FEATURE:
A Buyer’s Guide
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Part Forty-Six: James Taylor
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FOR this week’s A Buyer’s Guide…
PHOTO CREDIT: Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
I wanted to throw some attention the way of James Taylor. I think that he remains quite underrated, despite the fact that he is a hugely successful artist. I have been listening to his music since childhood and I really love his vocal style and his phenomenal lyrics. Here is some more information regarding the phenomenal James Taylor:
“James Vernon Taylor (born March 12, 1948) is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist. A five-time Grammy Award winner, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2000. He is one of the best-selling music artists of all time, having sold more than 100 million records worldwide.
Taylor achieved his breakthrough in 1970 with the No. 3 single "Fire and Rain" and had his first No. 1 hit in 1971 with his recording of "You've Got a Friend", written by Carole King in the same year. His 1976 Greatest Hits album was certified Diamond and has sold 12 million US copies. Following his 1977 album JT, he has retained a large audience over the decades. Every album that he released from 1977 to 2007 sold over 1 million copies. He enjoyed a resurgence in chart performance during the late 1990s and 2000s, when he recorded some of his most-awarded work (including Hourglass, October Road, and Covers). He achieved his first number-one album in the US in 2015 with his recording Before This World.
He is known for his covers, such as "How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved by You)" and "Handy Man", as well as originals such as "Sweet Baby James”.
In order to help provide some guidance regarding his work, I have recommended his best four albums, one that is underrated, his latest album – there is also a James Taylor-related book that should provide some useful reading. Here are the James Taylor albums…
PHOTO CREDIT: Joby Sessions - Guitarist Magazine/Future/Getty Images
THAT you need to own.
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The Four Essential Albums
James Taylor
Release Date: 6th December, 1968
Label: Apple
Producer: Peter Asher
Standout Tracks: Knocking 'Round the Zoo/Carolina on My Mind/Night Owl
Buy: https://www.discogs.com/sell/list?master_id=68205&ev=mb
Stream: https://open.spotify.com/album/67zzo0nNsK1dR94u5lhH3C?si=E3AuMdtSQs2v-PitiZTQsQ
Review:
“James Taylor was the first artist to be signed to record on the Beatles' short-lived vanity Apple label. In late 1968, Taylor's sophisticated self-titled disc foreshadowed the introspective singer/songwriter genre that dominated pop music in the early and mid-'70s. Although often touted as his debut, this release is chronologically Taylor's second studio outing. James Taylor and the Original Flying Machine -- an EP recorded a year earlier -- contains rudimentary versions of much of the same original material found here. The album is presented with two distinct sides. The first, in essence, presents a unified multi-song suite incorporating several distinctly Baroque-flavored links connecting the larger compositions. The second is a more traditional collection of individual tunes. This unique juxtaposition highlights Taylor's highly personal and worldly lyrics within a multidimensional layer of surreal and otherwise ethereal instrumentation. According to Taylor, much of the album's subject matter draws upon personal experience. This is a doubled-edged blessing because the emphasis placed on the pseudo-blues "Knocking 'Round the Zoo" and the numerous other references made to Taylor's brief sojourn in a mental institution actually do a disservice to the absolutely breathtaking beauty inherent in every composition. Several pieces debuted on this release would eventually be reworked by Taylor several years later. Among the notable inclusions are "Rainy Day Man," "Night Owl," "Something in the Way She Moves," and "Carolina in My Mind." Musically, Taylor's decidedly acoustic-based tunes are augmented by several familiar names. Among them are former King Bees member Joel "Bishop" O'Brien (drums) -- who had joined Taylor and Danny "Kootch" Kortchmar in the Original Flying Machine -- as well as Paul McCartney (bass), who lends support to the seminal version of "Carolina in My Mind." The album's complex production efforts fell to Peter Asher -- formerly of Peter and Gordon and concurrent head of Apple Records A&R department. The absolute conviction that runs throughout this music takes the listener into its confidence and with equal measures of wit, candor, and sophistication, James Taylor created a minor masterpiece that is sadly eclipsed by his later more popular works” – AllMusic
Choice Cut: Something in the Way She Moves
Sweet Baby James
Release Date: February 1970
Label: Warner Bros.
Producer: Peter Asher
Standout Tracks: Sweet Baby James/Sunny Skies/Country Road
Buy: https://www.discogs.com/sell/release/1708761
Stream: https://open.spotify.com/album/1HiG0ukRmFPN13EVcf98Jx?si=1zF4YJjBQBSDjvILUQx4Yw
Review:
“Peter Asher (formerly at Apple with Taylor) produced this album, as well as Taylor’s first, and, one can hear, let Taylor have free rein this time. Echoes of the Band, the Byrds, country Dylan and folksified Dion abound, yet somehow Taylor pulls through it all with a very listenable record that is all his own. The gentle, intelligent manipulation of piano, steel guitar, fiddle and a few brass arrangements alone deserve a close listening to by any erstwhile producers.
And it is hard to fault Taylor’s lyrics. “Sweet Baby James,” with its “cowboys waiting for summer/his pastures to change” and “Fire and Rain” with its “Sweet dreams and fire machines in pieces on the ground” are just a few of the images that Taylor develops. Throughout, his vocal stance is low-key and perfectly matched to the country-styled guitar work. No acute solos or overstressed melodies appear as musicians and vocalist together manage to mandala their way through Taylor’s persistent lonely prairie/lovely Heaven visions that, at times, work their way up to the intensity of a haiku or the complexity of a parable
Taylor only shifts from this stance a couple of times. “Oh Baby, Don’t You Loose Your Lip On Me” is less than two minutes long; bluesy yet random, it sounds like studio hi-jinks used to fill out an album. But the other exception, “Steam Roller,” is a different story. Here Taylor is earthy and lowdown with definitely crude electric guitar behind him as he moans “I’m gonna inject your soul with some sweet rock and roll and shoot you full of rhythm and blues.” Then a miasmic, brass riff to make sure things stay tough, followed by a particularly timely and potent couple of verses: “I’m a napalm bomb for you baby/stone guaranteed to blow your mind/ and if I can’t have your love for my own sweet child/there won’t be nothing left behind.” A double-entendre tour-de-force pulled off effortlessly.
This is a hard album to argue with; it does a good job of proving that his first effort was no fluke. This one gets off the ground just as nicely, as Taylor seems to have found the ideal musical vehicle to say what he has to say” – Rolling Stone
Choice Cut: Fire and Rain
Mud Slide Slim and the Blue Horizon
Release Date: April 1971
Label: Warner Bros.
Producer: Peter Asher
Standout Tracks: Love Has Brought Me Around/You Can Close Your Eyes/Long Ago and Far Away
Buy: https://www.discogs.com/sell/list?master_id=68209&ev=mb
Stream: https://open.spotify.com/album/0h8hazllDADHsrSpcQCltk?si=6z7jBZFQR_mXEy4crlGWeg
Review:
“James Taylor's commercial breakthrough in 1970 was predicated on the relationship between the private concerns expressed in his songs and the larger philosophical mood of his audience. He was going through depression, heartbreak, and addiction; they were recovering from the political and cultural storms of the '60s. On his follow-up to the landmark Sweet Baby James, Taylor brought his listeners up to date, wisely trying to step beyond the cultural, if not the personal, markers he had established. Despite affirming romance in songs like "Love Has Brought Me Around" and the moving "You Can Close Your Eyes" as well as companionship in "You've Got a Friend," the record still came as a defense against the world, not an embrace of it; Taylor was unable to forget the past or trust the present. The songs were full of references to the road and the highway, and he was uncomfortable with his new role as spokesman. The confessional songwriter was now, necessarily, writing about what it was like to be a confessional songwriter: Mud Slide Slim and the Blue Horizon served the valuable function of beginning to move James Taylor away from the genre he had defined, which ultimately would give him a more long-lasting appeal” – AllMusic
Choice Cut: You’ve Got a Friend
October Road
Release Date: 13th August, 2002
Label: Columbia
Producer: Russ Titelman
Standout Tracks: On the 4th of July/Belfast to Boston/Caroline I See You
Stream: https://open.spotify.com/album/3RHJNmuwD0fnwccBv2HTif?si=I2-TOs7FRfqgMXGoq14EDg
Review:
“Even during his well-documented years of excess, the saccharine sweetness of James Taylor's voice served him well. Now 54 and as mellow as his music, Taylor's first album since 1997's Grammy-winning Hourglass (its progress was halted by his third marriage and the theft of his original lyrics) finds him thoroughly reinvigorated. That voice is in fine fettle, Ry Cooder guests on the title track, and Taylor's morose version of Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas was an American hit post-September 11. Relaxed as he sounds, Taylor is a hard worker, too. He whistles away at the close of Whenever I'm Ready, creates a weird backing to Mean Old Man and dissects gun running and tribal feuds on the penny whistle-infused Belfast to Boston. He can even do pop: Carry Me on My Way has a chorus so huge and obvious that Westlife could cover it and neither party would lose face” – The Guardian
Choice Cut: October Road
The Underrated Gem
Gorilla
Release Date: May 1975
Label: Warner Bros.
Producer: Russ Titelman/Lenny Waronker
Standout Tracks: Mexico/How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved by You)/Sarah Maria
Buy: https://www.discogs.com/sell/list?master_id=68234&ev=mb
Stream: https://open.spotify.com/album/0x491s63vRDvG25x2Fzrny?si=c4hGyFYzRkahUM19JZpLoQ
Review:
“A radical improvement on its predecessor, Gorilla – helmed by Russ Titelman and Lenny Waronker – turns out to be Taylor’s finest album since Mud Slide Slim and the Blue Horizon, even if it’s never quite as interesting overall as that album. Gorilla would also revive Taylor’s fortunes on pop radio, giving him his first Top 40 solo single in nearly three years (not counting his turn as wife Carly Simon’s duet partner on her Hotcakes single “Mockingbird’) with its breezy Top Five remake of Marvin Gaye’s “How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved by You),” which unexpectedly reveals Taylor to be a surprisingly effective lite-soul crooner. The disc also sports a second Taylor classic in the Jimmy Buffett-like tropical pop of “Mexico,” with guest harmonies from Graham Nash and David Crosby. (The song would surprisingly only peak at #49, missing the Top 40, but remains one of Taylor’s most beloved lesser hits, as well as his one of his best up-tempo outings.) But there are other highlights here as well among the album cuts, including “Lighthouse,” the funky “Angry Blues” (featuring a guest appearance from Little Feat’s Lowell George), the torchy “You Make It Easy,” the mellow “Music,” and the catchy yet sparse ballad “Wandering,” featuring James backed only by his guitar and Nick DeCaro’s accordion” – The Great Albums
Choice Cut: I Was a Fool to Care
The Latest Album
American Standard
Release Date: 28th February, 2020
Label: Fantasy
Producers: Dave O'Donnell/John Pizzarelli/James Taylor
Standout Tracks: Moon River/God Bless the Child/Ol’ Man River
Stream: https://open.spotify.com/album/0wwpYXYdn6MSrWHZv4nyFh?si=640gOaQvQKCVNUVVKz_OZw
Review:
“The kindly demeanour and treacle soft voice – not to mention the lofty honours in art and culture bestowed on him to celebrate 50 years of plucking heartstrings clean out of our chests – belie James Taylor’s troubled history. There have been heroin addictions, serious mental illness and no shortage of heartbreak in this 100-million-selling story, so it’s perhaps little wonder he finds difficulty in pouring himself into new material. 2015’s Before This World was his first album of original material in 13 years, and that took a stint of intense self-isolation to complete. Instead, he’s largely spent the millennium lending his pastoral folk tones to cover songs, from Christmas classics to the evergreens of Motown, soul and Fifties rock’n’roll. He’s become the Michael Buble it’s OK to get married to.
His 19th album turns his acclaimed arpeggios to the world of music theatre, raiding the likes of Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Guys and Dolls and Show Boat for tracks he can make swoon or swing. For Taylor, it’s like building an open goal out of cast recording albums – his “Moon River” drifts languidly by on dappled eddies of acoustic and reed, his “Ol’ Man River” is all supine Dixie delicacy, his “Almost Like Being in Love” (from Brigadoon) is the sort of Mississippi folk hammock of a tune that Mark Twain, had he been a man of notes rather than letters, might have writ.
The ballads are bread and butter; it’s when Taylor reinterprets the livelier – and cheesier – showtunes that his artistry shines. “Sit Down, You’re Rockin’ the Boat” shifts between Boston blues verses and choruses of gentle ragtime, “Pennies From Heaven” becomes a rat pack swing-along and Oklahoma!’s “The Surrey With The Fringe On Top” suddenly oozes folk class. The album’s highlight is Taylor’s gossamer take on South Pacific’s “You’ve Got to Be Carefully Taught”, bringing a 21st-century poignancy and warning to a story of inherited prejudice: “You’ve got to be taught before it’s too late/ Before you are six, or seven, or eight/To hate all the people your relatives hate."
Beyond the musicals of his youth, Taylor dips into jazz age classics made famous by names such as Billie Holiday and Glenn Miller – “Nearness Of You”, “Teach Me Tonight”, “God Bless The Child”, “My Heart Stood Still” – which he uses as interludes of sunset samba, draped with Bacharach horns and Carmen Miranda bongos. They’d give the record a cruise ship pallor, if Taylor didn’t exude such ineffable charm throughout. Expect reassurance rather than revelation and you’ll find the lesser-worn pages of the American songbook elegantly traced” – The Independent
Choice Cut: Sit Down, You’re Rockin’ the Boat
The James Taylor Book
Long Ago and Far Away: James Taylor His Life and Music: Long Ago and Far Away: His Life and Music
Author: Timothy White
Publication Date: 3rd May, 2011
Publisher: Omnibus Press
Synopsis:
“Rich with insights from Paul McCartney, Carly Simon, Sting, Danny Kootch Kortchmar, the entire Taylor family and many other key figures around James Taylor and his music.
Dispelling myth and rumour, Long Ago and Far Away examines the roots of Taylor's mental anguish and his recurring battles with heroin and alcohol. This is an epic family history, an exploration of the real stories behind Fire and Rain and the rest of the songs, as well as a frank account of Taylor's days on the Apple record label, the financial disaster of his Greatest Hits album deal and the deaths and divorces that have haunted his life” – Amazon.co.uk