TELEPHONE SONGS: The Last of the Great Moustaches

The singer/songwriter movement of the late '60s and '70s was surely a product of the folk music boom from several years earlier. But it's also helpful to remember that the baby boomers appearing on the music scene at the time were the first generation to grow up listening to rock and roll. If Joni Mitchell was such a touchy-feely folkie, what inspired her to write a funky rocker like"Raised on Robbery"? Before that, the Byrds ran a few volts of electricity through Pete Seeger. This fusion of coffeehouse navel-gazing and juke joint swing also explains the beguiling, timeless music of Jim Croce.

Croce, like Elvis Presley before him, was a singin' truckdriver who caught a break. After a few aborted attempts at a music career, Croce signed with ABC records in 1972. He died in a plane crash the following year, but not before recording classics like "Bad Bad Leroy Brown," "Time in a Bottle," and "Operator (That's Not the Way it Feels)".

It's the latter song that fits our topic this week. "Operator" is narrated by a guy who's lost his girl to his "best old ex friend," but who wants to call just to tell them he's no longer hurt (though he clearly is). He's presumably already told this story to the local bartender, who tired of it and sent the poor sap home. Basically, Jim Croce wrote the first great song about drunk-dialing. Imagine how hard it must have been back then, with the rotary phones. I can barely use one of those things sober.

Croce's often praised for his intricate acoustic guitar playing, though that was mostly the work of Maury Muehleisen. Muehleisen and Croce were a duo in all but name, with Maury's lead guitar propelling songs like "Rapid Roy (The Stock Car Boy)" and "Workin' at the Carwash Blues." Muehleisen's playing on "Operator" is especially fine. It's a good match for Croce's voice: tender, but strong, and not so pretty that you don't hear the hurt. Their partnership ended when both men died in the crash.

What would Croce be doing now if he had lived? Impossible to say. He might have escaped into a happy retirement like Bill Withers, or weathered the God-awful 1980s only to return strong in the '90s, like James Taylor. His music had the same warmth as theirs, and the same lack of depth that has kept critical praise at a distance. But you can't fake feelings that well, and Jim Croce clearly felt these songs. Spend some time with them, and you will too.

TODAY'S RECOMMENDATION: "Operator (That's Not the Way it Feels)" by Jim Croce
AVAILABLE ON: You Don't Mess Around with Jim; iTunes