Product Code: ZMU980296930
Original price was: $39.99.$23.99Current price is: $23.99.The 1974 Folk-Rock Album That Impacted Generations: Harry ChapinsVerities & BalderdashFeatures Cats in the Cradle, Personal Narratives, and Gorgeous Arrangements
How enduring is the signature song from Harry ChapinsVerities & Balderdash? So timeless that it became the subject of a 2025 documentary in which artists from multiple generations weigh in on its impact on their lives and craft. Cats in the Cradle doubtlessly remains the main event on the singer-songwriters 1974 album. The legendary opening track also serves as a guidepost for the bold personal and social material that follows as well as the gorgeous folk-rock arrangements that underpin the New York natives most commercially successful work.
Sourced from the original master tapes, pressed at Fidelity Record Pressing, housed in a Stoughton jacket complete with a four-page insert, and strictly limited to 3,000 numbered copies, Mobile Fidelitys 180g 33RPM LP ofVerities & Balderdashpresents Chapins fourth full-length in audiophile quality for the first time on vinyl. Captured during a golden era for sonics and production, the Top 5 effort features remarkable tonal balance, instrumental separation, and organic naturalism. Those valued aspects come into supreme focus on this reissue, which plays with dead-quiet surfaces and a low noise floor.
The newfound clarity, openness, and imaging underscore the lasting appeal of Chapins tender deliveries, soulful timbre, and careful phrasing. Every word comes across with incredible realism, while his underrated guitar playing occupies its own distinctive space. Also notable: The extension of the tasteful string accents; airiness of the backing vocals; depth and shape of the spare bass lines; and width and depth of the soundstaging. When on Six String Orchestra Chapin calls out names of instruments, they appear like magic, the band performing feet from you. Chapin has never sounded so lifelike on record.
Certified double platinum,Verities & Balderdashresonated with the times and public. Cats in the Cradle reached No. 1 on the chart on its way to being inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. The romantic ballad I Wanna Learn a Love Song flirted with the Top 40 and wrapped listeners in the equivalent of a cozy blanket. The records other single, the mini-epic What Made America Famous?, helped establish Chapin as one of the countrys most incisive and insightful commentators.
Verities & Balderdashteems with situational devices and topical matters. Chapin observes everything from the polarization of the nation to changes in moral standards and cultural priorities. He investigates pressing themes without ever turning preachy or elevating himself above the matters at hand. On Halfway to Heaven, whose coda races to the finish and ranks as the most urgent moment on the record, Chapin inhabits the mind of his frustrated protagonist akin to an eagle-eyed novelist.
Conveying emotions that range from melancholic to carefree, Chapin is as much of a singer as a storyteller. He assumes the voice of multiple characters within a single narrative. During the quirky 30,000 Pounds of Bananas, a tale based on a delivery-truck accident in 1965, Chapin alters his delivery, pronunciation, and diction to become an old man reflecting on the mishap and mess. The tempo, too, adjusts to match the speed of the vehicle Chapin describes.
Adorned with timely laugh tracks to reinforce the bittersweet humor, the stripped-down Six String Orchestra takes everything up another notch, with Chapin intentionally missing guitar notes or playing a broken passage to illustrate the failures of the hopeful protagonist who doesnt have whats required to make it as an artist.
Chapin, of course, did not have any such problem. The lynchpin of a career cut short by a tragic traffic incident,Verities & Balderdashis Exhibit A of the savvy craft, feeling, and perspective he lent to American music.
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