Remembering Jim Clench

Jim's passing has generated a lot of discussion on the April Wine webforum, as well as on Randy Bachman's site.  Many of us fans are still in a state of shock over this, and in a funk.  A few more details have emerged.

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I recently learned that I had a "Stats" tab on this blog, and I learned that my previous posting generated a lot of pageviews from Canada.  One referring site was from a blogger in Montreal who knew Jim Clench.  He had some interesting posts.  Apparently Jim was thinking of getting a band going last year, to cover some of his songs with April Wine and BTO.  They were doing rehearsals in West Island, a section of Montreal.  If I'm recalling what I read correctly, they had about 12 or 15 songs that they were going to do if their plans on breaking the Montreal club scene were to come to fruition.

Unfortunately, it never got off the ground.  Jim's sense of humor and wit were noted, but it was also noted that he was a heavy smoker.  The others involved in the project, from what I can gather, went back to doing what they were doing.

One of the posters last saw Jim some three weeks ago.  He wasn't looking too well, but he figured that Jimmy would pull out of it.  Likely at that point, it was too late.  Per April Wine guitarist Brian Greenway, Jim Clench had stage 4 lung cancer.  His bandmates did not find out that Jimmy was ill until the day before he died.

Tragically, they were not able to visit him in the hospital to personally say goodbye.

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In 1974 I became a fan of Bachman-Turner Overdrive.  I was in high school, and living in New Jersey.  "Takin' Care of Business" was making several audio appearances on WABC, and when I heard that song I thought "WOW!"  I bought the 45 RPM single, took it home, and played it lots of times.

One night I flipped over the TCB single to listen to that song "Stonegates".  That was the first time I had heard a Fred Turner song.  I found myself playing that one again and again too.  I was hooked.

BTO was also making audio appearances on FM, namely WPLJ, which I was also listening to.  I was hearing some other songs of theirs, songs that weren't in the top 40.

As I said, I was hooked.  I never had a favorite band before.  I had one now.  Bachman-Turner Overdrive.

I have followed them since.

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In 1977, Randy Bachman left BTO.  Fred Turner, Rob Bachman, and Blair Thornton decided to continue.  But how do you replace someone like Randy Bachman?  How do you pick up and continue after that?

They found their answer in Jim Clench.  I had never heard of him until I saw his name on the back of BTO's Street Action LP.  He was now on bass guitar, and Fred Turner had moved over to rhythm guitar.

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I took the Street Action album home.  In the first track, I knew that they were getting back to their sound that I liked, the sound that they had abandoned on their Freeways album.

Track #2 was a song called "Down the Road".  That was the first time I had heard singing by Jim Clench.  I still had no idea that there had been this band called April Wine that he used to play in.  I had no idea where or how they had found him.

But I liked his singing!  It was distinctive.  Smooth.

The good news was that BTO was continuing.  And, they found the right guy to help move them "Down the Road".

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In early 1979, what was then thought to be BTO's final album came out.  It was a February night, the 21st, and Bay Area FM radio was playing a new song.  It had Fred Turner on vocals, and Fred's also got a distinctive voice.  That was good news, BTO was still going.

FM radio also played other tracks off this new album.  "Jamaica", "Amelia Earhart", "Rock and Roll Nights", all of which had Jim Clench on lead vocals.  KMEL-FM was very good about giving BTO some airplay.  I was really rooting hard for them to succeed.

Unbeknownst to me, BTO was burning out.  It had been a good run.  Eight albums, nine if you count the live one that wasn't released in the U.S., ten if you count that and their "Best of".

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Also in early 1979, I was hearing two songs by this "new" group called April Wine.  They were "Roller" and "Get Ready for Love".  I picked up the 45 for "Roller".  That song was sung and written by Myles Goodwyn. The B side had a song called "Right Down to It" that was written and sung by Brian Greenway.  Decent song, also a good vocalist to go along with Myles.  I thought of how this was similar to partnership that Randy Bachman and Fred Turner had with BTO.

Of course, I didn't know at the time that April Wine had started ten years previously, and had been trying and trying and trying to make it stateside.  They were well known in eastern Canada, but not here.

That was soon to change.

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One Sunday night in October 1979 I was listening to FM radio.  I was in my first semester at San Jose State, having transferred from Evergreen Valley College.  I was trying to "catch"songs off the radio onto my stereo cassette deck. Hey, I was a college student, had some funds, but not enough to my liking.  I wanted to finish this tape that I had started with off-air recordings.

The announcer said something about a new April Wine song that he was playing.  I started rolling tape.  The song was "I Like to Rock", and boy was that hot!  I really got off on the lyrics; "Journey to the Stars!  Rock and Roll Guitars!"  I thought then those were the greatest lyrics ever written.  I guess I still think that now.

Anyway, a new fan was born.  That song hit me like "Takin' Care of Business" had five years earlier.

Bachman-Turner Overdrive was my favorite band in high school.

April Wine would go on to become my favorite band in college.

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In early 1981, I had already owned two April Wine albums, and a new one called Nature of the Beast was released.  I ended up purchasing that.  Dang, that one was comparable to BTO's Not Fragile album!  By then I knew that there had been other April Wine albums that existed from their earlier days that could be found in the import section.  I was becoming a big April Wine fan, and I decided that it was time to go round up all those earlier albums.

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On my first visit to Tower Records in Campbell after I decided to start the roundup, I noticed that in the import section there was a copy of Electric Jewels.  I looked at the personnel.

"Great Hornytoads!" as Yosemite Sam would say.  I said something different though.  Something that I can't really remember.  Jim Clench used to be a member of April Wine!  Now I really needed to round up those records!

I remember calling up Hal Liming, "Hal!  Guess what!  Jim Clench used to be with April Wine!"

I did not, at that time, buy Electric Jewels.  There were some other things going on then.  I had found my faith, I had passed a difficult placement test to get admitted to the upper division electrical engineering classes at San Jose State, and there was this girl named Pam that I was carrying the torch for.

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While in some other record store shortly thereafter, I noticed that there had been a re-release of an earlier April Wine album called Stand Back.  Jim Clench was in the band and on this record.  The track listing on the back showed that he wrote and sang lead on two of them.  I bought that record along with the Foreigner 4 album which had also been released that very same day.

I didn't like Stand Back as much as the other April Wine albums, but there were some good tunes on it.  I took an instant liking to "Baby Done Got Some Soul" though.  I still like that song.  I've made some girlfriends over the years listen to it.  I made Kathleen listen to it.  I made Lynette listen to it.  And some others.

I've also made them listen to the BTO song "Madison Avenue", from their Street Action album.

Anyway, that night I went to visit Hal.  I was telling him about Foreigner 4.  And Stand Back.  We then went out to drive around some and to shoot some silly photographs of each other.  We had a great time too.  It was a Monday night in July 1981.  Monday the 13th.

That would be the last time that I would see Hal Liming alive.

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Hal's accidental death the next month hit me hard.  I was out of school for the summer, working part time, and had to take a few days off of work. I didn't go back until after his funeral.  Then some time after that, I picked up Electric Jewels and On Record by April Wine, both of which Jim Clench appeared on.

I didn't like Electric Jewels very much.  I felt that a lot of the songs were depressing.  Jim did about half the vocals on that one, with some being duets with Myles.

Oh, the songs were well-executed, but the sound of it seemed a little over-produced.

I liked On Record much better, but Jim Clench only sang lead on the last track.

My regret about the On Record album was that Hal was no longer alive to share the music with.

I think he would have liked that album.

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Fast forward now to 1993.  I was married, and we were in the process of moving into the new house that we had bought together.  I learned from perusing the club ads that April Wine was back!  They were going to appear at the One Step Beyond in Santa Clara.  The ad said "All Original Members", but what could that mean?  April Wine had had several lineup changes over the years.

I took that to mean the lineup that they had when I first became a fan:  Myles Goodwyn, Brian Greenway, Gary Moffet, Steve Lang, and Jerry Mercer.

Anyway, it would be my first time seeing them.  I was looking forward to it!

Journey to the Stars!!!!!!  Rock and Roll Guitars!!!!!  I could  hardly wait!

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We had arrived early before the show.  My wife had been wanting to meet Jerry Mercer, as had I.  I wanted to meet all of them!  But my wife had a special liking for Jerry Mercer.  We hung around the exit, somewhere near the tour bus.  I happened to spot Brian Greenway leaving the exit and heading to the tour bus.  I said "excuse me, you're Brian Greenway, aren't you?"

Yes he was!  I was meeting Brian Greenway!  I was chatting with him, and I had brought along my copy of his 1988 solo album, Serious Business.  He asked me what my name was, so that he could personalize it.  As he was signing it, I said "you know, when I bought this, I had no idea that you would end up autographing it!" He said "I had no idea I would end up autographing one in California".

In further conversation with him, I learned that a new album called Attitude was coming out.  I also learned that Gary Moffet was not in the band this time around.

What blindsided me though, was the news that Jim Clench was in the band.

"You mean Jim Clench is back in the band??!" Boy was I excited about that news!  I was going to get to see Jim Clench!

Myles and Jimmy had not yet arrived; they were driving down separately from San Francisco.  Brian went and got Jerry Mercer out to meet us.  I had a lot of fun talking to Jerry Mercer.  I was the first American he had met who had had all of the April Wine albums.  We were rattling off all the names to them.  Then we went over to the van so that he could sign some albums.  He offered to come with us.  That was when Chip and his wife Gabriela came by.  Jerry Mercer was in our van, sitting down, and autographing some albums for me.

"Chip!  Come over here and meet Jerry Mercer!"

Chip thought I was joking.  We've played some jokes on each other over the years.  He saw a pair of feet in tennis shoes from the back of the van.  When he got there he was astonished to learn that those feet belonged to Jerry Mercer!

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I didn't get to meet Myles and Jim until after the show.  I hung around with some other fans at the exit.  After what seemed like a long twenty minutes, they emerged.  I remarked to Jim, "Jim, if I had known I was going to be meeting you, I'd have brought along some BTO albums for you to autograph".  He smiled.

Neither Myles nor Jimmy were very talkative that night.  They had played their hearts out, and it was time to get on the tour bus and get on down to Fresno.  But they didn't leave us until everybody who wanted an autograph got one.

The last thing I said to Jim was, "stay in good health!".  He smiled, thanked me, and then got on.

I would never get to see him again.

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Some years later I got into exchanging occasional email with Fred Turner.  I asked him once how they found Jim Clench.  Did they audition thirty or forty bass players?  What made them decide on Jim Clench?

Fred wrote back to say "we heard that he was available".  He also told me that he felt Jim Clench made a good contribution to BTO.

Some time after that, both BTO and April Wine played the same bill in Quebec City.  I asked Fred if he got a chance to chat with Jim Clench.  I wanted to know how he was doing.

Fred said that Jim looked healthy, and seemed very happy.

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After the New Year's Eve concert by BTO in Tempe at the end of 2003, my friends and I were invited by Robbie Bachman to a private reception at the hotel they were staying at.  Sometime during that, I asked Robbie if he was in contact with Jim Clench.

Robbie said no; they did exchange a few words in Quebec City but that was about it.  Robbie then said something about Myles being somewhat protective of the other April Wine personnel.

Yes, Myles is the leader of April Wine.  He wants only the best to be on stage with him.  A good chunk of his life has been invested in April Wine.

Yes, he's somewhat protective.

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After Jim Clench left April Wine in early 2007, we would ask Brian, via the webforum, about how Jimmy was doing.

Brian didn't know.  They had had a long friendship of about thirty years, but Jimmy wasn't checking in with his former bandmates.  We had no idea what he as up to.  April Wine was out touring, and had a busy schedule.  Jimmy was somewhere in Montreal, doing who knows what.

There was speculation that Jim Clench had become a realtor, but I doubt that that happened.  There were some posts made in jest about how he was working at a 7 Eleven, and about how he had been seen with Elvis Presley, or something like that.

We liked him, we didn't know what he was up to, but we were all wishing him well just the same.

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On Wednesday we got the news.

One of Canada's finest bass guitarists was no longer with us.

Jim Clench died in a Montreal hospital at 9:30 that morning.

As one member of Randy Bachman's forum has since stated, it was a kick in the gut.

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As I said, a lot of us have been in a funk this week.  This was unexpected.  A favorite musician of ours was gone.

Myles asked Brian to post this on the April Wine webforum:


The news of Jim's death has left me numb and like many others I`m sure.. melancholy. I meant Jim in 1970 the year April Wine came to Montreal from Nova Scotia. When Jim Henman left April Wine in 1971, I asked Jim to join the group which he did, and so began an amazing 19 year fraternity.

He was a hell of a bass player and possessed one of the most unique voices in rock. I had the pleasure of writing songs with him in the 70`s , although my most-liked songs of his, he penned alone... Oowatanite, Cat`s Claw and my personal fave, You Opened Up My Eyes. 

Jim was one of the smartest, funniest and most giving persons I ever met. When Jim passed, on Monday, he left a lot of friends and fans saddened. His illness was sudden, and a surprise to myself and to the other members of April Wine.. 

I`m sorry that I didn`t have a chance to personally say goodbye. Perhaps we`ll get the chance to say hello again some day... and write some more tunes together.

rest in peace Jimmy.

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Goodbye, Mr. Clench.  May God give your family, friends, and bandmates strength and peace.