Harry & Me?
I first heard Harry Chapin,
the American Singer/Songwriter,
in the early 1970's.
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Harry & Me?
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His songs W.O.L.D & Easy used to fade in and out, while I secretly tried listening under the bedclothes to Europe's Premier Pop Station Radio Luxembourg. In this world of high-tec Global & Digital technology its hard to remember that the early portable tranny's transistor radios, had lots of trouble receiving the signals from the radio stations when the atmospheric conditions were poor. The music and commentary would come and go like a Kharma Chameleon often without rhyme or reason. That's how I first heard the music of Harry Chapin, but it wasn't the mid to late 1970's that I began to really apprechiate his songs a little bit more. I'd heard a few more songs/tracks so I got his albums, Heads & Tails and Verities & Balderdash. Perhaps it was because in his words, "when the whole world is changing, why should people stay the same?", that his songs touched me deep inside.
Later in real life I was to experience by coincidence many of the things he used as themes for his songs and stories. At the this time of the late 1970's, I like many another guy was trying to learn to play the guitar and write songs. It was then that I wrote my homage' to 'Harry Chapin'.
It's funny how things come back at us in ways we never ever planned. For the words I'd written in the chorus of Harry Chapin all came true. However, it wasn't from a want of trying!
In 1980, I was living near London, England. And I heard that Harry was to do a radio broadcast for the B.B.C.. He was going to D.J. the program himself so I assumed that he would be at the radio station when the show was being broadcast. Therefore, I persuaded my friend Jeff, who drove a Triumph Spitfire MkIII sportscar to drive me to the B.B.C. Headquarters at Broadcasting House. It was a nightmare journey as the car developed engine trouble on the way. But we arrived there just before the show was due to start.
So armed with the four Harry Chapin albums I'd brought with me to be autographed, and used as an excuse for me to meet him, I marched up to the Security Doorman and pleaded my case. He was quite sympathetic and allowed me to go inside and speak to the Duty Receptionist, who telephoned someone for more information. It was then that I was informed that the broadcast had been pre-recorded and the Mr. Chapin was at his hotel and was due to fly out of the City tomorrow. Also, they were very sorry but they were unable to divulge the name of the hotel he was staying at.
I was escorted from the premises with a wry smile and the belated advice, to check up in future if it was a live broadcast or a pre-recorded one? I was dazed, dejected and felt totally gutted! When I got back to the car and told Jeff what had happened - he gave a shrug of resignation - then I remembered that the broadcast was about to start.
Jeff's car didn't have the greatest radio cassette player in the world, but we managed to tune in to hear the show. Ironically, as we drove under the flyovers and through the underpasses on our way out of London, we kept getting signal interference and the sound quality faded in and faded out - which reminded me of when I'd first heard Harry all those years ago on Radio Luxembourg!
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