Shooting Star
Harboing
I've been a Harry Chapin fan for 25 years, but I've never understood the song
"Shooting Star". Does anyone out there have any insight on this song? What was
Harry's reason for writing it? Who is he singing about?
Thanks,
Jack
Gary Cassidy
Jack,
>I've been a Harry Chapin fan for 25 years, but I've never understood the
song
>"Shooting Star". Does anyone out there have any insight on this song?
It's probably among my top three of Harry's songs, right there with all of
his other songs (grin). It reminds me of those people we have all met who
have a strange combination of utter genius and creativity yet can't seem to
keep the checkbook balanced or milk in the fridge. Know what I mean?
Their ability to see the true reality or meaning of a given situation is
counter balanced by their total inability to manage it. Remember the saying
"He can't see the forest for the trees"? People like this are the opposite.
They can't see the trees for the forest.
Another angle to them is their tendency to be completely transparent
emotionally. No one is ever confused about how they feel. Their emotions
consume them not only in their strength but also by their tendency to be
fully complete. Happiness, sadness, fear etc are all overwhelming and yet
all so fleeting. Fully involved with that emotion for a moment then it's
forgotten. A new one takes them in a nother direction.
As for the woman in the song, she is his foundation, the stability in his
life. She sees his brilliance and accepts his limitations. She provides
the protected environment for his genius to flourish while keeping his life
"grounded".
There are some great lines in the song....
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
He was crazy of course, from the first she must have known it
But still she went on with him and she never once had shown it
And she took him off the street, and she dried his tears of greaving
She listened to his visions, she believed in his believing
Ahhh, he was the Sun, burning bright and brittle and
she was the moon, shining back his light a little
he was a shooting star, she was softer and more slowly
he could not make things possible but she could make them holy
He was dancing to some music no one else had ever heard
he'd speak in unkown languages, she would translate every word
and when the world was laughing at his castles in the sky
she'd hold him in her body, till he once again could fly
Ahhh, he was the Sun, burning bright and brittle and
she was the moon, shining back his light a little
he was a shooting star, she was softer and more slowly
he could not make things possible but she could make them holy
Well she gave him a daughter, and she gave him a son
she was a mother and a wife and a lover when the day was done
he was too far gone for giving love, what he offered in it's stead
was the knowledge that she was the only thing that was not in his head
He took off east one morning with the rising sun's red glow
she knew he was going nowehere, but of course, she let him go
and as she stood and watched him dwindle, much to empty to be sad,
he re-appeared beside her saying "You're all I've ever head"
Ahhh, he was the Sun, burning bright and brittle and
she was the moon, shining back his light a little
he was a shooting star, she was softer and more slowly
he could not make things possible but she could make them holy
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
I think the best line is the one that has me caught between two opposite
meanings.
he was too far gone for giving love, what he offered in it's stead
was the knowledge that she was the only thing that was not in his
head
Is Harry saying that he is so far into the world of his mind that he
doesn't even see her or is he saying that although he spends so much of his
day in this "fantasy" world (my interpretation), he knows she is the only
"real" thing in his life? Either way, it's typical Harry isn't it?
The book is never it's cover...
BriBieluch
Gary, your interpretation is awesome.
I'd like to add something to it, although in a different light.
I have absolutely no foundation for this claim. But here goes: I think Harry's
singing about *himself* and, at times, how he saw his relationship with Sandy.
Harry loved his life on the road, and the audiences behind it. At the same
time, one of his greatest fears seemed to be that the applause would fade away,
and the footlights would go out, never to be turned on again (re: "You Are the
Only Song", intro to "Circle).
The life on the road could seem at times to be a life of "castles in the sky":
something of great and wonderful dreams coming true, but with no solid, real,
tangible foundation. Life on the road can be comprised of superficial
relationships, etc..
Sandy, however, was the one who gave him that foundation - "she'd hold him in
her body, 'till he once again could fly." He was the sun, burning brightly on
stage, while she was the moon, living a life sometimes in the shadow of Harry,
but providing his only real foundation.
"She was a mother, and a wife, and a lover when the day was done" - she was
everything *real* to him. So while he lived in this fun, pleasurable world
(but still somewhat of a fantasy world) of hundreds of concerts a year, she
remained "the only thing that was not in his head."
Not sure how clearly I expressed it, but that's sort of my interpretation!
-brian
McMen
I always felt that Shooting Star, like a lot of Harry's songs,
was about Sandy. When I saw Jen Chapin sing this last year,
it hit home that song really describes her parents.
In fact, Jen performs this song so well, it's as if
Harry wrote it for her to sing. But since she was
a toddler at the time, I guess this is impossible :-)
You can tell how much Sandy meant to Harry by listening to
this song as well as "She Sings Songs Without Words",
"You Are The Only Song", "You Own The Only Light",
"Sandy" (obviously) and many other songs of his.
----------------------
John McMenamin
Remembering Harry Chapin
http://members.aol.com/mcmen/home.html
email: mc...@aol.com
"Remember when the music
Was the best of what we dreamed of
For our children's time..."
-HC
Roger Flanigan
According to Howie Fields, the inspiration for "Shooting Star" was a Steve Goodman
song called "The Dutchman".
Harboing wrote:
> I've been a Harry Chapin fan for 25 years, but I've never understood the song
Gary Cassidy
Roger,
>According to Howie Fields, the inspiration for "Shooting Star" was a Steve
Goodman
>song called "The Dutchman".
Any idea if "The Dutchman" spoke of Vincent Van Gogh? Wasn't he considered
by man to be "mad" and yet we also view him as an artistic genius? That's
the dichotomy I spoke of before.
Thanks!
BriBieluch
John -
I meant to mention the same thing in my last post, but didn't. I heard Jen
perform Shooting Star for the second time last November, and it *really*,
*really*, seemed as though the song was describing her parents.
In fact, at the Bottom Line in november, I remember Jen looking over toward
Sandy intently during one verse in particular...
Christopher Lyford
My interpretation of 'Shooting Star' is that the woman is his country, and
he was a dreamer, and was reassured through the American Dream. The fact
that no one understood him, in the song, is the plight of most young men
these days. The fact that he was lost and went away, then returned, is
significant in the fact that no matter how bad things can get here, our
country is still 'a better place to be.'
chris
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