Song Lyric of the Day (Harry Chapin, on “What Made America Famous”)

“We have a choice to make each man Who dares to dream, reaching out his hand A prophet or just a crazy goddamn Dreamer of a fool—yes a crazy fool.”—Harry Chapin, “What Made America Famous,” from his Verities and Balderdash LP (1974) 

Listening to WFUV-FM’s Pete Fornatale on my car radio this afternoon returning from vacation, I was reminded that it was 30 years ago today that Harry Chapin died at age 38 in a car crash on the Long Island Expressway. 

I was stunned at the time when I heard the news, not least because it had only been the prior month that I had seen him in concert, for the third or fourth time, in New York. 

There are any one of a number of Chapin songs I could have used for the “Song Lyric of the Day” (and, at some point in the future, I’m sure I will), but over the years this one has stuck with me the most. 

It’s probably at least twice the length of the hit tune from Verities and Balderdash, “Cat’s in the Cradle,” and that’s not the only indication of its epic intentions: Chapin made this song the center of a 1975 Broadway musical. 

I guess what has stayed with me about this tune (concerning the events surrounding a fire) is that it’s expressing something increasingly elusive in our polarized age. 

Put aside the imagery of the long-haired kids and the more conservative fire-department members who save their lives--put another way, Chapin is talking about an early manifestation of red and blue America, hoping that the differences between them can be bridged, through mutual respect born of acts of unselfishness. 

It all harks back to the belief that animated Chapin’s life and career as musician and activist, and ensures that his legacy won’t be forgotten soon: that one person can make a difference. 

And yet, the last questions in this story-song don't sugarcoat the quiet terror faced by those who go against the grain of the world, and are delivered by the singer with stark power that haunts listeners to this day: "Is anybody there?/Is anybody there? Does anybody care?"