The Life of Cotton Patch Gospel Composer Harry Chapin

Singer/songwriter Harry Chapin wrote the music to Cotton Patch Gospel right before he died in 1981. Its catchy music brings to life the funny and moving story while bringing light to the hypocrisy of human apathy. It is the culmination of a life dedicated to great music and humanitarianism.


Harry Chapin was born in New York City, the second of four children. His father left the family when he was eight and went and toured as a drummer with the big bands of the era. After high school Chapin spent three months at the Air Force Academy. He then twice flunked out of Cornell University. He went into a band, recording an album with two of his brothers, but the album was unsuccessful. To avoid being drafted his brothers had to drop the band and go to college. Harry Chapin started working in film. While writing a screenplay, he was hired to give guitar lessons to Sandy Chapman so she could play songs to her three children. In 1968 Legendary Champions, the documentary film that came from that screenplay, was nominated for an Academy Award and Chapin became father to thethree children and husband to Sandy Chapman.

Chapin found, while his passion was in storytelling, his drive was still to make music. He combined the two to start writing his now famous, story-songs. In 1971 he pulled together a band and soon caught the attention of Elektra. His debut album Heads and Tales was on the charts for over half of 1972. It’s song “Taxi” became the most requested song in America for ten weeks.

A year later Short Stories produced “W.O.L.D.” which was in the top 50 and the next year Verities and Balderdash became Chapin’s first gold album. The now classic “Cat’s in the Cradle” from that album quickly flew to number one.

Through the rest of the seventies he made seven more popular albums. His solo show, The Night That Made America Famous ran on Broadway for 75 performances and was nominated for two Tony awards.

Despite his great success as a storyteller and musician, Chapin’s greatest legacy is that of activist. Before charity concerts were vogue, Chapin did a hundred a year, raising over 5 million dollars. In 1975 he co-founded World Hunger Year (WHY), an organization dedicated to addressing the root causes of hunger and poverty. For his work to end hunger he was posthumously awarded the Congressional Gold Medal. He also served as a delegate to the Democractic National Convention and was dedicated towards bringing the arts to Long Island, serving on numerous boards there.

In 1981, at the age of 38, Chapin tragically died in a car crash while driving to a benefit performance. His final work, Cotton Patch Gospel, was posthumously produced in New York a few months later. This musical was based on a book by Dr. Clarence Jordan, the founder of Habitat for Humanity. It recontextualized the story of Jesus into the modern day and explored how contemporary Christians would respond to Jesus’ arrival. Harry Chapin’s epitath was taken from the final song from that show “I Wonder What Would Happen to this World”

Oh if a man tried
To take his time on Earth
And prove before he died
What one man’s life could be worth
I wonder what would happen
to this world

Further Reading & Photo Credits:

Harry Chapin photo from Rolling Stone's Biography: http://www.rollingstone.com/artists/harrychapin/biography

Gravestone photo from Wikipedia Article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Chapin#Legacy

Rolling Stone Obituary from the Harry Chapin Archive: http://harrychapin.com/articles/rsobit.shtml

Autobiographical Statement from The Harry Chapin Archive: http://harrychapin.com/articles/bio.shtml

"Music Rewind: The Activism & Storytelling Of Harry Chapin" by Hal Licino: http://hubpages.com/hub/Music-Rewind-The-Activism-Storytelling-Of-Harry-Chapin