I'll Have To Say I Love You In A Song

It's a great song. There's so many times and cases where it's hard to articulate one's feelings in the right way. Many times, songs do a much better job of getting those feelings across. Like the quote from "Mamma's Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys": "They'd rather give you a song than diamonds or gold," this song speaks to that kind of audience and personality. I think this song especially appeals to the more soft-spoken, shy person. Jim Croce was an awesome song writer and singer!

Fun memories: Decades ago I, and a couple of college dorm buddies, enjoyed this song. We played and sang it during our guys-only “party times” in the dorm, while we thought of our girl(s), or girl(s)-we-had-not-yet-found, sharing our sentiments and angst. Those were days of sex-segregated dorms, of the Watergate scandal, and of “bugging” of telephones (“hacking,” in an old-fashioned way).

Also in those days, it was a prized talent, and part of the fun of the party, to be able to mimic the voice of the President of the United States.

So one day, this crazy idea came to me to adapt the first verse of this song – to speak it while playing guitar accompaniment, imitating the voice of Richard Nixon (which I did fairly well, even if not as well as, say, Rich Little, a famous comic in those days). So I adapted the lyrics to Nixon, as if he was speaking them to his wife, Pat.

So this makes me chuckle, just to recall. You’d have to have been there, in the moment, to fully enjoy it. But, if you can imagine Nixon’s voice and the moment, it’s a hoot:

“Well, Pat, I know it’s…kind of late – I hope I didn’t wake you. But, there’s something I want to make perfectly clear. I know you’ll understand: Every time I try to tell you, The words just…come out wrong. So…I’ll have to say ‘I bugged you,’ in a song.”

I can relate to how difficult it is to say things, sometimes. This song does a great job of expressing feelings that are hard to deal with at times. I wish I could sing people songs to tell them how I feel. It would be so much easier!

this song is so simple yet so beautiful at the same time. It is also lyrical panty remover for all you sly dudes out there who want to make their ladies melt and wanna bang ya...trust me on this one, I'm a girl.

This is how my boyfriend asked me to well be his boyfriend. It was just so cute!

Yeah I asked a girl out by playing this song, she loved it

It's a nice love song. I think I would laugh if someone asked me out this way, although when I was younger it would have been really cute.

I heard a story that Jim and his wife got into a big fight and he went off that night and wrote this song (which explains the first line).

Well, I know it's kind of late I hope I didn't wake you

There is a saying that don't go to bed mad, and maybe Jim was thinking of that when he wrote this song - because he's not only saying "I love you", but also "I'm sorry".

...there's something that I just got to say I know you'd understand.

Too bad Jim would end up being killed by zombies later that same year. He was a great singer. Real shame.

This is such melodic flowing song....I wish it were a lot longer, but I wish all of Jim Croce s songs would never end... I just love the intro guitars...I love the guitars on almost all of Jim Croce songs...

I think a lot of song writers, and even just people who have trouble clearing their mind can relate to this song. Perhaps that's why Jim is such an amazing song writer. Everything he writes seems so perfect, and maybe that's because song writer was his only outlet for creativity. His voice is so perfectly soft.