On Christmas day 2005 I was searching for more info because Harry’s W.O.L.D. is voted number 1,683 in the TOP 2,000 records in my country. I realized that, although his records are hardly ever played The Netherlands there must be more Dutch fans than just me! I only wish I knew some of them to share the appreciation for Harry’s musical heritage!
I first learned about Harry Chapin and his music in the mid-seventies. I was a teenager school kid then. I became a real fan. I managed to buy two records but the rest were impossible to get over here in Holland.
I started out by importing some of the other LP’s by myself which turned out to be quite a lot of work in those days because the record companies over here were not so interested in Harry.
In the end I did manage to get all Harry’s albums by asking everyone I knew to bring records with them back to me in Holland when they travelled the US.
A couple of years later my brother got back from a trip to New York. He told me that he had heard in the local news that Harry Chapin died in a car accident. I felt very sad. I realized a fine artist who brought the world quite some great songs had gone and that there would be no more new recordings to expect.
I kept turning his existing records on a regular basis for years and years. Then after some years the CD player came along and I stopped playing my old LPs. It took many years until I could lay my hands on a few Harry Chapin CD’s. I collected each and everyone I could get via the internet. From that moment on I could enjoy his fantastic songs again!
Even now, almost 25 years after his death and, I play his music now and then and it is fantastic to enjoy Harry’s music and to be able to sing along every text word for word even now that I have turned 47 years old myself. I expect to still appreciate Harry’s music many years from now because his stories are so full of life’s experiences and therefore so timeless.
Well, in short, that’s my small contribution. It is great to find out that so many years after Harry died he not only lives on in his music and in the hearts and minds of his fans but that his name is also honoured in the Harry Chapin Foundation and that there is so much about him on the internet.
I hope that in these years young kids, like me in the seventies, will learn about Harry and his music and also enjoy it forever!
Michael Werkman
Amsterdam, The Netherlands
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