Remembering Jim Capaldi who died from stomach cancer, born 2nd August 1944 – 28th January 2005
Nicola James “Jim” Capaldi was an English musician and songwriter. His musical career lasted more than four decades. He co-founded Traffic in Birmingham with Steve Winwood, and the band’s psychedelic rock was influential in Britain and the United States. Capaldi and Winwood wrote many of Traffic’s major hits and most of the tracks on the band’s ten albums. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a part of Traffic’s original line-up. Jim Capaldi also performed with several famous musicians, including Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, George Harrison, Alvin Lee, and Mylon LeFevre. He has also written lyrics to songs for other artists,
As a solo artist he scored more than a half dozen chart hits in various countries, the most well-known being “That’s Love“, “Shoe Shine“, and his cover of “Love Hurts“.
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. 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.
Jim Capaldi’s success as a lyricist 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 among his friends, and they travelled together while Marley was writing the Catch A Fire album. Capaldi wrote the lyrics to “This Is Reggae Music”.
In the 1980s, Capaldi collaborated with Carlos Santana 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“,
In 1993, Traffic reformed and toured the US and UK. Capaldi and Winwood recorded a new album, “Far from Home“, without the other members of the band. In 1998 he paired up again with Dave Mason on an extensive American tour.
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,
The third and final tribute is a book of Capaldi’s handwritten lyrics, released in November 2011. 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 fulfilment of a last promise to him.
The Fat Angel Sings 