Articles
  News
  Music
  Photography
  Video
  Stories
  Buy
  Links
  Miscellaneous
  Do Something
  Circle!
  Mailing List
  Message Board

  maintained by:
  
Brian

  leave your thoughts/
  tribute to Harry:
  
check out the guestbook
  

 

  Click here to read Circle!

Home > Music > Word Wizard

Word Wizard
by Harry Chapin

Now won't you listen to the word wizard,
Watch him open up his gizzard,
Every secret he has he's only told the world so far.

Don't you think that boy would be embarrassed,
Find himself hassled or some what harassed,
Cause he shows of his wounds before they turn to scars.

CHORUS:
But when he comes home he brings me stories,
He made up especially for me.
A little bit of low down, a little bit of glory oh,

The choice is simple, I can scold him,
Give him a smile or simply hold him
Somehow it seems, I never ever told him no

Watch him work, he leaves each hartfull,
Shovels it out there by the careful.
He's so artless it's almost artful as he as he strings them along.

Takes you down, gets you cryin,
Sets you high, gets you flyin.
It's not the truth but it's not quite lying,
As he sings his song.

CHORUS

 

Layout, design, images, and user-contributed text are © Copyright 1996-2009 HarryChapin.com: The Harry Chapin Archive.

"Oh, if a man tried to take his time on earth and prove before he died what one man's life could be worth, I wonder what would happen to this world?" -- Harry Chapin, 1942-1981.

 

 


Harry's Music
Bottom Line Encore Collection
      [Amazon] [iTunes]
Dance Band On The Titanic*
      [Amazon] [iTunes]
Essentials
      [Amazon]
Gold Medal Collection
      [Amazon] [iTunes]
Greatest Stories Live*
      [Amazon] [iTunes]
Harry Chapin Tribute
      [Amazon]
Heads & Tales
      [Amazon] [iTunes]
Last Protest Singer
      [Amazon]
Legends Of Lost & Found*
      [iTunes]
Living Room Suite
      [Amazon] [iTunes]
On The Road To Kingdom Come
      [Amazon] [iTunes]
Portrait Gallery
      [Amazon] [iTunes]
Sequel
      [iTunes]
Short Stories
      [Amazon] [iTunes]
Sniper & Other Love Songs
      [Amazon] [iTunes]
Story of a Life
      [Amazon]
Verities & Balderdash
      [Amazon] [iTunes]

* = Highly Recommended

The Latest Release

Sniper & Other Love Songs

 
[iTunes]

In 1972, Harry released Sniper & Other Love Songs. Thirty years would pass before the album would ever reach the CD format. Sniper was finally re-released in June, 2002.

Originally given a working title of Sweet City Suite, the album tells the story of various characters one might run into in a city. The album features the original studio versions of Chapin classics "A Better Place to Be" and "Circle." But perhaps more importantly (as those songs are already well-distributed on compilation CDs), the album features seemingly lost Chapin stories, including "And the Baby Never Cries," "Burning Herself," "Barefoot Boy," and "Woman Child."

Sniper is for the seasoned Chapin fan. New fans would do better to check out Greatest Stories Live. But for Chapin fans who have reached the level of the Dance Band on the Titanic album, this is the next step. Slightly over-produced and having a little of the "forced" feel that some of Harry's studio albums possess, this album does not capture the powerfully live Harry Chapin. Nonetheless, it captures Harry's great iconoclastic songwriting--Harry takes the story song to new heights here. But the album works best for those ready for it; don't buy it until you are ready to appreciate it!