James Taylor

Albums Reviewed

Sweet Baby James (1970)
Mud Slide Slim (And The Blue Horizon) (1971)
Greatest Hits (1976)

Sweet Baby James

(1970)
James Taylor's debut album on the Beatles' Apple label flopped, despite featuring one of Taylor's best songs 'Carolina In My Mind', as well as 'Something In The Way She Moves' which inspired a certain ubiquitous George Harrison number. After spending time in rehab for a heroin addiction, Taylor joined Warner Brothers for Sweet Baby James, his second album, and hit the big time with a cover story in Time Magazine as the figurehead of the new singer-songwriter movement. While his handsome looks and warm voice might have fuelled his rise to fame, and he's one of the names most people associate with the term "singer-songwriter", he's far from the best that the era had to offer, lacking the experimentalism of Laura Nyro and Roy Harper or the emotional pull of Nick Drake or of Joni Mitchell's early work. While Taylor slowly lapsed into safe pop, Sweet Baby James is an effective work and a time capsule of a certain period, even if Taylor lapses into sentimentality too often to allow the album to appeal to music snobs. Taylor is joined by Carole King on piano, future Eagles bassist Randy Meisner, and session musicians Danny Kootch and Ross Kunkel, who steer the record in a country direction, underscored by the opening line "there is a young cowboy/he lives on the range."

This record is helped immeasurably by the presence of the classic 'Fire And Rain', which is head and shoulders above the rest of the album with emotional pull in the lyrics about the suicide of a friend which shook Taylor out of his own depression, referencing his and Kootch's former band The Flying Machine in the final line "Sweet dreams and flying machines in pieces on the ground." The effect of the song is magnified by the presence of 'Steamroller', where Taylor demonstrates an actual sense of humour on a hilarious blues parody with over the top lyrics and cheap lead breaks. There's also a great cover of the Stephen Foster standard 'Oh, Susannah', and solid album tracks like 'Lo And Behold', 'Country Road' and 'Anywhere Like Heaven'. The only real filler is the second blues parody 'Baby Don't You Loose Your Lip On Me' and the sappy 'Sunny Skies'. If you can't stand sappy singer-songwriters you might want to steer clear of Taylor (and Cat Stevens) altogether; there are heaps of great singer-songwriter records from the early seventies that hold more interest than this - try Nyro's New York Tendaberry or Harper's Stormcock for something more idiosyncratic and challenging, but Sweet Baby James is a perfectly respectable mainstream offering that's probably the best place to start in Taylor's catalogue and possibly the only Taylor album that a casual fan needs.


Mud Slide Slim (And The Blue Horizon)

(1971)
Sweet Baby James was presumably James Taylor's most substantial work, and the following year's Mud Slide Slim finds him already sliding into the irrelevant pleasantness. There are no significant lyrics like 'Fire And Rain'; Taylor is now prepossessed with straight-from-the-genre-handbook subjects of love and lonesome travelling; 'Riding On A Railroad', 'Let Me Ride', 'Highway Song' and 'Isn't It Nice To Be Home Again' are all eligible for the latter category by title alone. To give it credit, this record is more adventurous than Sweet Baby James, with wah guitar on the excellent title track, but it slides into cliché too often and it's often a little insubstantial. Carole King again guests on piano, while Joni Mitchell adds backing vocals on several tracks

Regrettably, Greatest Hits, which has become virtually the quintessential James Taylor album, only includes the sentimentalised cover of King's 'You've Got A Friend', meaning that there are some better songs here that have been unfairly overlooked. The second single was the gorgeous 'Long Ago And Far Away', which is far more deserving of recognition, while the funky title track is the album's highlight. The latter is far too short, only using the memorable "There's nothing like the sound of sweet soul music to change a young lady's mind" chorus once, but makes some amends with a lengthy jam at the end. Even wimpier than Sweet Baby James, this is hardly a record to convince Taylor sceptics, but it's a solid if often slight addition to his catalogue for his fans.


One Man Dog

(1972)
I've heard this one and it's disappointingly average, with a series of short songs that mostly fail to connect; Taylor's not the arty type, and I think he's out of the depth with this type of project.

Greatest Hits

(1976)
You'd figure that a compilation would be a good option for Taylor. but this 1976 Greatest Hits is definitely a story with two clear halves, with a first side with highlights from Taylor's singer-songwriter days and a more pop-oriented second half. The first side is easily stronger with reworkings of 'Carolina On My Mind', which along with 'Fire And Rain' is a long away ahead of the rest of Taylor's catalogue, and 'Something In The Way She Moves'. With three strong selections from Sweet Baby James the only dampener on the first side is Taylor's saccharine version of Carole King's 'You Got A Friend', which should have been replaced by 'Long Ago And Far Away' or 'Mud Slide Slim' from the same album. The second side bordering on mediocre, with predictable pop stuff like 'Shower the People' and 'How Sweet It Is', although Crosby and Nash's harmonies render 'Mexico' quite enjoyable. The nadir is a live version of 'Steamroller', which misses the humour of the original and even has Taylor dropping a completely out of character f-bomb. I'm hanging onto my copy of Greatest Hits since I'm pretty darn fond of 'Carolina In My Mind', but I'm not sure why I own two Taylor albums; the debate between keeping the overall stronger Sweet Baby James or Greatest Hits because it has 'Carolina In My Mind' is one of the dilemmas that prevents me from sleeping nights.


Hourglass

(1997)
I convinced my friend to buy this by informing him it won a Grammy; after hearing it, I'm sure that there were hundreds of better eligible albums released that year. This record has nothing as strong as his previous album's 'Copperline'.

Feedback: from Patrick
First: praise for the org., ease of use (e.g.) all album reviews sequentially readable rather than click up and then down again ad infinitum. I could go on and on as former programmer and consumer, knowing how thoughtful you have been, how the reader can use focus on the substance itself. Now to my reaction to reviews on JT. In writing you, this alone clues you I'm probably rabidly fanatical. True, true. General gist of what I want to convey: he paints the American south very well (outside eyes, since he's natively Northeastern). Lyrics very often ironic. When not ironic can be, by turns, sappy or truly romantic or politically aware (s/t naive -- seemingly he doesn't care that they are --) about the sea or rainforest or disappearance of old towns, etc. Have a listen to the romantic: Sara Maria; the political: Line 'em all up. You may have done all this. Frustratingly his guitarplaying is getting more and more monotone, but he writes in just about every tone and style.
Plus his deaths and resurrections around addiction bring out major beauty and variety. So, my 2 cents. Oh, and you need either to listen to about 10 more of his albums (holding nose if nec'ry) or review more of them. I do know he gets about the same stars from every reviewer.
thnx for chance to talk back. ptc AND your site is as good as gets.

Random Album Pick: David Bowie - Station To Station

'Stay' is an overlooked Bowie album track with more funky riffing from Alomar, which leaves closing cover 'Wild Is The Wind' as the only song that's not totally sensational.



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Written 2001-2009, Graham Fyfe