be"

harry chapin - bummer

His mama was a midnight woman
His daddy was a drifter drummer
One night they put it together
Nine months later came the little black bummer

He was a laid back lump in the cradle
Chewing the paint chips that fell from the ceiling
Whenever he cried he got a fist in his face
So he learned not to show his feelings

He was a pig-tail puller in grammer school
Left back twice by the seventh grade
Sniffing glue in Junior High
And the first one in school to get laid

He was a weed-speed pusher at fifteen
He was mainlining skag a year later
He'd started pimping when they put him away
In jail he changed from a junkie to a hater

And just like the man from the precinct said:
"Put him away, you better kill him instead.
A bummer like that is better of dead
Someday they're gonna have to put a bullet in his head."

They threw him back on the street, he robbed an A & P
He didn't blink at the buddy that he shafted
And just about the time they would have caught him too
He had the damn good fortune to get drafted

He was A-One bait for Vietnam, you see they needed more bodies in a hurry
He was a cinch to train cause all they had to do
Was to figure how to funnel his fury

They put him in a tank near the D M Z
To catch the gooks slipping over the border
They said his mission was to Search and Destroy
And for once he followed and order

One sweat-soaked day in the Yung-Po Valley
With the ground still steaming from the rain
There was a bloody little battle that didn't mean nothing
Except to the few that remained

You see a couple hundred slants had trapped the other five tanks
And had started to pick off the crews
When he came on the scene and it really did seem
This is why he'd paid those dues

It was something like a butcher going berserk
Or a sane man acting like a fool
Or the bravest thing that a man had ever done
Or a madman blowing his cool

Well he came on through like a knife through butter
Or a scythe sweeping through the grass
Or to say it like the man would have said it himself:
"Just a big black bastard kicking ass!"

And just like the man from the precinct said:
"Put him away, you better kill him instead.
A bummer like that is better of dead
Someday they're gonna have to put a bullet in his head."

When it was over and the smoke had cleared
There were a lot of V C bodies in the mud
And when the rescued men came over for the very first time
They found him smiling as he lay in his blood

They picked up the pieces and they stitched him back together
He pulled through though they thought he was a goner
And it force them to give him what they said they would
Six purple hearts and the Medal of Honor

Of course he slouched as the chief white honkey said:
"Service beyond the call of duty"
But the first soft thought was passing through his mind
"My medal is a Mother of a beauty!"

He got a couple of jobs with the ribbon on his chest
And though he tried he really couldn't do 'em
There was only a couple of things that he was really trained for
And he found himself drifting back to 'em
Just about the time he was ready to break
The V A stopped sending him his checks
Just a matter of time 'cause there was no doubt
About what he was going to do next

It ended up one night in a grocery store
Gun in hand and nine cops at the door
And when his last battle was over
He lay crumpled and broken on the floor

And just like the man from the precinct said:
"Put him away, you better kill him instead.
A bummer like that is better of dead
Someday they're gonna have to put a bullet in his head."

Well he'd breathed his last, but ten minutes past
Before they dared to enter the place
And when they flipped his riddled body over they found
His second smile frozen on his face

They found his gun where he'd thrown it
There was something else clenched in his fist
And when they pried his fingers open they found the Medal of Honor
And the Sergeant said: "Where in the hell he get this?"

There was a stew about burying him in Arlington
So they shipped him in box to Fayette
And they kind of stashed him in a grave in the county plot
The kind we remember to forget

And just like the man from the precinct said:
"Put him away, you better kill him instead.
A bummer like that is better of dead
Someday they're gonna have to put a bullet in his head."

harry chapin - burning herself

She was crazy (she was beautiful),
I guess she had to be.
I was angry (you were blind),
because I could not see.
I saw only what her cigarettes had done to her skin.
I should have known the outside world
would reveal what was within.
She was burning herself,
and her hair was filled with ashes.
She was burning herself,
and her life becomes a flame.
She was burning herself,
and the flame became her passion.
She was burning herself,
and her passion,
her passion was her pain.
She was trusting (you could have saved her too),
all hope had passed for her.
I was lusting (and she gave to you),
that's all I asked for her.
The marks upon her body
and the marks upon her mind.
I could have erased them
if I'd only taken the time.
I never saw her do it,
I only saw the scars.
I never could imagine
what would make her go that far.
I wondered,
was she driven by desperate need to feel,
to find out she was living,
to discover life was real.
Or was it that the pain
slicing through her like a knife
was easier to take
than the emptiness of life?
Had a strange sense of drama
caught her in a role,
or was she trying to cauterize
the chancres on her sole?
I don't know
I don't know

harry chapin - caroline

Caroline
Comes from the rain
Glistening and shivering
She laughs as she shakes off the weather
Caroline
Whispers her words
Saying she'll always love me
At least when we are together
Caroline
Starts closing in
Surrounding the spot
Where watching in wonder I stand
Caroline
She's shedding her rings
Her bracelets and stockings
And placing her skin still moist in the palm of my hand

You're pressing she smiles
It's too soon to ask
For me to cast off my cover
You assume that I'm caught
Up there in your head
So now I must go to my lover.

Her world is such a sudden place
A minute flashed before my face
To fly to feel to fall from grace
Oh Caroline - I'm leaning, careening

This bubble that I choose to chase
Keeps breaking on the brink of space
Just as I'm about to taste
It's meaning - Caroline

Caroline
Comes from the full moon
Trembling and grieving
Afraid of the march of the seasons
Caroline
You're too young to be running
Too old to be lying
Too wise not to see all the reasons
Caroline
Hangs her cape and her jeans
And surrenders her tears
To christen my pillow with sorrow
Caroline
She remains after times
To explain what she means, she speaks of today
More than she dreams of tomorrow

She says - Never has life
Been so full of the urge
To let go of the night and believe
She collects all her things
While she's still of a mind
So soft it's like breathing she leaves.

harry chapin - cat 039 s in the cradle

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."

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."

My son turned ten just the other day.
He said, "Thanks for the ball, dad, come on let's play.
Can you teach me to throw?" I said, "Not today,
I got a lot to do." He said, "That's ok."
And he walked away, but his smile never dimmmed,
Said, "I'm gonna be like him, yeah.
You know I'm gonna be like him."

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."

Well, he came from college just the other day,
So much like a man I just had to say,
"Son, I'm proud of you. Can you sit for a while?"
He shook his head, and he said with a smile,
"What I'd really like, dad, is to borrow the car keys.
See you later. Can I have them please?"

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

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 got 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.

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

harry chapin