With a back catalogue boasting such gems as 'Rainmaker' and 'Fully Qualified Survivor' (featuring Mick Ronson, Rick Kemp, and others), it remains a mystery to all why he wasn't afforded more mainstream recognition. With his often quirky songs and vocal style sometimes eerily reminiscent of David Bowie, one can only assume that Chapman's hardy reluctance to bow to the commercial pressures of his record companies served only to afford him scant recognition from the record-buying public. With a muse falling somewhere between Kevin Ayers and Warren Zevon, Chapman was a folk-rock, psychedelic-jazz troubadour.
Chapman first appeared on the London and Cornwall folk music circuits in 1967, including the Piper's Folk Club in Penzance, alongside John Martyn and Roy Harper. His first album was "Rainmaker" in 1969.
His 1970 second album, "Fully Qualified Survivor", again produced by Gus Dudgeon with lush strings arranged by Paul Buckmaster, received much critical acclaim from the likes of BBC Radio 1 DJ John Peel, and featured his best-known track, "Postcards of Scarborough".
After a tour of the United States with Rick Kemp, Chapman signed to Decca's subsidiary, Deram, recording an increasingly rockier set of albums. Championed by Charles Shaar Murray and John Peel, he continued to have a high profile, being a lively draw on the college circuit in the UK and across mainland Europe.
1977 saw the end of Chapman's Decca deal, and the beginning of an association with Criminal Records in 1978; both record labels released versions of The Man Who Hated Mornings. He continued to gig and record consistently, varying styles and sounds, sometimes working with a full group, more often working with Rick Kemp alone.
The 1980s was a quieter time for Chapman. He continued to make recordings that straddled musical genres and pushed his guitar playing to the fore, but had neither the profile nor sales of the previous decade.
The late 1990s onwards represented a period of continued rebirth for Chapman. He embraced the 'elder statesman' role and enjoyed critical acclaim for albums like Navigation, Dreaming Out Loud and Still Making Rain (a wry pun title that looked back to his debut album). With the 1997 release of Dreaming Out Loud, Chapman was releasing albums at the rate of one every two years, and still attracting high praise, if not great sales.
The 21st century saw Chapman exploring his guitar player roots and releasing instrumental albums alongside his song-based sets. Americana and Words Fail Me feature soundscapes that recalled travels in America, and featured a dexterity and inventiveness on the guitar equal to the classic Harvest and Decca periods.
A tribute album titled Oh Michael, Look What You've Done: Friends Play Michael Chapman was released in 2012 on Tompkins Square Records. It includes contributions from Lucinda Williams, Maddy Prior, William Tyler, Hiss Golden Messenger and Sonic Youth's Thurston Moore.
In 2016, Chapman celebrated fifty years as a professional musician. Towards the end of his life he still played professionally and regularly toured in the UK, Europe and US.
Among the Trees
Michael Chapman Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Among the trees I have spent all my summers in a haze
of lazy afternoons, watching all the rain,
as it patterns the verandah, then disappears again.
Come the sun...
How I wish I could return to those summers once again,
How I wish I could just sit in the presence of a friend,
Watching as the dark shades of evening turn to night.
Gone the sun...
Among the trees I have lain and passed my golden days,
Among the trees I have spent all my summers in a haze
of lazy afternoons, watching all the rain,
as it patterns the verandah, then disappears again.
Gone the sun...
Michael Chapman's song "Among the Trees" is a wistful reflection on the simple pleasures of youth, featuring the repeated refrain "Among the trees I have lain and passed my golden days." The song captures a sense of nostalgia for the summers of the past, characterized by lazy afternoons spent watching the rain patterns on the verandah and listening to birdsong. There is a deep longing to return to those carefree days as the singer thinks about how much he wishes he could just sit in the presence of a friend and make music together, watching as the dark shades of evening turn into the night.
Overall, "Among the Trees" is a deeply felt and introspective song, full of warmth and yearning. While the lyrics are simple, they convey a sense of longing and loss that will resonate with anyone who has ever looked back on their youth with fondness.
Line by Line Meaning
Among the trees I have lain and passed my golden days,
I've spent my best days resting under the trees in a peaceful state.
Among the trees I have spent all my summers in a haze of lazy afternoons, watching all the rain,
I've spent all my summers in a mellow state, just watching the rain fall and disappear.
as it patterns the verandah, then disappears again.
I watch the rain fall and leave intricate patterns on the porch, only to disappear again.
Come the sun...
But now, the sun is rising.
How I wish I could return to those summers once again,
I yearn to relive those peaceful summers again.
How I wish I could just sit in the presence of a friend,
I want to be with a friend and simply enjoy their company.
Making music or just listening to the birds so far from sight,
We could make music, or just listen to the birds that are out of sight.
Watching as the dark shades of evening turn to night.
We can observe as the evening turns to night, with the sky darkening.
Gone the sun...
But now, the sun has set.
Among the trees I have lain and passed my golden days,
Again, I remember the days when I would rest under the trees and cherish them.
Among the trees I have spent all my summers in a haze of lazy afternoons, watching all the rain,
Once more, I remember the summers where I would just watch the rain fall.
as it patterns the verandah, then disappears again.
Once again, I recall how the rain would leave intricate patterns on the porch and then disappear.
Gone the sun...
And again, the sun has set.
Contributed by Cole E. Suggest a correction in the comments below.
Chris Pellow
Here you go:
I have seen you dancing in the willow shaded park
I’ve seen you in the morning as we listen to the lark
And I have seen you naked in the sunshine and the dark
And I wonder why you ever went away
Tell me why you ever went away
I sometimes see myself in a mirror like a stranger passing by
Walking over stony ground, head bent beneath the sky
I see myself as a wanderer of old in the days before the road
Avoiding all inhabited places, afraid of the heavy load
Don’t you know I’m afraid of the heavy load
I sometimes see myself as a rambler living hand to mouthWaiting for the first cold wind to point my feet down south
Towards the grass still green you know and the leaves still on the tres
I guess I’m still a Little confused but that’s just what I see
What I see
(Repeat verse 1 with last line sung 3 times)
TheBundleofkent
RIP Michael, you were a wonderful artist
yukonnoka
this is just simply great music, ridiculously undervalued by society...
MsZephyr6
Cant stop playing this, its beautiful. Didn't know much about Michael Chapman until quite recently. Must listen to more of his music. The drummer in this video really makes me smile. Great stuff thanks for posting.
Andy Whysall
The man who never gave up. There'll be disappointed fans sadly getting their money back for gigs booked ahead of his demise. Nice bloke too. He lived not far from where I am and when he was about 68 I got him on the radio (my line of work) to talk about the risks of losing luggage like guitars at airports and so on and how you can reclaim them off the conveyor belts and find them smashed. He said he'd not been very well but was about to fly off on a small midwinter tour of the Eastern USA which had been having massive snow storms: 'Well, you've got to, haven't you?". Note about his guitar there....a Fylde "Olivia". Roger Bucknall, who made it, said he had no idea how to do solid black lacquer like Chapman wanted, but he managed it with rattle cans and a razor blade to clean up the binding....and as for the vine pattern on the fingerboard he said he'd only ever done dots and after some experimenting managed to carve the rebates for the inlay with a sharpened screwdriver. Roger's come a long way since then. And Michael's gorn to a better place.
Nigel Barrett
RIP Michael Chapman what a wonderful artist.
Andrew Hawkey
I bought the 'Window' album in London circa 1970, and this was my favourite track: just loved the rural sentiment and Michael's drowsily stoned vocal. A few years back I saw him playing live in a pub in Presteigne, Wales, and he was mesmerising: he set out his stall right from the start of the evening, saying 'If it's too loud, you're too fookin' old!' I bought the '50' CD,which he signed: he was happy to chat ... he told me he was off to the States, and had an invitation to dinner with his one-time producer, the legendarily eccentric Don Nix: 'I'll be takin' my life in my hands,' said Michael. It's hard to think of an artist who lived life more to the full than this man, who was always pushing his art forward, and never compromised. Bless you, Michael - RIP.
Duncan
Love this live version, it is so natural.
Derek Revell
I went to a ELP live performance, and Mike Chapman was the supporting artist, and he was just amazing, and a truly gifted guitar player, blew me away at the time, and only now I've had the time to find out more about him.
Matthew Hopkins
So very sad to hear about Mike Chapman 'moving on'. One of my heroes. RIP
Dave Humphreys
absolutely beautiful.