After several attempts, Harry Chapin left his immortal mark on music with the song \u201cCats In The Cradle.\u201d It\u2019s a track that can make grown men cry, and was the track that began me on my journey of becoming a Chapin fan courtesy of a 45 record of the song my mom bought for me to give my dad on his birthday.<\/p>\n
If Verities & Balderdash<\/i>, Chapin\u2019s fourth studio album, were known only for that song\u2014and, sadly, sometimes it feels like that\u2019s all<\/i> it\u2019s known for\u2014then it would be reason enough to give it a fair shake on the ol\u2019 turntable or CD player. But this proves to be the album that has Chapin firing on all cylinders, merging some of his best songwriting with equally powerful performances. After three previous albums, everything finally clicked for Chapin and his band.<\/p>\n
The nine tracks contained therein are tales of mirth and woe, love and loss\u2014and it passes far, far too quickly. Even the lesser-known tracks all but beg the listener to pay close attention to what\u2019s being talked about in the lyrics\u2014and, make no mistake, Chapin cements his legacy as a true storyteller with this one.<\/p>\n
Pretty much everyone knows \u201cCats In The Cradle,\u201d so forgive me if we don\u2019t spend any more time on that track. The follow-up track, \u201cI Wanna Learn A Love Song,\u201d is not only the second single from the album, it is a natural follow-up, telling the story of finding love with a woman trapped in a loveless marriage. This is Chapin baring his soul for all to see, as he had said it was based upon the true-life events of how he met his wife Sandy.<\/p>\n
Perhaps the most powerful song on Verities & Balderdash<\/i> is one that could take on many meanings in today\u2019s world\u2014\u201cWhat Made America Famous?\u201d Supposedly the tale of a family in a slum home that catches fire, it is not the fire department who come to their rescue, but a simple plumber. There is so, so much that one could read into these words, but the basic moral is that heroes are found in everyday people\u2014many of whom we don\u2019t know or never will\u2014doing extraordinary things.<\/p>\n
There is also plenty of time for light-hearted moments. \u201c30,000 Pounds Of Bananas\u201d became a concert staple in Chapin\u2019s lifetime, and remains a fun song to listen to (as well as another song based upon actual events). As for \u201cSix String Orchestra\u201d… well, any of us wanna-be guitarists who are cutting our teeth at Open Mic events know this story all too well. How Chapin\u2014supposedly an amazingly talented guitarist\u2014was able to purposely play as badly as he does on this one is amazing.<\/p>\n
Weaknesses? I could find but one\u2014namely, \u201cHalfway To Heaven.\u201d It\u2019s still a good song, but not quite on the same level as its album mates. This, however, is nit-picking.<\/p>\n
If you could only own one studio album from Chapin\u2014I hesitate to say \u201cone album,\u201d because you should have Greatest Hits: Live<\/i> on your shelves as well\u2014then Verities & Balderdash<\/i> is the strongest candidate I\u2019ve encountered as I continue to plow my way through Chapin’s discography. It hasn\u2019t lost a step in the 50 years since it was released, and remains a masterpiece of folk rock.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":35148,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[6164],"rating":[5613],"class_list":["post-47026","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-harry-chapin","rating-rating-a-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/47026","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47026"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/47026\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35148"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47026"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=47026"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=47026"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}