What Jim Croce’s Operator So Unique

hey everybody I'm Rick biato and I'm very expensive sorry there we go now take already I didn't really exit to um start filming what do you mean well yeah hi Mary you're a YouTuber where I can use it as an outtake this will be the beginning video so Mary's here visiting everybody that you all know Mary spender she's here here visiting last time we were in that Mary was in town was in January we made a video on the greatest uh two Chord song of all time actually we did three songs even though I said it's the greatest two Chord song of all time so we're talking about okay what are we gonna make for a video and I brought up this Jim Croce song operator and Mary is uh how old are you Mary 32. okay so Mary's 32 um but we were talking about lyrics and we I never really talk about lyrics on here but since I'm with a great songwriter here that will we want to talk about the lyrics of Mary and I love this song this is a classic one of the best songs ever written and somebody emailed me yesterday about it and said Rick why haven't you made a video on the song Operator by Jim Croce and I thought okay we'll make a song on the operator but I always think about this because the lyrics don't really make sense to people today young people because there's things like a dime this is a dime here's my little prop here and so you can see a dime actually you can't see the diamonds it's so small it's so small it's a dime this is what you used to need to make a phone call in here so Mary called her dad her parents to see how much it used to cost to make a phone call and they said Sixpence Sixpence supposedly got you two minutes yeah so dime was about about was about two minutes or so the idea of a phone booth is is a really odd thing too you know when I was growing up phone boosts were everywhere right and then obviously in England you had your red phone booths are kind of famous we still have them but they've been turned into little bookshops where you like literally you take a book out and then you have to replace the book like that's the the free-for-all thing so so here's so this song operator I'm going to play it here this Jim Croce song but but it deals with things like operators but there's some really interesting lyrical things that Mary was just talking about but let's play the beginning of the song [Music] operator or could you help me please [Music] [Music] okay we have matchbooks we have an operator okay so what is an operator an operator is somebody that used to talk to if you needed to make a collect call or something right possibly not in my era yeah but we did have phone booths and then you would pay before mobile phones because I didn't get a mobile until I was about a cell phone sorry until I was about 15. so but this was before that obviously most people watching will know will remember maybe or you needed if you needed a phone number you could call the operator and they give you a phone number you give them a name and they would look it up right so you have we have operator can you help me place this call see the number on the matchbook is old and Faded so matchbooks I want to give my number to someone on a matchbook I'm going to do that when's the last time you saw a matchbook I don't know no one smokes anymore so matchbooks you commonly you would write things on matchbooks if you were in a in a bar or someplace and and but this is really idiomatic to the 70s right this is a already a very 70s lyric It's A Beautiful lyric though but let's continue to listen [Music] okay talk about that lyric how great that is the heartbreaking that immediately living in LA with my best old ex-friendly and how her opinion of him when they were together was you know she was keeping her distance but obviously there was some attraction there that then LED them to go off but Mary pointed out that this is really already it even starts out the beginning as a one-sided conversation right yeah the operator doesn't really talk and this and we were thinking about the equivalent now instead of an operator we were thinking of joking about like would you be calling Siri can you help me well Siri helps you place the code you don't even need Siri you don't even need any of that would you be just like no I actually I do if I'm driving in the car I'll say Siri call Mary spender and it will dial Mary is your phone about to start dialing me actually it's not that's funny because I call you on WhatsApp yeah and it won't actually work okay but this is she's living in LA with my best old ex-friend Ray is such a great lyric it's so concise and the story that it moves through you know that you immediately know there's history and pain and then a guy she knew well and sometimes hated yeah oh my God that is it's such a complex idea and yet I feel like it's very Universal I'm sure most people if you've had your heart broken that person has gone off with someone maybe you once knew or introduced them to just as your friend is it a guy she knew well and sometimes hated no his best old ex-friend his best old experience he knew and she would have been like that guy he's a you know a so-and-so and yeah so that's her talking to him about him about Rey yeah and then she ran off with Ray but that's in the first verse right there's so much information in this verse it's unbelievable and it's a one-sided family not to mention the fact that this song is so weird to play because there are so many chords we're gonna try and play it but yeah I started giving up the guitar part and then even Even Rick was struggling I'm not even to the hard part yeah Okay let's listen on [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] [Music] so I can call just to tell him I'm fine and to show I've overcome the blow I've learned to take it well I only wish my words could just convince myself oh my God that is the the insecurity when you're like I just need to tell that person I'm doing great everyone's done that and yet you're so not over it but it's still thinking about calling me it's so poetic though the way he says that it's also very um he's there's no anger in in any of it no and it's not sad either yet and then there's a lyric later where I go oh you can finally feel the sadness it's quite like it's like um you know I'm I'm fine I'm doing great I'm I'm cool I'm cool I'm doing I'm doing fine okay so how does the chorus start there isn't that the way they say it goes well let's forget all that me the number if you can find it so I can call just to tell him I'm fine to show I only wish my words could just convince myself that it just wasn't real that's not the way it feels [Music] so hey that is uh I got like in that only one only one little mistake so Bob isn't that the way they say it goes well let's forget all let's forget all that yeah and give me the number if you can find it so I control just cool just to tell him I'm fine and to show I'm fine the things he doesn't protest too much so [Music] okay so we would be remiss if we didn't talk about the guitar work of Maury mulinson about how unbelievably great it is I mean that's really the other thing that makes this song be Beyond Jim's incredible lyric writing Melody is the guitar fills are unbelievably great and they make it just even more interesting that it is it would be hard to cover without a second guitarist doing right it sounds weird when I when I just am playing yeah foreign the chords without that second guitar part it really doesn't it doesn't even work that way let's go to the next verse here okay let's unpack that line that is that's so sad because I can't read the number that you just gave me there's something in my eyes tears [Music] [Music] that would save me I mean it is so it gives me goosebumps yeah it gives me goosebumps because I can't read the number that you just gave me and I also think for a man in the 70s to be talking about having tears in his eyes thinking about his ex best friend Rey and his girl now just to put in perspective Jim Croce's career took off in 1972 with this record you don't mess around with Jim and he Ed Mori passed away in the same plane crash September 20th 1973 a year later and it's he has so many amazing songs the guy had a greatest hits record that I grew up with everyone I knew had Jim Croce's Greatest Hits because he had so many phenomenal songs in this short period of time these couple records that he did are just really is such a shame yeah such a shame but this uh very vulnerable lyric there I mean yeah it's just incredible that just the imagery in the lyrics and this guy he's just there but he's not emotive yet like um he's singing it very matter-of-factly you just gave me you know and it's going up and everything it's not like hmm it's not miserable what's funny because the song yeah it's in a major key or it's in G where is here two three four she goes [Music] [Music] sure [Music] just convince myself that it just wasn't real that's not the way it feels so it's a really upbeat chorus even though the lyrics are really depressing but that's the best way I remember hearing Sara Bareilles talk about it where she was like you can get away with so much if you keep the the music upbeat and you can have the most devastating lyrics in a song and people will be singing it along being all like happy and then when they listen to it they're like oh my God this is like this is something else well the way that it does is it um [Applause] [Music] there's so many core changes there but they make it sound so effortless when they're playing it I know but it's it's it's moving incredibly fun really fast harmonic Rhythm meaning the chords change very quickly which you just don't hear as much anymore but it's so smooth that you don't even notice that they're changing that fast it sounds effortless yeah except when I'm when I'm hacking when I'm hacking along well I was doing away once [Music] also I'm singing in the original key so it's not so jarring when we when we play it but obviously this is sung by a man so I'm very nice and low [Music] isn't isn't left away they say it goes if you can't find it so I can call just to find to show I've overcome [Music] and it just wasn't real but the way it feels [Music] that's a rich just G to see twice now what were you saying about the bridge Mary I feel like because he's leaving less gaps between he's creating these changes that are really subtle and if you're just listening to it you're like oh then okay he's just moving through but then he he's just leaving less space which I then think leads to something else being a little bit more significant at the end of this verse [Music] don't worry about we don't forget about this car okay so this is one time that actually changes the base is going instead of just hanging on a minor they do that moving line which is really interesting right here [Music] [Music] thank you for your time you've been so more kind [Music] to keep it dying that space is significant that is you can keep the dime once again the one-sided conversation though the operator says nothing do they well yeah they say you I mean so emotive in there um oh you've been so much more than kindly he's been so polite yeah it's very English but I think the the change after all the lyrics before that um you know I think about a love that I thought would save me um guys she she said she knew well and sometimes hated like it's and then just to then have half the line you can keep the dime right because as a listener you're like oh there should be something else there but it's the storyline is just progressing it's just beautiful which again is just one of those little songwriting tricks just to move you because you're missing something as The Listener because you've been used to it before and then he doesn't do it again foreign [Music] [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] it's an extraordinary song so sad that his career was cut short I mean what a talented songwriter some of his other songs uh time in a bottle I got a name I have to say I love you in a song so many phenomenal Jim Croce songs his his grades I mean I did a couple records and had a greatest hits record that everybody owned when I was growing up that says it all there and I can only imagine what his career would have been had he lived Mary thanks so much for having me always great to have you I love how we were just actually making this video without filming and we were just geeking out about this song so uh follow Mary on her Channel if you don't already subscribe to it but um thanks for watching

Channel: Rick Beato

Views: 843,465

Keywords: rick beato, everything music, rick, beato, music, music theory, music production, education, Operator, Jim Croce, 70's Music, Music Analysis, Mary Spender, Acoustic Guitar, Guitar Cover, Acoustic Cover, What Makes This Song Great, WMTSG, Jim Croce Greatest Hits, Guitar Chords, Acoustic Guitar Chords, Collab, Collaboration, Operator Lyrics, Operator (That's Not the Way It Feels), You don't mess around with jim, Maury Muehleisen, Old vs New, Reaction, React, Music History, History

Id: Yan-qTEG4lI

Length: 17min 57sec (1077 seconds)

Published: Tue Oct 18 2022