The "Little Pieces" recording sessions, which took place over a
year in Jimmy Norman's home and several New York City studios,
resulted in the outstanding tracks that make up this new
release.
Only Time Will Tell, written in the mid-60s, is a perfect
bookend to Time is On My Side, written in 1962. Though Jimmy
contends that the ?time? songs are not related, he recalls a
series of incidents that occurred in the same period that he
wrote the later song.
?I remember finding a lot of watches. I'd go into a phone booth
to make a call and there'd be a watch in there. Walking down the
street I'd pick up a watch. I go through a door and find a man's
watch or a lady's watch,? he recalled. ?I began to think time
was catching up with me.? For whatever reason, Jimmy still has
most of those watches in his possession.
Two songs, Coming from Truth and The Truth, the second written
with Al Pyfrom, relate to the turmoil, propaganda and confusion
that engulfed New York City during the Vietnam War years.
?During that time there were a lot of places we were afraid to
go late at night. I remember just walking and feeling like..hey,
I'm cool. I'm not afraid. If you're comin? from truth you can go
anywhere and do anything.?
Too old to be drafted into Vietnam, Jimmy was personally
detached from the protest efforts of the time. ?Most of the
people I knew discussing the war were talking about going to
Canada. The guys who were coming back were all screwed up. It
was a time of lots of confusion. I saw so many people trying to
do their own thing as a non-conformists. But all these
non-conformists became conformed. I remember writing:
?Conforming to non-conformity is not the same as being
different.??
Miracle Worker and What Now? involve the rise and fall of
Jimmy?s romance with former wife Dorothy Hughes. Miracle Worker
was written in about 1966 during their courtship when ?I met a
lady that just made be feel good about myself again.? Jimmy
recorded it as a single for Mercury Records.
What Now? was written about five years later, ?after we had gone
through a lot of problems. We kept breaking up and getting back
together.? Eventually the marriage ended. Dorothy Hughes later
married Jimmy?s writing partner, Al Pyfrom.
Strange Situation also resulted from Jimmy?s love life, this
time involving two romances in California during the early 60s.
Jimmy dated two women, not knowing at the time they were
cousins?and roommates! The song was written later, without the
knowledge of either woman.
Strange Suspicion was written in response to a book called
Criswell Predicts that Jimmy had read in 1968. A psychic and
star of the ?B? movie Plan 9 from Outer Space, Criswell
predicted in 1963 on national television that ?President Kennedy
will not run for reelection in 1964 because of something that
will happen to him in November 1963.?
After a string of uncanny predictions throughout the 60?s,
Criswell?s book predicted the future of world leaders,
technology, wars and demise. ?Thinking about what I had read and
seeing things going on around me, I was inspired with
predictions that things were ready to explode,? Jimmy recalled.
?The song is timely in 2002 because very little has changed in
the last 30 years.?
Little Pieces, the title song of this new release, was written
in the early 70s when Jimmy was performing with the Coasters on
a Caribbean cruise.
During a break off the ship on a tiny island, he kicked back on
a park bench and observed?to the beat of steel drums?the people
and flowers around him. ?I remember thinking about how easy life
was.? The song, scribbled in his notebook, was all but forgotten
until it was found in 2002.
