New Lesson Release - Operator by Jim Croce

What we have so far, new songs added weekly!
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TGNeil
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Sat May 23, 2020 4:18 pm

Hey Walt,

Once again I am happy to hear your new appreciation for Jim and Maury. Many of Maury's parts were heavily improvised, You Don't Mess Around With Jim, Roller Derby Queen, Leroy Brown, because they were blues based. Many others were well worked out, like this, Time In A Bottle, etc. I was thrilled a couple months ago to find 'Lost Time In A Bottle', demos some without Maury at all and some with him developing his part. This album probably was the catalyst that inspired me to finally get to Operator, and if not obvious, another is under construction.

Neil


unclewalt
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Sat May 23, 2020 5:31 pm

I actually just listened to that demo cut last night.

The whole song is very by-the-book, and yet not. It *seems* like a pedestrian AM pop hit of the 'early 70s, but there's all kinds of stuff about it that sets it apart.

I'm watching this collection of TV appearances right now. Also getting caught up on the history. Maury died in the same crash. And the next day, his huge hit, "I Got a Name" was released. This has 'biopic" written all over it.

Stray observation: on the album version, it sounds like he's singing, "But let's forget all thaht" (rhymes with "spot"). But he doesn't do that elsewhere that I've seen.



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