Sniper and Other Love Songs - Harry Chapin

Track List:

1. Sunday Morning Sunshine

2. Sniper

3. And the Baby Never Cries

4. Burning Herself

5. Barefoot Boy

6. A Better Place to Be

7. Circle

8. Woman Child

9. Winter Song

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I know several of these.

I can play A Better Place to Be and Circle. I am also familiar with Sunday Morning Sunshine and Sniper. The other songs are not ones I recognize by name. 

Let’s ponder Sniper for a minute. This describes the University of Texas tower shooting. It was a tragic event. 15 people were murdered by a rogue Marine, more than 30 others were injured. The active shooting took place over an hour and a half. The song tells the story of the shooting and guesses to the motives of the shooter. Imagine if Harry had lived today. He potentially would have ran out of songs for school shooting stories. Its sad that the events that lead to this song being made have replayed over and over at different schools across the country over the last 50+ years. We collectively have learned little from our experiences. 

The studio version of Circle is different than I am used to. 

Overall decent album. I don’t like trying to listen to unfamiliar songs when I know a bulk of others because I tend to mentally focus on the ones I am familiar with.