Harry Chapin: When in Doubt, Do Something Film Review
By: Joseph Perry (Twitter - Uphill Both Ways Podcast)
As a teenager and young man, I saw singer/songwriter Harry Chapin in concert twice at the Concord Pavilion in northern California, and planned to see him for a third time in 1981. My friend and I had been uncharacteristically late to buy reserved seats for that show and finally decided to get them one July day. When we tried, the ticket agent said that they were no longer on sale and called the main ticket office to ask why, at our request. We never expected to hear what the answer was: Harry Chapin had just died in a car accident.
Director Rick Korn’s new documentary Harry Chapin: When in Doubt, Do Something takes viewers from Chapin’s childhood to that tragic July day, and beyond that to the impact that his work still has in both the music world and the fight against hunger. Family members — including his brothers with whom he played in the folk group The Chapins and later after he had become a wildly successful solo act — band members, fellow musicians, business partners, and others fondly relate their memories of Chapin, who besides widely being considered one of the greatest storytelling singer/songwriters ever, was also known as being a man who would help up-and-coming artists such as Billy Joel and Pat Benatar — both featured in the documentary — in what Joel describes as the cutthroat, competitive world of music, and who was also well-known as a fighter for eliminating world hunger. Chapin’s partner in the World Hunger Year organization (now WHYHunger), New York City radio personality and Catholic Priest Bill Ayres, gets a good deal of screen time here, and the friendship between the two men is palpable.
Along with contemporary interviews, Korn uses home movies and photos from Chapin’s childhood along with archival footage from TV performances and interviews, concerts, and Capitol Hill appearances, to craft a loving tribute to the man who gave the world “Cat’s in the Cradle,” “Taxi,” and dozens of other unforgettable story songs and who gave his all to try to right social wrongs, playing any benefit concert asked of him, no matter the size of the crowd, and taking his dream to the White House.
Harry Chapin: When in Doubt, Do Something paints a loving picture of Chapin, and the cynical world we currently live in could certainly use more people like him. Thankfully, as the documentary shows, his memory, legacy, and good works live on.
Harry Chapin: When in Doubt, Do Something, from Greenwich Entertainment, is now in selected theaters and on virtual cinema.
Joseph Perry is one of the hosts of When It Was Cool’s exclusive Uphill Both Ways podcast (whenitwascool.com/up-hill-both-ways-podcast/) and Gruesome Magazine’s Decades of Horror: The Classic Era podcast (decadesofhorror.com/category/classicera/). He also writes for the film websites Diabolique Magazine (diaboliquemagazine.com), Gruesome Magazine (gruesomemagazine.com), The Scariest Things (scariesthings.com), Ghastly Grinning (ghastlygrinning.com), and Horror Fuel (horrorfuel.com), and film magazines Phantom of the Movies’ VideoScope (videoscopemag.com) and Drive-In Asylum (etsy.com/shop/GroovyDoom).
If you found this article interesting consider becoming a Patreon supporter. That is how When It Was Cool keeps our website and podcasts online, plus you get lots of bonus content including extra and extended podcasts, articles, digital comics, ebooks, and much more. Check out our Patreon Page to see what's up!
If you don't want to use Patreon but still want to support When It Was Cool then how about a one time $5 PayPal donation? Thank you!
