Jim Capaldi
Encyclopedia
Nicola James "Jim" Capaldi (2 August 1944 – 28 January 2005) was an English
English people
The English are a nation and ethnic group native to England, who speak English. The English identity is of early mediaeval origin, when they were known in Old English as the Anglecynn. England is now a country of the United Kingdom, and the majority of English people in England are British Citizens...

 musician
Musician
A musician is an artist who plays a musical instrument. It may or may not be the person's profession. Musicians can be classified by their roles in performing music and writing music.Also....* A person who makes music a profession....

 and songwriter
Songwriter
A songwriter is an individual who writes both the lyrics and music to a song. Someone who solely writes lyrics may be called a lyricist, and someone who only writes music may be called a composer...

. His musical career lasted more than four decades. He co-founded Traffic
Traffic (band)
Traffic were an English rock band whose members came from the West Midlands. The group formed in April 1967 by Steve Winwood, Jim Capaldi, Chris Wood and Dave Mason...

 in Birmingham
Birmingham
Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a...

 with Steve Winwood
Steve Winwood
Stephen Lawrence "Steve" Winwood is an English international recording artist whose career spans nearly 50 years. He is a songwriter and a musician whose genres include soul music , R&B, rock, blues-rock, pop-rock, and jazz...

, and the band's psychedelic rock
Psychedelic rock
Psychedelic rock is a style of rock music that is inspired or influenced by psychedelic culture and attempts to replicate and enhance the mind-altering experiences of psychedelic drugs. It emerged during the mid 1960s among folk rock and blues rock bands in United States and the United Kingdom...

 was influential in Britain and the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. Capaldi and Winwood wrote many of Traffic's major hits and most of the tracks on the band's ten albums. He was inducted in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum is a museum located on the shore of Lake Erie in downtown Cleveland, Ohio, United States. It is dedicated to archiving the history of some of the best-known and most influential artists, producers, engineers and others who have, in some major way,...

 as a part of Traffic's original lineup.

Jim Capaldi performed with several famous musicians, including Jimi Hendrix
Jimi Hendrix
James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix was an American guitarist and singer-songwriter...

, Eric Clapton
Eric Clapton
Eric Patrick Clapton, CBE, is an English guitarist and singer-songwriter. Clapton is the only three-time inductee to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: once as a solo artist, and separately as a member of The Yardbirds and Cream. Clapton has been referred to as one of the most important and...

, George Harrison
George Harrison
George Harrison, MBE was an English musician, guitarist, singer-songwriter, actor and film producer who achieved international fame as lead guitarist of The Beatles. Often referred to as "the quiet Beatle", Harrison became over time an admirer of Indian mysticism, and introduced it to the other...

, Alvin Lee
Alvin Lee
Alvin Lee is an English rock guitarist and singer. He began playing guitar at the age of 13, and with Leo Lyons formed the core of the band Ten Years After in 1960...

, and Mylon LeFevre
Mylon LeFevre
Mylon LeFevre is an American Christian music singer, who was the leader of the Grammy Award-winning band Mylon and Broken Heart. He is a member of the Gospel Music Association Hall of Fame. He currently travels around the United States, ministering, teaching and singing...

. As a solo artist he scored more than a half dozen chart hits in various countries, the most well-known being "That's Love
That's Love (song)
"That's Love" is a song by British singer/songwriter Jim Capaldi. Written mostly while Capaldi was in Brazil, it developed further over the course of recording sessions in England. It was recorded for the album Fierce Heart and released as a single...

", "Shoe Shine", and his cover of "Love Hurts
Love Hurts
"Love Hurts" is the name of a song, written and composed by Boudleaux Bryant. First recorded by The Everly Brothers in July 1960, the song is also well known from a 1975 international hit version by the rock band Nazareth and in the UK by a top 5 hit in 1975 by Jim Capaldi.The song was introduced...

".

Early years

Capaldi was born Nicola James Capaldi in Evesham, Worcestershire
Worcestershire
Worcestershire is a non-metropolitan county, established in antiquity, located in the West Midlands region of England. For Eurostat purposes it is a NUTS 3 region and is one of three counties that comprise the "Herefordshire, Worcestershire and Warwickshire" NUTS 2 region...

, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

, to Italian immigrant parents, Nick and Maria Capaldi. (His younger brother Phil, born 1 February 1949, also plays the drums professionally as a full time member of "Joe Brown's Bruvvers".) As a child Capaldi studied the piano
Piano
The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...

 and singing with his father, a music teacher, and by his teens he was playing drums
Drum kit
A drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....

 with his friends. At age 14 he founded the band The Sapphires and served as their lead vocalist. At 16 he took an apprenticeship at a factory in Worcester, where he met Dave Mason
Dave Mason
David Thomas "Dave" Mason is an English singer, songwriter, and guitarist from Worcester, who first found fame with the rock band Traffic...

. In 1963 he formed The Hellions, with Mason on guitar and Gordon Jackson on rhythm guitar, while Capaldi himself switched to the drummer's chair. In August 1964, Tanya Day took The Hellions to the Star-Club
Star-Club
The Star-Club was a music club in Hamburg, Germany that opened Friday 13 April 1962 and was initially operated by Manfred Weissleder and Horst Fascher. In the sixties, many of the giants of rock music played at the club. The club closed on 31 December 1969 and the building it occupied was...

 in Hamburg
Hamburg
-History:The first historic name for the city was, according to Claudius Ptolemy's reports, Treva.But the city takes its modern name, Hamburg, from the first permanent building on the site, a castle whose construction was ordered by the Emperor Charlemagne in AD 808...

, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 as her backing group. The Spencer Davis Group were staying at the same hotel as The Hellions and it was there that Steve Winwood befriended Capaldi and Mason.

Back in Worcester, The Hellions established themselves as busy professionals of sufficient repute to provide backing to visiting performers including Adam Faith
Adam Faith
Terence "Terry" Nelhams-Wright, known as Adam Faith was a Teen idol English singer, actor and later financial journalist. He was one of the most charted acts of the 1960s. He became the first UK artist to lodge his initial seven hits in the Top 5...

 and Dave Berry
Dave Berry (musician)
Not to be confused with English 1960s singer Mike Berry.Dave Berry is a British pop singer and former teen idol of the 1960s...

. By the end of 1964, they had a London residency at the Whisky a Go Go
Whisky a Go Go
The Whisky a Go Go is a nightclub in West Hollywood, California, United States. It is located at 8901 Sunset Boulevard, on the Sunset Strip.-History:...

 Club. In 1964-65 the band released three singles, but none charted. Later that year John "Poli" Palmer joined the band on drums and Capaldi became the lead vocalist.

The Hellions moved back to Worcester in 1966 in an attempt to reduce their costs but local tastes had changed and the band relaunched themselves as The Revolution with a fourth single that also failed to chart. Disillusioned, Dave Mason left the band. Capaldi replaced Mason with Luther Grosvenor
Luther Grosvenor
Luther James Grosvenor is an English rock musician, who played guitar in Spooky Tooth, briefly in Stealers Wheel and, under the pseudonym "Ariel Bender", in Mott the Hoople and Widowmaker....

 and renamed the band Deep Feeling. They played gig
Concert
A concert is a live performance before an audience. The performance may be by a single musician, sometimes then called a recital, or by a musical ensemble, such as an orchestra, a choir, or a musical band...

s in Birmingham
Birmingham
Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a...

 and the surrounding Black Country
Black Country
The Black Country is a loosely defined area of the English West Midlands conurbation, to the north and west of Birmingham, and to the south and east of Wolverhampton. During the industrial revolution in the 19th century this area had become one of the most intensely industrialised in the nation...

 area where they developed a significant fan base. Capaldi, Jackson and Palmer wrote original songs for the band that were heavier than the Hellions repertoire. They recorded several studio tracks which remained unreleased until 2009.

First success

Capaldi and the band played frequently in London and Jimi Hendrix
Jimi Hendrix
James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix was an American guitarist and singer-songwriter...

 played guitar with them at the Knuckles Club as an unknown musician. Back in Birmingham Capaldi would occasionally join his friends Mason, Winwood and Chris Wood
Chris Wood (rock musician)
Christopher Gordon Blandford 'Chris' Wood was a founding member of the English rock band Traffic, along with Steve Winwood, Jim Capaldi, and Dave Mason....

 for after-hours impromptu performances at The Elbow Room
The Elbow Room
The Elbow Room is a traditional nightclub in the Aston area of Birmingham, England. It played a significant part in the formation of the rock band, Traffic, in the late 1960s.-External links:*...

 club on Aston High Street. Early in 1967 they formalised this arrangement by forming Traffic, and Deep Feeling disbanded. In 1968, Capaldi, Winwood and Mason contributed backing music to a solo album by Gordon Jackson.

The new band was signed by Island Records
Island Records
Island Records is a record label that was founded by Chris Blackwell in Jamaica. It was based in the United Kingdom for many years and is now owned by Universal Music Group...

 and rented a quiet cottage
Cottage
__toc__In modern usage, a cottage is usually a modest, often cozy dwelling, typically in a rural or semi-rural location. However there are cottage-style dwellings in cities, and in places such as Canada the term exists with no connotations of size at all...

 in Aston Tirrold
Aston Tirrold
Aston Tirrold is a village and civil parish at the foot of the Berkshire Downs about southeast of Didcot. It was part of Berkshire until the 1974 boundary changes transferred it to Oxfordshire.-Origin of the name:...

, Berkshire
Berkshire
Berkshire is a historic county in the South of England. It is also often referred to as the Royal County of Berkshire because of the presence of the royal residence of Windsor Castle in the county; this usage, which dates to the 19th century at least, was recognised by the Queen in 1957, and...

 in order to write and rehearse new material. The cottage did not remain quiet and had frequent visitors including Eric Burdon
Eric Burdon
Eric Victor Burdon is an English singer-songwriter best known as a founding member and vocalist of rock band The Animals, and the funk rock band War and for his aggressive stage performance...

, Eric Clapton
Eric Clapton
Eric Patrick Clapton, CBE, is an English guitarist and singer-songwriter. Clapton is the only three-time inductee to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: once as a solo artist, and separately as a member of The Yardbirds and Cream. Clapton has been referred to as one of the most important and...

 and Pete Townshend
Pete Townshend
Peter Dennis Blandford "Pete" Townshend is an English rock guitarist, vocalist, songwriter and author, known principally as the guitarist and songwriter for the rock group The Who, as well as for his own solo career...

 as well as Trevor Burton (of The Move
The Move
The Move, from Birmingham, England, were one of the leading British rock bands of the 1960s. They scored nine Top 20 UK singles in five years, but were among the most popular British bands not to find any success in the United States....

) amongst many others. Capaldi wrote the lyrics for Traffic's first single "Paper Sun
Paper Sun
"Paper Sun" was the British band Traffic's debut single, released in May 1967. It was a number 5 hit in the United Kingdom. It is famous for its time-typical sitar riff, played by Dave Mason, and its soulful vocals by composer Steve Winwood....

", which appeared in the UK singles chart
UK Singles Chart
The UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record-industry. The full chart contains the top selling 200 singles in the United Kingdom based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 ...

 at number 5 in summer 1967. This was the beginning of a songwriting partnership between him and Winwood which would produce the overwhelming majority of Traffic's songs: With the exception of "No Name, No Face, No Number", Capaldi would pen a lyric first, and then hand it over to Winwood to write the music. Despite his key role in writing the band's material, Capaldi rarely did lead vocals with Traffic, and his lyrics were nearly always keyed towards Winwood's soulful voice rather than his own more hard-edged vocal style.

Two more Traffic singles were released successfully in 1967 and in December the band released the album Mr. Fantasy
Mr. Fantasy
-Original US album :# "Paper Sun" – 3:26# "Dealer" – 3:13# "Coloured Rain" – 2:46# "Hole in My Shoe" – 3:04# "No Face, No Name, No Number" – 3:38...

. After one further album, Traffic
Traffic (album)
Traffic is the second album by the English rock band Traffic, released in 1968 on Island Records in the United Kingdom, and United Artists in the United States, catalogue UAS 6676. It peaked at number 9 in the UK albums chart and at number 17 on the Billboard 200.-Background and content:In January...

, the group disbanded.

Traffic revival

Capaldi formed another band with Mason, Wood, and Mick Weaver
Mick Weaver
Mick Weaver is a session musician best known for his playing of the Hammond B3 organ and is a much respected exponent of the Blues and Funk styles.-Career:...

 but the creative tensions that had caused Mason to leave Traffic remained and the resulting quartet only lasted until March 1969. In January 1970 Capaldi and Wood joined Winwood in the studio
Recording studio
A recording studio is a facility for sound recording and mixing. Ideally both the recording and monitoring spaces are specially designed by an acoustician to achieve optimum acoustic properties...

 to record Winwood's solo album. These sessions were so successful that the three of them reformed Traffic to release the album John Barleycorn Must Die
John Barleycorn Must Die
John Barleycorn Must Die is the fourth album by the English rock band Traffic, released in 1970, on Island Records in the United Kingdom, and United Artists in the United States, catalogue UAS 5504. It peaked at number 5 on the Billboard 200, their highest charting album in the US, and has been...

. They then toured the UK and the US with an expanded lineup, which would go on to produce the hit albums Welcome to the Canteen
Welcome to the Canteen
Welcome to the Canteen is the fifth album by English rock band Traffic. It was recorded live at Fairfield Halls, Croydon and the Oz Benefit Concert, London, July 1971 and released in September of that year...

and The Low Spark of High Heeled Boys. The title track
The Low Spark of High Heeled Boys (song)
"The Low Spark of High Heeled Boys" is a song by the band Traffic from their 1971 album of the same name. The song was written by Jim Capaldi and Steve Winwood....

 of the latter, a cynical treatise on the music industry, would prove to be one of Capaldi's most famous lyrics. In addition, "Rock and Roll Stew (part 1)", a rare instance of a Traffic song with Capaldi on lead vocal, was a minor hit in the USA.

Final Traffic years, first solo years

With Traffic on hiatus due to Steve Winwood's struggles with peridontitis, Capaldi recorded a solo album Oh How We Danced
Oh How We Danced
Oh How We Danced is the debut studio album by the British musician Jim Capaldi.The album was recorded while Traffic was on hiatus due to Steve Winwood's struggles with peritonitis, and released by Island Records in 1972...

in 1972. This set contained a broad variety of musical styles and featured contributions from Free
Free (band)
Free were an English rock band, formed in London in 1968, best known for their 1970 signature song "All Right Now". They disbanded in 1973 and lead singer Paul Rodgers went on to become a frontman of the band Bad Company along with Simon Kirke on drums; lead guitarist Paul Kossoff died from a...

 guitarist Paul Kossoff
Paul Kossoff
Paul Francis Kossoff was an English rock guitarist best known as a member of the band Free.Kossoff was ranked 51st in Rolling Stone magazine list of the "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time" -Early days:...

, the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section
Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section
The Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section, also known as The Swampers, are a group of American soul, R&B, and country studio musicians based in the town of Muscle Shoals, Alabama...

, and several members of Traffic. It was well-received by critics and proved to be a modest success in the USA, encouraging Capaldi to pursue a solo career alongside his work with Traffic.

After two more albums with Traffic, the group took a short break, allowing Capaldi to record Whale Meat Again
Whale Meat Again
Whale Meat Again is the second studio album by the British musician Jim Capaldi.It was released by Island Records in 1974. Like his first solo album, it failed commercially in his native United Kingdom but did better in the USA...

, which was slightly less successful than his debut both in terms of reviews and sales. The title track was a thoroughly hard rocking and unapologetic environmentalist
Environmentalism
Environmentalism is a broad philosophy, ideology and social movement regarding concerns for environmental conservation and improvement of the health of the environment, particularly as the measure for this health seeks to incorporate the concerns of non-human elements...

 tirade; aggressive sociopolitical-themed songs became a recurring theme in Capaldi's work. He began work on his third solo album, Short Cut Draw Blood
Short Cut Draw Blood
Rolling Stone called the album slightly uneven but a promising step forward. Their review approved of both the session musicians and the arrangements, and was particularly complimentary towards his cover of "Love Hurts", saying "he brings a sense of pain very different from Roy Orbison's...

, alongside recording When the Eagle Flies
When the Eagle Flies
When the Eagle Flies was the ninth and final album released by English rock band Traffic, in 1974, until their 1994 reunion Far From Home. The album featured Jim Capaldi on drums, keyboards and vocals; Rosko Gee on bass guitar; Steve Winwood on guitar, keyboards, and vocals; and Chris Wood on flute...

with Traffic. As the band set off on the supporting tour, an early single from "Short Cut", "It's All Up to You", made the UK Top 40. Though Capaldi's first major solo hit, it proved only a prelude to the album's chief success. Traffic disbanded after the tour, leaving Capaldi to focus all his efforts on his solo career. Short Cut Draw Blood appeared the following year. In October 1975 a single taken from the album, a cover version
Cover version
In popular music, a cover version or cover song, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording of a contemporary or previously recorded, commercially released song or popular song...

 of The Everly Brothers
The Everly Brothers
The Everly Brothers are country-influenced rock and roll performers, known for steel-string guitar playing and close harmony singing...

' "Love Hurts
Love Hurts
"Love Hurts" is the name of a song, written and composed by Boudleaux Bryant. First recorded by The Everly Brothers in July 1960, the song is also well known from a 1975 international hit version by the rock band Nazareth and in the UK by a top 5 hit in 1975 by Jim Capaldi.The song was introduced...

", reached number four in the UK chart and charted worldwide.

To disco and back

However, events would conspire to prevent Capaldi from consolidating his solo stardom. He began working on his next album, Play it by Ear, alongside serving as a major collaborator on Steve Winwood's first solo album
Steve Winwood (album)
Steve Winwood is the debut solo album by blue-eyed soulster Steve Winwood. It was released three years after the break-up of Traffic. Despite high commercial expectations, it did not sell well, reaching number 22 on the Billboard 200 album chart...

. Play it by Ear took an unusually long time to record, and in the meantime, his long-standing relationship with Island Records
Island Records
Island Records is a record label that was founded by Chris Blackwell in Jamaica. It was based in the United Kingdom for many years and is now owned by Universal Music Group...

 fell apart. The album was canceled as a result, even though an advance single, "Goodbye My Love"(no connection to "Goodbye Love" from Capaldi's previous album), had already been released. Capaldi later described his leaving Island Records as "a leap into the wilderness." Due to these delays, it wasn't until over two years after Short Cut Draw Blood that another Jim Capaldi album appeared.

At this time Capaldi wrote the soundtrack to the award-winning film "The Contender", his last recording with the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section
Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section
The Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section, also known as The Swampers, are a group of American soul, R&B, and country studio musicians based in the town of Muscle Shoals, Alabama...

 as his backing band, and correspondingly put together a new backing band for himself called the Contenders. The group consisted of Pete Bonas (guitar), Chris Parren (miscellaneous keyboards), Ray Allen (saxophone, backing vocals, percussion), and Phil Capaldi (backing vocals, percussion). Bonas was a particularly significant collaborator, and would co-write many of Capaldi's songs. The band chiefly supported him on tour; only one album, Electric Nights, featured the Contenders on every track. At the encouragement of his new label, RSO Records
RSO Records
RSO Records was a record label, formed by rock and roll and musical theatre impresario Robert Stigwood in 1973. The "RSO" stands for the Robert Stigwood Organisation. The company's main headquarters were at 67 Brook Street, in London's Mayfair...

, Capaldi began venturing into disco
Disco
Disco is a genre of dance music. Disco acts charted high during the mid-1970s, and the genre's popularity peaked during the late 1970s. It had its roots in clubs that catered to African American, gay, psychedelic, and other communities in New York City and Philadelphia during the late 1960s and...

. His first album with the label, The Contender, was released in the USA with the title Daughter of the Night and a partially different set of songs. However, the album's internationally released single, "Daughter of the Night", failed to make a major impact.

The follow-up, 1979's Electric Nights, was more successful. "Shoe Shine", which combined disco rhythms and melodies with an angry lead vocal and lyrics about poverty and destitution, reached number 11 in France and also entered Billboard's Dance Music/Club Play Singles chart. However, despite including both hard rockers such as "Elixir of Life" and "Hotel Blues" and laments such as "Short Ends" and "Wild Geese" alongside the disco-flavored numbers, Capaldi retained no fondness for his two albums with RSO, later saying "frankly, they got buried under a pile of disco."

Switching record labels again, Capaldi dropped the disco elements entirely for his next two albums, The Sweet Smell of... Success (1980) and Let the Thunder Cry (1981). The albums were evenly split between mellow pop and embittered hard rock, with "Success" sporting a morbid before/after cover, and some tracks incorporated a Latin
Latin American music
Latin American music, found within Central and South America, is a series of musical styles and genres that mixes influences from Spanish, African and indigenous sources, that has recently become very famous in the US.-Argentina:...

 influence from Capaldi's new home, Brazil. However, though "Child in the Storm" reached number 75 in the Netherlands, there was nothing resembling a major hit, not even the folk arrangement of Traffic's "The Low Spark of High-Heeled Boys".

Return to stardom

Capaldi and Steve Winwood had maintained a working partnership since Traffic
Traffic (band)
Traffic were an English rock band whose members came from the West Midlands. The group formed in April 1967 by Steve Winwood, Jim Capaldi, Chris Wood and Dave Mason...

's dissolution, contributing to nearly all of each other's solo albums. With his eighth solo album, Capaldi enlisted his old partner as a major collaborator. For the first time, Capaldi played most of the drums himself, and he would continue to do so on future solo albums. However, most of the tracks on Fierce Heart
Fierce Heart
Fierce Heart is the eighth solo album by British musician Jim Capaldi. The album has a far more synth-heavy approach than any of his previous albums, though the songs are mostly in the same aggressive rock/pop vein that Capaldi had long been associated with...

were mixed to place emphasis on the synthesizer
Synthesizer
A synthesizer is an electronic instrument capable of producing sounds by generating electrical signals of different frequencies. These electrical signals are played through a loudspeaker or set of headphones...

s, often muting Capaldi's vocals. This synth-heavy pop sound was exactly what 1980s audiences were looking for, and "That's Love
That's Love (song)
"That's Love" is a song by British singer/songwriter Jim Capaldi. Written mostly while Capaldi was in Brazil, it developed further over the course of recording sessions in England. It was recorded for the album Fierce Heart and released as a single...

" became his biggest hit in the USA, climbing to number 28 in the summer of 1983. Another single from the album, "Living on the Edge", made it to number 75, while the album made it to 91 in the Billboard 200
Billboard 200
The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists...

.

This time Capaldi was able to quickly produce a follow-up, but despite his recent success and appearances by Steve Marriott
Steve Marriott
Stephen Peter Marriott , popularly known as Steve Marriott, was an English musician, songwriter, and frontman of several notable rock and roll bands, spanning over two decades...

, Snowy White
Snowy White
Snowy White is an English guitarist, known for having played with Thin Lizzy and with Pink Floyd and, more recently, for Roger Waters'...

, and Carlos Santana
Carlos Santana
Carlos Augusto Alves Santana is a Mexican rock guitarist. Santana became famous in the late 1960s and early 1970s with his band, Santana, which pioneered rock, salsa and jazz fusion...

, 1984's One Man Mission failed to produce a hit. The album leaned more towards hard rock than Fierce Heart, but drum machines and synthesizers remained major components.

Capaldi laid low as a solo artist for the next few years, only to bounce back in 1988 with the heavily publicized Some Come Running. Though the album failed to restore his fortunes in the UK, it reached number 183 in the USA and number 46 in Sweden, while achieving two hit singles in the Netherlands. Though Eric Clapton
Eric Clapton
Eric Patrick Clapton, CBE, is an English guitarist and singer-songwriter. Clapton is the only three-time inductee to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: once as a solo artist, and separately as a member of The Yardbirds and Cream. Clapton has been referred to as one of the most important and...

 and George Harrison
George Harrison
George Harrison, MBE was an English musician, guitarist, singer-songwriter, actor and film producer who achieved international fame as lead guitarist of The Beatles. Often referred to as "the quiet Beatle", Harrison became over time an admirer of Indian mysticism, and introduced it to the other...

 appeared on "Oh Lord, Why Lord", it was "Something so Strong" which became his biggest hit in the Netherlands, breaking the top 40 and powering the album itself into the charts.

However, Some Come Running essentially marked the end of Capaldi's career as a solo artist. He would not record another solo album for well over a decade, though a greatest hits compilation, Prince of Darkness, was released in 1995 and made the charts in the Netherlands.

Collaborations

Jim Capaldi's success as a lyricist
Lyricist
A lyricist is a songwriter who specializes in lyrics. A singer who writes the lyrics to songs is a singer-lyricist. This differentiates from a singer-composer, who composes the song's melody.-Collaboration:...

 continued throughout his life. In 1990 "One and Only Man", a Steve Winwood song for which Capaldi wrote the lyrics, reached the Top 20 in the USA. He was a five times winner of BMI/Ascap Awards for the "most played compositions in America", and sales of songs written or co-written by him exceeded 25 million units. He numbered Bob Marley
Bob Marley
Robert Nesta "Bob" Marley, OM was a Jamaican singer-songwriter and musician. He was the rhythm guitarist and lead singer for the ska, rocksteady and reggae band Bob Marley & The Wailers...

 among his friends, and they travelled together whilst Marley was writing the Catch A Fire
Catch a Fire
Catch a Fire is the major-label-debut album for Jamaican reggae band The Wailers, released on Island Records on 13 April 1973. The album established the band as international superstars. Leader Bob Marley in particular became world-famous...

album. Capaldi wrote the lyrics to "This Is Reggae Music".

Capaldi was noted for the extent of his collaborations with other musicians. In 1973, he played drums at Eric Clapton's Rainbow Concert
Eric Clapton's Rainbow Concert
Eric Clapton's Rainbow Concert is an album recorded live at London's Rainbow Theatre on January 13, 1973, and released within the year. The concert was organized by Pete Townshend and marked Eric Clapton's comeback after the 1971 Concert for Bangladesh...

 and on some Clapton studio sessions.

In the 1980s, Capaldi collaborated with Carlos Santana
Carlos Santana
Carlos Augusto Alves Santana is a Mexican rock guitarist. Santana became famous in the late 1960s and early 1970s with his band, Santana, which pioneered rock, salsa and jazz fusion...

 contributing songs and ideas to Santana's projects and in the 1990s he co-wrote (with Paul Carrack) the song "Love Will Keep Us Alive
Love Will Keep Us Alive
"Love Will Keep Us Alive", is the title of a song written by Jim Capaldi, Paul Carrack, and Peter Vale. It was performed first by the Eagles in 1994, during their "Hell Freezes Over" reunion tour. It was sung by bassist Timothy B...

", which was eventually used on the Eagles' successful Hell Freezes Over
Hell Freezes Over
Hell Freezes Over is a live album by the Eagles, released in 1994. The album contains four new studio tracks and eleven tracks recorded live for an MTV special. It went to #1 on the Billboard album chart upon its release where it stayed for two weeks. It is the band's second live album behind their...

album.

In 1993, Traffic reformed and toured the US and UK. Capaldi and Winwood recorded a new album, Far From Home
Far from Home
Far From Home, released in 1994, was the final studio album released under the name Traffic, and the first in two decades since the release of When the Eagle Flies in 1974....

, without the other members of the band. In 1998 he paired up again with Mason on an extensive American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 tour.

The final years

In 2001, Capaldi's eleventh solo album Living On The Outside featured George Harrison
George Harrison
George Harrison, MBE was an English musician, guitarist, singer-songwriter, actor and film producer who achieved international fame as lead guitarist of The Beatles. Often referred to as "the quiet Beatle", Harrison became over time an admirer of Indian mysticism, and introduced it to the other...

, Steve Winwood
Steve Winwood
Stephen Lawrence "Steve" Winwood is an English international recording artist whose career spans nearly 50 years. He is a songwriter and a musician whose genres include soul music , R&B, rock, blues-rock, pop-rock, and jazz...

, Paul Weller, Gary Moore
Gary Moore
Robert William Gary Moore , better known simply as Gary Moore, was a Northern Irish musician from Belfast, best recognised as a blues rock guitarist and singer....

 and Ian Paice
Ian Paice
Ian Anderson Paice is an English musician, best known as the drummer of the English rock band Deep Purple. As of Jon Lord's departure in 2002, he is the only founding member of the band who never stopped performing with the group, and the only member to appear on every album the band has...

. George Harrison
George Harrison
George Harrison, MBE was an English musician, guitarist, singer-songwriter, actor and film producer who achieved international fame as lead guitarist of The Beatles. Often referred to as "the quiet Beatle", Harrison became over time an admirer of Indian mysticism, and introduced it to the other...

 played guitar on the track "Anna Julia", an English translation of a song by the Brazilian band Los Hermanos
Los Hermanos
Los Hermanos is a rock band from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The group was formed in 1997 by Marcelo Camelo , Rodrigo Amarante , Rodrigo Barba , and Bruno Medina...

 and Capaldi played at the Concert for George
Concert for George
The Concert for George was held at the Royal Albert Hall in London on 29 November 2002 as a memorial to George Harrison on the first anniversary of his death. The event was organized by Harrison's widow, Olivia, and son, Dhani, and arranged under the musical direction of Eric Clapton and Jeff Lynne...

 in 2002.

Dear Mr Fantasy

Following his death, several tributes in celebration of Capaldi's life and music came out under the name Dear Mr Fantasy. The first was a tribute concert that took place at the Roundhouse in Camden Town, London on Sunday, 21 January 2007. Guests included Bill Wyman
Bill Wyman
Bill Wyman is an English musician best known as the bass guitarist for the English rock and roll band the Rolling Stones from 1962 until 1992. Since 1997, he has recorded and toured with his own band, Bill Wyman's Rhythm Kings...

, Jon Lord
Jon Lord
Jonathan Douglas "Jon" Lord is an English composer, pianist and Hammond organ player.Jon Lord, also known as 'Hammond Lord', is a classically trained piano player. He is recognised for his Hammond organ blues-rock sound and for his pioneering work in fusing rock and classical or baroque forms...

, Gary Moore
Gary Moore
Robert William Gary Moore , better known simply as Gary Moore, was a Northern Irish musician from Belfast, best recognised as a blues rock guitarist and singer....

, Steve Winwood
Steve Winwood
Stephen Lawrence "Steve" Winwood is an English international recording artist whose career spans nearly 50 years. He is a songwriter and a musician whose genres include soul music , R&B, rock, blues-rock, pop-rock, and jazz...

, Cat Stevens
Cat Stevens
Yusuf Islam , commonly known by his former stage name Cat Stevens, is an English singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, educator, philanthropist, and prominent convert to Islam....

, Paul Weller
Paul Weller
Paul Weller is an English singer-songwriter. Starting with the band The Jam , Weller then went on to branch out musically to a more soulful style with The Style Council...

, Pete Townshend
Pete Townshend
Peter Dennis Blandford "Pete" Townshend is an English rock guitarist, vocalist, songwriter and author, known principally as the guitarist and songwriter for the rock group The Who, as well as for his own solo career...

, his brother, Phil and many more. The performances were evenly split between Capaldi's solo songs and his work with Traffic. All profits went to The Jubilee Action Street Children Appeal. A recording of the concert was released as a double CD set the same year.

The second such tribute, Dear Mr. Fantasy: The Jim Capaldi Story, is a four-disc boxed set released in July 2011. Though a slight majority of the tracks came from Capaldi's solo albums, it also included some of his work with the Hellions, Deep Feeling, and Traffic, a few rare non-album tracks, and more than ten previously unreleased recordings, including a song co-written with George Harrison
George Harrison
George Harrison, MBE was an English musician, guitarist, singer-songwriter, actor and film producer who achieved international fame as lead guitarist of The Beatles. Often referred to as "the quiet Beatle", Harrison became over time an admirer of Indian mysticism, and introduced it to the other...

 in 1997. The box was also packaged with extensive liner notes, compiling a number of photos and essays.

The third and final tribute is a book of Capaldi's handwritten lyrics, and is scheduled for a November 2011 release. The ideas of a boxed set and lyrics book had been conceived by Jim Capaldi shortly before he died, and their releases were prepared by his widow Aninha in fulfillment of a last promise to him.

Personal life

He married Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...

ian-born Aninha in 1975 and in 1976 toured with his band Space Cadets before moving to Brazil in 1977. His daughters Tabitha and Tallulah were born in 1977 and 1979, respectively. The Capaldis lived in the Bahia
Bahia
Bahia is one of the 26 states of Brazil, and is located in the northeastern part of the country on the Atlantic coast. It is the fourth most populous Brazilian state after São Paulo, Minas Gerais and Rio de Janeiro, and the fifth-largest in size...

 region of Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...

 until the beginning of 1980 and while there he became heavily involved with environmental issues. The track "Favella Music" on his 1981 album Let The Thunder Cry arose from his love of Brazil, and he worked with several Brazilian composers.

Outside his music and environmental activism, Capaldi also assisted his wife in her work with Jubilee Action
Jubilee Action
Jubilee Action is an international Christian charity working to rescue and protect children of all faiths, races and cultures, facing the most serious injustices...

 to help Brazilian street children
Street children
A street child is a child who lives on the streets of a city, deprived of family care and protection. Most children on the streets are between the ages of about 5 and 17 years old.Street children live in junk boxes, parks or on the street itself...

. He remained professionally active until his final illness prevented him from working on plans for a 2005 reunion tour of Traffic. He died of stomach cancer
Stomach cancer
Gastric cancer, commonly referred to as stomach cancer, can develop in any part of the stomach and may spread throughout the stomach and to other organs; particularly the esophagus, lungs, lymph nodes, and the liver...

 in London on 28 January 2005, aged 60. He is survived by his wife and daughters.

Solo discography

  • Oh How We Danced
    Oh How We Danced
    Oh How We Danced is the debut studio album by the British musician Jim Capaldi.The album was recorded while Traffic was on hiatus due to Steve Winwood's struggles with peritonitis, and released by Island Records in 1972...

    (1972)
  • Whale Meat Again
    Whale Meat Again
    Whale Meat Again is the second studio album by the British musician Jim Capaldi.It was released by Island Records in 1974. Like his first solo album, it failed commercially in his native United Kingdom but did better in the USA...

    (1974)
  • Short Cut Draw Blood
    Short Cut Draw Blood
    Rolling Stone called the album slightly uneven but a promising step forward. Their review approved of both the session musicians and the arrangements, and was particularly complimentary towards his cover of "Love Hurts", saying "he brings a sense of pain very different from Roy Orbison's...

    (1975)
  • Play It By Ear (recorded 1976-77, never released)
  • Daughter of the Night (1978)
  • The Contender (1978)
  • Electric Nights (1979)
  • The Sweet Smell of ... Success (1980)
  • Let The Thunder Cry (1981)
  • Fierce Heart
    Fierce Heart
    Fierce Heart is the eighth solo album by British musician Jim Capaldi. The album has a far more synth-heavy approach than any of his previous albums, though the songs are mostly in the same aggressive rock/pop vein that Capaldi had long been associated with...

    (1983)
  • One Man Mission (1984)
  • Some Come Running (1988)
  • Prince of Darkness (greatest hits compilation; 1995)
  • Living On The Outside (2001)
  • Poor Boy Blue (2004)
  • Dear Mr Fantasy: The Jim Capaldi Story (four-disc boxed set; 2011)

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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