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Re: Your best HC memory....submit yours!
Posted by Jim

I was fortunate enough to see Harry 7 or 8 times during the late 70's and early 80's at various venues around the San Francisco Bay area.

Once, at the Concord Pavillion, he recited some lyrics for us about an incident that had happened on his previous visit there (which I also saw). He hadn't written the music yet. Six months later I was sitting right in front of his microphone at the Old Waldorf, a small club Bill Graham used to run. I asked him whether he had written the music yet. He hadn't, but recited the story again.

It was a few months later when it was released as the title cut to Sequel.

The Latest Release

Sniper & Other Love Songs 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!