That's Not The Way It Feels

This September 20th will mark the thirty fifth year since Pop Singer/Songwriter Jim Croce was killed in a plane crash. In the summer of 1973 I was fourteen years old and had just bought my first record album, ever. "Life and Times" By you guessed it Jim Croce. I sat in my old room in the second story of my parents house in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia and played that album until I wore it out (It wouldn't be my last copy, I have owned it in Vinyl, 8 Track, Cassette CD and MP3). Little did I know as I listened and sang along that his life would be brought to such a sudden and tragic end just a few months later.

Croce was born in the south side of Philadelphia, in a rough part of town. His love of music started early and he joined numerous musical groups. He attended Villanova University where he met his wife Ingrid at a Hootenanny. He was a member of the Villanova singers and formed a number of bands. Jim played in coffee houses and at neighboring Universities. After graduating in 1965 he and his wife toured and performed mostly folk music doing covers of Ian & Sylvia Tyson tunes, he also emulated Gordon Lightfoot and Woody Guthry. He would continue to do thoughtful covers and interpretations of the works of other artists such as Sam Cook when he made it big. It wasn't an easy life and after having moved to New York, and lost everything he owned except one guitar he left the business and went to work driving truck. He would later chalk this up to "Character Development" but it must have hurt, a lot. But like most things that do not kill us, it made him stronger.

While they were struggling he and Ingrid wrote many fine tunes, such as "Spin, Spin, Spin" and "Age". These folksy tunes stand up well and are worth a listen. While playing some very tough bars Jim developed a style of talking between songs that endeared him to his audience and doubtless saved him from a lot of abuse and perhaps a few stitches from flying beer bottles. His style was funny, if a bit bawdy, pithy and studded with the experiences of someone who had worked for a living,The kind of humor that he used so well in his "Character Songs" about people like Leroy Brown and a roller derby queen who "Was built like a fridgerator, with a head.".

Life is often a series of fortunate accidents and in 1970 Jim met Maury Muehleisen through a mutual friend. Maury was a classically trained guitarist and initially it was Jim who backed up Maury. It was a match made in heaven, they complimented each other beautifully. Eventually Jim would take the lead but always, Maury was there with his crystal clear tones and haunting chord structures. Jim's diamond would not have shone so bright, nor had so many facets without Maury, his brilliance and Jim's were symbiotic.

When fame came it was meteoric. Croce was your typical overnight success that was ten years in the making. In 1972 he released "You Don't Mess Around With Jim" and "Life & Times". "Bad, Bad Leroy Brown" went to #1 on the Charts in the summer of 1973. Jim was at the very zenith of his career. He was having success with "Operator that's not The way it Feels" and only one day before the release of his third album under the ABC label "I Got A Name"it literally all came crashing down, when the small plane he was riding crashed on takeoff, killing all aboard. Jim was just 30 years old. Like so many music stars he had been taken In the prime of life in a plane crash, the bitter news was heightened by the death of Maury Muelheisen who was only 24. In that summer of hope in 1973 when I was so young and the world seemed so endless and vast, I learned something of what it was to feel loss and sorrow. Jim will be forever young as he joins those whom time has frozen, like fruit picked at the peak of the harvest. To paraphrase what I once heard about Stan Rogers, what Jim did with the first thirty years of his life leaves you to wonder what he would have done with another thirty years.

I recently downloaded a video of Jim singing "Operator" with, of course, Maury at his side, not in the back but sitting side by side, playing so beautifully. The video was sublime. It also opened an old wound that I did not think would be so close to the surface some 35 years later. Jim has been gone longer than he was on this earth. His music holds up so well, though. Especially for me anyways, his ballads and love songs. Give them a listen and I know you will agree. After his death I was left with only his older music, and some very bad recordings of his coffee house and barroom days. The talent was still there, a diamond in the rough. As I listened to Operator" it occurred to me how appropriate were his own words to the reaction of his millions of fans on the September morn....

I've overcome the blow-
I've learned to take it well-
I only wish my words could just convince myself-
That it just wasn't real.... But that's not the way it feels...


No,NO,No,NO.... That's not the way it feels...