Today's (Not?) Completely Meaningless Poll, Jim Croce Edition
Good news: Bass Player Patrick is returning from an extended hiatus in which he was too busy to play music with me because he was in the live orchestra for the musical Reefer Madness My annoyance at his absence was approximately equal to that felt by Antwan "Big Boi" Patton while he held up the double album so Andre 3000 could finish his acting commitments.
Now that Patrick is back in harness, it's time to make some tough choices. And I wouldn't be myself if I didn't see a greater meaning behind something that's completely trivial.
The video at the head of this post features Jim Croce and noted fingerstyle bad-ass Maury Muehleisen performing "I Got A Name". Maury and Jim were killed in a plane crash shortly after this show was recorded and before Croce's album I Got A Name, featuring this song, "Lover's Cross," and "I'll Have To Say I Love You In A Song", was released.
Patrick and I are going to pay tribute to the duo by doing a Wednesday Night Video of "I Got A Name". He's working on re-creating the nuances of the studio bass part and I'm working on generally bashing my way through the chords. No way I'm going to do what Maury can do --- but he didn't have to sing at the same time.
The only question is: What guitar am I going to play? And this is significant because Croce was one of the first people to break with tradition and start playing the plastic-backed Ovation guitars in public. He and Maury both recorded with Martins, and in recognition of this Martin released a pair of signature guitars fifteen years ago. Each Croce Signature Martin has a 1973 dime inlaid into the fingerboard. My original guitar teacher, Mr. Losco, had one for a while and when I found that he'd traded it for a Martin 00-28 Eric Clapton I thought I was going to smash said Crap-ton over his head.
After the Eighties, when the age of the guitar-buying public increased dramatically and everybody got all traditionally-minded again, Ovations fell drastically out of favor. Seemingly overnight, the company went from the prestigious provider of stage instruments for pretty much everybody to a bankrupt shell that was acquired by Fender. The Connecticut production facility was re-purposed to launch a Ren Ferguson-designed line of US-made Fender Acoustics.
There's an Orwell-like rewriting of history going on as regards Jim and Maury that completely erases their reliance on Ovations for the tour that brought them to prominence and would have made them household names had the plane crash not happened. This sort of thing has been going on since the dawn of time. History is written by the victors, after all. But whether it's the whitewashing of Dr. Dre's woman-beating in the hagiographic "Straight Outta Compton" or the current caricature of Thomas Jefferson as some monster whose involvement with his slaves completely outweighs his role in the founding of the United States, it always sits uneasily with me.
I happen to own a 1991 Ovation Collectors Edition, with the sterling-silver inlays and high-grade spruce top. I could use it to play the song. Or I could use my Martin D-41, which would sound more like the records sounded. Or I could use my Gibson Hummingbird Recording Artist Koa that I bought earlier this year and love like I love the Viper ACR. Or I could use my new Rainsong Black Ice. What to do? Maybe you'll tell me. What's the best way to pay tribute to Jim Croce, forty-two years after his death?
[poll id="2"]