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Something I wonder whenever his songs come up
Could someone who looked like Jim Croce have a big singing career today? The people I see go by in music videos seem to spend more points on comeliness than singers did in the 1970s.


You forget that there were *plenty* of singers that made their bucks by looking good in the 1970s. Luckily, most of them are not remembered that much today.

1971 - Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheepy

That's Rock and Roll

(Ok, Shaun Cassidy has since made his name in film production, but I have not heard either of these two songs played since they first came out. For small mercies we are eternally grateful)

And to think I had a crush on that boy when I was about thirteen. Eep.

But...but...he's SHAUN CASSIDY! He was in Dynamite! and everything!

I sing a version of chirpy chirpy cheepy cheep from time to time myself. The last time I heard it on the radio was only a few years ago.

Someone else mentioned Chirpy Chirpy Cheepy Cheep to me today. What are the odds?

1971 - Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep

Not to make you feel old, but the first time I heard that song was when Lush covered it in the '90s. And I really liked it! I'd never heard the original version before; it's pretty ... different.

It depends what kind of career you want. He couldn't be a pop star, but there are people who come up through indie music, who miss pretty by a wide margin and still seem to be doing pretty well.

Of course you can't be a woman and non-pretty even in indie music. That's just crazy talk.

Yes, just look at Liam Gallagher and especially Thom Yorke. And then ask yourself what kind of hope for a career a woman of similar looks could have in indie rock.

Well, Janis Joplin was considered unattractive.

I'm not sure that it's entirely true that non-pretty women are barred from the music biz. Adele managed to sell a few albums and though I wouldn't call her ugly she is a bit more rubenesque than is currently fashionable.

But aside from her weight Adele's a very attractive woman, in a conventional sense.

Beth Ditto's a different deal, it's true. Then again she comes out of a very specifically feminist/LGBT scene, and she's a much bigger deal in Europe and the UK than in the US.

It's not like there's an actual law, but It's much, much more usual for women in indie music to look like the women in Metric, the Joy Formidable, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and even the Dirty Projectors.

Adele is a beautiful woman, even, or especially, considering her weight.

If Croce hadn't died who knows what effects an extended career might have had on the music business.

Eh, probably not much. Jimmy Buffet hanging around for 40 years didn't stop Britney Spears from appearing.

I can't tell if it is that my hearing is going, or if I am finally headed to codgerdom (at 43), but all these new musicians kind of sound the same. Almost as though whatever hit television reality game show produced them just made everyone just like all the other pop stars. I listen to (against my will) three different radio stations - pop (top 40), heavy metal (pop with a growl), and country (pop with a drawl); mostly, they all sound the same. (before you ask, I'm a mom and rarely exercise control over the car radio)

Or, as I've grumped, "When did it become popular for singers to all sound like depressed mosquitoes?"

I'm 45. Welcome to Curmudgeonville.

Note to self: use Curmudgeonville as a setting.

Population: Get Off My Lawn!

While I think there are pressures to blandify pop music now that the 1970s might been less subject to, I have to admit the passage of time has allowed me to forget most of the industrial-commercial pop music product of my teen years.

Nostalgia helps. Whenever I find myself shooting into overgrump drive, I replay some of my favorite 70s/80s pop and ask myself "Would I have found this intolerably irritating if I had heard this at my current age?" The answer, sadly, is often "Yes."

Don't forget pants that have tops the come to the bottom of the armpits. The pants are held in place by suspenders even though the wearer also is wearing a belt.

And wearing a hat while driving too slowly is also mandatory.

I resent some of that: I never drive too slowly. Everyone else just drives too damned fast. I'm female, so the belt/suspenders thing doesn't happen


Oh, you mean "the 80s," huh?

As far as I'm concerned, if high-waisted pleated pants never come back, it'll be too soon. If I believed in a literal Hell, which I don't, I'd say Satan probably has an entire wardrobe of those bloody things waiting for me.

I thought you were talking about the styles in the late 70s... or at least whenever Mork from Ork was around. Painters pants and rainbow suspenders. *shudder* I was young and didn't know any better!

Croce looks remarkably like Dave Grohl to me.

Grohl is worth about 225 million dollars, so I'd say Croce's looks wouldn't stand in his way today.

Croce would need to trim the pornstache back a bit, but yes.

Jim would have done just fine in any era, he was that talented. Here's a cover by Seth Avett (who I saw at the Winnipeg Folk Festival last week) that's shows the kids these days are still alright:

I missed them* but they were getting great reviews from everyone who saw them on mainstage.

* I missed most of the acts I had planned on catching. i.e. Patrick Watson

I managed to catch nearly all of what I wanted to hear this year, with only one disappointment when I couldn't hear the performers well at Bur Oak thanks to it being incredibly crowded. The find this year for me was Matt The Electrician, who did this song at one of the workshops:

Why is the musician so badly lit?

It's from a house concert, so they don't have proper stage lights. Human eyes can adjust, but cameras not so much.

He is a sweetheart. He reminded me of Robert Pasternak. I was with him when he found out his guitar was missing. It was United.

I wouldn't mind throwing Sean Rowe into that mix as well.

That was lovely. Thanks for the link!

I don't know the answer to your question, but you certainly could have chosen a song of his that doesn't raise horrendous memories of a TV movie Love Story knockoff which scarred my childhood forever (She Lives!, 1973 -- Season Hubley starred opposite Desi Arnaz, Jr.).

This one?

Wow, didn't remember much beyond the chorus. I think the Racism Fairy has been there.

Ok, I didn't listen to the lyrics on this one but it's a similar set up.

De gustibus non disputandum, James. I always thought he was kind of cute.

But no, he's not a teen heart-throb type. Nor was he one back then.

This is where I was going. I remember my libido from that time - and he is a very tasty specimen of manhood indeed. Remember, all the men had massive amounts of unruly hair on their heads, and mustaches you could hide a buick in, and I must say that I am glad my SOGP has kept the side burns and moustache (top hair long gone), because I still think they are spiffy.

Also, when Croce smiles, he looks very appealing, doesn't he? :)

+1 add to cart would do again.

--Dave, he reincarnated as whichever of Hall & Oates was the dark one

But he's CUTE.

The other day, following a link from my Pinterest page (which is primarily devoted to cats, knitting, and gardening -- staid old lady stuff), I ended up at a gay porn tumblr. My, wasn't THAT interesting ...

What I discovered was that bemuscled dudes with tats, looking extremely solid and masculine, don't appeal to me at all. I need porn that features slim guys with spectacles, holding a book. An *interesting* book.

I think it's not that much of a problem? Media people have gotten very good at matching appearance with an image, like matching an unusual tie with a shirt, and the stylists are brilliant.

But Croce was a not unhandsome man to begin with.

A lot of female singers who aren't considered "conventionally" attractive make it chiefly because of their talent, like Adele. There's also kd lang, Tracy Chapman, Joy Walker of the Civil Wars (not ugly, but a little offbeat looking), Queen Latifah, Regina Spektor, etc. None of them are unattractive women per se, but none of them conform to the sort of looks that lead to Taylor Swift modeling for cosmetics ads. (I love, though, that Queen Latifah also has cosmetics ads. She's like the anti-Taylor Swift.)

This comment makes me sad because I find both Queen Latifa and Adele absolutely gorgeous.

I always thought of Regina Spektor as conventionally super-hot. But I guess she's actually not by movie-star/popstar standards.

My feeling is, if Adele (, Regina Spektor (, and Joy Walker ( don't count as conventionally attractive, it's because the constraints are very, very narrow. And Queen Latifah does have a cosmetics endorsement deal.

Much of Croce's presumed unattractiveness is the adherence to 1970s fashion and style. Give him a 2013 look and he'd be as "acceptable" as anyone else.

As much as everyone loves them, I doubt either Franklin Bruno or John Darnielle would qualify as "conventionally attractive" and both seem to be doing swell for their genre.