Jim Adams is the giver of good prompts for Song Lyric Sunday.  Jim says:
This week the prompt is Bus/Truck/Lorry songs and I feel that everyone should be able to find a song that fits this theme.

Here are the “rules”:
• Post the lyrics to the song of your choice, whether it fits the theme or not. If it does not fit, then please explain why you chose this song.
• Please try to include the songwriter(s) – it’s a good idea to give credit where credit is due.
• Make sure you also credit the singer/band and if you desire you can provide a link to where you found the lyrics.
• Link to the YouTube video, or pull it into your post so others can listen to the song.
• Ping back to this post will eventually work, as long as you are being patient, but you can also place your link in the comments if you don’t like to wait.
• Read at least one other person’s blog, so we can all share new and fantastic music and create amazing new blogging friends in the process.
• Feel free to suggest future prompts.
• Have fun and enjoy the music.

Harry Chapin

Harry Forster Chapin (December 7, 1942 – July 16, 1981) was an American singer-songwriter, humanitarian, and producer best known for his folk rock and pop rock songs, who achieved worldwide success in the 1970s and became one of the most popular artists and highest paid performers. Chapin is also one of the best charting musical artists in the United States. Chapin, a Grammy Award winning artist and Grammy Hall of Fame inductee, has sold over 16 million records worldwide and has been described as one of the most beloved performers in music history.

Harry died in an automobile accident on July 16, 1981, where the suggestion is he fell asleep at the wheel and crossed the center line; he was crushed by a truck in his vehicle, which severed his aorta. His remains were interred in the Huntington Rural Cemetery in Huntington, New York. His epitaph is taken from his song “I Wonder What Would Happen to this World”:

Oh if a man tried
To take his time on Earth
And prove before he died
What one man’s life could be worth
I wonder what would happen
to this world

I love Harry’s music and it was a sad day to learn he had passed on back in 1981.  I think he lived by the words of his epitaph and think he proved how much a (hu)man’s life could be worth if they tried.

I found Greyhound by a random search and had never heard it before tonight. It is from Harry’s album, Heads & Tales, his first studio album, released March 11, 1972.

It’s midnight at the depot
And I drag my bags in line.
Travelin’ light, I got to go
But the bus won’t be on time.
Everybody’s looking half alive.
Later on the bus arrives.

They punch my ticket
I find a seat
And we move out past the lights.
Come on Driver, where’s the heat?
It’s cold out in the night.
I keep telling to myself that I don’t care.
Come tomorrow, I’ll be there.

Take the Greyhound.
It’s a dog of a way to get around.
Take the Greyhound.
It’s a dog gone easy way to get you down.

Tired of watching this night go by
So I look across the aisle.
The window’s frosted, I can’t sleep
But the girl returns my smile.
She reminds me of someone I knew back home.
So I doze. So it goes.

I’m wrinkled on my stool at the rest stop.
The waitress being cozy with the highway cop.
My coffee’s tasting tired.
My eyes roll over dead.
Got to go outside and get the gas out of my head.
Oh, to be in bed.
You got me driving.
I’m on your Greyhound bus and you’re driving.

But there’s nothing new about Greyhounds.
Nothing new about feeling down.
Nothing new about putting off
Or putting myself on.

Looking to tomorrow is the way the loser hides
I should have realized by now that all my life’s a ride.
It’s time to find some happy times and make myself some friends
I know there ain’t no rainbows waiting when this journey ends.

Stepping off this dirty bus first time I understood
It’s got to be the going not the getting there that’s good
That’s a thought for keeping if I could.
It’s got to be the going not the getting there that’s good.

Songwriters: Harry F. Chapin