The story behind "Bad, Bad Leroy Brown".
http://youtube.com/watch?v=ru5exYqe5_M
The story behind "Bad, Bad Leroy Brown".
http://youtube.com/watch?v=ru5exYqe5_M
When I was in college around 1993 my bf at the time and I were driving around listening to "You Don't Mess Around With Jim" at volume 11 and we passed these two old men working on a car by the road. They stopped working and started dancing, wrenches still in hand. We drove by a couple more times that afternoon and they did it again. It was so cute! Jim Croce was and is universally appealing.
Junior Death Hag
Ditto. Scott, if you ever do a FAD page for Croce, let me know, I have a bunch of pictures from Natchitoches I'll contribute, crash site, funeral home etc.Originally Posted by Snoopy
I love Jim Croce and was going to start a thread about him today! can't believe I logged in and saw this..he truly had so much more talent to give so sad! I love to see a page on him on FAD.."hint hint Scott!"
Hi.. i'm new here w/ this being only my 2nd post.
..I was compelled to reply to this thread & tell a very, very true story that you, (speaking in general terms) might enjoy.
My dad was was fresh out of USMC boot camp & leaving for Vietnam soon & was in San Diego. He along w/ 3 other comrades decided to go to the zoo & try to "score" some smoke. Well, guess who happened to be sitting on the big red brick wall of the zoo smoking one? Yep, Jim Croce. My dad & his buddies hopped up there w/ him & got high all afternoon into the evening & left for Vietnam about 4 days later. This was summer 1968. My dad returned from Vietnam in January of 70.
Senior Death Hag
Which musicians are listed in it? I'd like to get that book myself.
I'd love to see Jim on FAD, but Scott would need his DC. Does anyone out there have a copy? If so, please let me know.
Me, I love Bad, Bad, Leroy Brown. The first time I heard that song was on a jukebox in a diner in the Catskill Mountains, when I was 17 years old. I was hooked right then and there.
-K.
Does anyone remember the name of the man who always played guitar with Jim? You can see him on some of the youtube clips and I know he died in the crash too.
wonderful songwriter with a very soothing voice(to me anyway)
Time in a Bottle IMO is one of the best songs, ever written. I just love it.
His name is Maury Meuhleisen. Here's a link to his tribute site.
http://www.maurymuehleisen.com/main.html
[quote=Kman0072;134245]Which musicians are listed in it? I'd like to get that book myself.
The book is called Falling Stars: Air Crashes that Filled Rock & Roll Heaven by Rich Everitt. Chapters in his book include:
Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens & The Big Bopper, Patsy Cline, Otis Redding, Jim Croce, Ronnie Van Vant, Ricky Nelson, Stevie Ray Vaughin, John Denver, Aaliyah and more.
I loved Jim Croce growing up. Operator is still a classic today.
Thanks Martini for the info on Maury. He really was a great musician and it was sad to see him go. I didn't realize he was only 24 years old.
I sound like my dad did when I was younger, but I hate turning on the radio anymore, all you hear is crap. No real instruments, just a bunch of banging, thumping, bad rhymes, and innuendos. I really miss the good stuff like Jim Croce songs and others in that era. My kids would be horrified at my Timelife "mellow gold" CD I have LOL
Senior Death Hag
The guitar playing in that song is amazing. One of his best.
-K.
Senior Death Hag
[quote=Martini;137288]I'm definitely going to get that book.
Regarding getting Jim on FAD, I have a story somewhere, all we need are pics, and & or a DC.
Come on, death hags!
-K.
Martini... thanks for this great post and for the information on Maury as well.
http://nl.youtube.com/watch?v=A2iS8XctJKo
Another great song with Jim and Maury playing together
Senior Death Hag
I have a story around here somewhere. If you have those pics, please pass them along to Scott or myself.
It would be great if we had a DC......
I Got Bad Bas Leroy Brown On For My Bday In '82 I Was 6 Loli Trmember Playingor Pounding My Toy Piano Along 2 That One I Love It!
I recently bought a CD of his greatest hits. I loved his music when I was a kid. I was born in 1970, so he died not long after I was born. Anyway, I only knew the really big songs like Time in a Bottle, Bad Bad Leroy Brown, You Don't Mess Around with Jim, Operator, I got a Name...but there are so many others that are awesome. I love New York is Not My Home for example. The music is timeless. I think if he lived he would have a career similar to James Taylor. Both of those guys have the most soothing voices. Does anyone have anymore information on his funeral, someone mentioned autopsy info. Just curious.
Renowned Death Hag
Wow, this thread is like time in a bottle....I had a 1st grade teacher that played the guitar, and we'd get to choose the songs. "Bad Leroy Brown" was a fave, but we had to sing "baddest man in the whole darn town", LOL. When I was in kindergarden, I loved to sing Time in a Bottle and Seasons in the Sun.
What a little weirdo I must have been......
I love Jim Croce. "Lover's Cross" is one of his best songs, IMO.
Renowned Death Hag
I just remember this story my late friend always swore was true.... He really liked Jim Croce, and had all the albums. He had the albums stacked near the stereo which was next to the sofa, with a Croce album on top of the pile. Of course, the album cover had a large picture of Croce on it.
Anyway, my friend was dozing off while looking at the album, when he saw SMOKE slowly consume Croce's face! After jumping up to make sure there really wasn't a fire, caused by a short circuit in the stereo or his dad's cigar butts in the ashtray nearby, he went back to sleep.
Fast forward to the next morning, when he heard, along with everyone else, about the plane crash the night before, around the time he noticed the "smoke" engulfing the album cover.
It was an interesting coincidence, if nothing else.
Last edited by Linnie; 07-19-2009 at 08:46 PM.
I remember right after he died, my neighbor got a new puppy and named it Cinnamon Croce....
.
Watch a little bit of Jim and Maury
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=flzyjQhE5jg
Renowned Death Hag
Bad Bad Leroy Brown performed live less than 2 months before his death.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CnKEGmquck
No problem Inked_Daddy, as I had mentioned up thread, I have been on a real Jim Croce kick lately.
Renowned Death Hag
Here is Jim's son. Jim died when he was a baby and AJ doesn't remember him .
he looks a lot like him.
A.J. Croce
A.J. Croce, May 2007
At the age of four, Croce was completely blinded, as the result of a brain tumor. Between the ages of four and ten, Croce gradually regained vision in his left eye. It was during this difficult time in Croce's life that he began to play the piano. "I learned to play music by listening and playing along to the radio and to records..." Croce says, "At some point I was given the music of Ray Charles and Stevie Wonder as inspiration, which it was, and has been ever since."
Croce's first paying gig was at the age of 12, when he was paid $20 to perform at a Bat-Mitzvah party. By the age of 16, Croce was performing regularly at San Diego nightclubs, as a sideman and band leader. Croce reflects, "I was into every kind of music... you might say I was unfocused, but I consider an eclectic taste in music to be the foundation of versatility." Croce's house burned down when he was age 15. His website makes reference to a wife and children.
I shall die, but that is all that I shall do for Death; I am not on his pay-roll.
Edna St. Vincent Millay
Renowned Death Hag
A.J. is one very lucky young fellow to have survived all that. I can only imagine the pain his mother, grandparents, and other family members would have felt to lose both Jim and his little son.
I had no idea A.J. was blind. He sure does look like his Dad.
Renowned Death Hag
I remember hearing "Bad, Bad Leroy Brown" when I was a little kid and how sad I was when my mom told me that Jim was dead. If he died in 1973, I was eight at the time and I don't remember hearing about the accident.
His songs are timeless and I even have them burned onto a CD. He really embodied the everyman and was a gifted storyteller with his songs.
"What if the Hokey Pokey is what it's really all about?" Jimmy Buffett
Renowned Death Hag
I tried to see the "Story of Bad,Bad Leroy Brown" but the video was removed. What's the story?
"What if the Hokey Pokey is what it's really all about?" Jimmy Buffett
I love ONE LESS SET OF FOOTSTEPS, and still get misty when I hear OPERATOR. I still cant believe he's gone, either. Same w/ Carl Wilson and Buddy Holly. Weird.
I loved ONE LESS SET OF FOOTSTEPS and still get misty when I hear OPERATOR. I found it hard to believe he's gone, too. I feel the same way about Carl Wilson and Buddy Holly. Some terrible mistake...
Uh, sorry about the double post...
Renowned Death Hag
This is Jim's widow, Ingrid, who runs a restaurant in San Diego.
http://www.croces.com/croces.shtml
She does a lot to keep Jim's memory alive.
Villanova University also have a Picture of JIM Croce (graduated) and Don McLean "american pie( didn't graduate) in the Connelly Center as a memorial.
I shall die, but that is all that I shall do for Death; I am not on his pay-roll.
Edna St. Vincent Millay
I remember I was getting ready for school when I heard the news and I went and woke up my sister and told her. I was pretty shocked. I like his Operator because it's so true--thinking you are going to be able to speak to a lost lover and even the person who split you up, but you just can't.
Jim's plane.
From http://www.planecrashinfo.com/w19730920.htm
I was 12-years-old when he died and I'd see clips of him on The Midnight Special and shows like that. I really liked him because he could do athems like "I've Got a Name" and bittersweet songs like "Operator."
Really a fine talent.
Just listened to Dont Mess with Jim on the oldies station here - KFRC - as I think I said every time I hear his songs it takes me back to thoes long ass summer nights, playing poker or Blackjack with my 3 uncles, my grandfather and tow or three cousins after a long day of roughing it camping. I hate camping and always have but this makes the memories of my days as a 9-10-11 year old all that much better. Thoes AM memories havent faded at all since thoes days among the bugs and my grandfathers old AM radio.
Dont Mess with jim and Bad bad leroy brown take me back to the camping trips near the Oregon border id go on with my cousins , uncles and grandfather in the 1970s. I was a kid back then in the middle to late 70s and my grandfather had this old 60s AM transistor radio hed bring to listen to the Oakland A's games. After the game wed all get busy doing pretty much nothing and hed leave it on the station. As it would get dark wed all be playing poker or bullshit , drinking beer ( Yep my grandfather would let us kids have one if we wanted ) and wed hear all these now old 60s and 70s songs as we played cards by lantern.
I only wonder how much farther hed have gone had he survived the plane crash.
He wrote a little known song about a baseball player.
If I remember correctly, it starts off with "If I could save Ted Williams head in a bottle..."
Death Hag
what condition were the bodies in when found? anyone know
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
I looked at his grave on Find A Grave and it is one of the most depressing looking ones that I have ever seen. I guess I expected something much more elaborate for such a popular singer and it is sad looking. I think "Time In A Bottle" is one of the best songs ever! It is sad that he died so young.
Death Hag
OMG, I know right....The only other grave that gave me that feeling was Brad Renfro....personally I think he was the next De Niro...he was a superb actor
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
Brad's is pitiful looking, too. I hate how their graves are all by themselves, no other ones around them. It just makes them look forgotten, which I know they aren't. At least Brad's had flowers, Jim's was completely bare!
Senior Death Hag
I was with a buddy of mine and we heard the news over the radio as we were just leaving Philadelphia. I remember we were talking about the crash that killed Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, J.P. Richardson and the pilot Roger Peterson. We just stopped talking and looked at each other. I said something like "how crazy is that?". Then we didn't talk for awhile. I enjoyed Jim's music but over the years I realized just how special and talented he was. From these threads it seems he was a genuinely great guy as well. Does anyone know the circumstances of the crash? Was weather a factor?
I suspect that Jim is buried in a cemetery that requires markers to be flush with the ground. It makes it much easier to care for the grass, though it makes for a rather boring cemetery.
Jim's plane clipped a tree during takeoff, apparently the only one around for hundreds of yards. It is suspected by some that the pilot might have suffered a heart attack.
Renowned Death Hag
Everytime I hear "I Got a Name" it gives me chills. I was thirteen when he died, and remember the stations were playing this song a lot at the time. Beautiful song. Great songwriter.
Cindy
Death Hag
I think he know like a lot of others that he wouldn't live to be old just my opinion of course but listen to his words it seems to me that darkness always was around the bend but hell isn't always
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
My wife was a student at Northwest State University, and saw his last concert.
Taken too soon.
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