Being related to a world-famous person is not easy, even if you're well-known and loved in your own right. On the BLUENOSE OPERA HOUSE radio show, we try not to ask the superfluous, worn-out "celebrity" questions of the rags. When TOM CHAPIN contributed as Co-Host (program # 26), we made every effort not just to swap stories, but to give him plenty of room to tell his own, in his own way. Whatever "came to the top". So seldom in radio today, a little magic happened.
We asked him how "the boys" (the four CHAPIN brothers) got into folk music, when their dad was an excellent jazz musician who had also written a drummer's "bible" that's still in use today. He recalled they were listening to a live album of the legendary WEAVERS recorded at Carnegie Hall, New York in 1954. "That was it!" the boys exclaimed. "That's what we're going to do!"
Years later, HARRY was a starving musician (like most) trying to get work while holding the ends together. TOM told us that HARRY had a "hack license" (which meant you could drive a cab in New York City). Before he was about to start driving, HARRY thought about those he'd known: classmates, girlfriends and what his reaction/feelings might be should they (already with careers well-launched, lives carefully mapped out) happen to climb into the back of his cab. He wrote TAXI, with that unforgettable description of former heartthrob "Sue" who handed him the (then-large) twenty dollar bill and said "HARRY, keep the change". Why didn't he actually get behind the wheel of a taxi? Immediately after writing that song on a weekend, the record company called to say HARRY had his contract.
I had not only personally connected to that song, but felt the story deeply as TOM told it so well. Since my dad was greatly disappointed and critical that I was changing course from architecture to radio, I drove a taxi 12-hours a day to put myself through a noted broadcasting school (later joining the navy to avoid the draft and prior to a belated full-time start at university, while working 3 jobs simultaneously at 3 different radio stations).
At another point during our studio taping, while TOM was strumming a classic, well-used guitar that had gorgeous raised metalwork, I asked him about it. He said it was an old Martin D-38. After HARRY had achieved his enormous success, TOM was visiting him one day. His brother suggested he should have that old Martin, as it would be a work horse for him and TOM played it so well. TOM initially turned him down, saying he couldn't take it, but his brother persisted knowing it would be well-used and loved. Three months later, HARRY was killed in an auto accident.
HARRY's voice lives through his children, his original family (including his 94-year-old mother) and his beloved siblings, including gifted musicians STEVE and TOM CHAPIN.
We asked him how "the boys" (the four CHAPIN brothers) got into folk music, when their dad was an excellent jazz musician who had also written a drummer's "bible" that's still in use today. He recalled they were listening to a live album of the legendary WEAVERS recorded at Carnegie Hall, New York in 1954. "That was it!" the boys exclaimed. "That's what we're going to do!"
Years later, HARRY was a starving musician (like most) trying to get work while holding the ends together. TOM told us that HARRY had a "hack license" (which meant you could drive a cab in New York City). Before he was about to start driving, HARRY thought about those he'd known: classmates, girlfriends and what his reaction/feelings might be should they (already with careers well-launched, lives carefully mapped out) happen to climb into the back of his cab. He wrote TAXI, with that unforgettable description of former heartthrob "Sue" who handed him the (then-large) twenty dollar bill and said "HARRY, keep the change". Why didn't he actually get behind the wheel of a taxi? Immediately after writing that song on a weekend, the record company called to say HARRY had his contract.
I had not only personally connected to that song, but felt the story deeply as TOM told it so well. Since my dad was greatly disappointed and critical that I was changing course from architecture to radio, I drove a taxi 12-hours a day to put myself through a noted broadcasting school (later joining the navy to avoid the draft and prior to a belated full-time start at university, while working 3 jobs simultaneously at 3 different radio stations).
At another point during our studio taping, while TOM was strumming a classic, well-used guitar that had gorgeous raised metalwork, I asked him about it. He said it was an old Martin D-38. After HARRY had achieved his enormous success, TOM was visiting him one day. His brother suggested he should have that old Martin, as it would be a work horse for him and TOM played it so well. TOM initially turned him down, saying he couldn't take it, but his brother persisted knowing it would be well-used and loved. Three months later, HARRY was killed in an auto accident.
HARRY's voice lives through his children, his original family (including his 94-year-old mother) and his beloved siblings, including gifted musicians STEVE and TOM CHAPIN.
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