I purchased a complete box-set of all Harry Chapin's early material and it is intriguing stuff. Chapin is the traditional story-teller for the most part with epic ballads like "The Mayor Of Candor Lied" and a joker for the other part like "30,000 pounds of bananas". There is something charmingly sincere about his approach, though, whose style I feel will grow on me more and more over time. For the generation that grew up thinking Ugly Kid Joe wrote "Cats In The Cradle", Chapin's original is a beautiful, organic, home-grown surprise and impossible not to like actually. I will let you know more when I have given everything a fair old listen, but in the meantime, this is one of my favourites for the time, "Laugh Man" :
"Did you ever hear the one about...
"Did you ever hear the one about...
Oh, God I love myself
When i've got it on
i know I'll live forever babe
All my fears are gone
Then suddenly I'm dying
They turned the laugh track off
I'm drowning in the silence
Crucified by coughs
Oh, I am the laugh man
Half clown and half man
Half out and half in, oh mister can't you see?
I'm s'posed to leave you laughing, so why don't you laugh at me?
I started out my starvin'
Desperate for money
My belly crackin' dirty jokes
That did not come out funny
My neck stuck out so far
Like a gawky giraffe
Screamin' on a guillotine
"Come on, sucker, laugh!"
I am the guy who always catches the pie
I specialize in pratfalls
I am the goon who flashes the moon
A mouse in a house of catcalls
I'm your jester your juggler
Your joker your friend
I'm nothing more or less
Than a horse's nether end!
My ego is a bubble
That I realize just broke
And alone without a microphone
My real life's a joke
Did you ever hear the one about..."