Jim Croce was one of the great folk singers and composers of the late 1960s and 1970s. During the early 1960s, Croce was involved with a number of small college bands that performed at coffee houses and universities, and later performed with his wife as a duo from the mid-1960s to the early 1970s.
They started out performing songs by Gordon Lightfoot, Joan Baez, and Woodie Guthrie, but wound up writing their own music — eventually putting together a repertoire of over 3000 songs that ranged from blues, to country, to rock to folk, with tender love songs and bawdy ballads.
In 1970, Croce hooked up with singer-songwriter Maury Muehleisen , and together they put together the hits and the albums we all know today.
In September 1973 both Croce and Muehleisen died in a small commercial plane crash, one day before the release of their third album, “We Got a Name.
The following was recorded one week before their death.
I Got a Name
Like the pine trees lining the winding road,
I got a name, I got a name;
Like the singing bird and the croaking toad,
I got a name, I got a name.And I carry it with me like my daddy did
But I’m living the dream that he kept hid.Moving me down the highway, rolling me down the highway
Moving ahead so life won’t pass me by.Like the north wind whistlin down the sky,
I got a song; I got a song.
Like the whippoorwill and the baby’s cry,
I got a song; I got a song,And I carry it with me and I sing it loud;
If it gets me nowhere, I’ll go there proud.Moving me down the highway, rolling me down the highway
Moving ahead so life won’t pass me by.And I’m gonna go there free…
Like the fool I am and I’ll always be,
I got a dream, I got a dream.
They can change their minds but the can’t change me,
I got a dream, I got a dream;Oh, I know I could share it if you’d want me to;
If you’re goin’ my way, I’ll go with you.Movin’ me down the highway, rollin’ me down the highway
Movin’ ahead so life won’t pass me by.
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