Jim Ford, and the Briefest on What’s in a Name?

I was scrolling through Wikipedia’s timeline for today when I saw Jim Ford was born today in 1941. Not me, the musician.

My father was a black sheep and cut off from his family, and as a result I always notice Fords, and just because of names, James Fords when they pop up. So far none has ever proven to be a relative at least much this side of Adam and Eve. Actually, Jan and I gave each other genetic tests as a Christmas gift some years back and I discovered I’m point of fact in the Anglo Irish “Power” genetic stream. Probably the result of the dalliance of an upper crust with a servant girl as my genealogical chart is clearly Ford. But, for many reasons, I don’t look tend to notice Powers when they present, but I do Fords. To date not one has been of Irish descent coming to this country in the last decades of the Nineteenth century by way of Elizabeth, New Jersey.

Still, I notice. And this time I saw Jim Ford right there on the list of people born today. This Jim Ford was a singer songwriter originally from Johnson County, in Kentucky, so again not a relative. His is a bit too typical a story of his trade. Enjoyed some success, and then brought down by drugs. Apparently he was “saved,” and maybe it was enough to help him clean up, but his comeback was cut short when he died unexpectedly in 2003.

He is probably most famous for Harry Hippie, which he wrote for Bobby Womack, who hit number eight on the charts with it in 1973.

Here’s Jim’s version.