Jim Croce - KMET, Los Angeles, CA, 7-18-1972

Yesterday, while putting together a Jim Croce "Midnight Special" album (which should be coming soon), I stumbled upon this radio show Croce did. It's very nice, but seems to have been little noticed until now. So I'm posting it to give it more exposure.

This is one of Croce's earliest live recordings. His musical career got little notice until about April 1972, when he released his first major label album, "You Don't Mess Around with Jim." With record company promotion, momentum began to build. But this was right before he became a star. His first single, "You Don't Mess Around with Jim," was released in June 1972 and was starting to climb the charts when this radio show happened. He would have his first national TV appearances a month later.

Because this comes from a radio broadcast, the sound quality is excellent. As the DJ notes at the end of the recording, there were only seven people in the studio, providing a little bit of clapping at the ends of songs. Croce performed in solo acoustic, backed only by Maury Muehleisen on second guitar and backing vocals. The date for this isn't firm, but Muehleisen's wife later guessed it took place on this date, or at least within a couple of days of that, based on records of his travel schedule at the time. 

This recording features some rare songs, especially the cover "Ol' Man River." Also, it's interesting to note that some of his later big songs were already fully formed at this early date. "Bad, Bad Leroy Brown" didn't make his debut album that had been recently released at the time. I'll bet nobody, including Croce, had any idea it would be a massive Number One hit in 1973.

This album is 31 minutes long. 

01 Roller Derby Queen (Jim Croce)
02 talk (Jim Croce)
03 Next Time, This Time (Jim Croce)
04 talk (Jim Croce)
05 These Dreams (Jim Croce)
06 talk (Jim Croce)
07 Rapid Roy [The Stock Car Boy] (Jim Croce)
08 Careful Man (Jim Croce)
09 Ol' Man River (Jim Croce)
10 talk (Jim Croce)
11 Bad, Bad Leroy Brown (Jim Croce)
12 talk (Jim Croce)
13 Dreamin' Again (Jim Croce)
14 You Don't Mess Around with Jim (Jim Croce)
15 talk (Jim Croce)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/tXQsuRJq

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/en/E0OxqVjiAXngUBv/file

The cover photo comes from an appearance on the TV show "Rollin' on the River" in January 1973. I chose this one because it shows Maury Muehleisen in the background. Muehleisen performed with Croce for nearly all of his concerts, including this radio show.