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Harry Chapin - Verities & Balderdash Audio CD

A fair review of the Harry Chapin "Verities & Balderdash" Audio CD. Please note that the below review is the views of the authors, and authors only. You can get a complete list of all Harry Chapin reviews here, or go back to the Harry Chapin tabs.

Harry Chapin Band: Harry Chapin
Title: Verities & Balderdash
Rating:
Release Date: 1990-10-12
Media: Audio CD

Tracks: 1: Cat's in the Cradle 2: I Wanna Learn a Love Song 3: Shooting Star 4: 30,000 Pounds of Bananas 5: She Sings Songs Without Words 6: What Made America Famous? 7: Vacancy 8: Halfway to Heaven 9: Six String Orchestra

Great classic album
From the beauty of "Shooting Star" to the grandeur of the emotional ballad "What Made America Famous?" to the isolation of "Vacancy", finished up with the morality play of "Halfway to Heaven", I highly recommend this album. "Verities and Balderdash" besides being known for three of his greatest hits ("Cat's in the Cradle", "I Wanna Learn a Love Song", "30,000 Pounds of Bananas") has six other classic songs that established Chapin as the eminent storyteller of his time. .


A Gem of an Album
I discovered after buying this album in LP format what I missed. I actually passed up the opportunity to hear Harry Chapin at Columbia University in a relatively intimate environment before "Cats In The Cradle" came out (I actually bought tickets for it for someone I knew).

Harry Chapin's melodies are good, but it's his lyrics that pull you in. Most of his stories are worth hearing. Some will make you laugh, some will make you think and one or two will bring tears to your eyes.

In addition to "Cats In The Cradle", there's "Six String Orchestra" and "30,000 Pounds of Bananas", which are hysterical and "What Made America Famous" that'll bring a tear to your eye. There are one or two weaker tracks, but the album is well worth the price.
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enjoyable music
I had the LP of this and always enjoyed it but wanted to replace it with a CD. I have been a fan of Harry Chapin's music for a long time. All of the tracts are great especially "What Made America Famous" and "Halfway to Heaven. " While many of these are on other CDs of his music I needed a good version of "30,000 Pounds of Bananas" which is laugh out loud funny. This CD is a good addition to any Harry Chapin collection.
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"And so I dreamed a bass would join me..."
" That song -- often maligned today due to excessive airplay on Oldies Stations -- remains a perennial pitch for work/life balance. VERITIES AND BALDERDASH was Harry Chapin's most commercially successfully album due to its Top 10 Single, "Cats in the Cradle. The remainder of the album, however, offers a wonderful sampler of the vocal, musical, and emotional range of the underrated singer-songwriter-activist.

There are other more comprehensive reviews of all of the tracks, so mine will focus on three album cuts: "Vacancy," "She Sings Songs Without Words," and "Six String Orchestra. " Arguably, these three songs capture the range of Mr. Chapin's talents, although certainly a strong case could be made for other selections as well.

"Vacancy" is a song of the pain of loneliness and the oft vain attempts to establish human connection and intimacy amidst the false solace of empty encounters. That emptiness is summed up in these words:

"The sheets show their struggles,
The glasses their fears,
The ashtrays the hours passed,
the towels their fears. "

Vacancy continues in the lives of both the motel man and his assorted guests -- spectator and participants in a dance of despair.

"She Sings Songs without Words" fall nicely into the soft-ballad category and expresses gentleness and devotion. It is a departure, both musically and lyrically, from the harsher tone present in other songs on the album. The chorus offers reflective poignancy:

"She sings her songs without words,
Songs that sailors and blind men and beggars have heard,
She knows more of love than the poets can say,
And her eyes are for something that won't go away. "

"She Sings. . . " gracefully expresses the purity of love that is absent in "Vacancy" and the power of genuine intimacy in uplifting the human condition.

Lastly, there is "Six String Orchestra," he one of the two "humorous" tracks that became staples of Harry's concerts and live performances (the other is "30,000 Pounds of Bananas). For every hack musician, for every tortured guitarist whose notes offend the sensibility of decent people, Chapin crystallizes the fantasy behind their continued efforts to make music in the night. There are a number of versions of this song available, especially on the web -- in my opinion, this one is the best.

VERITIES is, in many ways, a transition album. Lyrics flow more effortlessly, the instrumentation is more varied and complex, and Harry's voice is just a bit more mature and seasoned. While not perfect (one track, is rather trite), the album is a great treasure and a showcase of Harry Chapin as he was and would become.


He could not make things possible, but he could make them holy
The only downfall is Cat's in the Cradle, than goodness for the skip button, sure great message, but the song. This is an excellent album, Shooting Star is in my top ten favourite songs. . . I mean enough is enough, repetative song combined with over playing, equals annoying to the max. .


You can see a complete list of all Harry Chapin discography, or go back to the Harry Chapin tabs. There is also a good guide on how to read guitar tabs here.

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