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Everybody has heard of Cats in the Cradle, but this is another fun song he did that never made the radio top 40, I first heard it on the LP I got in the late 70s as a college student.
The story: On March 18, 1965, on Moosic Street in Scranton, a tractor-trailer carrying 15 tons of bananas lost control in rush hour traffic, hitting cars, houses, and wire poles before crashing into a home. The driver, Eugene P. Sesky (35), was killed and over 15 people were injured.
Here's a video of him in Germany
this one puts the music to video and photos to illustrate the song
and by a couple of random guys
world's worst karaoke
1977 No alternate endings but great performance by Harry and the guys! Only problem is, the audience is lacking in enthusiasm. It was a taping of a German tv show, 'Rockpalast' and it looks like they filled the audience by paying people to be there and clap. Poor Harry! He works hard to get them interested, but they just don't get it. Should have let real fans attend.
Everybody has heard of Cats in the Cradle, but this is another fun song he did that never made the radio top 40, I first heard it on the LP I got in the late 70s as a college student.
The story: On March 18, 1965, on Moosic Street in Scranton, a tractor-trailer carrying 15 tons of bananas lost control in rush hour traffic, hitting cars, houses, and wire poles before crashing into a home. The driver, Eugene P. Sesky (35), was killed and over 15 people were injured.
Here's a video of him in Germany
this one puts the music to video and photos to illustrate the song
and by a couple of random guys
world's worst karaoke
1977 No alternate endings but great performance by Harry and the guys! Only problem is, the audience is lacking in enthusiasm. It was a taping of a German tv show, 'Rockpalast' and it looks like they filled the audience by paying people to be there and clap. Poor Harry! He works hard to get them interested, but they just don't get it. Should have let real fans attend.
30000 Pounds of Bananas - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/30,000_Pounds_of_Bananas
30,000 Pounds of Bananas
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia"30,000 Pounds of Bananas", sometimes spelled "Thirty-Thousand Pounds of Bananas", is a country folk song by Harry Chapin from his 1974album, Verities & Balderdash. The song became more popular in its live extended recording from Chapin's 1976 concert album, Greatest Stories Livethat started the phrase "Harry, it sucks". The song is based on an actual truck accident which occurred in Scranton, Pennsylvania in 1965.[1]Contents
[hide][edit]Incident
On March 18, 1965, a 35-year-old truck driver, Gene Seski,[2] was on his way to deliver a load of bananas to Scranton, Pennsylvania. Seski, an employee of Fred Carpentier, who operated a small truck line in Scranton, was returning from the boat piers at Weehawken, New Jersey where he picked up his load. While the exact information is somewhat lost in time, the load was clearly destined for the "wholesale block" on the western edge ofLackawanna Avenue in Scranton, the local A&P Warehouse or to Halem Hazzouri Bananas, the premier banana purveyor in the area at the time. Seski was driving a 1950s Brockway diesel truck tractor with a 35-foot semi-trailer while and was headed down Rt. 307 when he suddenly lost control. The "two-mile" descent extends from Lake Scranton down to the bottom of Moosic Street41.396005°N 75.648251°WCoordinates: 41.396005°N 75.648251°W, a 500-foot drop in elevation in little more than a mile, where the truck eventually crashed at the southwest corner of Moosic St and S. Irving Ave. For some reason, the truck cruised into Scranton at about ninety miles-per-hour, sideswiping a number of cars before it crashed, killing the driver and spilling bananas everywhere when the rig came to rest. The road was then closed for cleanup as Johnson's Towing Company helped out in the recovery. Trucks over 21,000 lb (9,500 kg) are no longer allowed to travel that route.[edit]The song
The song portrays a fictional account of the incident played in the form of a country song. With each verse, the song gets faster to which Chapin explained is to "build up intensity and excitement." During the chorus, Chapin sings the verse "thirty-thousand pounds" followed by Big John Wallacesinging the bass line "of bananas". During concerts, the audience was encouraged to shout this verse.[edit]Content
A young truck-driver is driving "just after dark" during his "second job" to deliver a load of bananas to Scranton, which is described as a "coal-scarred city where children play without despair in back-yard slag piles," the population of which consumes about 30,000 pounds of bananas daily. While approaching Scranton, he passes a sign he "should have seen" reading: "Shift to low gear / a fifty dollar fine my friend" because he is too busy thinking about seeing his wife after his trip. He begins to travel down the "two-mile drop" road to the bottom of the hill. Suddenly, the truck begins to go faster down the hill and driver tries to apply the brakes, only to discover they aren't working. He says, "Christ!" who ironically is "the only Man who could save him now" as the load of bananas push against the truck causing it to pick up speed. Cruising into Scanton at "about ninety miles-per-hour", he almost hits a passing bus. The driver then prays twice to God to make the event all a dream before he "sideswiped nineteen neat parked cars / clipped off thirteen telephone poles / hit two houses, bruised eight trees / and Blue-Crossed seven people." He is decapitated in the accident and 400 yards of the hill is smeared with his load of bananas.The song's epilogue tells the story how Chapin first heard of the event coming on Greyhound bus out of Scranton some months later. An old man sitting next to Chapin implores him to imagine "30,000 pounds of mashed bananas."[edit]Alternate endings
In the live performance form the album Greatest Stories Live, Chapin sings two alternate endings to the song he originally had in mind, explaining to the audience that the rest of the band was less than enthusiastic about them (with his brothers Tom and Steve each offering the summary dismissal, "Harry, it sucks!"). The first alternate ending uses "Yes we have no bananas" as the punchline of the song. The second ending is described by Chapin as a "country-western" ending about "motherhood" because the song "already had a truck." It deals with a young mother crying while watching her child sleeping. The woman is presumably the truck driver's wife, and because of her sorrow over the accident, and "though she lives in Scranton, Pennsylvania / she never, ever eats bananas." During concerts, Chapin divided the audience during this ending, usually turning it into a contest between men and women with regard to singing skill. The second alternate ending has everyone sing 'of Bananas!' in harmony, swelling to a climax and cutting off.A third alternate ending surfaced later which Chapin would often introduce with a monologue about Donnie and Marie Osmond, and the technical definition of the word 'sucks'. The third alternate ending is a parody of a Chiquita banana commercial, done in 'Jimmy Buffett style', with the participation of the whole band. The ending is cut short by Big John singing the first verse of "Taxi" in the form of an upbeat disco style which concludes with Chapin telling him "it sucks."The Bottom Line CD features the four endings along with "Final Concert". Other recorded examples of the song with all four endings include performances at Knoxville Memorial Stadium on March 7, 1979, the Coffee Break Concert broadcast on WMMS Cleveland on December 5, 1979, and the Boston University concert on April 1, 1981."Harry, it sucks" became a popular catchphrase among Chapin's fans, to the point where T-shirts sporting the phrase would be offered at his concerts.[edit]References
- ^ "Whizzo World Blog: Harry Chapin's 30,000 Pounds of Bananas". Whizzo.blogspot.com. 2006-07-17. Retrieved 2010-10-21.
- ^ "Grit in the Gears: Fruit". Gritinthegears.blogspot.com. 2007-07-24. Retrieved 2010-10-21.
- Lyrics: from Harry Chapin's official website http://harrychapin.com/music/30000lbs.shtml
It was just after dark when the truck started down
the hill that leads into Scranton Pennsylvania.
Carrying thirty thousand pounds of bananas.
Carrying thirty thousand pounds (hit it Big John) of bananas.
He was a young driver,
just out on his second job.
And he was carrying the next day's pasty fruits
for everyone in that coal-scarred city
where children play without despair
in backyard slag-piles and folks manage to eat each day
about thirty thousand pounds of bananas.
Yes, just about thirty thousand pounds (scream it again, John) .
He passed a sign that he should have seen,
saying "shift to low gear, a fifty dollar fine my friend."
He was thinking perhaps about the warm-breathed woman
who was waiting at the journey's end.
He started down the two mile drop,
the curving road that wound from the top of the hill.
He was pushing on through the shortening miles that ran down to the depot.
Just a few more miles to go,
then he'd go home and have her ease his long, cramped day away.
and the smell of thirty thousand pounds of bananas.
Yes the smell of thirty thousand pounds of bananas.
He was picking speed as the city spread its twinkling lights below him.
But he paid no heed as the shivering thoughts of the nights
delights went through him.
His foot nudged the brakes to slow him down.
But the pedal floored easy without a sound.
He said "Christ!"
It was funny how he had named the only man who could save him now.
He was trapped inside a dead-end hellslide,
riding on his fear-hunched back
was every one of those yellow green
I'm telling you thirty thousand pounds of bananas.
Yes, there were thirty thousand pounds of bananas.
He barely made the sweeping curve that led into the steepest grade.
And he missed the thankful passing bus at ninety miles an hour.
And he said "God, make it a dream!"
as he rode his last ride down.
And he said "God, make it a dream!"
as he rode his last ride down.
And he sideswiped nineteen neat parked cars,
clipped off thirteen telephone poles,
hit two houses, bruised eight trees,
and Blue-Crossed seven people.
it was then he lost his head,
not to mention an arm or two before he stopped.
And he slid for four hundred yards
along the hill that leads into Scranton, Pennsylvania.
All those thirty thousand pounds of bananas.
You know the man who told me about it on the bus,
as it went up the hill out of Scranton, Pennsylvania,
he shrugged his shoulders, he shook his head,
and he said (and this is exactly what he said)
"Boy that sure must've been something.
Just imagine thirty thousand pounds of bananas.
Yes, there were thirty thousand pounds of mashed bananas.
Of bananas. Just bananas. Thirty thousand pounds.
of Bananas. not no driver now. Just bananas!"
From Greatest Stories Live: Ending #1
Yes, we have no bananas,
We have no bananas today
(Spoken: And if that wasn't enough)
Yes, we have no bananas,
Bananas in Scranton, P A
From Greatest Stories Live: Ending #2:
A woman walks into her room where her child lies sleeping,
and when she sees his eyes are closed,
she sits there, silently weeping,
and though she lives in Scranton, Pennsylvania
She never ever eats ... Bananas
Not one of thirty thousand pounds .... of bananas
Harry Chapin sings BANANAS Live 1977 - YouTube
www.youtube.com/watch?v=NZZqnVYB4UAApr 10, 2007 - 6 min - bearznorthCATHY
30000 POUNDS OF BANANAS - HARRY CHAPINby stoneygravedFeatured Video31154 views. Harry Chapin ... Harry Chapin - Thirty Thousand Pounds of Bananas
www.youtube.com/watch?v=ODMye94wMfkJan 20, 2010 - 11 min - bearznorthCATHY
Album: The Bottom Line Encore Collection (1998)Harry Chapin - 30,000 Pounds of Bananas
www.youtube.com/watch?v=3hsbdw3DhowApr 16, 2009 - 7 min - bagnon
Album: Verities & Balderdash (1974)30000 Pounds of Bananas Lyrics by Harry Chapin
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