Wednesday, July 06, 2022

Song of the Day: 'Taxi' by Harry Chapin


My friend Jay Blotcher shared Harry Chapin's "Taxi" on Facebook last week -- and it seemed like a good SOTD for two reasons:
1. It's one of those songs that's deeply ingrained in my brain that just happened to come out in 1972, which is the year my brain started to absorb music.
2. Damian and I are watching the sitcom "Taxi" right now. (It actually got yanked off Hulu midway through our adventure -- argh! -- so we're having to use YouTube and Daily Motion to scrounge up the final season, which aired on NBC instead of ABC. Way to go, streaming TV.) "Taxi" wasn't one of my family's shows growing up -- you've heard it a million times, we were Mary Tyler Moore and Bob Newhart people, not that you couldn't watch them all. But for some reason I never had much interest in the show. Fortunately Damian's dad was a fan, which in turn made my guy one -- and thus here I am, a bit of a convert. Still, despite its critical acclaim, I don't think it's one of the all-time greats as it's billed -- I know Jeff Conaway was fired for his drug use, but his absence the last two seasons is sorely noticed, despite the producers' belief that giving his lines to other cabbies made his disappearance seamless. Still, I have enjoyed it more than I thought I would. Suggestion: Maybe they should have brought back Season 1 principal Randall Carver -- who remembers him?! 


The best part is, even if the episode isn't great, there's always Tony Danza to drool over.


Jay writes of the Harry Chapin classic:
 Fifty years later, this bittersweet story-song by Harry Chapin (a hit in the spring and summer of 1972) still touches. It's not a saccharine ballad by any means.

3 comments:

j said...

Tony Danza was hot and has aged well

Anonymous said...

"Through the too many miles and the too few smiles, I still remember you..."

It was an okay sitcom, certainly better than something like "Wings" (my measuring stick for overhyped, mediocre sitcoms).

And, yes, there was always Tony Danza and his torso.

Kenneth M. Walsh said...

Oops. I think "Wings" is the best sitcom of the '90s!