Heads & Tales

Artist: Harry Chapin
Label: Elektra / Wea
Category: Music

Average customer rating:

Media: Audio Cassette

UPC: 075596068048
EAN: 0075596068048
ASIN: B000002I2S

Release Date: 1990-10-17

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Tracks:

Could You Put Your Light on, Please
Greyhound
Everybody's Lonely
Sometime, Somewhere Wife
Empty
Taxi
Any Old Kind of Day
Dogtown
Same Sad Singer

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Customer Reviews:

Harry Chapin - Heads and Tales .......2006-11-30

This album is so great in so many ways I cannot begin to tell you. I, too, remember driving in a soft rain and hearing Taxi for the first time. My god. A whole life story. His, yours, mine. All there. Later albums had some good stuff, and we have them all on vinyl or CD, but nothing ever quite reached the glorious madness of an everyday man or woman living through whatever came each sunrise and evening. That's Heads & Tales. It's just great. The music has soothed me thru every loss, embroidered my triumphs, some of it still makes me cry after all these years. Get this one in your collection now, so you'll be ready for the day you put on your grown-up shoes.

For those who wish to look further.......2002-07-12

This was Harry Chapin's first real solo album and while not as rounded or fully accomplished as later albums is deserving of a place in the collection of anybody who likes quality song-writing and passionate delivery. There are, by Harry's own standards, some relatively so-so songs on this but these are countered by the real stand-out classics. My introduction to this album-and to Harry's music, was was the epic 'Dogtown' which one DJ used to play on the radio back in '72/'73. It has been called overblown and worse but it deals with a dark subject and calls for a grand delivery. Harry does much more than that though and gives it real power and force,singing it with genuine passion and feeling, as he did a lot of his songs. It is essential listening for any embryonic Chapin fan or anybody wishing to delve deeper than 'W.O.L.D.' or 'Cats in the Cradle'. The album also has the sublime 'Taxi' on it. Other songs may sound slightly average by comparison but they are up against very stiff competition and the album as a whole deserves to be listened to. It should perhaps not be anyone's first Harry Chapin disc, but if you already own two or three others - this should be your next!

#1 in my "mellow moods" collection.......2000-12-08

Picture this...late at night, alone in your room after a very long day with no time to yourself, glass of wine and mindless novel in hand...what completes the picture? If you're like me, the answer is an album of pensive, thoughtful music. For my money, Heads and Tales is among the very best in that genre.

As you probably know if you're reading this, Harry Chapin led an incredibly noble life and died tragically; this bittersweet combination has become associated with most of his work for me. The great thing about this, his first solo album, is that it's a partial exception: the earnestness and sincerity are there, in his super-expressive voice and heartfelt lyrics, but Chapin sounds far more relaxed - and concerned with his own surroundings - than at any other point in his career. There isn't an overbearing moment on this entire album, something I'm not sure I can say about any of his other studio works.

Only two of Chapin's trademark marathon "story-songs" are present here, including the best-known one, "Taxi". (The other, "Dogtown", is as close as this record comes to being overblown, but it tackles a taboo that would make Lou Reed blush. That's all I'll say about that one!) But the spirit of the storyteller is everywhere here, and the stories Chapin tackles are universal. If you've ever had a lonely night in strange surroundings, you'll see yourself in the portraits he paints in "Everybody's Lonely" or "Any Old Kind of Day," while "Could You Put Your Light on Please?" is easily one of the most articulate break-up songs ever written. Sometimes I wonder if any of Chapin's many critics have even listened to some of these songs; it's hard to believe they have!

The really remarkable thing about this album is that there isn't a lot of diversity in terms of subject matter, yet each song is different enough in its point of view (not to mention Chapin's knack for sweet melodies) that the listener never gets bored. Regardless of what you think of Chapin in general, Heads and Tales is top notch in the realm of early '70s mellow. Next time you're in one of those pensive late-night moves, put this on and escape. As the man himself says, "There'll be time enough for thinking come tomorrow."

The first and the best........2000-12-05

Remember how DJ's would ask, 'Where were you the first time you heard this?.' Well, I can remember the first time I heard 'Taxi'. I was, as it should be, driving in the rain. Not in a taxi, and not in San Francisco, but the song moved me and still does. Almost everyone has had an encounter with a past love, so like so many of Chapin's songs it touches deeply. I still listen to the songs often and I've had the album (now replaced by a cd) since a week after that rainy night so long ago. I highly recommend it.

The haunting "Taxi" and a listen to the early Harry Chapin.......2000-10-02

While this 1972 album does contain the exquisite "Taxi," that is really the only above average Harry Chapin song to be found on "Heads and Tales." Even though this is an early effort, you will find the core elements that would be developed so wonderfully in later albums: the lengthy story songs ("Dogtown"), the focus on the downs of relationships ("Sometime, Somewhere Wife"), the angst of human existence ("Everybody's Lonely") and the self-awareness of the singer-songwriter ("Same Sad Singer"). Of course it was "Taxi" that brought Harry to the attention of the public despite its 6:44 length, with its simple guitar, haunting cello, and falsetto solo by Big John Wallace, telling the story of a chance meeting several years between two old lovers. However, since Taxi is to be found on a couple of other CDs, this particular one is primarily going to be of interest to the devote Harry Chapin fan, which, come to think of it, is really the only type out there.

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