Taxi...

robeiae

Touch and go
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...by Harry Chapin

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
.

Is there a better storytelling type song out there?
 

poetinahat

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Great topic.

Some others I'd nominate:

Me and My Uncle - John Stewart, notably performed by Grateful Dead
Drive She Said, Camouflage, and The Big Heat - Stan Ridgway
Tangled Up in Blue - Bob Dylan
Burma Shave - Tom Waits
Cat's in the Cradle - Harry Chapin
Bad, Bad Leroy Brown and You Don't Mess Around with Jim - Jim Croce
Puff the Magic Dragon - Peter, Paul and Mary
Alice's Restaurant - Arlo Guthrie
 

Priene

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Taxi is a good song, but not great, and like several other of Chapin's songs, it feels to me like it needed a kindly editor to put a red pen through the jokey, self-indulgent bits.

If it ends like this

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.

then you've got a devastating ending, and what makes it so is the character's self-awareness. He knows he's a complete loser. (Incidentally Steely Dan remade this song as What A Shame About Me, but they blew it by having the woman still fancy the man, whereas Chapin's taxi driver is never getting anything more than a big tip.)

But then Chapin veers off, because he's got a pun in mind: flying-in-planes, flying-on-drugs, and in the last verse the taxi drivers starts wobbling on about he's got what he wanted because he's a druggie.

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.

What stands out in the rest of the song is the character's self-honesty, but now he's just a deluded bonghead. There's no foreshadowing of his drug-taking at all. It just pops up in line n - 1, and knocks the ending of the song out of kilter.