Whatever happened to Jimmy Recca?

studioguy wrote:

ChinLee wrote:

I knew him in LA in the 70's - 80's. Best I can remember he was must be about '1952-3. After New Order I heard he returned to his blues roots playing a Strat in a blues incarnation and touring Europe and I think South America. Then did some six string studio work in LA, and played base again for some metal stuff with Vengeance. He came by my shop and dropped off some records. I read he was playing some blues with Danny Kirwin and Jeremy Spencer some other British guys. I heard after he was up north and did some stuff with Jack Bruce and Mic Taylor in the Bay Area. I work with some chick who still knows him she says he was living in a German Commune with some Swiss/Italian actress type, but they moved to Tibet, then back to Europe and is out of music tracing the origin of marine antiquities, farming organic grapes, and olives, and exploring geothermal energy alternatives off the coast of Lampedusa. Sho nuff son.

I think Jimmy or somebody is having some fun with us with this. The search continues.

I, too, am calling shenanigans on this. If the above is true then he was in the Stooges at around 18 years old. So his blues roots were from when he was what, 11 or 12? Not to mention that Kirwan and Spencer were long lost by this point.

Might this be a John Coan posting?

If only Recca himself would come on ... for real...and clear it all up!

No..no..no. He met those guys in MI where he was from when they played at a Ballroom, or a theater some venue like that. They had to be the house band cause they ran out of money and the visas were expiring or something like that. They got stuck in Detroit for several weeks or longer and Green, Spencer, Kirwin and Recca got to be good friends, and used to jam and get..... They got together every time the band came to town, so what year would that be? I bet you can look it up. I know this 'cause he and I worked together when he wasn't playing I met them all, never together though I don't think, but after a while only this little guy Spencer used to come by and see him at our work in LA. Sometimes he called himself Jonathan and had a shaved head, and sometimes he was cool but I recognized him from before, He was funny as shit but sometimes real sullen, Recca used to give him wedgies when he acted sad, and he would laugh like hell. That guy Recca was real good man, real good. He played that instrument from real young. I ask her, that girl She say's he is 57 or 58 no more. She was a groupie man and she cut hair too. She knows all those guys. I got to buy her cigarettes and beer to get the scoops guys. Ask all your questions at one time cause it expensive. This bitch can drink.

ChinLee wrote:

No..no..no. He met those guys in MI where he was from when they played at a Ballroom, or a theater some venue like that. They had to be the house band cause they ran out of money and the visas were expiring or something like that. They got stuck in Detroit for several weeks or longer and Green, Spencer, Kirwin and Recca got to be good friends, and used to jam and get..... They got together every time the band came to town, so what year would that be? I bet you can look it up. I know this 'cause he and I worked together when he wasn't playing I met them all, never together though I don't think, but after a while only this little guy Spencer used to come by and see him at our work in LA. Sometimes he called himself Jonathan and had a shaved head, and sometimes he was cool but I recognized him from before, He was funny as shit but sometimes real sullen, Recca used to give him wedgies when he acted sad, and he would laugh like hell. That guy Recca was real good man, real good. He played that instrument from real young. I ask her, that girl She say's he is 57 or 58 no more. She was a groupie man and she cut hair too. She knows all those guys. I got to buy her cigarettes and beer to get the scoops guys. Ask all your questions at one time cause it expensive. This bitch can drink.

I'm probably feeding the troll, but being a huge Peter Green fan I know he quit FM in 1970, Spencer early 1971. Jimmy R would have had to meet them at age 16-17 for the above to even be possible. The above reads like a 1970's Rock and Roll novel.

So?

I'm Chin Lee dammit! I look it up and Spencer only a couple a years older than Recca, 3 or 4 tops maybe. They was all kids then. Look I try to help a little cause I know only what I know. I was not there when they met to be friends, but, I remember the wedgies, man I remember that little bald guy jumpin around, and Recca pulling his shorts man and he tell Spencer what your momma told you Jonny, and that lil guy jumpin around gettin the wedgie. man he always smile after that. Maybe Recca do the aerospace thing too, but I don't know that. I can ask but it cost me more beer, and newports. She's not a troll really man she's just old and got a lot of miles.
Look it up man, Lampedusa, she said he's all organic and all that.

ummmm...

JESUS_LOVES_THE_STOOGES wrote:

ummmm...

Exactly!!!!

ChinLee wrote:

So?

I can ask but it cost me more beer, and newports. She's not a troll really man she's just old and got a lot of miles.
Look it up man, Lampedusa, she said he's all organic and all that.

It's to bad the real Jimmy Recca doesn't just show up instead of an old barmaids drunken nicotine stained recollections. Jimmy Recca sounded really good on the '71 box set. And he probably has great stories to tell. Wishful thinking on my part, oh well.

Even if somebody did turn up on the forum claiming to be Jimmy Recca nobody would believe him

Probably not, but he would only need to be able to answer a couple of questions correctly to prove who he was.

And I still maintain that Chin Lee is John Coan. Funny stuff, whoever you are.

Nope....I'M CHIN LEE DAMMIT.

Recca is not lost he know where he is man, and that is where he is. Studioguy she don't smell bad just likes beer, and those damn Newports. She saw the wedgies too man she can tell you. I gotta call up there when I want to stop by and she always says Ok Chin baby. Cost me 20 bucks every time. No smoking building NO SMOKING. Dammit.

Recca and the Italian/Austrian chick (the Flame he called her) spent some time in Japan and Korea (after the blues thing with Danny Kirwin in LA, and London, or it might have been the San Francisco time with Jack Bruce and Mick Taylor, I'm not sure now, but)...and had some cartoon or animation shit he was involved in after Tibet. They were both artists and got into that whole thing. Look it up man. Recca is big in Japan, Korea, and Taiwan. He left there in the late 90's though I guess that is right, and he in LAMPEDUSA wherever that is, he lives on on island, has a boat and he sails and farms organic shit, and does some Geothermal and solar crap with Al Gore, and that virgin guy Richard Branson I think she said. Like I tell you before. She show me pictures.

I not Jimmy Recca I"M CHIN LEE DAMMIT!

ChinLee wrote:

Nope....I'M CHIN LEE DAMMIT.

Recca is not lost he know where he is man, and that is where he is. Studioguy she don't smell bad just likes beer, and those damn Newports. She saw the wedgies too man she can tell you. I gotta call up there when I want to stop by and she always says Ok Chin baby. Cost me 20 bucks every time. No smoking building NO SMOKING. Dammit.

She show me pictures.

I not Jimmy Recca I"M CHIN LEE DAMMIT!

Ok Chin-John-Jimmy-Ghost of Jim Morrison-whoever

Next time you see her, first remove your underwear so you are wedgie proof, then bring lots of STRONG beer and extra Newports, when she passes out from all the beer and Newports rummage around her room for some current pictures of Jimmy R, then run don't walk to your apt and scan them, then bring them back before she wakes up. Then post the pictures.

Did you and her party with Syd Barrett or Roky Erickson in the '60's perhaps?

I don't think I know those guys, Barrett, or Roky, did they hang around with some black guy named Lee, cause he hung around there too. I'm CHIN LEE, not those guys DAMMIT. I try to help u man. U asked the question. She don't give me wedgies, man Chin Lee don't hang like that, and anyway Chin Lee hangs al fresco, baby. AAYEEEEE. I'm just telling you what I remember about Recca, and what this chick told me recently.

Just told u what I know man.

Two weeks ago I sent an email to somebody from Michigan graduated in 1971 called James Recca... with a link to this forum. And now we have all those stories...interesting hahaha.

Hectorlovesthestooges wrote:

Two weeks ago I sent an email to somebody from Michigan graduated in 1971 called James Recca... with a link to this forum. And now we have all those stories...interesting hahaha.

I did the same thing probably around the same time as you, if the Classmate site person is real, it is interesting!!
The real Jimmy R just might not want to be found for whatever reason and that's fine and his business, though he might have a small royalty check from Easy Action Records from the Stooges authorized boxset. I'm not sure if Carlton, Iggy, James W or Scott could ever find him.

And also Chin Lee (whoever he is) needs to give us some real concrete evidence to back up his stories, real pictures of Jimmy after New Order or at least the old lady drinking the beer and smoking the Newports showing pictures of Kirwin, Spencer, Green, Taylor and Bruce.

Look, I'll ask her about pics and we will see. Everything I told u is what I remember and she remembers too. It is probably not my place to speak of such things, and I don't want to write a book here but you guys gotta understand that was a different time indeed. I was an immigrant at the time and it was all new to me. These guys were hippies, sort of, well in my mind anyway and they were young and idealistic. And they had balls. They thought they were changing everything you know creating a brave new world, but they did not realize the rules game and who has control. Like the Matrix man Looks like that. Nothing is ever new, Same story just different players. They just plug you in and drain your essence, till you dry up and then they unplug you and leave you there with a bill for services rendered. On to the next artist to exploit. Seems to me the term is totally disillusioned when describing all those guys after. I remember someone saying and I think it was Green, or it might have been Hopkins, that only a few guys get paid but the leeches always get paid. I asked what that meant and someone said people steal your songs, they steal your music, they try to steal your soul. They were just kids really, guys come around to give you drugs and tell you great stories,, and call you brother, and you wake up one day and you don't even own your own name anymore you gotta ask permission and pay some asswipe to use it , and you find out your a broke as shit addicted to something. They just did not want to feed the monster anymore. Spencer, Green, Bruce, Hopkins, Recca, Arthur Lee, Kirwan, some guys from the Doors, Leigh Stevens, Rock Action, some guys from the Bay Area like John Cipollina, and Terry Reid, Steve Marriott, all those little people, there were all kinds a people who played all kinds a shit. In and out at Mill Valley and in LA. Man I could give you twenty more names you would know and 10 more you may not, they just said enough or they could not emotionally deal with it and cracked under the pressure. It is difficult to wake up one day and realize everything you believe and all the people who are taking care of you are stealing from you. Not for all the same reasons mind you, Greens issues were different, but he was the poster child for disillusionment with that industry, probably society in general. Nicky was never the same after Brian Jones died and he saw how Brian was treated before his death. They sucked the Marrow from his bones slowly, Did not even do it all at once you know, he could hardly see it happening till it was gone, I think he said. Plus Nick had physical issues. They all got together and played all the time. No pictures I don't think so no one could prove it, no recording. They figured some one would tell them they didn't own the music, and it would be a legal mess. Some one was always trying to sue for recording rights and they did not want the legal hassle. They did it for themselves only. It was a beautiful mess I think Recca said. But all things must pass and that was then and this is now. I'd bet the Recca still plays, but like many of that era he will probably never record anything again. Who know though with the internet... anything is possible. You can look it up man, he's in LAMPEDUSA, and CATANIA. I'm Chin Lee.

Hey, man, you don't talk to ChinLee. You listen to him. The man's enlarged my mind. He's a poet warrior in the classic sense. I mean sometimes he'll... uh... well, you'll say "hello" to him, right? And he'll just walk right by you. He won't even notice you. And suddenly he'll grab you, and he'll throw you in a corner, and he'll say, "Do you know that 'if' is the middle word in life? If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs and blaming it on you, if you can trust yourself when all men doubt you"... I mean I'm... no, I can't... I'm a little man, I'm a little man, he's... he's a great man! I should have been a pair of ragged claws scuttling across floors of silent seas...

Well u can make fun of Kippling if you so desire, but what is your point? I don't grab men Charlie. U want to know an I tell you. I used to work at the Audi dealer on Sunset, so what? That is where Recca gave Spencer his first wedgie, at least the first one I saw. I don't care about critics we are all critics, are we not? WTF? Some guy who gets paid to piss on people? Some F------ Legend in his own mind? Some f----- guy who did not like Man of the World, or Albatross? Bitched about too much Elmore? Please play what you want to play. You going to play for Lester Bangs?? Your either good or you are Toe Fat. He was there too. I'm Chin Lee.

ChinLee wrote:

Well u can make fun of Kippling if you so desire, but what is your point? I don't grab men Charlie. U want to know an I tell you. I used to work at the Audi dealer on Sunset, so what? That is where Recca gave Spencer his first wedgie, at least the first one I saw. I don't care about critics we are all critics, are we not? WTF? Some guy who gets paid to piss on people? Some F------ Legend in his own mind? Some f----- guy who did not like Man of the World, or Albatross? Bitched about too much Elmore? Please play what you want to play. You going to play for Lester Bangs?? Your either good or you are Toe Fat. He was there too. I'm Chin Lee.

No 'point" at all, ChinLee. Your last post really reminded me of something, and put a smile on my face. And I dislike all music critics, eunuchs at an orgy, one and all.

Amen Brother.

ChinLee wrote:

Amen Brother.

Double the amen on that one!!

Chin Lee gets my vote for poet laureate of the Stooges forum.

Being a Stooges forum, we are of course interested and care about current, past, late and lost members of the band. So if Jimmy R ever decides to come out of the shadows like James W did after 30 years, I hope he would come here and share some stories.

In the mean time we have Chin Lee, he better stock up on beer and Newport's as we want to see some pictures!!!

studioguy wrote:

Chin Lee gets my vote for poet laureate of the Stooges forum

I'll second that one !

Ok, she got her computer working enough to get me some photo's of Recca from a few years back. She only can access them when free wi-fi working in her building. She still fine looking man but she done like to wear her dentures anymore and it gets messy.

She talk to him he say thanks for interest but he living in Lampedusa and growing organic shit and all that I tell you about. He acoustic now, he say. He plays with local guys for fun. Accordion and flutes and such. She send me some diving pics from a few years back, and a picture of his organic farm. He grow olives, grapes, and tomatoes., and HERBS. And he a member of some secret society she say. I think I recognize these guys. How I show you the pictures man?

I'm Chin Lee

Upload them in imageshack or some image hosting page...then copy the link to the comments section. It would be great to see that.

A member of a secret society? hmm..intriguing.
yes it would be good to see these pictures if possible.