This song has been a personal favorite of mine since the very first time I heard it.  I'm a sucker for songs, stories, movies, television episodes....pretty much anything...of inspiration.  This song has wonderfully inspiring lyrics blended with a lovely and memorable melody, and a very pure and honest delivery from the late great Jim Croce with the help of a beautifully crafted all acoustic rhythm section mixed with a studio orchestra to provide some scope.  To my ears, this is nothing short of a masterpiece.  It's songs like this one that really made me want to be a performing musician to begin with...just for the chance to play them for people.

But the story of this song is very much bittersweet.  Jim typically wrote all of his own material, but he heard this song when it was being passed around and pitched to artists as a demo and decided he would really like to cut it because his own father had had a very powerful dream and desire for Jim's success, but sadly died before ever getting to see Jim break out as a singer songwriter.  But the bittersweetness doesn't even come close to ending there.

Jim died tragically on September 20, 1973 when, after finishing a show in Natchitoches, LA at Prather Coliseum, his small chartered plane failed to gain enough altitude on initial takeoff and clipped a group of pecan trees causing it to crash, killing Croce and five others, including his touring guitarist, his road manager, his booking agent, a comedian opening the shows for him, and the pilot.  He had finished recording the album today's song would appear on a week before his death, and "I Got a Name" was released as a single the day after his death.

It managed to reach the top 10 on the Billboard Hot 100, becoming his first posthumous hit.  He was 30 years old....his wife Ingrid received a letter in the mail after his death from Jim telling her that life on the road had simply made him too homesick and he wanted to quit touring, write short stories, and settle down with her and their son A.J. (who is a very talented musician in his own right, and you should absolutely check him out).

I try not to just think of stuff like this as "events that happened on a date"....to the best of my ability I put myself in the situation, and try to understand the full context of the moment....what led up to it, and what was the aftermath.  Here are some things I've learned....

Jim was at a moment in his career that few people really understand.  He had scored a #1 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 in "Bad, Bad Leroy Brown" earlier in the year, and his star was on the rise...but the money wasn't pouring in yet.  He still had concert bookings in small halls in smaller cities that were on the books before "Leroy" hit it big, and now he had new offers for better gigs for more money in bigger places with bigger venues, and they wanted him NOW.  But, a man of integrity, Jim wanted to honor the shows he already had on the books that people had already bought tickets for.  Still operating on more of a shoestring budget than you might imagine, he had to keep his band pretty lean and mean.  It was just him on vocals and acoustic guitar, and second acoustic guitarist, and sometimes a piano player.  He was just barely at the point in his career where he would have been able to start bringing in some additional personnel, but he hadn't yet because he was still doing smaller gigs in smaller places. 

And yet...he was living the dream.  He was signed to a major recording label, had a smash hit single earlier in the year and a couple others that made it into the top 40, and had just completed an album that was sure to produce some more.  His star was absolutely on the rise and he was on the verge of making some real money. 

And I can't help but think about the other five people on the plane who were all living their dreams too.  Maury Muehleisen, his guitarist was along for this ride, doing what he loved, and helping to deliver the music making it possible. 

George Stevens, the comedian on board who was the opening act, was living his show business dream, too.  I mean, when you think of the grind comedians live going from club to club for peanuts, working hostile rooms trying to find their "comic voice", what a great opportunity it is to get a steady gig opening shows for a major label musical touring act. 

The road manager and booking agent were doing their parts to help Jim's career take off so that his rising tide would lift all boats attached to him.  And all of them got on that plane feeling like a much better future awaited them.

Instead, 5 families were devastated by the loss of someone they loved, Jim's growing fanbase was shocked and saddened, people who already had tickets to future events were issued refunds, and instead of promoting his new album, what ended up being Jim's final work was released after his death.  I wasn't there, but I can only imagine radio D.J.s across the country made reference to his tragic passing every time they played one of his songs for at least a year, especially those from the new album.  And this beautiful song about a man living his dream and hoping he could share it with the woman he just met....became a bittersweet farewell to the world, reminding us all that we are not immortal, and that our dreams will likely still be in motion the day we transition to the great beyond.

I guess what it all makes me feel is an aversion to wasting time.  I want to squeeze every drop of life out of the moments I have left (I sure hope I have a lot of them left, but you never really know)...I used to think what I wanted was to reach as many people as I could....now what I want is to make the deepest impact possible on the people I can reach. 

I want to inspire and empower my students and fans to live their best lives....I want to see all the places and do all the things I've always dreamed about....but above all, I want to love with a foolish and open heart.  I know that leaves me vulnerable to it being broken...but one day when I'm about to take my final breath, I want to feel like I gave away freely the one thing I always had available to me...I don't always have extra money or other resources that I can give away....but I have love, and I'm gonna make damn sure that the people I love know that I loved them when I'm no longer here to tell them. 

And I'm going to keep believing in and pursuing my dreams....life may make a fool out of me and most of them may be unfulfilled when I get to the end of the line....but so help me God, I'm gonna die trying for them.

Enjoy my cover of this song from a livestream show I did on July 8, 2020 during the COVID-19 Pandemic, and then check out my favorite performance of it by Jim Croce himself on the "Midnight Special" television program on September 14, 1973...just 6 days before his passing.  Also, that's Maury Muehleisen to Jim's left, his touring guitarist who perished along with him in the plane crash.

If you'd like to explore my piano method more deeply, my best students use my video courses and join me for conversation and twice monthly Q&A Livestreams in my private community...you can find it all HERE. Thanks.

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