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I Do It For You Jane
I Do It For You Jane
by Harry Chapin
I first heard you sing in the Empire Room
Your husky hum engulfed the gloom.
And whatever mission that brought me there
Disappeared in the mist of your amber hair You laughed and surrendered your gifts by degrees
But I was convinced that you spoke only to me.
And my life turned on its hinge in that smoky club
As I ground out my past with my cigarette stub. Oh, I do it for you, Jane--I love you so,
My kingdom is new but it's going to grow.
Our castles will shimmer with silver and gold,
My lady is lovely she'll never grow old.
And I offer this promise--this one thing I know:
I do it for you, Jane, for I love you so. I left that town and went out on my own,
I made my own kind of music as I juggled the phones.
And all the while I worked I was reaching towards a time,
When I'd return to find you and finally make you mine. It took most of two years to do what must be done,
Collect the pieces of the puzzle, you're the final one.
I was shaking as I asked you and you know by now I guess,
You made me happy ever after when you said yes. Yes, I do it for you, Jane--I love you so,
My kingdom is flourishing, and still it will grow.
Our castle it shimmers with silver and gold,
My lady is lovely you'll never grow old.
And I shout from the heavens, hello there down below,
I do it for you, Jane, for I love you so. If life could only stay the same but i guess it never does,
But God I still remember how excited I was.
Feelings of power I'd never known before,
But winning whets the appetite, I had to have more. Homes in New York and London on the beach at Malibu,
I bought one for each facet of woman in you.
By then you had retired from singing to bring our baby home,
And I was winging around the country and you found you were alone. Still, I do it for you, Jane--I love you so,
Our kingdom is flourishing and still it will grow.
Our castles all shimmer with silver and gold,
But my lady is lonely your smile is growing cold.
As I search through the mists on the roads I must go,
Where are you now, Jane? For I love you so.
Layout, design, images, and user-contributed text are © Copyright 1996-2017 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.
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The Latest Release
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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!
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