[2022-03-25] Harry Chapin "Story Book: The Elektra Albums 1972-1978" 6CD box set (Strawberry UK)

Linda · **Posted:** Sat Jan 15, 2022 3:09 am

Amazon USA
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09PVK2HMX/?tag=imwan-20

Amazon UK
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B09PVK2HMX/?tag=imwan-21

Description
• Nine-album, 6CD clamshell box set presentation of the late, American singer/songwriter, Harry Chapin

• Features 2022 remasters of Chapin’s work for Elektra Records, including the enduring hits ‘Taxi’, ‘WOLD’ and ‘Cat’s In The Cradle’

• Beautifully presented with colour reproductions of album sleeves, picture-sleeve singles, ephemera, trade ads and promotional photographs

• With 4000-word notes, placing Chapin’s career in context, and arguing for his elevation in the cultural hierarchy, by Record Collector contributor, Charles Donovan

Acoustic guitarist and singer/songwriter, Harry Chapin, who was born in New York, was a pioneer of the elaborate story-song, a style whose roots lay in folk and country music.

Chapin explored the very limits of the genre, with songs often breaching the ten-minute mark. After working in documentary film-making, Chapin signed with Elektra just before turning 30. He was immediately successful with his first single ‘Taxi’ and the album ‘Heads And Tales’ (1972).

More popular with listeners than critics, Chapin toured relentlessly. His bestselling album was 1974’s ‘Verities And Balderdash’, which included ‘Cat’s In The Cradle’, his sole US No1 single. He began using his enlarged platform to campaign for an end to world hunger, founding several charities and increasingly spurning payment for his performances so that the proceeds could go towards his favoured causes.

This 6CD box – the first serious, multi-disc reappraisal of Chapin’s work – presents the nine albums he issued from 1972 to 1978; ‘Heads And Tales’, ‘Sniper And Other Love Songs’, ‘Short Stories’, ‘Verities And Balderdash’, ‘Portrait Gallery’, ‘Greatest Stories Live’, ‘On The Road To Kingdom Come’, ‘Dance Band On The Titanic’, and ‘Living Room Suite’. After Elektra, Chapin signed with Boardwalk for a final album before dying tragically and prematurely in a car accident in 1981.

Tracklist
[CD1]
Heads And Tails:
1. Could You Put Your Light On, Please
2. Greyhound
3. Everybody’s Lonely
4. Sometime, Somewhere Wife
5. Empty
6. Taxi
7. Any Old Kind Of Day
8. Dogtown
9. Same Sad Singer
Sniper And Other Love Songs:
10. Sunday Morning Sunshine
11. Sniper
12. And The Baby Never Cries
13. Burning Herself
14. Barefoot Boy
15. Better Place To Be

[CD2]
Sniper And Other Love Songs (Continued):
1. Circle
2. Woman Child
3. Winter Song
Short Stories:
4. Short Stories
5. WOLD
6. Song For Myself
7. Song Man
8. Changes
9. They Call Her Easy
10. Mr Tanner
11. Mail Order Annie
12. There’s A Lot Of Lonely People Tonight
13. Old College Avenue
Verities And Balderdash:
14. Cat’s In The Cradle
15. I Wanna Learn A love Song
16. Shooting Star
17. 30,000 Pounds Of Bananas
18. She Sings Songs Without Words

[CD3]
Verities And Balderdash (Continued):
1. What Made America Famous?
2. Vacancy
3. Halfway To Heaven
4. Six String Orchestra
Portrait Gallery:
5. Dreams Go By
6. Tangled Up Puppet
7. Star Tripper
8. Babysitter
9. Someone Keeps Calling My Name
10. The Rock
11. Sandy
12. Dirt Gets Under The Fingernails
13. Bummer
14. Stop Singing These Sad Songs
Greatest Stories Live:
15. Dreams Go By
16. WOLD

[CD4]
Greatest Stories Live (Continued):
1. Saturday Morning
2. I Wanna Learn A Love Song
3. Mr Tanner
4. A Better Place To Be 5 Let Time Go Lightly
6. Cat’s In The Cradle
7. Taxi
8. Circle
9. 30,000 Pounds Of Bananas
10. She Is Always Seventeen
11. Love Is Just Another Word
12. The Shortest Story
On The Road To Kingdom Come:
13. On The Road To Kingdom Come
14. The Parade’s Still Passing By

[CD5]
On The Road To Kingdom Come (Continued):
1. The Mayor Of Candor Lied
2. Laugh Man
3. Corey’s Coming
4. If My Mary Were Here
5. Fall In Love With Him
6. Caroline
7. Roll Down The River
Dance Band On The Titanic:
8. Dance Band On The Titanic
9. Why Should People Stay The Same
10. My Old Lady
11. We Grew Up A Little Bit
12. Bluesman
13. Country Dreams
14. I Do It For You, Jane
15. I Wonder What Happened To Him

[CD6]
Dance Band On The Titanic (Continued):
1. Paint A Picture Of Yourself (Michael)
2. Mismatch
3. Mercenaries
4. Manhood
5. One Light In A Dark Alley (An Imitation Spiritual)
6. There Was Only One Choice
Living Room Suite:
7. Dancin’ Boy
8. If You Want To Feel
9. Poor Damned Fool
10. I Wonder What Would Happen To This World
11. Jenny
12. It Seems You Only Love Me When It Rains
13. Why Do Little Girls
14. Flowers Are Red
15. Somebody Said

Packshot (click for full size):

Walter P · 20 Sep 2006

Not thrilled that the albums are split up on different CDs and I wish they could have completed things by getting their hands on the album "Sequel". (Yes, I know, it was on Boardwalk) I'll wait to hear how they sound.

Renny · 26 Jun 2006

weren't chapin's first 5 albums released on one of those minimalistic 5CD set years back?

Jason Michael · 30 May 2012

Renny wrote:

weren't chapin's first 5 albums released on one of those minimalistic 5CD set years back?

Yes.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01K8RH4JE/?tag=imwan-20

Renny · 26 Jun 2006

Jason Michael wrote:

Renny wrote:

weren't chapin's first 5 albums released on one of those minimalistic 5CD set years back?

Yes.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01K8RH4JE/?tag=imwan-20

the little things we remember that make us happy!

Linda · **Posted:** Thu Mar 24, 2022 1:44 pm

A packshot has been added to the first post.

[2022-03-25] Harry Chapin "Story Book: The Elektra Albums 1972-1978" 6CD box set (Strawberry UK)

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