We continue our look back at the music of 50 years ago…..
Any list of the best singer-songwriters of the 1970s has to include Harry Chapin in a high position.
He specialized in story-songs featuring troubled folks dealing with all kinds of problems…loneliness, despair, loss, but he could also bring the lightness on songs like “Sunday Morning Sunshine” and “Circles” which became sort of a theme song for him and was also a hit for the Seekers.
His usual band of players is here and John Wallace, Tim Scott, Ron Palmer and brother Steve, along with Russ Kunkel on drums are as solid as they come.
The more cutting songs include “Burning Herself” and “A Better Place To Be”…but the centerpiece is. of course, “Sniper”.
It’s based on the true story of Charles Whitman who, in August of 1966, after killing his mother and wife, went into the clock tower on the campus of the University of Texas in Austin and proceeded to shoot and kill 14 people and wound another 31 before he was killed by a police officer who went up and got him.
An autopsy later found he had a brain tumor that might have contributed to his actions. If you ever hear the term “tower shooter”…it came from the actions of Charles Whitman.
Chapin’s account is harrowing. It’s a 10 minute play that has Chapin singing the parts of various characters including the tortured Whitman, his mother, and others. If you’ve never heard it…give it a listen…but be prepared to think about it for awhile afterwards.
Isn’t that what good songwriters do? Write songs that make us think? In that case, Harry Chapin was a master.
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