life passes...

in a taxi cab ride.

being in high school and college for the span of the 1960's, i was part of the dawning of the age of aquarius. the decade was tumultuous to put it mildly. it was wrought with revolutionary idea after revolutionary idea. it was, i would like to think, a time when democracy was taken to a level that would include everyone no matter their race, religion, orientation, ethnicity, color, gender.... sometimes, i wonder what happened to all of the lofty ideas and promises. there was lots of promise.

of course, today, we have gone somewhat backward. it's all right to say you hate a specific group on the radio with thousands listening. it's common place to watch men and women bleeding from roadside bombs on the television. it's de rigeur to have your thoughts and beliefs questioned, categorized and put down. i guess the world just wasn't ready yet.

besides rock music, one of the bigger musical genres was folk. joan baez, judy collins, pete seeger, fairport convention, peter, paul and mary all were mainstays of the day. i was drawn to folk music because of its storytelling nature. i love songs that tell stories.

one of the great stroytellers was harry chapin. i know that people rue his untimely death and wonder what music would be like if he hadn't died in that crash, but it's what happened and it doesn't really make any difference. he had the ability to take a very insignifacant occurrence and to turn it into a great song. after dance band on the titanic, taxi is my favorite harry chapin.



there is a second part to the story entitled sequel.

when i listen to taxi, i almost feel like i'm in the taxi with him...