Classic Rock Bottom

ALBUM OF THE WEEK # 265 JIM CROCE - YOU DON'T MESS AROUND WITH JIM (1972)

Artist: Jim Croce

Genre: Singer Songwriter/Folk Rock

Nationality: American

Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame Member: No

Album: You Don't Mess Around With Jim

Producer: Terry Cashman/Tommy West

Release Date: April 1972

Running Time: 33:22

RIAA Certification: Gold

Peak Billboard Chart Position: #1 (U.S.)

Singles: You Don't Mess Around With Jim (#8)/Operator (That's Not The Way It Feels) (#17)

 

Disclaimer: All info that does not reside in my brain is gathered from wikipedia.com (mostly because Jon can't stand it). 

This week let's mesh with Scott's Hidden Treasures and post a largely acoustic album.  It's You Don't Mess Around With Jim by Jim Croce.  The album was huge for Croce.  It spent a total of 93 weeks on the charts, which is better than any other Croce album.  It spawned a Top 20 single as well as a Top 10 single (the title track).  However, it's biggest hit was not originally released as a single.  Time In A Bottle hit number one on both the Billboard Hot 100 chart and the Adult Contemporary chart, but it wasn't released until after Croce's death and it propelled the album back to number one for another five weeks.

Most likely you've heard the big three from this album.  You may have even heard a couple of other tracks, mainly Photographs And Memories and Tomorrow's Gonna Be A Brighter Day.  Now you can hear the rest.  You can even pick up a Rhino Flashback disc for only $3.99 if you like.  That's what I did.

1. You Don't Mess Around With Jim

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)

8. Time In A Bottle

9. Rapid Roy (The Stock Car Boy)

10. Box #10

11. A Long Time Ago

12. Hey Tomorrow 

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I was gonna take these songs, one by one, but they sound pretty much the same, so I won't do that.

I've never heard of this dude. He sounds like a cross between John Denver and Cat Stevens.

I don't think he was ever very known in these parts of the world. Denver was, and there obviously wasn't room enough for both of them.

This is VERY american music, and you can tell that by the lyrics.

3 of these songs made me think of the song "Bad bad Leroy Brown", or whatever it's called.

You'll have to be in a special mode, to appreciate this kind of music, and I don't know if I ever were in that mode.

The best song imo is "Operator".

"Time In A Bottle" I know from some movie, I think?!

An interesting choice for AOTW, but it took some strength to listen to the whole album.

You're a strong man Niels.  Thanks for listening and commenting.  Jim Croce also sings Bad, Bad, Leroy Brown.

This was an enjoyable listen, so enjoyable that I've been listening to the last 3.5 hours. I've heard a lot of these songs before, but I still dug it. The only song that kinda bugs me is "Operator", don't know why but it's always bugged me. Other than that, it went well with my mellow mood. 

Nice post.  

One of my first musical memories was Jim Croce and if memory serves me correctly (which it usually does) it was his appearance on the Midnight Special in 1973.  Just him and another guitarist sitting on stools picking and singing.  Maybe it was the novelty of Leroy Brown that captivated but maybe it was the simple fact that he was pretty darn good!  Whatever it was it made its way into my memory and musical lexicon.  Seemed like it wasn't much later after that airing that the news of his death circulated.  Seemed to me like it was something really bad that happened to music that day.  Maybe not as catastrophic as Buddy Holly and those guys but it was my first experience with this...  Anyway, whatever happened that night watching him play got burned into me at the time of his death.  

Great tunes here, most of them well known to me...  This was a melancholy listen and a sobering reminder of that first time music saddened me...  Great work boss!

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