I always considered him part of the singer-songwriter group, along with Joni Mitchell, James Taylor, etc., but a while back I saw someone refer to him as more of a jazz musician.
What do you think? Singer-songwriter? Folk? Folk-jazz fusion? Folk-jazz-country fusion? Folk-jazz-country-bluegrass-rap-classical-zydego fusion?
Also, any other fans of Croce around? I found my greatest hits CD the other night and have been listening to it nonstop. His songs remind me of pool halls and corner bars. Good stuff.
And “Roller Derby Queen” has always been a personal favorite. You can’t not like a song with the line “…she might be nasty and she might be fat, but I’ve never met a person who would tell her that…”
Jazz? You’re kidding! He didn’t live long enough to record any jazz music!
He was a bit folk, a bit pop. His songs were stories. His love songs weren’t banal odes to his baby, they were introspective, personal accounts. His character songs were about people larger than life, from the rough parts of town. Jim Croce was one of the lucky people who could write a three-minute movie and have it go top 10. Two of my favorites are “Operator (That’s Not The Way It Feels)” and “Workin’ At The Car Wash Blues.”
I don’t see the jazz thing either, personally. And that’s exactly how it is, like finding an old friend.
Agreed. “Lover’s Cross” is one of the best break-up songs ever in that it’s not maudlin or overly-sentimental, with Jim saying “Look, I can’t be what you want, so I’m going to go now.”
Well said, everybody–and I particularly like the line about “like finding a long-lost friend.” That’s about what it is.
Some weeks ago, I was surfing the TV dial, and caught a show about Jim Croce–it was made after he died and had interviews with his wife, as well as film footage of Jim and another guitarist playing. What a treat!
Favourite songs? “Operator,” of course, and “I Got A Name,” and…oh heck, let’s face it: I like most of them.
Oooh! Now I have to raid my mom’s CD collection at Thanksgiving.
I’ve never been able to come up with a genre title other than “singers my mom liked who didn’t suck.” This includes Croce, James Taylor, Harry Chapin, Carly Simon, Pete Seeger and if I’m feeling nostalgic enough, the Weavers. I guess if I have to pick a title, it’d be “folk,”, but I’m not sure Croce and Taylor really fit that.
I am incapable of hearing “Time in a Bottle” (Croce) or “Cat’s in the Cradle” (Chapin) without weeping. And it only gets worse as I get older.
No, I did not know that. And given that fact that my husband and I are going to tell my mother I’m pregnant with her grandchild before raiding her CD collection, you can imagine what a mess I’m going to be!
Growing up in early 70s UK listening to prog and reading the New Musical Express (arbiter of cool musical taste), he was perceived as being country. So I’m not sure why I bought one of his albums… glad I did though!
It’s rare for me to like any singer-songwriter stuff (Carole King being an exception), and Croce tends to fall in the “most disliked” side of that continuum. But, if I had to categorize him, that’s where I’d put him.
How much attention does he get? Is there a Jim Croce bio pic in the works with
Matthew McConaughey? Is there some VH-1 special that is rerun constantly? He isn’t even sitting in the diner with Elvis, Marylin, James Dean and Bogart.
