<Archive Obituaries> Jim Croce (September 20th 1973)
Bill Schenley
By Northwestern State University, at Natchitoches
Photo: http://www.undercover.com.au/pics/jimcroce.jpg
Last stop for Jim Croce Jim Croce puffed on a little cigar and
strummed his guitar as he talked of his recent T.V. appearances, his
favorite performers and the tiredness he was feeling after so many one
night concert stops. His final interview took place in a football
dressing room in Prather Coliseum.
"Later tonight we're flying to Sherman, Texas," he replied when asked
about his next engagement.
Three hours later, the rock star and his troupe of five lay dead among
the tangled wreckage of their twin engine Beechcraft D-18 plane.
Federal Aviation Administration officials are still looking for a clue
to the cause of the crash which occurred only about 200 yards from the
south runway of the Natchitoches Municipal Airport.
Killed were Croce, 30; comedian George Stevens, 36; agent Dominick
Cortese, 28; accompanist Maurice T. Muehleisen, 24; pilot Robert
Newton Elliot, 57; and Dennis Rast, 30.
Approximately 2,000 Northwestern students attended Thursday's
performance of one of the nation's most popular singers and
songwriters, unaware that they were witnessing his final public
appearance. Croce's captivating, resonant voice filled the Coliseum as
he performed both well-known successes and new compositions. Between
numbers he joked about some of the personal experiences behind his
songs.
A witness to the crash reported that the plane never seemed to gain
any altitude. It scraped the top of a tree, catching a wing and
crashed to the ground near the new Hwy 1 bypass bursting apart at
impact.
"We'll just try to piece it all back together. We'll get the flight
plan and try to see what happened," said FAA official W.P. Harrell of
Shreveport as they dug the tattered log book from the wreckage.
Officials blocked off the crash scene so that Harrell and another FAA
official could go through the scattered aircraft remains Friday
morning. The wing still hung suspended in the nearby tree and the only
remnant of the gold record winner was a pair of tennis shoes in front
of the twisted metal wreckage.
Narcotics were found in some of the personal belonging in the plane,
but none on the pilot. "I don't think drugs were involved in this
crash at all," said Dr. Charles Cook, who performed the autopsy on the
pilot but who has not recieved the tissue reports yet from an
out-of-state laboratory.
Croce's body was in the co-pilot's seat.
"I haven't been to sleep yet," said Doug Nichols, Union entertainment
chairman who had booked the preformer, Friday morning. "Mr. Wilson
(Robert Wilson) Union director and I had to go to the site and
identify the bodies.
Survived by a wife in San Diego, Croce was originally from
Philadelphia where he said he was brought up with "good foot-stomping,
rag-time music."
An album by Croce entitled "I Got A Name," by ABC Records, is set for
release in about a month. During the past year he has made appearances
in the "Tonight Show," "In Concert," "Dick Cavett Show, "Midnight
Special" and a special on educational television. Croce's immediate
plans called for another "Midnight Special," and a concert swing
through Wyoming, Illinois and Montana.
"He was bad, bad, Leroy Brown...meaner than a junkyard dog." Thus Jim
Croce ended his 40 minute concert at NSU with a million dollar song, a
smile and a wave.
---
Photo: http://www.captainsquartersblog.com/mt/pubfiles/croce.jpg
---
FROM: The Village Voice (September 27th 1973) ~
By Josh Mills
Last Thursday I called Lenny Beer at Record World magazine. I wanted
him to predict, if possible, what new song would be a hit in six or
seven weeks when my article on song-writing would be in print.
"Jim Croce," he said right off the bat. "No question about it. Top 10
all the way, he's about to be a star."
Less than 12 hours after I talked with Lenny Beer, Jim Croce died.
After a concert at Northwestern State University in Natchitoches,
Louisiana, his small chartered plane hit a tree while taking off. He
was 30.
I first met Jim last May when he played Tully Hall. We had a long talk
that night, and I became curious about how much Jim hid from the
public. He was an entertainer, a musical Damon Runyon full of funny
characters, and he didn't want to get into his background, working in
hospitals and with emotionally disturbed children. He was more
comfortable with his public role, tough-guy-with-warm-heart, the look
his publicity photos capture so well. But he was much more than that.
During the summer, when Croce's "Bad, Bad Leroy Brown" unexpectedly
made it up to Number One, my roommate Marty, a musician who had been
at Tully Hall with me, said, "It's great. I don't especially dig the
song, but just Jim Croce makes the music business a bit more human."
Jim was very sensitive to what Marty was complaining about, that his
songs often sounded very commercial. He said he just preferred writing
short songs, he always had, and it was coincidental that they
conveniently fit into the AM radio three-four minute time span.
"I've read a lot of Japanese haiku, and they can paint an awful big
picture with 17 syllables. It just kinda knocks me but when I was in
school I could never write a 20 page paper; I'd write three or four
pages and say, Man, that's all I can say."
Jim Croce will soon be remembered as a pop singer with three
commercial hits, "You Don't Mess Around with Jim," "Operator," and
"Leroy Brown." (And perhaps that new song "I Got A Name" (irony), the
theme for the film, The Last American Hero (more irony). But I don't'
care any more about Lenny's prediction.)
I wish more people could see behind that tough-guy pose, though Jim
had made it hard. He was a musicologist, whose interest ran the whole
gamut of American music, from the Childs ballads and Appalachian folk
tunes to the popular songs of World War I through the rhythm and blues
of the 50's to jazz and classical music. Jim once owned a collection
of antique instruments, and delighted in playing old songs on
instruments from the same time. But he had to hock them before he
started selling records. Jim liked to joke about and belittle all his
knowledge.
"I'm kinda a musical psychologist or a musical bouncer or a live juke
box; it depends on the audience. I've got a book at home where I wrote
down about 2,500 songs, songs from the 30's, from the First World War,
old ragtime tunes, all the way to 'Tennessee Waltz' kinda things, it
depends on who's in the place. I've always just tried to bounce off
what was happening, in any situation, with any audience. I can do a
fine version of 'Okie From Muskogee,' y'know, I've needed it in some
bars I've played.
But that kind of casual joking was a smokescreen, another anecdote
like so many of his songs, to fend off curiosity. Jim took pains, in
his public stance, not to be exposed. He worked in a hospital for four
years and taught history to emotionally disturbed children after
graduating from Villanova University, but he found it easier to talk
and write and sing and joke about his days as a truck driver and
construction worker. ("Y'know, I spent a couple of years doin' the New
York studio scene, before I broke those fingers on a jackhammer.")
Yet his favorite line, which he mentioned again and again in our talk,
was Fats Waller singing: "You're not the only oyster in the stew."
That was what Jim was connected to. He knew we were all in it
together."
And he sure could learn from people, and give it back in song: songs
about bars, about truck drivers, and "Bad, Bad Leroy Brown." Jim's
assimilation of street smarts: "Back in Philadelphia, I was writin'
those jive commercials for a black r&b station. I was doin' 'em once
in a while, too. 'Get yo'self a boss drain,' that's a raincoat I still
have it, a whole street vocabulary. I didn't sell much time, but I
sure learned a lot."
The ironies are paining me. Jim just recently left the Philadelphia
area where he'd lived nearly all his life to live in San Diego with
his wife Ingrid and their two-year old son Adrian. He was making his
move, and in time I think his music would have become more
introspective. Listen to the chorus of "Operator":
Operator, let's forget about this call
There's no one there I really wanted to talk to
Thank you for your time
Oh you've been so much more than kind
And you can keep the dime
Jim wasn't on any rock star self-destruct trip, it was a cruel
accident, echoes of Otis Redding and Buddy Holly and Roberto Clemente.
I don't like small planes. (Maury Muehleisen, Jim's lead guitarist and
constant companion, also died in the crash. He was a warm, open man
and a wonderful, tasteful guitarist, filling in the open spots with
delicate classical licks. I'll miss him too.)
"I wanna be able to sift through, assimilate, all the things I been
through this year with a little more depth," Jim said that night.
"It's been a good year, y'know."
---
Photo: http://citypaper.net/articles/2003-09-25/music-1.jpg
---
FROM: The Current Sauce (October 9th 1973) ~
By Northwestern State University at Natchitoches (October 9, 1973
"I believe in growing, growing all the time," was how Jim Croce
described his life. The quote is now inscribed on a plaque in the
Student Union in memory of his last performance given to 2,000
Northwestern students before his troupe of six were killed in a plane
crash here.
The plaque was presented by Doug Nichols, Union Board entertainment
chairman, to Union director Robert Wilson during a memorial service
last Thursday.
Dr. C.B. Ellis, assistant to the NSU president, talked briefly on the
folk-rock singer, his beliefs and his life which was reflected in his
songs.
Wilson commented that the purpose of the memorial service, attended by
about 150 students, was to honor the entertainers and as an expression
of the student's feelings. The families of the six men will also be
notified that the memorial has been established.
The service ended with taps.
The plaque reads: "in memory of the Jim Croce show. Jim Croce and the
members of his show were killed in a plane crash following his last
performance at Northwestern State University on Sept. 20, 1973." The
quote from Croce follows and the names of the six men killed: Croce,
Maurice Muehleissen, George Stevens, Dominick Cortese, Robert Newton
and Dennis Rast.
---
Photo: http://www.soulshine.ca/images/news/jimCroce.jpg
Jim Croce in art: http://artetude.com/musicians/p-jimcroce.jpg
http://www.bagnoloart.com/gallery/illustrative/thmb/Croce-Jim-spotlghts.jpg
C.F. Martin D-21 Jim Croce model guitar:
http://www.harmony-central.com/Newp/2000/Martin-Croce-Closeup.jpg
NTSB Report on the plane crash:
http://www.ntsb.gov/ntsb/brief.asp?ev_id=84416&key=0#
King Daevid MacKenzie
timeless in American popular culture. His songs celebrated such
seemingly tossaway elements as roller derby skaters ("Roller Derby
Queen"), sidemen on old blues records ("Charlie Green play that slide
trombone," about the musician who backed Bessie Smith and Ma Rainey) and
the old-time smalltime stock car racer ("Rapid Roy"). Two of his biggest
hits, "You Don't Mess Around with Jim" and "Bad Bad Leroy Brown," picked
up on Andre Williams' "Cadillac Jack" and continued the concept of
"street-level karma." It was fitting that another performer who often
touched upon that theme, Jerry Reed, cut a tribute album to Croce in
1979. Croce always preferred the lyrical directness of Phil Ochs and
Gordon Lightfoot to the vague poetics of Bob Dylan, because with Ochs
and Lightfoot you always knew where you stood, while with Dylan praise
and insult often came off as equally mystifying. And although his
recordings were always made with the acoustic guitars of the '60s
Greenwich Village folkies, Jim's onstage partner, the brilliant Maury
Muehleisen, would draw upon Chuck Berry and Charlie Christian for
decorative licks just as frequently as Chet Atkins and Les Paul. A Croce
album is a unique cornucopia of Americana...
--
--
King Daevid MacKenzie, WLSU-FM 88.9 La Crosse, Wisconsin, USA
heard again soon at http://whiterosesociety.org
"Rarely can we applaud the majority." JAMES NEIBAUR
James Neibaur
> Then you (Jim N.) should be in the *growing* minority--a libertarian,
> for example.
However, when I read your posts on the subject I am in the groaning
majority.
JN
King Daevid MacKenzie
>>And although [Jim Croce's] recordings were always made with the acoustic
>>guitars of the '60s Greenwich Village folkies, Jim's onstage partner, the
>>brilliant Maury Muehleisen, would draw upon Chuck Berry
>
>
> Did you just write, 'Chuck Berry' as inspiration???
> I think Jim N. needs to read this and tell me again C.B. wasn't as
> important to rock n roll as he thinks!
> Thanks for the confirmation, King!
...the only thing I've seen Jim Neibaur say about Chuck Berry lately is
that rock 'n roll would have developed had Berry not been there (and
indeed it was doing so by the time "Maybelline" first cracked the record
charts), not that Berry wasn't an important cog in that machinery.
There's a vast difference there, and I think you owe Jim an apology for
misrepresenting his position...
deb...@comcast.net
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 everyday like a treasure and then
Again I would spend them with you
~ * ~ * ~
But there never seems to be enough time
To do the things you wanna do
Once you find them
I looked around enough to know
That you're the one I wanna 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 wanna do
Once you find them
I looked around enough to know
That you're the one I wanna go through time with
Jim Beaver
"Bill Schenley" <stra...@ma.rr.com> wrote in message
news:jaNXe.46072$vJ4....@tornado.ohiordc.rr.com...
Interesting to note that NTSB at least hints at the possibility of the
pilot's physical condition as a factor, stating that the 57 year old pilot
had severe coronary artery disease and had run three miles from his motel to
the airport! No indication, though, of actual heart failure as a factor in
the accident, which was blamed on failure to see the trees, despite
unlimited visibility.
Jim Beaver
deb...@comcast.net
1. Feb.3, 1959- Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, & the Big Bopper killed in
a plane crash.
2. Mar.5, 1963- Patsy Cline, Cowboy Copas, & Hawkshaw Hawkins killed in
a plane crash.
3. July 31, 1964- Jim Reeves killed in a plane crash.
4. Dec.10, 1967- Otis Redding & members of the Bar Kays.
5. Sept.20, 1973- Jim Croce.
6. Oct.20, 1977- Members of Lynard Skynard.
7. Mar.19, 1982- Ozzy Osbourne guitarist Randy Rhoads.
8. Dec.31, 1985- Rick Nelson & band.
9. Aug.27, 1990- Stevie Ray Vaughn (helicopter)
10. Oct.12, 1997- John Denver.
11. Aug.25, 2001- Aaliyah.
Jim Beaver
<deb...@comcast.net> wrote in message
news:1127237498.9...@g43g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
On one of David Letterman's anniversary shows, taped aboard an airplane in
flight, Paul Shaffer's band played nothing but songs from many of these
musicians. It took me about three commercial breaks to figure out what the
musical theme was.
Jim Beaver
>
King Daevid MacKenzie
>>Musician air tagedies-
>>1. Feb.3, 1959- Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, & the Big Bopper killed in
>>a plane crash.
>>2. Mar.5, 1963- Patsy Cline, Cowboy Copas, & Hawkshaw Hawkins killed in
>>a plane crash.
>>3. July 31, 1964- Jim Reeves killed in a plane crash.
>>4. Dec.10, 1967- Otis Redding & members of the Bar Kays.
>>5. Sept.20, 1973- Jim Croce.
>>6. Oct.20, 1977- Members of Lynard Skynard.
>>7. Mar.19, 1982- Ozzy Osbourne guitarist Randy Rhoads.
>>8. Dec.31, 1985- Rick Nelson & band.
>>9. Aug.27, 1990- Stevie Ray Vaughn (helicopter)
>>10. Oct.12, 1997- John Denver.
>>11. Aug.25, 2001- Aaliyah.
>
>
> On one of David Letterman's anniversary shows, taped aboard an airplane in
> flight, Paul Shaffer's band played nothing but songs from many of these
> musicians. It took me about three commercial breaks to figure out what the
> musical theme was.
...I _was_ going to pass a comment about never hearing these performers'
songs on in-flight tapes, but now--
...oh, and that list is missing Jane Dornacker, who was the WNBC Radio
traffic reporter killed in an on-air helicopter crash on 22 October
1986. Before working in radio, she was a member of The Tubes and Leila &
The Snakes...
deb...@comcast.net
had a hit with "A Daisy a Day" & died in a 1981 plane crash...
James Neibaur
> Difficult to prove things such as that.
Which is why you shouldn't have originally stated "there would be no rock
and roll without Chuck Berry." That is like saying there would have been no
slapstick comedy without Harry Langdon.
JN
King Daevid MacKenzie
> I guess I could've also mentioned Jud Strunk, a "Laugh In" regular who
> had a hit with "A Daisy a Day" & died in a 1981 plane crash...
...and the members of Chase, Bill Chase's jazz-rock outfit, in 1974...
James Neibaur
> ...and the members of Chase, Bill Chase's jazz-rock outfit, in 1974...
I saw them perform at Summerfest only days before that crash
JN
King Daevid MacKenzie
>>...and the members of Chase, Bill Chase's jazz-rock outfit, in 1974...
>
>
> I saw them perform at Summerfest only days before that crash
...I won't bother asking if it was a good performance; the fact that
Bill Chase made his name in the Maynard Ferguson, Stan Kenton and Woody
Herman bands speaks for itself...
mpoco...@aol.com
> ...oh, and that list is missing Jane Dornacker, who was the WNBC Radio
> traffic reporter killed in an on-air helicopter crash on 22 October
> 1986. Before working in radio, she was a member of The Tubes and Leila &
> The Snakes...
Didn't she also play the scary looking nurse in THE RIGHT STUFF?
Getting back on topic, I've always been a fan of Jim Croce; he had lots
more stories to tell us and we never get to hear any of them because of
the plane crash. I got to meet his son, AJ, during a radio interview a
few years back; AJ is a jazz musician. I avoided asking him about his
father, as I think Jim's wife was pregnant with AJ when the crash
occured, so IIRC he never knew his father.
King Daevid MacKenzie
>>...oh, and that list is missing Jane Dornacker, who was the WNBC Radio
>>traffic reporter killed in an on-air helicopter crash on 22 October
>>1986. Before working in radio, she was a member of The Tubes and Leila &
>>The Snakes...
>
>
> Didn't she also play the scary looking nurse in THE RIGHT STUFF?
...indeed, she did...
> Getting back on topic, I've always been a fan of Jim Croce; he had lots
> more stories to tell us and we never get to hear any of them because of
> the plane crash. I got to meet his son, AJ, during a radio interview a
> few years back; AJ is a jazz musician. I avoided asking him about his
> father, as I think Jim's wife was pregnant with AJ when the crash
> occured, so IIRC he never knew his father.
...actually, A.J. was two years old when Jim died; A.J.'s birth inspired
Jim to write "Time in a Bottle"...
James Neibaur
> But slapstick wouldn't have been the same. :-)
> Same as without Chuck Berry.
Which is not what you said. You said, literally, "there would be no rock
and roll without Chuck Berry."
And that was stupid, Roy.
JN
Mooseknuckle
>>
>> Did you just write, 'Chuck Berry' as inspiration??? I think Jim N.
>> needs to read this and tell me again C.B. wasn't as
>> important to rock n roll as he thinks!
>> Thanks for the confirmation, King!
>
> ...the only mess thing I've seen Jim Neibaur say about Chuck Berry
> lately is that rock 'n roll would have developed had Berry not been
> there (and indeed it was doing so by the time "Maybelline" first cracked
> the record charts), not that Berry wasn't an important cog in that
> machinery. There's a vast difference there, and I think you owe Jim an
> apology for misrepresenting his position...
>
> --You Don't Mess Around With Jim!.......
Mooseknuckle
King Daevid MacKenzie
>>>--You Don't Mess Around With Jim!.......
>>
>>Mooseknuckle
>
>
> My appropriately-titled song from Croce is: "Rapid Roy (the stockcar
> boy)."
> It's not a bad song, but I never enjoyed listening to it more than
> just to hear how it sounded after I bought his album.
> It rarely comes up on 'Oldies' stations, and for that I'm grateful.
> <g>
..."Rapid Roy" was issued as the B-side to one of the greatest sets of
lyrics of the '70s to crack the singles charts, "Operator (That's not
the way it feels)"...that A-side also had one of the greatest acoustic
guitar lines ever recorded, as performed by Maury Muehleisen...
Chef Juke
Dec. 15, 1944 - Glen Miller's plane disappears over the English
Channel.
Oct. 25, 1991 - Bill Graham (Helicopter) - While not a musician
himself, definitely one of the greatest rock promoters of all time,
helping establish or expand the the careers of many musicians.
-Chef Juke
"EVERYbody Eats When They Come To MY House!"
www.chefjuke.com
