The Harry Chapin Story: Part 2 - Circle Quiz

Answer: Make A Wish

"All my life's a circle, sunrise and sundown
The moon rose through the nighttime
'Til the daybreak comes around..."
Chapin's brother, Tom, was chosen to host the "Sesame Street"-rival, partly on the strength of Harry's songwriting. He produced 160 songs over the show's five-year existence. Only "Circle" was ever recorded, and it became a signature tune.

Answer: United

It turned out he had a talent for the job and was paid $250 dollars a week. He made the commercials in California. "I had never been to LA before and it seemed as glamorous as hell to me," he said later. In fact, Chapin did not last long on the West Coast, he quit the job and drove home to New York.

Answer: $10

"I come fresh from the street,
fast on my feet, kind a lean and lazy;
not much meat on my bones, and a whole lot alone,
and more than a little bit crazy.
The old six string was all I had
to keep my belly still,
and for each full hour lesson I gave
I got a crisp ten dollar bill"
The song was, in fact, the true story of how he met his wife-to-be, Sandy Cashmore (nee Gaston). She was a bored, rich housewife eight years older than Chapin. She had advertised in newspaper for someone to teach her guitar, and Chapin answered the advert.

Answer: Boxing

Chapin's job involved taking raw footage of fights and cutting them up into smaller sections. Because of his story-telling abilities, he could lift such a task out of the mundane. Harry conceived the idea for a trilogy, "The Heavyweight Championship", but only the first part, "Legendary Champions", was made.

It covered every heavyweight title defence from 1882 to 1920 and was nominated for an Academy Award in 1968.

Answer: Whaling

The song was inspired by the true story of a whaling town off Cape Ann. It had been abandoned when whaling no longer became profitable and was left to a population of wild dogs and a few stray people. The subject matter, it has to be said, was a little odd. Chapin wrote it one weekend at his brother Tom's house.

Their brother, James, was there also that weekend. He later said "I hated that song".

Answer: The Village Gate

After a period playing with his brothers, Harry moved on to do other things and they formed a band "The Chapin Brothers". They had the idea of hiring the Village Gate for a period of weeks and putting on shows nightly in the hope that they would get a record deal. Harry found out and formed his own band to open for his brothers on the same stage.

The club was usually packed out with Chapin friends and family to bamboozle the music critics.

Answer: Watertown, New York

Chapin wrote "A Better Place To Be" about a lonely night watchman who picked up a beautiful girl one night, but she left in the morning and he told his tale to a an ugly but equally lonely waitress.

Answer: Dayton, Ohio

"But music was his life, it was not his livelihood,
and it made him feel so happy and it made him feel so good.
And he sang from his heart and he sang from his soul.
He did not know how well he sang; It just made him whole..."
This was the tale of a cleaner who loved singing and was persuaded by his friends to try it out professionally at a New York City concert.
It was based on a true story.

Answer: Ethiopia

Chapin went to Ethiopia to make a movie for the World Bank. He was appalled at the level of poverty and hunger he saw there.

Answer: Kris Kristofferson

Chapin initially tried to hone his stage persona at The Bitter End, but his frantic onstage talking between songs alienated audiences. He was just too wild. Then he watched Kristofferson perform with Carly Simon and his stage presence mellowed and he became one of the best communicators on the concert circuit. [Source" "Taxi: The Harry Chapin Story" by Peter M. Coan.]

Answer: Plumber

The story of a fire in a hippie squat was based on fact. In a real incident, the local fire department took two hours to get to the scene. Chapin re-imagined it with a plumber among a crew of voluntary firefighters going alone to save the families.

Answer: True

This often dismayed his brothers Tom and Steve, for whom he wrote songs. They complained about being given lyrics without melodies and, the fact was they claimed some of his songs were just too weird.

Answer: New York Times

Chapin put together a band called "Harry" to open for The Chapin Brothers at the Village Gate, Mike Jahn, music critic of the Times, saw a performance and his review attracted the attention of the music companies.

Answer: Phil Ochs

"I got the news today that you refused to play
Because you never made number one..."
Of all the 1960s protest singers, Ochs was the one who held on to that mantle the longest. Chapin admired that and believed that Ochs "never, ever sold out" to rock and pop as some others did. Chapin was disgusted with the way that some of the 1960s counter-culture folkies went mainstream.

Answer: The New Seekers

"Circle" reached number four in the UK charts in June 1972. The New Seekers were formed in 1969 with the intention of taking over the mantle of the Australian band The Seekers. Over the next 16 years they had a number of hits, including two number 1s, "I'd Like To Teach the World To Sing" in 1971 (it was based almost verbatim on a Cocoa-Cola advertising song) and "You Won't Find Another Fool Like Me" in 1973. "I'd Like To Teach the World To Sing" charted at number seven in the US.