This day in music history.

July 16, 1981, At the age of 37, While driving his Volkswagen to a benefit concert Harry Chapin was hit by a truck in Jericho, New York. The car exploded on impact but the driver of the truck was able to pull Chapin from the burning car. Doctors tried for a half hour to save him but in the end he died from a massive heart attack.
Shooting Star by Harry Chapin
He was crazy of course From the first she must have known it But still she went on with him
And she never once had shown it And she took him off the street And she dried his tears of grieving
She listened to his visions She believed in his believe-ins
Oh, he was the sun burning bright and brittle And she was the moon shining back his light a little
He was a shooting star She was softer and more slowly He could not make things possible But, she could make them holy
He was dancing to some music No one else had ever heard He'd speak in unknown languages She would translate every word And then when the world was laughing At his castles in the sky She'd hold him in her body Till he once again could fly
Oh, he was the sun burning bright and brittle And she was the moon shining back his light a little He was a shooting star She was softer and more slowly He could not make things possible But, she could make them holy
Well, she gave him a daughter And she gave him a son She was a mother, and a wife, And a lover when the day was done
He was too far gone for giving love What he offered in its stead Was the knowledge she was the only thing That was not in his head He took off East one morning Towards the rising sun's red glow She knew he was going nowhere But of course she let him go And as she stood and watched him dwindle Much too empty to be sad He reappeared beside her saying, You're all I've ever had Oh, he was the sun burning bright and brittle And she was the moon shining back his light a little He was a shooting star She was softer and more slowly He could not make things possible But, she could make them holy Holy