Harry Chapin - The Elektra Collection 1972-1978 (2015) [Official Digital Download 24bit/192kHz]

Harry Forster Chapin was an American singer-songwriter best known for his folk rock songs. New York singer-songwriter whose story songs delivered in a soulful rasp bewitched 1970s pop radio. Here is the Harry Chapin retrospective collection featuring the albums: "Heads & Tales", "Sniper & Other Love Songs", "Short Stories", "Verities & Balderdash", "Portrait Gallery", "On The Road To Kingdom Come", "Dance Band On The Titanic", and "Living Room Suite".

Harry Chapin's career as a popular singer/songwriter was cut short by an auto accident in 1981, yet he left behind a series of recordings that his fans continue to treasure decades after his death. Chapin was never a critically acclaimed singer/songwriter. Critics accused him of over-sentimentalizing his subjects and attaching heavy-handed morals to his socially aware story-songs; the heavily orchestrated arrangements that accompanied many of his songs didn't help his case with the critics, either. Nevertheless, Chapin earned a devoted audience during the '70s, through his music and his charity work as a social activist.

Harry Chapin's debut album is a smoothly put-together, if slightly musically unbalanced piece of singer/songwriter rock, unbalanced because good as everything here is, the hit, "Taxi," and the other songs on the original LP's second side somewhat overwhelm the rest of Heads & Tales. "Taxi" is so elaborately produced and arranged that it's like a feature film that clocks in at six minutes and 44 seconds; "Any Old Kind of Day" is a beautiful and unsettling confessional about an artist's unease and depression, like an East Coast equivalent to Brian Wilson's brand of personal songwriting, with a touch of James Taylor's influence and unique phrasings and sensibilities by Chapin; the epic "Dogtown" (which nearly overstays its welcome at seven and a half minutes) is a startling piece of song painting with a topical edge, which anticipated some aspects of Chapin's subsequent public commitment to progressive political causes; and "Same Sad Singer" is a haunting, romantic confessional that explores some of the same emotional territory in first-person terms that "Taxi" dealt with through characters. Side one's songs don't quite match up, though "Empty" has nice hooks and a good beat. The record holds up well in part because of its strange combination of lean production and rich sounds – producer Jac Holzman preserved all of the elements from Chapin's stage act that he liked, and apart from some keyboard embellishment from Steve Chapin and percussion by Russ Kunkel, it's all the basic quartet: Ron Palmer on electric guitar, Tim Scott on cello, John Wallace on bass, and Harry Chapin on acoustic guitar. They sound like a lot more players, and Palmer and Wallace add more than two backup singers should be capable of bringing to the table. Chapin's singing isn't actually that good, his range and expressiveness at times very narrow, but his energy and commitment to the songs pour off the album and make this album a compelling listen 30 years later.

Tracklist:

01 - Could You Put Your Light On, Please
02 - Greyhound
03 - Everybody's Lonely
04 - Sometime, Somewhere Wife
05 - Empty
06 - Taxi
07 - Any Old Kind Of Day
08 - Dogtown
09 - Same Sad Singer

Sniper & Other Love Songs never sold remotely as well as its predecessor, Heads & Tales, mostly because it never had a hit single like "Taxi" to help lift it high on the charts, but it is actually a bolder and better album and a much more balanced record; the lack of an elaborately produced number like "Taxi" may have hurt sales, but it meant that no one song dominated the proceedings. Chapin sings better here than on his first album, with improved range and a lot more confidence, which extends to his songwriting as well – "Sunday Morning Sunshine" is a fine folk-based number that opens the album in achingly beautiful, genial fashion, but it's on the second song, "Sniper," that Chapin shows his real range. A ten-minute conceptual work, the latter has all the complexity and drama of a screenplay and a movie soundtrack woven into one, and is brilliantly performed/acted by Chapin; listening to it, one gets the impression of a real-life, soft rock version of Noel Airman, the composer character from the novel Marjorie Morningstar, who was forever trying out and reworking material from the Broadway show that he was planning for years; even overlooking the fact that Chapin did, of course, get to Broadway, there's a sense of someone looking for a bigger canvas that records or singing songs on a concert stage can provide. The rest ranges from low-key, elegantly played, but unpretentious singer/songwriter material, built on beautiful melodies ("And the Baby Never Cries") to fairly hard-rocking electric numbers ("Burning Herself"). Some of it, like "Barefoot Lady," sounds a decade out of place in the 1970s, while other numbers, such as "Better Place to Be," are the kind of extended soft-rocking, poetic numbers that collegiate audiences (at least, humanities majors) used to devour in the early '70s.

Tracklist:

01 - Sunday Morning Sunshine
02 - Sniper
03 - And The Baby Never Cries
04 - Burning Herself
05 - Barefoot Boy
06 - A Better Place To Be
07 - Circle
08 - Woman Child
09 - Winter Song

The pensive tales of personal relationships on Short Stories belong to a bygone era, when the summer of love was yielding to the autumn of adulthood and the mundane realities that attended it. Like Jim Croce and James Taylor, Harry Chapin observes the melancholy side of life in self-contained character studies: the midlife assessment of a failed career and marriage on the poignant "WOLD," a dry cleaner whose pretense to a singing career is exposed on "Mr. Tanner," the meager dreams of a poor farmer and his mail-order bride on "Mail Order Annie." Yet the album's overall tone is sober rather than somber. Perhaps "Song for Myself" expresses it best when Chapin offers up the challenge: "Are we all gonna sit here with a stoned out smile and simply watch the world go 'way?" For the songwriter, it's a rhetorical question. If the subjects are flawed, unhappy, unable to appreciate or hold on to love, it's the reality left in the wake of the '60s overweening idealism. The loss of free love is lamented on "They Call Her Easy," replaced by the cynicism of experience in "Changes." Musically, the album has much in common with the work of Cat Stevens, leaning on Paul Leka's orchestral arrangements to embellish otherwise dry songs. Chapin lacks Stevens' affection for inventive melodies and off-kilter rhythms, but compared to a toned-down record like Catch Bull at Four, the two are strikingly similar. The fact remains that casual fans will be better served with a greatest-hits compilation that includes "WOLD" than wading through all of Short Stories. Those with a predilection for Chapin's bittersweet muse will be better served by the whole album.

Tracklist:

01 - Short Stories (Single)
02 - W·O·L·D
03 - Song For Myself
04 - Song Man
05 - Changes
06 - They Call Her Easy
07 - Mr. Tanner
08 - Mail Order Annie
09 - There's Alot Of Lonely People Tonight
10 - Old College Avenue (Single)

Verities & Balderdash is a very strange and wonderful album. "Cat's in the Cradle" was the driving force behind the album's sales, but there's a lot more to appeal to listeners, along with enough personal, topical material to make it seem a bit didactic at the time, but Chapin was cultivating a politically committed audience. Verities & Balderdash walked several fine lines, between topical songwriting and an almost (but not quite) pretentious sense of its own importance, humor and seriousness, and balladry and punditry, all intermingled with catchy, highly commercial ballads such as "I Wanna Learn a Love Song" (which is about as pretty a song as he ever wrote). Chapin is in good voice and thrives in the more commercial sound of this album, which includes lots of electric guitars and overdubbed orchestra and choruses. He still loves to tell stories – most are like little screenplays, with "Shooting Star" offering details and textures and a sense of drama akin to a finished film (in the manner of "Taxi"). The "haunt count" on this album is extremely high, boosted by gorgeous ballads like "She Sings Songs Without Words." "What Made America Famous" may be the one song that comes off as dated, a parable – perhaps reflecting the near-meltdown of politics surrounding the Nixon resignation of 1974 – about long-haired teens and crew-cutted firemen who discover a mutual dependence and respect for each other and reconciliation; it seems like ancient history and probably will be incomprehensible to anyone born after 1968. Chapin also lapses into excessive dramatics in the finale, which shamelessly borrows a couple of lines from one song out of the musical 1776. The album also offers a pair of humorous numbers on "30,000 Pounds of Bananas" and "Six String Orchestra," not the most significant songs in Chapin's repertory, but both adding balance to the mood. Producer Paul Leka (the commercial genius behind Steam's "Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye") retained some elements of the relatively lean sound that characterized Chapin's debut album, embellishing it only enough to give the album some potentially wider commercial appeal. Even the cover art seems to reflect the two delightfully contradictory thrusts of this album: an image of Chapin posed like Uncle Sam on the military recruiting poster with a wry smile on his face.

Tracklist:

01 - Cat's In The Cradle
02 - I Wanna Learn A Love Song
03 - Shooting Star
04 - 30,000 Lbs. Of Bananas
05 - She Sings Without Words
06 - What Made America Famous
07 - Vacancy
08 - Halfway To Heaven
09 - Six String Orchestra

Portrait Gallery failed to follow up the great success of "Cats in the Cradle," and perhaps that was what Chapin had in mind. Much more in line with his first two releases, Portrait Gallery shouldn't be written off just because it didn't get that Top 40 hit. The songs have again become more personal, and the track "Bummer" depicts a medal-winning veteran who never quite fit into society. Chilling, to say the least, Portrait Gallery is well worth the effort.

Tracklist:

01 - Dreams Go By
02 - Tangled Up Puppet
03 - Star Tripper
04 - Babysitter
05 - Someone Keeps Calling My Name
06 - The Rock
07 - Sandy
08 - Dirt Gets Under The Fingernails
09 - Bummer
10 - Stop Singing These Sad Songs

On the Road to Kingdom Come sounded more like a rock album than anything Harry Chapin had done to date. In the hands of sympathetic producer/arranger Stephen Chapin, Harry's songs are infused with clever and often humorous bits of musical commentary – horns, electric guitars, keyboards, backing vocals, and various sound effects pop up at opportune times throughout – that makes much of the material instantly ingratiating. While the record failed to capture commercial interest (singer/songwriters were out, disco was in), song for song this is one of his strongest efforts. As a musical storyteller, Chapin has few peers; both the potent tale of a duplicitous potentate on "The Mayor of Candor Lied" and the heartwarming "Corey's Coming" are masterfully conceived. Harry's humorous side, which somehow got stifled in the studio, here comes out of the closet for the title track and "Laugh Man," though both have their barbs. The album also included two of his prettiest songs, "Caroline" (co-written with wife Sandy Chapin) and "If My Mary Were Here." A track dedicated to the recently fallen Phil Ochs, "The Parade's Still Passing By," is also featured. Compared to some of his earlier work, which was often dry and dour, these songs are vigorous and saturated in sound. Some might charge that the record's resemblance to Elton John's contemporary work renders it lightweight, but Chapin's wit was sharpening with age and his romantic visions remained keen. For the faithful, getting On the Road to Kingdom Come is a good idea.

Tracklist:

01 - On The Road To Kingdom Come
02 - The Parade's Still Passing By
03 - The Mayor Of Candor Lied
04 - Laugh Man
05 - Corey's Coming
06 - If My Mary Were Here
07 - Fall In Love With Him
08 - Caroline
09 - Roll Down The River

Who would have figured, listening to the heart-on-his-sleeve sensibilities of Heads & Tales in 1972, that Harry Chapin would or could ever generate a wry, sly, sardonic double-LP (single CD) album like this? The diversity of this album is its strong point, the core of the record made up of straightforward, serious songs, most notably "We Grew up a Little Bit" and the gorgeous ballads "Mismatch" (arguably Chapin's prettiest song) and "I Do It for You, Jane" (of which the latter could have been a smash done countrypolitan style in Nashville), and there's one lean vignette into traditional music ("Bluesman"). But those are surrounded by some of the most bittersweet work of his career, including the title track, "Mercenaries," and "Manhood," not to mention the satirical, phantasmagoric "There Only Was One Choice," a 14-minute conceptual piece that conflates a bitter, sardonic look at the music business and the history of the United States, all looping back to the opener, "Dance Band on the Titanic." The whole album is dazzling in its range, from full-blown orchestrated numbers to solo acoustic-style tracks, and moods running from wide-eyed innocence to seething anger and frustration, all of it interesting and 95 percent of it highly entertaining as well. As with most of Chapin's work – but perhaps more so throughout this album – one gets the sense of an artist who desperately needed to break out of the boundaries of recording, onto a larger canvas; on this record, the music is so effective that he nearly made it, without ever actually breaking out to another format.

Tracklist:

01 - Dance Band On The Titanic
02 - Why Should People Stay The Same
03 - My Old Lady
04 - We Grew Up A Little Bit
05 - Bluesman
06 - Country Dreams
07 - I Do It For You, Jane
08 - I Wonder What Happened To Him
09 - Paint A Picture Of Yourself (Michael)
10 - Mismatch
11 - Mercenaries
12 - Manhood
13 - One Light In A Dark Valley (An Imitation Spiritual)
14 - There Was Only One Choice

Listening to Living Room Suite today, you'd never know that it marked the commercial nadir of Harry Chapin's career – the songs have such touching and startling intimacy, and are so beautifully produced that it's just a damn imposing record, just in the listening. Coming at the tail-end of the second disco boom, the cresting of punk, and the full flourishing of power pop, however, it got buried. When he opened up his heart on "Jenny," it was a phenomenally personal moment, but that wasn't the kind of love song that was selling in 1978; "Poor Damn Fool" was a wonderful song as well, with a glorious sound, but in tone and sound it was a million miles from "My Sharona"; "Flowers Are Red" was a startling ode to non-conformity, a subject much too serious for a pop record at the end of the 1970s; and "Dancin' Boy" and "I Wonder What Would Happen to This World," with their bluesy and gospel sounds, respectively, were even farther from what radio stations were playing. Of course, the very attributes that made Living Room Suite seem so dated in 1978 that neither of its singles charted make it seem completely timeless and enduring today, as a body of music and a personal statement.

Tracklist:

01 - Dancin' Boy
02 - If You Want To Feel
03 - Poor Damned Fool
04 - I Wonder What Would Happen To This World
05 - Jenny
06 - It Seems You Only Love Me When It Rains
07 - Why Do Little Girls
08 - Flowers Are Red (Edited Version)
09 - Somebody Said


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