The first time I heard Jim Croce (pronounced Crow-Chee), I was cleaning the living room. My mom told me to put his record, "Photographs & Memories," in the record player.
Being an oldies lover, I put it in and listened. I couldn't believe my ears!
I'm a big fan of '60s and '70s era musicians like The Doors, The Beatles, Aerosmith and The Rolling Stones. But when I heard Jim Croce, it sounded like a totally new genre to me. It was rock, but it was smooth rock.
Jim Croce wrote songs about love, loneliness and heartbreak and how to deal with them.
In his song "Operator (That's Not the Way It Feels)," he's talking about how his girlfriend left him for his best friend and they now live in California. He is asking the operator if he could somehow contact them to tell them that he's doing well.
But at the end of the song, he says, "I'll overcome the blow. I'll learn to take it well. I only wish my words would just convince myself that it just wasn't real. But that's not the way it feels."
Croce is saying that though a particular breakup may be painful, you'll survive it. He's telling fans that this won't be their last breakup and that they need to move on with their lives.
Another good song on the album is "I'll Have To Say I Love You In A Song." In it, he's singing about how he's calling his girlfriend to tell her that he loves her, but he has to do it with a song because he's too shy to say it.
In the chorus, he sings, "Every time I try to tell you, the words just came out wrong. So I'll have to say I love you in a song."
I particularly liked this song because Croce is talking about how he runs out of things to say whenever he's around his girlfriend and how he honestly does love her despite the fact that he gets giddy and tongue-tied in her presence.
I can relate to this song because there has been a few times that I have felt the need to tell someone I loved him, but I couldn't because I was timid.
All of the songs on "Photographs & Memories" were written by Jim Croce, and he plays all of them beautifully on his guitar.
Guitar wasn't Croce's first instrument, though. He played the accordion until he saw Joan Baez and Chet Adkins and decided to pick up the guitar. He began to play and learned to do so without a pick.
Tragically, Jim Croce died in September of 1973 in an airplane crash leaving a concert in Louisiana.
I think that Jim Croce was a great musician with tons of talent, and it's a shame that he died at such a young age. He played an amazing guitar, and his singing was heavenly.
Sometimes when I can't sleep at night, I listen to his CD and 20 minutes later, I'm fast asleep. Jim Croce's music is so delightful and soothing.