It Doesn't Have to Be that Way

jim croce

 

Good artists should be forced to stay on the ground. On September 20th 1973 a Beechcraft plane crashed into a pecan tree in Louisiana at takeoff, ending the promising career of both Jim Croce and lead guitarist Maury Muehleisen. Also the agent, the road manager, a comedian and the pilot - who after autopsy was determined dead drunk - perished. The team had just got a breakthrough with "Bad Leroy Brown", and the future seemed bright.
Despite of this, Croce thought about leaving music business to get more time with the family. A letter his wife Ingrid received after his death closes with "Remember, it’s the first 60 years that count and I’ve got 30 to go. I love you".
This song is from "Life and Times" (1973), his forth studio album, and essential to his many fans. A fifth album "I Got a Name" was released posthumously; finished just before the plane crash. Sure, he got a name - only thirty years old.
I'd like to stress the importance of Maury Muehleisen, thus there's a link to his tribute site at the bottom of the page, as well as Jim's. His splendid harmonies and special fingerpicking were a perfect match to Croce's songs. He's been a major inspiration to my own treating of the guitar, together with Happy Traum and Stefan Grossman. Bless their memories.

snowy nights and Christmas lights
icy window panes
make me wish that we could be
together again
and the windy winter avenues
just don't seem the same
and the Christmas carols sound like blues
but the choir is not to blame

crowded stores • the corner Santa Claus
tinseled afternoon
and the sidewalk bands that play their songs
slightly out of tune
on the windy winter avenues
there walks a lonely man
and if I told you who he is
I think you understand

but it doesn't have to be that way
what we had should never have ended
and I'll be dropping by today
we could easily get it together tonight • it's only right

For the following CHORD section, fullscreen/horizontal mobile is recommended.
Chords in brackets may be omitted.

G      Bm         Em        G7      C    C/Cb Am7
snowy nights and Christmas lights  icy window panes
G        Bm       Em       B7   A7       D7
make me wish that we could be  together again
         G     Bm     Em  G7   C       C/Cb Am7
and the windy winter avenues just don't seem the same
           G       Bm      Em        B7
and the Christmas carols sound like blues
         C        D7      G     D7 ...
but the choir is not to blame

         G      Em     C        G
but it doesn't have to be that way
C        Bm         A7         D7
what we had should never have ended
     G        Em      C    G
and I'll be dropping by today
C         Bm     Em               A7      D7         G
we could easily get it together tonight  it's only right