Remember When the Music

For we believed in things, and so we'd sing....

Took the boy and met Pam to go to the Tom Chapin concert in Bryn Mawr. I had been a very big fan of Tom's brother, the late Harry Chapin. In fact, Harry's double live album was the first record I bought when I received my first stereo (a turntable, AM-FM radio and cassette player all in one unit) in the 1970s. Eventually, I acquired all of Harry's albums and learned the words to most of his songs.

In the Summer of 1981, I was in a stifling hot dorm room in Harvard Yard with my all-in-one stereo and all my beloved albums (Harry, Bob Dylan, Hot Tuna, Neil Young, the Dead, Jefferson Airplane, Leo Kotke, Arlo Guthrie, Ry Cooder, among many others, but there was one album I did leave at my parents' house--my Sean Cassidy album--his cover song was "Da Do Run Run." Had a huge crush on him when he was one of the Hardy Boys a few years earlier and bought his album which contained a free poster of him that I taped to my closet door and then removed when I lost interest and actually felt embarrassed, but I can still see that poster in my mind...like the rest of us, Sean had feathered hair... and imagine: I also read Tiger Beat magazine, thought the Bay City Rollers were good and collected comic books during the junior high years) when I heard the news on the radio...that Harry had died in a car accident on the L. I. E. I was crushed. He was only thirty-six.

At his brother's concert tonight, it occurred to me that many of the "big" moments of my life are related to songs...or that I remember particular songs as part of a particular time or place.

So I never got to see Harry in concert--at least not live--and it was always regrettable but, of course, there was nothing I could do. A couple of years ago, I bought one of Tom's CD's for the boy, and he liked it...but generally, he believes that whatever I tell him is good is, in fact, good. Sometimes, really good. That's gratifying, and it's great to be able to listen to whatever I want in the car and have him appreciate it. Sometimes lately, I hear him singing with me from the back seat.

So seeing Tom tonight is the closest I can come to seeing Harry. Tom did a few of his brother's songs, and I remembered all the words to every one....songs I hadn't even thought of in many years. The boy leaned against me and kept asking, "You know this one too, Mom?" "I guess I know them all," I said. At least someone thinks I'm cool. It's funny how you never forget some things...times tables, riding a bike, the lyrics to old songs you haven't heard in years....

After the concert, I approached Tom. The boy thought this was very bold of me. He often doesn't understand why I do what I do. He says, "Mom, you're crazy" at least once a week.

Tom is a very tall man. He took my hand and held it as I told him I wrote to his brother when I was in sixth grade (although, apparently, I was in seventh), and he asked if he wrote back. Yes, he did, and I still have his letter. I handed my cell phone to Pam to take a picture of Tom and me, and she had a lot of trouble with it. Tom and I put our arms around each other's waists, and he told Pam to take her time because, he said, "we're enjoying this." He also said, "Obviously, you are not in sixth grade anymore." We did finally get a photo, which is blurry. I look like a cracked-out zombie or groupie, and Tom is wearing sunglasses even though it was after 9:00 at night. But I guess that's what happens when you attend these events and try to score with the main act. Since there was a long line of people behind Pam waiting to get autographs, I gave him another squeeze and moved on. Too bad I look like such a jackass in the blurry photo on my cell phone.

On the way home, we listened to the CD, and I remembered--and sang--all the words to "30,000 Pounds of Bananas."