Love those 1970-75 "confessional" songs--then everything went all Disco... Ugh.
I've always wondered if the song was supposed to be depressing and sad or merely emotionally liberating in that the singer she goes to hear "gets" what she feels through his song.
I read somewhere that the song's composer--not Roberta Flack iirc-- had Don McLean's "American Pie" as its inspiration.
I was thinking about TAXI the other day...would any natives to the USA under the age of 50 understand it? The musical style, the sentimental lyrics.....seems like they'd classify it as old schmaltzy junk because there's no hippityhop beat with rap lyrics about bitches, brand names and guns. Sigh.
I'm under 50 and I love so much of this stuff (after all, look who's been keeping this thread alive these past three years). My interest in most popular music declines significantly with the '80s and despite my youth and inexperience, I have always felt more at home with most pop culture from the 1970s and back.
I'm under 50 and I love so much of this stuff (after all, look who's been keeping this thread alive these past three years). My interest in most popular music declines significantly with the '80s and despite my youth and inexperience, I have always felt more at home with most pop culture from the 1970s and back.
yeah, probably "personality types" matter more. Alot of people regardless of age are only interested in current arts - the blockbuster/redbox renters versus the TCM channel viewers.
I remember all of the songs mentioned in this thread getting plenty of airplay in the mid-to-late '70s as well as the decades afterwards. I don't have a sophisticated music apparatus in the Phelpsmobile and since much of mainstream radio is presently fixated on the 1980s and on--thus "forcing" me to endure the '80s for the rest of my days--those 1970s songs still make the rounds, even on the vapid FM radio environment.
I was thinking of starting a thread of the songs that always get played on radio by artists I can't stand, requiring me to immediately change the station. One would think, going by what radio programmers schedule, that the likes of, say, Steppenwolf (a group I dn't mind though they are outside the realm of this particular thread) only recorded two songs because that's all they ever allow us to hear.
One would think that with all the options listeners have besides radio, that these radio stations would expand their playlist, but then they cater to the office drone crowd so nothing "exciting" gets to be played.
I've said as much earlier in this thread: I'm not a Chapin fan. I'm not keen on his singing voice but in listening to "Taxi" again, he was quite an effective storyteller. I certainly can appreciate the appeal he has for his many fans. Plus, the songs are an important part of that 1970-75 era of confessional singer-songwriters.
Finally! I've heard this song for decades and never knew what it was called or who sang it, but after a few minutes searching, the "mystery" is solved!
Finally! I've heard this song for decades and never knew what it was called or who sang it, but after a few minutes searching, the "mystery" is solved!
A bit outside of the realm but a confessional, singer-songwriter who found success in the '70s, Jackson Browne and "Running on Empty": Sheesh, I sound like Casey Kasem!
I can't claim to share everyone else's love for Chapin's "Taxi", but seeing as this is a thread of '70s music appreciation, I thought I'd piggyback my own admiration for Bill Withers' "Ain't No Sunshine." That string section is, as Josh Mitchell might say, "killer."
Bill Withers died on March 30. I didn't want it to go unnoticed on this board:
Here's "Use Me", which captures Withers in a funkier mode:
