Talkin’ Music with Jack – “Jim Croce”

Operator

“Could You Help Me Place This Call”

I’d Like To Talk To Jim Croce, For About Twenty Minutes, Maybe Longer.

By Jack Coll

3-19-14

I’ve always been a fan of Jim Croce, it broke my heart the day his plane went down on September 20, 1973, in Natchitoches, Louisiana.  It was a Thursday, I remember it well, I was living in Bridgeport at the time and was headed back to work from my lunch hour when I heard the news on my car radio.

Jim was born and raised in South Philadelphia and attended Upper Darby High School. Following a year at Malvern Preparatory School Jim headed to Villanova University in 1961 and majored in psychology and German.  Although Jim started playing music at the age of five, it wasn’t until he joined the Villanova Singers and the Villanova Spires that he started taking music seriously.

Within that time Jim formed a number of bands who mostly played for fraternity parties, coffee houses and other universities around the city.  Just before he released his first album “Facets” in 1966, Jim met his wife Ingrid Jacobson during a hootenanny (Our youngsters who might be reading this column might not know what a “Hootenanny” is, look it up!)  The hootenanny was held at the Philadelphia Convention Hall, Jim was judging and Ingrid caught his eye, and the two were married in 1966.  A week after the two were married Jim enlisted in the Army National Guard to avoid being drafted and deployed to Vietnam, Jim served on active duty for four months.  Growing up in South Philly Jim had a little trouble with authority, and had to go through basic training twice.  Jim later stated that if “there’s ever a war where we have to defend ourselves with mops, we’ll be well prepared.”

For a number of years Jim and Ingrid performed as a duo, the two performed many leading covers of the day including Joan Baez, Woody Guthrie, Gordon Lightfoot, and Ian and Sylvia.  But as time progressed Jim’s writing skills improved greatly.  It was around 1970 that Jim met a number of people who would become part of his professional career like Maury Muehleisen, Maury was an outstanding guitar player and was seen at Jim’s side at every concert ever recorded.  Tommy West and Terry Cashman, the West-Cashman writing team landed a number of songs on the top 100 Billboard Hits including “Sunday Will Never Be The Same,” Medicine Man” and “Talkin’ Baseball.

Although Jim and Ingrid weren’t making much money in the music business, they had a reputation for throwing a good party at their rented farmhouse located in Lyndell Pennsylvania.  Jim was good friends with Arlo Guthrie, and Cheech Marin, (of Cheech & Chong fame) frequent guests at the Croce farmhouse included Bonnie Raitt, James Taylor, Arlo Guthrie, Jimmy Buffet, and Randy Newman just to name a few.

Jim worked a number of jobs to support his early music career including construction jobs, truck driver and welder.  He had a way of tucking away information, later using that information in his songs, so many of his songs were true to life.  “Rapid Roy” was written by Jim from his experiences at a race track in Reading Pennsylvania where he would go on Sundays to view the stock car races.  “Bad, Bad Leroy Brown” was this character Jim had met while serving in the Army National Guard, boot camp at Fort Jackson, SC.  Jim tells the story of Leroy Brown who was from the South Side of Chicago, and just got fed up with the whole Army thing, so one night he decided to leave the camp, what the military calls “going AWOL.” (Absent Without Leave) Leroy Brown was a bad mudder but not too much upstairs as Leroy returned to the camp two weeks later to pick up his paycheck.  “Roller Derby Queen” is a song that actually came to him while performing, I don’t remember where, I think it was in Texas, but as Jim told it, he was up on stage one night, after every song this lady down front would raise her arms high in the air and applaud.  Well Jim noticed that when she applauded with her arms in the air and fully exposed the flab under her arm muscle would just wiggle back and forth and Jim kinda got a kick out of this little arm show after every song.  Jim noted that this is a chick I gotta say hello to.  It turns out that she was a “Roller Derby Queen” who performed on the roller derby circuit throughout the late 1960’s and early 1970’s, Jim noted that her husband was a State Cop, and in Jim’s words, “he could mess up a good day if you know what I mean,” the song “Roller Derby Queen” is in her honor.

“You Don’t Mess Around With Jim,” well turns out that Jim had been thrown out of a pool tournament that was being held in Upper Derby back in the late 1960’s, he had been thrown down a flight of stairs by a pool room bouncer, Jim tucked that information away and later came up with the song.

“Operator,” came from his boot camp days, he stated that dozens of soldiers would be waiting in line every night for the lone pay phone, and man the stories you would hear while waiting in line, the heartbreak of the guys getting dumped via the phone.

Jim took a job at a car wash for a time that explains “Working At The Car Wash Blues.”

When Jim drove a truck he met a guy named “Speedball Tucker,” and when Jim was forced to travel to work in New York for a year, he hated it, he hated everything about New York, hence the song “New York’s Not My Home.”

According to Ingrid Jim wanted to get off the road, and one night they sat in the bedroom discussing their future, Ingrid was upset at Jim never being home, and making no money.  A small argument ensued and Jim left the room while Ingrid lay in bed crying.  Jim went down to the kitchen where he often played his guitar and wrote songs, the next morning Jim returned to the bedroom with his guitar and told Ingrid to listen to his song, “I’ll Have To Say I Love You In A Song.”

The song “Time In A Bottle” was a song written in December 1970, upon learning that Ingrid was pregnant with their son A. J. Within a week of learning of Ingrid’s pregnancy he sat down at the kitchen table at the farmhouse and penned “Time In A Bottle,” “Operator,” “New York’s Not My Home,” “You Don’t Mess Around With Jim,” “Rapid Roy,” and “Photographs and Memories,” all within a week, pretty amazing.

In 1972, Jim signed a three-record deal with ABC Records and put out two albums including “You Don’t Mess Around With Jim,” and “Life and Times.”  He hit big with the singles “You Don’t Mess Around With Jim,” “Operator (That’s Not The Way It Feels),” and “Time in a Bottle,” as mentioned a song written for his un-born son A. J.  Jim followed with his biggest hit in the summer of 1973 “Bad, Bad Leroy Brown,” by then the Croce’s had left the farm behind and moved to the Gas Light District in San Diego, California.

By the summer of 1973, after many years of struggling, Jim had finally hit it big.  National appearances on The Midnight Special and Don Kirshner’s Rock Concert, was followed by a trip to Europe where he played to sold out venues in London, Paris, and Amsterdam.  During his tours Jim grew homesick and wanted to take a break from the music industry.  Jim wrote a letter to Ingrid stating that as soon as the Life and Times tour was complete he really wanted to quit the music business, and stick to writing short stories and movie scripts and fade from public life.  Jim stated in the letter that it was much more important to him to spend time with Ingrid and A. J.  Ingrid received the letter after Jim’s death.

Jim was playing big venues by this time, although he still wasn’t getting paid a whole lot of money his record company was carting the cash off in wheel barrows.  In the fall of 1972, Jim was forced to cancel a show scheduled at Northwestern State University in Louisiana due to health issues.  Jim promised that he would make the show up to the students.  When Jim canceled the show he was still struggling to make it playing small colleges and clubs.  A year later Jim was this big star but insisted on making up the concert, Northwestern State was a very small venue, and would net $750.00 for the record company.  On September 20, Jim flew into Louisiana, and by all accounts put on a hell of a show.  As usual, Jim called Ingrid before the show, told her he had just finished the new album “I Got A Name,” told her he missed A. J., and his final words to Ingrid, according to Ingrid, “I love you.”  With that he took the stage, finished the show, and him, Maury, and four others boarded a chartered Beechcraft E18S headed for a concert in Texas.  As the plane went down the runway at the Natchitoches Regional Airport in Natchitoches, Louisiana, the plane was late getting off the ground and clipped the tree tops at the end of the runway, the plane crashed and everyone on the plane was gone.

I remember wanting to see Jim play at the Philadelphia Folk Festival when he appeared in the summer of 1973.  If I remember right, Steve Goodman, Janis Ian, and David Bromberg were also at the festival that year, but if memory serves me right Jim Croce was playing Saturday night and the rest of them were playing on Sunday.  Back then Donna, (my wife) was pregnant with Butch, (our son), we were living in an apartment in Bridgeport, I was working two jobs, and that really left very little time for concerts, life gets in the way, it wasn’t a big deal, hell I would have a lot of time to see Croce and many other concerts when the kids grew a little older.   One month after the Philly Folk Fest, the plane went down, I would never see Jim Croce.

Forty years after Jim’s death, a tribute was held by friends and family of Jim Croce and Maury Muehleisen.  On September 21, 2013, several hundred people showed up at Upper Darby High School on a rainy night, to recall fond memories of the two.  A Jim Croce Tribute band called “Maggie’s Guitar” filled the night with excellent versions of Jim’s music, Gene Shay hosted the evening and assorted stories were told by family and friends.

While standing in the lobby waiting for the Performing Arts Center doors to open on the night of the tribute, I found myself talking to legendary DJ “Giant Gene Arnold.”  Giant Gene was on the front end of rock and roll’s introduction in Philadelphia.  Gene appeared on American Bandstand in the late 1950’s as a singing teenager where Dick Clark gave him the stage name “Rick Roman.”

Gene was a ground breaking DJ doing stints at WIFI-FM, WCAM, where he became well known for his “AM Underground” program and “heavy 13” format.   He joined WIBG radio where his “Giant Gene’s Electric Scene” was a feature on the station.  Talking with Gene was extremely interesting and I asked him what he knew about Jim Croce.  Gene laughed and recalled the time he had Jim Croce performed a concert in a cemetery on Halloween night.

Jim’s friends and family recalled some fond memories the night of the tribute, Terry Cashman picked up his guitar and played a great tribute song, Maury’s sister Mary was present as were a number of Jim’s relatives.  As I sat in the Upper Darby Performing Arts Center, located in Upper Darby High School where Jim had attended school more than sixty years earlier, surrounded by Jim’s friends and family members, with the band Maggie’s Guitar playing his music, I realized that this is as close to Jim Croce as I’m ever gonna get, In my life I rarely look back with “I should have’s” but I thought back to 1973, and my decision to skip the folk festival knowing he was there hit me.

Fifteen years ago when Donna and I traveled across the country the gas light district in San Diego California was a must visit location.  What little time the Croce’s had together Jim and Ingrid would often stroll along the streets of the district.  Ingrid opened two restaurants, one called Croce’s Top Hat, the other simply called Croce’s Restaurant.  Donna and I stopped in the Top Hat for a little lunch and felt right at home with large pictures of Jim displayed throughout the restaurant.  All the pictures displayed were taken at their farmhouse located in Chester County Pennsylvania.  Ingrid spends a lot of time at the restaurants but was not present on the day we visited.

The single “I Got A Name” was released the day after his death, (it was slated to be released on September 21, the day after his death) the album with the same name was released on December 1, 1973.  The posthumous release included three hits including “Working At The Car Wash Blues,” “I’ll Have To Say I Love You In A Song,” and the title song.  The song “I Got A Name” was used as a theme song for the film “The Last American Hero” which was released two months prior to his death.

Jim is buried at Haym Salomon Park in Frazer Pennsylvania, he has a simple marker that reads:

Jim Croce

1943-1973

Jim was 30 years old when the plane went down

His rise to fame happened in a span of 18 months

Had he lived Jim would have been 70 years old on January 10th

     If you have a minute to read this, I’ll give you a couple of his songs in verse, Jim wrote from his life’s experiences, and he wrote it from the heart, in his wife’s own words “Jim was a very humble man.”

Jim had a lot of hit records, I have a few favorites but at a time when singer/songwriters could reach right into your life, I really liked:

        “The Hard Way Every Time”

Yeah, I’ve my share of broken dreams

And more than a couple of falls

And in chasin’ what I thought were moonbeams

I have run into a couple of walls

But in looking back at the places I’ve been

The changes that I’ve left behind

I just look at myself to find

I’ve learned the hard way every time

‘Cause I’ve had my share of good intentions

And I’ve made my share of mistakes

And I’ve learned at times it’s best to bend

‘Cause if you don’t well those are the breaks

Should have listened to all the things I was told

But I was young and too proud at the time

Now I look at myself to find

I learned the hard way ev’ry time

But in looking back at the lessons I’ve learned

And the mountains I wanted to climb

I just look at myself to find

I’ve learned the hard way ev’ry time

‘Cause I’ve had my share of broken dreams

And more than a couple of falls

And in chasin’ what I thought were moonbeams

I have run into a couple of walls

But in looking back at the places I’ve been

I would sure be the first one to say

When I look at myself today

Wouldn’ta done it any other way

Time In A Bottle

If I could save time in a bottle

The first thing that I’d like to do

Is to save everyday

Till eternity passes away

Just to spend them with you

If I could make days last forever

If words could make wishes come true

I’d save every day like a treasurer and then,

Again, I would spend them with you

But there never seems to be enough time

To do the things you want to do

Once you find them

I’ve looked around enough to know

That you’re the one I want to go

Through time with

If I had a box just for wishes

And dreams that had never come true

The box would be empty

Except for the memory

Of how they were answered by you

But there never seems to be enough time

To do the things you want to do

Once you find them

I’ve looked around enough to know

That you’re the one I want to go

Through time with

Operator

(That’s Not The Way It Feels)

Operator, well could you help me place this call

See, the number on the match book is old and faded

She’s living in L.A.

With my best old ex-friend Ray

A guy she said she knew well and sometimes hated

But isn’t that the way they say it goes

Well let’s forget all that

And give me the number if you can find it

So I can call just to tell’em I’m fine, and to show

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

Operator, well could you help me place this call

‘Cause I can’t read the number that you just gave me

There something in my eyes

You know it happens every time

I think about the love that I thought would save me

But isn’t that the way they say it goes

Well let’s forget all that

And give me the number if you can find it

So I can call just to tell’em I’m fine, and to show

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

Operator, well let’s forget about this call

There’s no one there I really wanted to talk to

Thank you for your time

Ah, you’ve been so much more than kind

You can keep the dime

But isn’t that the way they say it goes

Well let’s forget all that

And give me the number if you can find it

So I can call just to tell’em I’m fine, and to show

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

     Still hard to believe that Jim died 40 years ago, my how time slips away, back in 1973 we all had our whole life in front of us, I hope everyone reading this had a good ride in life, enjoy a few of my photographs below: