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Taxi Lyrics
It was raining hard in 'Frisco,
I needed one more fare to make my night.
A lady up ahead waved to flag me down,
She got in at the light.
Oh, where you going to, my lady blue,
It's a shame you ruined your gown in the rain.
She just looked out the window, and said
"Sixteen Parkside Lane".
Something about her was familiar
I could swear I'd seen her face before,
But she said, "I'm sure you're mistaken"
And she didn't say anything more.
It took a while, but she looked in the mirror,
And she glanced at the license for my name.
A smile seemed to come to her slowly,
It was a sad smile, just the same.
And she said, "How are you Harry?"
I said, "How are you Sue?
Through the too many miles
and the too little smiles
I still remember you."
It was somewhere in a fairy tale,
I used to take her home in my car.
We learned about love in the back of the Dodge,
The lesson hadn't gone too far.
You see, she was gonna be an actress,
And I was gonna learn to fly.
She took off to find the footlights,
And I took off to find the sky.
Oh, I've got something inside me,
To drive a princess blind.
There's a wild man, wizard,
He's hiding in me, illuminating my mind.
Oh, I've got something inside me,
Not what my life's about,
Cause I've been letting my outside tide me,
Over 'till my time, runs out.
Baby's so high that she's skying,
Yes she's flying, afraid to fall.
I'll tell you why baby's crying,
Cause she's dying, aren't we all.
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.
And she handed me twenty dollars,
For a two fifty fare, she said
"Harry, keep the change."
Well another man might have been angry,
And another man might have been hurt,
But another man never would have let her go...
I stashed the bill in my shirt.
And she walked away in silence,
It's strange, how you never know,
But we'd both gotten what we'd asked for,
Such a long, long time ago.
You see, she was gonna be an actress
And I was gonna learn to fly.
She took off to find the footlights,
And I took off for the sky.
And here, she's acting happy,
Inside her handsome home.
And me, I'm flying in my taxi,
Taking tips, and getting stoned,
I go flying so high, when I'm stoned.
I needed one more fare to make my night.
A lady up ahead waved to flag me down,
She got in at the light.
It's a shame you ruined your gown in the rain.
She just looked out the window, and said
"Sixteen Parkside Lane".
I could swear I'd seen her face before,
But she said, "I'm sure you're mistaken"
And she didn't say anything more.
And she glanced at the license for my name.
A smile seemed to come to her slowly,
It was a sad smile, just the same.
And she said, "How are you Harry?"
I said, "How are you Sue?
Through the too many miles
and the too little smiles
I still remember you."
I used to take her home in my car.
We learned about love in the back of the Dodge,
The lesson hadn't gone too far.
You see, she was gonna be an actress,
And I was gonna learn to fly.
She took off to find the footlights,
And I took off to find the sky.
To drive a princess blind.
There's a wild man, wizard,
He's hiding in me, illuminating my mind.
Oh, I've got something inside me,
Not what my life's about,
Cause I've been letting my outside tide me,
Over 'till my time, runs out.
Yes she's flying, afraid to fall.
I'll tell you why baby's crying,
Cause she's dying, aren't we all.
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.
And she handed me twenty dollars,
For a two fifty fare, she said
"Harry, keep the change."
Well another man might have been angry,
And another man might have been hurt,
But another man never would have let her go...
I stashed the bill in my shirt.
It's strange, how you never know,
But we'd both gotten what we'd asked for,
Such a long, long time ago.
And I was gonna learn to fly.
She took off to find the footlights,
And I took off for the sky.
And here, she's acting happy,
Inside her handsome home.
And me, I'm flying in my taxi,
Taking tips, and getting stoned,
I go flying so high, when I'm stoned.
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Its about two people who grow up together and life takes them down different paths. When they meet up years later their lives are just too different for them to get back together.
Remember what John Lennon said: Life happens to us when we're busy making other plans
I heard an interview with Harry Chapin back before he died when I was working at WGBS in Miami. He said he was actually a cab driver and had heard his old girlfriend was in town and he started to think what would she say if he picked her up as a fare. He was terrified of how she would react if this happened and she saw that all he had done with his life (his singing career had not yet taken off, of course). He had this vision of her getting in his cab and saying, and here I can quote the comment he made verbatim, "Harry, what happened to YOU?"
According to interviews Chapin & his wife gave separately over the years, HC had taken a year off from his work as a documentary film maker to focus on growing his music career. A year later his career was non exsitant, he was now marred, raising his wife's 3 kids from her 1st marriage and she was pregnant with their 1st child, and he was having a hard time finding film work to make money, so applied for a cab drivers license, even though he didn't want to drive a cab (basically he needed to start making money again). He was depressed about the whole situation (his wife leaves a wealthy lawyer to marry him and he's an out of work film maker with a going nowhere music career who's broke, and they're about to have four kids!). Around this time HC heard that an Ex of his had married and was doing quite well, and thus the background for "Taxi" was born.
According to an interview his wife did with a songwriiters website a few years ago, "Sue" was based on an old college girlfriend, they never were in SF though and in fact other than one brief period before they married HC never worked outside the NY area. She stated she didn't know why SF was chosen as the site of the song and speculated it may have been simply because it fit the lyric better , it sounded better.
It made sense from a storytelling standpoint to continue the storyline in SF when he wrote "Sequel", the song that catches the two characters 10 years removed from this chance encounter, right before he passed away.
@FlairFan01 I like fact he wrote a sequel and it's as good as Taxi
@FlairFan01 I like fact he wrote a sequel and it's as good as Taxi
I love this song...so sad and tender. Similar type song to Dan Fogelberg's "Same Old Lang Syne:
This song is pure poetry..simple and lovely.
@Nuschler: Just to clarify, I didn't say his choices were gentle, I said that Chapin was reflecting gently on his choices. Not: "I really fucked up!", but rather: "ahh...hmm...if it had only been different..."
Also, I differ with your deterministic view that if you're gettin' high while driving a cab, you've hit the end of the line; could be just a stop before getting it together...who knows?
But yeah, now that you point it out, there is that element of "wrong dude" when looking objectively at his situation. That makes the song even more bittersweet to me, because he's sort of in denial about himself, isn't he?
This songs reminds me of my childhood. Dad use to play this album all the time in the car. Harry and his music will forever be linked to my childhood. Thank you
Taxi is one of those songs that raises more questions than it answers. For example: If one does the math, the original event happened late 40's to early 50's. It is presumed Harry the driver must be at least 35-40 years old since he says "a long, long time ago". The song was released in 1972. And surely one must have SOME form of training and experience to get behind the wheel of a cab in a large city. But yhat's just conjecture. Anyway, the beauty of a well written popular song is the vast interpretations it can invoke. In this case, the original event was a few years after WW2. Times were different. Now he's a stoner who may have picked up the weed habit in the 60's hippie times even though he would have been much older than the hippies. One thing I never got is why he figures other people would be offended by a sizeable tip from an ex-girlfriend. Maybe it was the only way for her to show her affection after so many years? This is what I mean when saying more questions than answers. Which is why it is such a classic song. Everyone has experience some form of this random meeting.
Greatest song! I love the story and the sequel to the song rocks too! I'd like to see a movie on Harry and Sue. That would be kinda cool! Too bad Harry died in '81 before he could write more song about Harry and Sue:-(
This is such a beautiful, sad song.