LyricMeaning

Mr. Tanner
Harry Chapin

Mister Tanner was a cleaner from a town in the Midwest.
And of all the cleaning shops around he'd made his the best.
But he also was a baritone who sang while hanging clothes.
He practiced scales while pressing tails and sang at local shows.
His friends and neighbors praised the voice that poured out from his throat.
They said that he should use his gift instead of cleaning coats.

But music was his life, it was not his livelihood,
and it made him feel so happy and it made him feel so good.
And he sang from his heart and he sang from his soul.
He did not know how well he sang; It just made him whole.

His friends kept working on him to try music out full time.
A big debut and rave reviews, a great career to climb.
Finally they got to him, he would take the fling.
A concert agent in New York agreed to have him sing.
And there were plane tickets, phone calls, money spent to rent the hall.
It took most of his savings but he gladly used them all.

But music was his life, it was not his livelihood,
and it made him feel so happy and it made him feel so good.
And he sang from his heart and he sang from his soul.
He did not know how well he sang; It just made him whole.

The evening came, he took the stage, his face set in a smile.
And in the half filled hall the critics sat watching on the aisle.
But the concert was a blur to him, spatters of applause.
He did not know how well he sang, he only heard the flaws.
But the critics were concise, it only took four lines.
But no one could accuse them of being over kind.

(spoken) Mr. Martin Tanner, Baritone, of Dayton, Ohio made his
Town Hall debut last night. He came well prepared, but unfortunately
his presentation was not up to contemporary professional standards.
His voice lacks the range of tonal color necessary to make it
consistently interesting.
(sung) Full time consideration of another endeavor might be in order.

He came home to Dayton and was questioned by his friends.
Then he smiled and just said nothing and he never sang again,
excepting very late at night when the shop was dark and closed.
He sang softly to himself as he sorted through the clothes.
Music was his life, it was not his livelihood,
and it made him feel so happy and it made him feel so good.
And he sang from his heart and he sang from his soul.
He did not know how well he sang; It just made him whole.


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Lyrics by Harry Chapin

  30,000 Pounds of Bananas   A Better Place To Be   A Lot of Lonely People Tonight   A Quiet Little Love Affair   And the Baby Never Cries   Anthem   Any Old Kind of Day   Babysitter   Barefoot Boy   Basic Protest Song   Bluesman   Bummer   Burning Herself   Calluses   Caroline   Cat's In The Cradle   Cat's InThe Cradle   Cat's In The Cradle   Cats In The Cradle   Changes   Circle   Copper   Corey's Coming   Corey's Coming   Could you put your Light on Please?   Could You Put Your Light On, Please   Country Dreams   Dance Band on the Titanic   Dancin' Boy   Dancin' Boy   Dancing Boy   Dirt Gets Under the Fingernails   Dogtown   Dreams Go By   Empty   Everybody's Lonely   Everybody's Lonely   Fall In Love With Him   Flowers Are Red   Get On With It   God Babe You've Been Good To Me   God Babe, You've Been Good For Me   God Babe, You've Been Good For Me   Greyhound   Halfway to Heaven   I Do It For You Jane   I Don't Want To Be President   I Don't Want To Be President   I Finally Found It, Sandy   I Miss America   I Wanna Learn a Love Song   I Want to Learn a Love Song   I Wonder What Happened To Him   I Wonder What Would Happen to Him   I Wonder What Would Happen to this World   If My Mary Were Here   If You Want to Feel   It Seems You Only Love Me When It Rains   Jenny   Jubilation   Last Of The Protest Singers   Last Stand   Laugh Man   Legends of the Lost and Found   Let Time Go Lightly   Love Is Just Another Word   Mail Order Annie   Manhood   Mercenaries   Mismatch   My Old Lady   Northwest 222   November Rain   November Rains   Odd Job Man   Old College Avenue   Old Folkie   On the Road to Kingdom Come   One Light in a Dark Valley   Paint A Picture Of Yourself   Paint A Picture of Yourself (Michael)   Pigeon Run   Poor Damned Fool   Pretzel Man   Remember When the Music   Remember When the Music (Reprise)   Roll Down the River   Salt And Pepper   Sandy   Saturday Morning   Sequel   She Is Always Seventeen   She Sings Songs Without Words   Shooting Star   Short Stories   Silly Little Girl   Six String Orchestra   Sniper   Somebody Said   Someone Keeps Calling My Name   Sometime Somewhere Wife   Sometime, Somewhere Wife   Song for Myself   Song Man   Sounds Like America To Me   Star Tripper   Stop Singing These Sad Songs   Story of a Life   Stranger with the Melodies   Sunday Morning Sunshine   Tangled Up Puppet   Taxi   The Day They Closed the Factory Down   The Mayor of Candor Lied   The Parade's Still Passing By   The Parade's Still Passing By   The Rock   The Same Sad Singer   The Shortest Story   There Only Was One Choice   There's Alot of Lonely People Tonight   They Call Her Easy   Up On the Shelf   Vacancy   W.O.L.D   W.O.L.D.   W*O*L*D   We Grew Up A Little Bit   We Were Three   What Made America Famous   What Made America Famous?   Why Do Little Girls   Why Do Little Girls?   Why Should People Stay the Same   Winter Song   Woman Child   Word Wizard   You Are the Only Song

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