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Harry Chapin – Taxi
Harry Chapin died 39 years ago today, in a car accident on the New Jersey Turnpike. I remember the news shook my dad to the core. A local radio station decided to have a day of Harry Chapin music. Live, studio, deep cuts and hits played all day and I can still see dad recording each song onto tape and shedding tears… There was one song in particular that got him…. Flowers Are Red. An amazing story-song that really tugs on the heart strings, if you’re an adult that misses the innocence of being a child, and not realizing when it was when you became more cynical.
Anyway, the song that broke Harry Chapin to the masses was not his biggest hit, “Cat’s In The Cradle” but one of his early story-songs, called, “Taxi”. If you don’t know the song very well, but recognize it, or even if you don’t, take the next several minutes and really listen as the story will parade images in your mind as Harry tells it, in song.
“Taxi” was his first hit and released in 1972 on the album, ‘Heads & Tales’ and peaked at #24 on the Hot 100.
