My wife & I were fortunate enough to see MCC in 1993 at the Mann in Philadelphia when “C’Mon, C’Mon” was released, the album this song was featured on. I had never been to any show where I’d felt my emotions get the best of me, but on that evening, I was wiping away tears twice - once during the performance of this song and again when Chapin sang the title tune. It’s been 30 years now and I still believe “C’Mon, C’Mon” is the best overall compilation of songs I’ve ever heard from a female singer-songwriter and her performance on that July evening ranks as one of the best five concerts I’ve ever had the privilege to be in the audience for. She was at the peak of her creative powers at that time and I feel so grateful to have witnessed how a great artist can reach into the souls of other human beings. On that particular night, she touched mine.
Great performance of one of the most moving songs ever written, by one of the world's greatest songwriters (it was previously only available here with the start missing). She was brilliant in London this week w Shawn Colvin. Thanks for posting.
Song makes me cry every single time -yearning for our childhood… feeling safe “under a sheltering sky”…yet the dissolution of a family… as the baby of ours, I ached every time my siblings moved away….
been a big fan since i first heard MCC back in the early 90s, if my memory is still intact or can trust it. one of the best composers of our time, male, female, or other. Thank You MCC
The lyrics to this song are so vivid; they take me back to my own childhood. A very reflective song; wonderful music written to accompany such. Thank you The MC2Fan for recording it and for posting it.
Hi Sharon. Trust you are well? This song remains SO very evocative! Stay safe - hope spring comes to Canada soon, too. Greetings from Cape Town, RSA.🇿🇦
The most effective line in this song (to me) is the one Chapin so wonderfully left out. Right after "It must have been one helluva a suitcase you packed." There's an expected lyric after that sentence, and "space" for it, but ... none comes. Silence. Thoughts. Masterful. (And I still want to play bass for that woman!)
Stunning version did a had pretty good go at it when she was in Dublin with Shawn Colvin about 6 months ago you could have heard a pin drop. Thanks for the post
I wished so much she would have played this at the Riviera Theatre when I saw here (near Buffalo), but I might have sunk right through the floor and the ground and the earth, so maybe it's better she didn't. !!
Was written about one of her older sisters whom she was very close to I recall about her leaving to go to school college. They were very close and inseparable when young kids but then moved and stress in her parents marriage. The voices downstairs getting into a fight and the feeling next day like a blade at your throat. But basically that is what it's about losing a sibling who goes away as they get older and the feelings That go with it
So funny., I always thought it was about an older brother. Makes the song seem more plausible and poignant, though I now know it was written about a sister. Girls today have all that BFF rubbish, etc, going on. But between a girl and her older brother, there might grow a distance as he grew older. But if it's about a sister, nobody in the family gets up to help a sister leave for college? I played the Come On Come oN CD in my car today, and , as always, this song put a lump in my throat.
About her older sister Camilla, to be exact. I was just reading an old New York Times Magazine article that talks about the song and the effect that it had on Camilla when she heard it.
