AndypandyUK

<h3><span class="ql-size-huge ql-font-chicle" style="color: rgb(33, 37, 41); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">📼 </span><strong class="ql-size-huge ql-font-chicle" style="color: rgb(33, 37, 41); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Off The Beaten Track Challenge!</strong></h3><p><br></p><p><strong>Off The Beaten Track - Part A:</strong> A tale told in song from a man known simply as "The Great Storyteller" - Harry Chapin. Never a single, it appears on his 1973 album <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Short_Stories_(Harry_Chapin_album)" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Short Stories</a> and it's on his <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greatest_Stories_Live" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Great Stories (Live)</a> album.</p><p><br></p><p><strong>Off The Beaten Track - Part B:</strong> </p><p><strong>1. The Discovery:</strong> A song I saw on the Featured list. I didn't know it and wondered how it went so I clicked on "Hear how others sing this" in the recorder. I listened to Paul (<a href="https://www.singsnap.com/#/d/profile/1719/recordings?page=1" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">ParknMaintain</a>) sing it as I knew he'd do a great job of it. After hearing it I was hooked on the song and had to learn it. One<span class="ql-font-roboto" style="color: rgb(78, 78, 78); background-color: rgb(251, 251, 251);"> I've been working on for more than a month. The neighbours will be so pleased I finally got it done. 🤪</span></p><p><strong>2. The Sales Pitch:</strong> I just think Harry Chapin had an immense talent for writing songs that told a story.</p><p><br></p><p> History of the song below. I suggest you listen first.</p><p><br></p><p><img src="https://singsnap-cdn.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/message-board/threads/1CDX/aeeaef6e2c_KJGL_media.png?w=700"></p><p><br></p><p><strong>Song History:</strong></p><p>The song is based on reviews Harry Chapin read in The New York Times of a singer's performances. The singer, Martin Tubridy, performed twice, once in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1971/03/28/archives/tubridy-makes-song-debut.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">1971</a> and once in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1971/03/28/archives/tubridy-makes-song-debut.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">1972</a> and both his performances were panned. Harry saw these and he could feel Tubridy's pain and disappointment as Harry had received poor reviews himself, so he wrote this song.</p><p><br></p><p>Tubridy himself did not know that he was the inspiration for Chapin's song until the mid-1990s, but upon learning of it, became a fan of Chapin's music. Tubridy would later <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hLtlvPHyTVE" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">perform the song</a> that he inspired before an audience in concert for the Harry Chapin Foundation with Chapin's children and his brother Tom. Harry Chapin's bassist, Big John Wallace, plays Mr. Tanner in the live recordings by singing the chorus to "O Holy Night" in the background of the song's chorus.</p>