songbird's crazy world

I've blogged about Harry Chapin  before, you al  know I am a fan. Every time I drive through Eisenhower Park and see the band shell (now named after Harry), I think about the night he died.  We were supposed to see him perform that night, and instead learned that he'd been killed in a traffic accident on the Long island Expressway. I can't beleive it's been 30 years.

... realize you've already done it? I was listening to some selections I'd downloaded from an album. The album is called Harry Chapin: A Celebration in Song by the Chapin Family.  Harry Chapin's family gave a concert a few years ago in Harry's hometown -- Huntington, NY --which included some of his songs as well as other musical tributes to Harry. I haven't heard the whole album yet, but I was listening to Harry's brothers Tom and Steve sing 30,000 Pounds of Bananas   -- which is actually a warped, funny song --and I got very nostalgic for Harry's concerts. After all, I'd seen him several times, was planning to see him the night he died. Hmmm....sounds like a good blog post  topic, doesn't it? So good, in fact, that I've already done it. ;-) Read it here .

I cried the night Harry Chapin died. Harry lived in Huntington, NY. I grew up in a community that's part of the Town of Huntington. In 1975 Harry played a concert at my high school -- it was just Harry and his guitar in the high school auditorium. Before that concert I'd heard his one or two hits on the radio, but after...well. I became a lifelong fan. I saw him again when I was in college, at a Town of Huntington Arts Council event. Or maybe it was the Performing Arts Foundation. He autographed a frisbee for me. And then we saw his concert in Schenectady. this was a big-deal concert, with his entire band. Amazing. I always admired his work with the World Hunger organization. July 16, 1981. Harry was supposed to give a free concert in Eisenhower Park. A group of us got to the park early, set up a blanket and our boom box, and were just hanging out....when the DJ played not one, but two Chapin songs. You almost never heard two of Harry's songs back-to-back, even o...