Harry Chapin
Harry Chapin
Harry Forster Chapinwas an American singer-songwriter best known for his folk rock songs including "Taxi", "W*O*L*D", "Sniper", "Flowers Are Red", and the No. 1 hit "Cat's in the Cradle". Chapin was also a dedicated humanitarian who 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...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionFolk Singer
Date of Birth7 December 1942
CityBrooklyn, NY
CountryUnited States of America
Harry Chapin quotes about
The little boy went first day of school He got some crayons and started to draw He put colors all over the paper For colors was what he saw And the teacher said.. "What you doin' young man?" "I'm paintin' flowers" he said She said... "It's not the time for art young man And anyway flowers are green and red There's a time for everything young man And a way it should be done You've got to show concern for everyone else For you're not the only one.
It's got to be the going, not the getting there, that's good.
I've got nothing against selling out, but just let me do it for something that matters. Not so I can be Number One With a Bullet, as it were, but so I can leave this world feeling like I made a difference.
Good dreams don't come cheap, you've got to pay for them and If you just dream when you're asleep this is no way for them to come alive... to survive.
Remember when the music Came from wooden boxes strung with silver wire And as we sang the words, it would set our minds on fire, For we believed in things, and so we'd sing.
It's better sometimes when we don't get to touch our dreams.
The very day I purchased it, I christened my guitar as my monophonic symphony, six string orchestra.
You see, she was gonna be an actress and I was gonna learn to fly. She took off to find the footlights, and I took off for the sky. And here, she's acting happy, inside her handsome home. And me, I'm flying in my taxi, taking tips, and getting stoned. I go flying so high, when I'm stoned.
But you can travel on for ten thousand miles, and still stay where you are.
Oh God they got you gun shy You know your skin's as cold as ice Your eyes are double filtered babe You're so afraid to be nice There's no way you're ready To let your defenses down Though I won't come on heavy There is a lesson that I've found.
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.
If you try to look But you don't touch Then you won't touch But you'll never feel And if you don't feel You'll never cry And if you don't cry Then you'll never heal.
But high up on the mountain When the wind is hitting it If you're watching very closely The rock slips a little bit...
We've more important studies than your fantasies and fears You know that rock's been perched up there for a hundred thousand years.