In the year of my birth, 1972, Harry Chapin released his debut single, Taxi. As with many of Chapin's songs, it told a heart-breaking story. That was his stock in trade. But before becoming a successful recording artist, Harry almost became a taxi driver. In fact, he was waiting for his taxi driving licence to come through when he wrote this song... although he never did become a cabby, because he landed a job in the movie business and started following his dream of becoming a documentary film-maker.
Until his storytelling took him in a different direction...
Taxi tells the story of a lonely cab driver who picks up an ex-girlfriend one rainy night. They reminisce on roads not taken, dreams not achieved... before parting company, neither of them particularly happy with the lives they're going back to. The story was, according to Harry, about 60% autobiographical.
There was not much more for us to talk about
Whatever we had once was gone
So I turned my cab into the driveway
Past the gate and the fine-trimmed lawns
And she said, "We must get together"
But I knew it'd never be arranged
Then she hand me twenty dollars for a two-fifty fare
She said, "Harry, keep the change"
Chapin's songwriting chops proved so enticing to record company bigwigs that a bidding war ensued between CBS and Elektra over who would put out his first album... and when he performed Taxi on the Johnny Carson show, he became the first musical guest to ever be invited back to sing again the following evening.
Although Taxi was only the beginning of Harry's success, with much bigger hits to follow, fans kept asking him what might have happened to the characters after the song ended. To answer this, he wrote a Sequel in 1980, a song that picks up exactly where the last one ended... then jumps forward in time to find Harry the taxi driver now a successful musician, with Sue seemingly fallen on hard times, though a little happier in herself.
Don't ask me if I made love to her
Or which one of us started to cry
Don't ask me why she wouldn't take the money that I left
If I answered at all I'd lie
Harry Chapin joked that if he ever wrote a third act to this story, he'd call it "Hearse". Sadly, he died in a car accident a few months after Sequel hit the US charts, so we'll never know the final fate of Harry and Sue...
Finally, for those of you who appreciate such things as I do, here's William Shatner's unique interpretation of Taxi. I'm sure Harry was tickled pink...
