"...Photographs And
Memories..."
South Philly
singer-songwriter JIM CROCE was a strange one in Blighty. A massive star in the
USA when his first solo album proper "You Don't Mess Around With Jim"
hit the racks in May 1972 on ABC Records - within a year and a half he'd had
two No. 1 singles and one number one album.
Yet in England (where most
of his catalogue was carried by Vertigo Records) - his music meant little and
saw bugger all chart action. Even a killer single like "You Don't Mess
Around With Jim" with the equally impressive and touching ballad
"Photographs And Memories" on the flipside (issued August 1972 on Philips
6000 069 in the UK) did zip despite the incredibly radio-friendly hooky A-side
that American DJs sent all the way to the top (and back in the days when those
45 sales figures were huge).
Tragedy struck too. In late
September 1973, Croce and other band mates were on their way from Louisiana to
a gig in Sherman, Texas when their light aircraft crashed on take off killing
all six inside (including the pilot). Croce was only 30 and it was already
over. Yet his way with a melody, his raconteur wit and his great lyrical songs
stayed with people and saw a Greatest Hits set grab an impressive No. 2 spot on
the Stateside Rock LP charts in October 1974 (even then there was still nothing
in the UK by way of chart action). And that's where this rather cool little CD
Box set comes swaggering in.
UK released 16 March 2015 -
"The Studio Album Collection" by JIM CROCE [featuring Ingrid Croce]
on Edsel CROCEBOX01 (Barcode 5014797891036) is a 7CD Box Set with Card Repro LP
sleeves and Booklet that plays out as follows:
Disc 1 "Facets", 26:39
minutes, 11 Tracks
1. Steel Rail Blues [Side 1]
2. Coal Tattoo
3. Texas Rodeo
4. Charley Green, Play That
Slide Trombone
5. The Ballad Of Gunga Din
6. Hard Hearted Hannah (The
Vamp From Savannah) [Side 2]
7. Sun Come Up
8. The Blizzard
9. Running Maggie
10. Until It's Time For Me
To Go
11. Big Fat Woman
Tracks 1 to 11 are the
privately financed and issued "Facets" LP - released August 1966 in
the USA on CROCE-101 (No Label), 500 copies only, most sold by JC at gigs
Disc 2 "Jim And Ingrid
Too", 17:39 minutes, 7 Tracks
1. Child Of Midnight
2. Marianne
3. Railroads And Riverboats
4. Hard Times Are Over
5. The Railroad Song
6. Maybe Tomorrow
7. Pa (Song For A
Grandfather)
Seven Studio Outtakes first
issued March 2004 in the USA as Disc 2 in the 2CD Deluxe Edition reissue of
"Facets" (Shout! Factory D2K 34724 - Barcode 826663472424). No
recording dates or musician credits provided then or now. The recordings are
probably 1967 and 1968 and are far better recorded quality than the bootleg
feel of the original 1966 privately made "Facets" LP
Disc 3 "Croce" by
Jim and Ingrid Croce, 27:23 minutes, 11 Tracks
1. Age [Side 1]
2. Spin, Spin, Spin
3. I Am Who I Am
4. What Do People Do
5. Another Day, Another Town
6. Vespers
7. Big Wheel [Side 2]
8. Just Another Day
9. The Next Man I Marry
10. What The Hell
11. The Man That Is Me
Tracks 1 to 11 are the US LP
"Croce" originally issued September 1969 on Capitol ST-315 in Stereo
and credited to JIM and INGRID CROCE. It was reissued 1974 in the USA and
Canada as "Another Day, Another Town" on Pickwick SPC-3332 in
different LP artwork (railway tracks sleeve) with nine rearranged tracks (the
two dropped were "The Next Man That I Marry" and "I Am Who I
Am"). That 1974 LP variant can be sequenced by using the following CD
tracks – Side 1: 5, 6, 7, 4 and 2 / Side 2: 1, 8, 10 and 11. It was reissued
yet again by Pickwick with the same catalogue number and nine tracks sometime
in 1976 (Pickwick SPC-3332), but again with different artwork (painting/cartoon
side profile face sleeve).
Disc 4 "You Don't Mess
Around With Jim", 33:12 minutes, 12 Tracks
1. You Don't Mess Around
With Jim [Side 1]
2. Tomorrow's Gonna Be A
Brighter Day
3. New York's Not My Home
4. Hard Time Losin' Man
5. Photographs And Memories
6. Walkin' Back To Georgia
7. Operator (That's Not The
Way It Feels) [Side 2]
8. Time In A Bottle
9. Rapid Roy (The Stock Car
Boy)
10. Box No. 10
11. A Long Time Ago
12. Hey Tomorrow
Tracks 1 to 12 are the US LP
"You Don't Mess Around With Jim" issued May 1972 in the USA on ABC
Records ABCX-756 - July 1972 in the UK on Vertigo Records 6360 700 (peaked at
No. 1 on the US LP charts, didn't chart UK)
Disc 5 "Life And
Times", 29:51 minutes, 11 Tracks
1. One Less Set Of Footsteps
[Side 1]
2. Roller Derby Queen
3. Dreamin' Again
4. Careful Man
5. Alabama Rain
6. A Good Time Man Like Me
Ain't Got No Business (Singin' The Blues)
7. Next Time, This Time
[Side 2]
8. Bad, Bad Leroy Brown
9. These Dreams
10. Speedball Tucker
11. It Doesn’t Have To Be
That Way
Tracks 1 to 11 are the LP "Life
And Times" - released January 1973 in the USA on ABC Records ABCX-769 -
June 1973 UK LP on Vertigo Records 6360 7011 (peaked at No. 7 on the US LP
charts, didn't chart UK)
Disc 6 "I Got A
Name" , 31:47 minutes, 11 Tracks
1. I Got A Name [Side 1]
2. Lover's Cross
3. Five Short Minutes
4. Age
5. Workin' At The Car Wash
Blues
6. I'll Have To Say I Love
You In A Song [Side 2]
7. Salon And Saloon
8. Thursday
9. Top Hat Bar And Grille
10. Recently
11. The Hard Way Every Time
Tracks 1 to 11 are the LP
"I Got A Name" - released December 1973 in the USA on ABC Records
ABCX-797 - April 1974 UK LP on Vertigo Records 6360 702 (peaked at No. 2 in the
US LP charts, didn't chart UK)
Disc 7 "The Lost
Recordings", 31:46 minutes, 12 Tracks
1. You Don't Mess Around With
Jim
2. New York's Not My Home
3. Tomorrow's Gonna Be A
Brighter Day
5. Walkin' Back To Georgia
6. Operator
7. Time In A Bottle
8. Seems Like Such A Long
Time Ago
9. Mississippi Lady
10. These Dreams
11. A Good Time Man Like Me
Ain't Got No Business (Singin' The Blues)
12. Lover's Cross
Tracks 1 to 12 are early
home studio recordings for the 1972 LP "You Don't Mess Around With
Jim". Edsel have reissued that 1972 album as a standalone CD in 2015 on
Edsel EDSA 5025 (Barcode 740155502539) with the above 12 tracks - 1972 Home
Demo Recordings for the "You Don't Mess Around With jim" Album added
on as Bonuses.
Each of the 7CDs listed
above are in individual singular card sleeves that repro the front and rear of
their original vinyl albums - excepting of course the two specially created
compilations - "Jim and Ingrid Too" and "The Lost
Recordings" (both with newly made up artwork). All seven slide into a hard
card slipcase box sided by a very tastefully laid out 36-page accompanying
booklet featuring lyrics, recording credits (if known) and a new essay on
Croce's life and legacy by ALAN ROBINSON written in December 2014. As with so
many Edsel reissues, although the titles are licensed from the majors, there is
precious little by way of Remastering credits except that their long-time Audio
Engineer - PHIL KINRADE – has mastered this compilation.
The "Facets" album
from 1966 reflects its privately pressed and recorded origins and has what can
generously be described as bootleg quality - good but never great. The rest are
thankfully a whole lot better - especially the core trio of solo LPs "You
Don't Mess Around With Jim", "Life And Times" and the album that
was recorded before he was tragically taken and released after his passing
"I Got A Name". And I'd swear they're the Rhino Remasters. All the
instruments are clear and clean. The second CD called "Jim & Ingrid
Too" (Disc 2 in the Shout! Factory 2004 Deluxe Edition reissue of
"Facets") has shockingly good audio for all of its seven cuts. But
that 2004 Shout! Factory reissue unfortunately gives absolutely no indication
of when, where or who played on these songs (not elaborated on here either).
But given their audio, it might be enough to surmise that they were recorded
circa 1967 to 1968 in a professional studio – put down no doubt before the
husband and wife "Croce" set on Capitol Records in 1969. Although
neither the booklet nor the rear sleeve of the other rarities set here (CD7
entitled "The Lost Recordings") gives any info on those 12 tracks -
they're 1972 home demos for the "You Don't Mess Around With Jim"
album and their audio quality reflects that. The real studio albums however
sound great.
The first bare bones album
is OK, the outtakes second CD far, far better despite its short playing time,
but whilst the husband and wife Sonny & Cher routine of "Croce"
has some pretty and funny moments – mostly it comes over as twee 60ts and is
terribly dated (Ingrid hasn’t the best of voices either). The leap to May 1972
and the first solo album proper "You Don't Mess Around With Jim" on
ABC Records in terms of audio and quality songs is enormous. It's as if Croce
had been crafting and saving up for years because the songs on "You Don't
Mess Around With Jim" are fantastic. While the radio-grabber title track
gets all the hooky plaudits, to this day there are people who can’t listen to
the emotive ballad "Time In A Bottle" without getting soppy. It’s a
truly affecting song and the great audio feels like that of Steve Hoffman when
DCC reissued and remastered his material. Terry Cashman and Tommy West (trading
as Cashman and West on ABC Records in the USA and Probe Records in the UK)
aided and abetted on all three of the proper solo albums and with smashes like
"Bad, Bad Leroy Brown", "Operator (That's Not The Way It Feels)",
"One Less Set Of Footsteps" and "I'll Have To Say I Love You In
A Song)"– Croce found himself up there with the likes of Don McLean,
Gordon Lightfoot and even James Taylor as being beloved by the public and
admired by music critics at one and the same time.
This is a nice set and a
reminder of his sad loss – a legacy that shows (some say) that Jim Croce might
have taken on the singer-songwriter big boys had his wit and charm been given a
chance. In the meantime, try to seek this out rather elusive box set and enjoy
those musical photographs of simpler times...
