Well, we’ve come to this. As I begin to admit that there may not be much more to say in this blog about its subject, my “Celebration Rock” radio program, I am moved to reflect on the blog itself! But only this time. (This won’t become a habit.)
Whenever I am moved to write something new here, I go to the “dashboard” and see how many people are actually reading what I’m writing. There’s you, of course, but how many others? Unfortunately, these occasions are called “hits,” a term not particularly suited to peace-loving folk like us. Besides the cold numbers, though, I am more interested in what readers are tuning into. Web searches lead the unwary into, well, the web. What has this aging spider woven that draws the most hits? The page entitled, “Backstage with Harry Chapin.”
What a great thing that is! It means to me that though he’s been gone for many years, his music and his reputation as a man of compassion live on. I’m imagining someone hearing a Chapin song on the 70’s satellite music channel, or running across an old album packed away with the turntable in the basement, or finding the musical line, “All my life’s a circle, sunrise to sundown…” mysteriously and unrelentingly playing in the stereo between one’s ears… I can imagine that person entertaining warm memories of Chapin’s stories and songs and Googling the singer’s name or a song title. (Maybe that’s how you got here today…)
Eventually, up comes the “Celebration Rock” blog page about a backstage interview. It’s not the most authoritative page on the web, nor the most revealing, but it’s that “backstage” part. Sounds enticing, huh? Wouldn’t most of us enjoy being backstage with someone we’ve admired? (Did I tell you about the night I was backstage with Dizzy Gillespie, Stan Getz, and Herbie Mann? I did? Oh.) And “backstage” sounds so much more intimate than an interview on Oprah’s couch or in front of an L. A. club. Yet I have the feeling that most folks who are seeking some insight into Harry Chapin and his music are not merely curious in their search; it is more an act of devotion perhaps.
Insight and imagination, poetry and music… knowing how to tell a story with a real beginning, a perceptive plot, and an honest ending… those are Chapin’s hallmark. Add to his talent the personal commitment he applied to the tragedy of global hunger, and the artist is also the humanitarian. Or to put it another way, the star is a servant. No wonder his memory draws interest even today.
The second most viewed page in this e-journal is the one that dealt with so-called satanic lyrics and back masking (or backward masking): the hiding of messages that can only be accessed by playing magnetic tape or vinyl records backward. I suppose it’s quite a bit harder to hear a CD or MP3 recording backward, but if the devil is in the details (sorry), the point was not that listeners would be able to access, hear, or understand the backward message, but that the message (always a bad one…never “love your neighbor”) would enter one’s subconsciousness and drive one to think or act in awful ways. Since I’ve already dealt with the subject in that previous post, I won’t say more, but I am interested in the fact that people are still fascinated or troubled by the old rumors or the allegedly true technological manipulation of oxide particles on Ampex recording tape. At least they are interested enough in the topic to search for information on the web. Why? Maybe there’s not enough wrong with the world already, so we need to look for more trouble to wring our hands over.
By my calculations, the third most visited page was the one entitled, “The Celebrity with Cooties.” It was about the harrowing teen years of the singer who took her name from the Lackawanna train, Phoebe Snow. I had interviewed her when her song “Poetry Man” was ranked number 4 on the music charts. She told me about always being the unpopular kid in school, the one with cooties. I’m glad that blog has been popular because of its reminder that nerds, dorks, and cootie carriers often turn out to be very gifted people who bring healing and self-respect to others who feel as if they are losers. Someone helped Phoebe Snow discover her gifts, and as artist and mother she excelled as a child of God. And probably still does…but we’ve been out of touch recently. It occurs to me only now that she opened up to tell that story, I recorded it and used the interview on my radio show, but never asked the best question of the night: who was the one who helped her unwrap the gifts of music and performance in her life?
So there are the top three blogs in this series. I won’t mention the ones that I spent two hours writing that only my wife and one other person accessed. Heck. Those topics I might just as well have mentioned to Joan at breakfast that morning. As for the other reader…we can always pour another bowl of Cheerios for you.
Peace and grace to you…and please: do be gentle with people, and with yourself. Jeff Kellam
