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Post by chiyankee on Sept 20, 2023 17:58:11 GMT -5
On this date 50 years ago, Jim Croce died in a plan crash. Croce was an outstanding signer/songwriter who was just reaching super star status. Plus, he was a good old PA boy.
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Post by pippsheadache on Sept 20, 2023 18:21:57 GMT -5
On this date 50 years ago, Jim Croce died in a plan crash. Croce was an outstanding signer/songwriter who was just reaching super star status. Plus, he was a good old PA boy. He did so many wonderful songs and was an excellent storyteller. Although my favorite is probably "Operator" which was his first big hit, almost anything he did was worth a listen. He brought a lot of credibility to his music. He was an Upper Darby boy, growing up a few blocks from where Todd Rundgren and later Tina Fey would live. His niece is a harpist who played at my parents 60th anniversary celebration. She was really good, but didn't play any of her uncle's songs. |
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Post by inger on Sept 20, 2023 22:16:41 GMT -5
On this date 50 years ago, Jim Croce died in a plan crash. Croce was an outstanding signer/songwriter who was just reaching super star status. Plus, he was a good old PA boy. A truly sad day… |
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Post by inger on Sept 20, 2023 22:23:14 GMT -5
On this date 50 years ago, Jim Croce died in a plan crash. Croce was an outstanding signer/songwriter who was just reaching super star status. Plus, he was a good old PA boy. He did so many wonderful songs and was an excellent storyteller. Although my favorite is probably "Operator" which was his first big hit, almost anything he did was worth a listen. He brought a lot of credibility to his music. He was an Upper Darby boy, growing up a few blocks from where Todd Rundgren and later Tina Fey would live. His niece is a harpist who played at my parents 60th anniversary celebration. She was really good, but didn't play any of her uncle's songs. Bad, Bad Leroy Brown doesn’t exactly lend itself to a harp recital… I saw an interview with Ingrid who said that he was so excited because he had just completed recording “Time in a Bottle”. It was the first time he ever recorded in a studio without a guitar, which he had been nervous about. The future was looking so bright and the couple had never been happier as Jim had made a commitment to reduce his touring to spend more time at home. 50 years. Where’d they go?… |
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Post by Renfield on Sept 21, 2023 4:56:53 GMT -5
50 years ago? Holy Molely! Seems like it was just a few years ago. Had some great songs. I'm partial to I Have to Say I Love You in a Song (or something like that).
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Post by pippsheadache on Sept 21, 2023 5:27:37 GMT -5
He did so many wonderful songs and was an excellent storyteller. Although my favorite is probably "Operator" which was his first big hit, almost anything he did was worth a listen. He brought a lot of credibility to his music. He was an Upper Darby boy, growing up a few blocks from where Todd Rundgren and later Tina Fey would live. His niece is a harpist who played at my parents 60th anniversary celebration. She was really good, but didn't play any of her uncle's songs. Bad, Bad Leroy Brown doesn’t exactly lend itself to a harp recital… I saw an interview with Ingrid who said that he was so excited because he had just completed recording “Time in a Bottle”. It was the first time he ever recorded in a studio without a guitar, which he had been nervous about. The future was looking so bright and the couple had never been happier as Jim had made a commitment to reduce his touring to spend more time at home. 50 years. Where’d they go?… When you mentioned guitars it reminded me that Croce's guitar accompanist, Maury Meuhleisen, was also killed in that crash. He's the long-haired guy you always saw sitting next to Jim on stage. He was very talented in his own right -- in fact when they first teamed up, Jim was backing Maury as a guitar duo. He was only 24 at the time of the crash. |
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Post by pippsheadache on Sept 21, 2023 6:15:43 GMT -5
50 years ago? Holy Molely! Seems like it was just a few years ago. Had some great songs. I'm partial to I Have to Say I Love You in a Song (or something like that). It does seem impossible that it's been half a century. That would be like what 1923 was to 1973. "I've Got A Name" and "Lovers Cross" were two more good ones from him. He even did a nice version of "Old Man River" that he liked playing in concerts. It seems like starting with the Buddy Holly/Ritchie Valens/Big Bopper plane crash in 1959 (and I remember that one, talk about old) every few years there have been well-known musicians killed in small-plane crashes -- country stars Patsy Cline and Jim Reeves, Otis Redding and most of his band The Bar-Kays, Jim Croce, most of Lynyrd Skynyrd, Rick Nelson, John Denver, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Randy Rhoads and I am sure others I am not coming up with. |
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Post by chiyankee on Sept 21, 2023 8:26:33 GMT -5
On this date 50 years ago, Jim Croce died in a plan crash. Croce was an outstanding signer/songwriter who was just reaching super star status. Plus, he was a good old PA boy. almost anything he did was worth a listen. He brought a lot of credibility to his music. He was an Upper Darby boy, growing up a few blocks from where Todd Rundgren and later Tina Fey would live. His niece is a harpist who played at my parents 60th anniversary celebration. She was really good, but didn't play any of her uncle's songs. Here you go, pipps. |
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Post by pippsheadache on Sept 21, 2023 10:19:12 GMT -5
He did so many wonderful songs and was an excellent storyteller. Although my favorite is probably "Operator" which was his first big hit, almost anything he did was worth a listen. He brought a lot of credibility to his music. He was an Upper Darby boy, growing up a few blocks from where Todd Rundgren and later Tina Fey would live. His niece is a harpist who played at my parents 60th anniversary celebration. She was really good, but didn't play any of her uncle's songs. Here you go, pipps. Aww, thanks Chi. I love that one. Great story and great guitar work from Maury. Of course the concept of an operator would be lost on anyone younger than about 50! |
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Post by chiyankee on Sept 21, 2023 10:29:27 GMT -5
Aww, thanks Chi. I love that one. Great story and great guitar work from Maury. Of course the concept of an operator would be lost on anyone younger than about 50! lol, kids today have no clue what you would need an operator for. Or why you would pay a dime to make a phone call. I love the line "She's living in LA. With my best old ex friend Ray" |
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Post by inger on Sept 21, 2023 10:49:07 GMT -5
I’ve become partial to Cottonmouth River…
And Stone Walls…
In addition to his reprisal of Old Man River he did a medley of Sound of The Men (working on the railroad)/He Don’t Love You (like I love you that’s pleasant.
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Post by pippsheadache on Sept 21, 2023 12:16:58 GMT -5
I’ve become partial to Cottonmouth River… And Stone Walls… In addition to his reprisal of Old Man River he did a medley of Sound of The Men (working on the railroad)/He Don’t Love You (like I love you that’s pleasant. Inger, you have a connection to Jim Croce that you may not know about. Right up until the time he got a recording contract, Croce worked for Sweeney Construction Company in Chester County hauling stones to various projects in the area. He also worked operating a jackhammer. His songs about working stiffs had a ring of truth to them because he had walked the walk. Chi you also have a connection through your parents. At the time of his death, Jim and his wife were living in an apartment in a farmhouse in East Brandywine Township. That's pretty close to where your parents are I think. A few more songs by him that I liked were "Photographs And Memories" and "One Less Set Of Footsteps." Nice how many Croce fans we have here. He had very wide appeal. As opposed to say Kajagoogoo or A Flock Of Seagulls or Thomas Dolby. |
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Post by rizzuto on Sept 21, 2023 14:14:08 GMT -5
I remember the empty tennis shoe among the debris from the crash. That image stayed with me as an eight year old. Of course, you Croce fans know that the crash was in Louisiana. It was a sad day for me, because I used to hear his albums played by my sister on weekends when she cleaned the house.
My favorites are “Box #10,” “Walking Back To Georgia,” and “Tomorrow’s Gonna Be A Brighter Day.”
That last song probably had more to do with a melancholy boy becoming an optimist despite the depressive tendencies and life’s body blows in child- and young adulthood than I will ever know.
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Post by inger on Sept 21, 2023 14:18:27 GMT -5
I’ve become partial to Cottonmouth River… And Stone Walls… In addition to his reprisal of Old Man River he did a medley of Sound of The Men (working on the railroad)/He Don’t Love You (like I love you that’s pleasant. Inger, you have a connection to Jim Croce that you may not know about. Right up until the time he got a recording contract, Croce worked for Sweeney Construction Company in Chester County hauling stones to various projects in the area. He also worked operating a jackhammer. His songs about working stiffs had a ring of truth to them because he had walked the walk. Chi you also have a connection through your parents. At the time of his death, Jim and his wife were living in an apartment in a farmhouse in East Brandywine Township. That's pretty close to where your parents are I think. A few more songs by him that I liked were "Photographs And Memories" and "One Less Set Of Footsteps." Nice how many Croce fans we have here. He had very wide appeal. As opposed to say Kajagoogoo or A Flock Of Seagulls or Thomas Dolby. I also visited East Brandywine a couple times in my travels, though not knowing of Croce’s former residency at the time. Had I known, I surely would have tried to find it. My attraction to Croce’s music seems a bit misplaced since I’m not a fan of country music and he definitively sounds more country on much of his catalog. I have listened to every single piece of his music known to me and enough so that several of my favorites come from deep cuts rather than the hits. The only other artist that I can say “almost” the same about is Billy Joel. I even have his CD from his Billy Joel and the Hassles days. Where I have come up short is that I haven’t listened to the whole of “Fantasies and Delusions”, his classical release. Croce does take a bit of liberty with his prison songs, having never been in prison, but Johnny Cash never was either. He may or not be singing autobiographically in “Working at the Carwash Blues: Well I just got Of the county prison Doing 90 days For non-support I caught on to him before his death, but his popularity exploded when he died. Maury “also” died that day. I always hate that part of celebrity deaths when they’re accompanied by someone else in death and the others are diminished in the story. But Muehleisen had a profound affect on Croce’s musical accomplishments and was much more valuable to Jim than just a side chair… |
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Post by chiyankee on Sept 22, 2023 8:32:04 GMT -5
I’ve become partial to Cottonmouth River… And Stone Walls… In addition to his reprisal of Old Man River he did a medley of Sound of The Men (working on the railroad)/He Don’t Love You (like I love you that’s pleasant. Inger, you have a connection to Jim Croce that you may not know about. Right up until the time he got a recording contract, Croce worked for Sweeney Construction Company in Chester County hauling stones to various projects in the area. He also worked operating a jackhammer. His songs about working stiffs had a ring of truth to them because he had walked the walk. Chi you also have a connection through your parents. At the time of his death, Jim and his wife were living in an apartment in a farmhouse in East Brandywine Township. That's pretty close to where your parents are I think.A few more songs by him that I liked were "Photographs And Memories" and "One Less Set Of Footsteps." Nice how many Croce fans we have here. He had very wide appeal. As opposed to say Kajagoogoo or A Flock Of Seagulls or Thomas Dolby. That's exactly where my parent are. I mailed my father a birthday card earlier this week and the address was East Brandywine, PA. |
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