I was listening to some random music in my iTunes library tonight. One of the songs was by Jim Croce. Croce was killed on takeoff in a plane crash in Natchitoches, Louisiana in 1973. He was thirty years old.

I heard about it on an AFRTS radio news broadcast when I got in to work for a midnight shift at the Naval Communications Station in Yokosuka, Japan. There were two of us who were guitarists on that shift, and I remember we just looked at each other in dismay. We both admired Croce’s talents for singing and writing, and he and Maury Muehleisen, who also died in the crash, were excellent players.

Here’s the song that was released the day after they died.