James Taylor is sixty today
Let's hear it for James Taylor who's sixty today. He's not a legend like Bob Dylan but his best stuff sounds even better now than it did then. Here's ten points you shouldn't forget:
1. Whether or not he was the best singer-songwriter of his era, he was certainly the best-looking.
2. He was discovered by the Beatles, which didn't happen to most people.
3. When he was married to Carly Simon they were more glamorous than Cheryl Tweedy and Ashley Cole.
4. He starred with Dennis Wilson in "Two Lane Blacktop" in 1971. Neither of them could act to save their lives but when you look like this (left) you don't have to.
6. He was hospitalised for depression years before the rest of us knew it had been invented.
7. He's made getting on for twenty albums and there isn't one cast iron stinker among them.
8. He does a brilliant solo show these days where he shows old home movies between songs and tells stories. In fact, he's one of rock's three best story tellers.
9. You probably know "Fire and Rain" and "Sweet Baby James" but you should get to know "Frozen Man" and "Enough To Be Your Way".
10. This summer he's touring open air venues the USA with his "band of legends" and a show that promises all his greatest hits plus lots of rhythm and blues oldies. Sounds very civilised.
He'll probably drop in later with a cake.
- More from David Hepworth.
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Each to his own
re. best looking singer songwriters, I prefer Joni Mitchell...
I'd say you're
On your own there. Unless you have a preference for big...oh I'll just leave it there shall I?
Storytellers
Go on then David - who are the other 2 storytellers?
I'd suggest Nick Lowe and Randy Newman..
Saying that, Springsteen and Costello can be pretty good when they want to..
And then there's Van Morrison!
Oh, I was just teasing...but this guy's one of my favourites
I guess it's a matter of opinion
who was the best looking, and surely Gram Parsons wasn't bad? But he certainly hasn't aged as well as Jackson Browne and the 60+ Daryl Hall looks young enough to be his son.
Daryl Hall......
.....also looks young enough to be Mickey Rourkes son. Or father. Undoubted victims of the same surgeon.
I rediscoverd him again after many years
When I heard Sailing to Philadelphia the song he did with Mark Knopfler which I must say I love. When his voice kicks in it is truly angelic.
Two Lane Blacktop - stone classic
Take or leave old Jim's up and down personel life, all can be forgiven for the above cinematic gem. The dialogue is cut to the minimilist's bone but what is said works. No, he cannot act but he and Dennis Wilson are fine as themselves. See it if you can.
Petrol heads of the world unite
I love this film, and I don't think I've ever met anyone else who'll admit to it.
Sample dialogue
"DRIVER: That Dodge had a Hemi with a torque flight. He got me good out of the gate. I pulled on him in second. Pulled right up to the door in third. That was when he stopped and I finally pulled him in fourth. I believe we sawed that cat off even if we did lose two hundred.
GARAGE MECHANIC: Lot of work.
BOY: Is it a 396?
DRIVER: 454.
Boy: No shit.
GARAGE MECHANIC: What kind of transmission?
DRIVER: Four-speed.
GARAGE MECHANIC: You build the headers?
DRIVER: Yeah.
Boy: How fast does she go?
DRIVER (vaguely): Depends on who's around."
Oh joy...
John Belushi
My favourite story about JT was that apparently after some drug binge John Belushi, staggering out of the front door, told Carly Simon that JT's drug habit was getting out of control.....imagine your drug habit being so bad even JOHN BELUSHI thought it excessive.
Band of Legends:
Do you mean his original lot, Kunkel, Kortchmar, Sklar et al. I'd pay good money to see them alone.
It goes up to 11
11. He's grown up to be an own-up baldie, sporting his pate with pride.
Point 11 is a very good one.
On point 4, nobody has mentioned that Two Lane Blacktop's 'star' was the mighty Warren Oates who makes the film watchable if you are interested in more than drooling over handsome pop stars.
On point 8, Mr. Hepworth has chosen one of the great taste-maker superiority techniques. There is no need to know the other two great story-tellers when uttering the proclamation. Toadies and acolytes will appear in due course to ask 'who are the other two?' Use it all the time myself. As in 'Warner Hodges? One of the five greatest cigarette smoking guitarists ever.'
Probably not a very good Point 12, but apropos someone else's blog entry, that sure was one dull name to ride to the top of pop.
13. A name so lame they used it twice
A plaintive heckle regularly heard at James Taylor Quartet gigs: "That's enough of that jazzy organ shite. What we've come for is 'You've Got A Friend'".
9/11 did it for me...
Could always take or leave the guy till I saw that astonishing performance of 'Fire and Rain' at the benefit for victims of 9/11 back in 2001... for once appropriately, not a dry eye in the house as he sang a song that was 30 years old (!) but might have been written for the occasion.
"Well, there's hours of time on the telephone line to talk about things to come
Sweet dreams and flying machines in pieces on the ground
Oh, I've seen fire and I've seen rain
I've seen sunny days that I thought would never end
I've seen lonely times when I could not find a friend
But I always thought that I'd see you, baby, one more time again, now..."
JT and Pudding Boy
It really really irritates me that the fat pudding chef on TV called his book "sweet baby james". JT should sue or get free puddings.
And Two Lane Blacktop is an absolute classic written and directed by Monte Hellman the genius who wrote Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid. Which surprisingly Warren Oates was not in (if memory serves me correctly), although he was in many of Peckinpahs other films of that time and in most of Monte Hellmans movies. I don't think that James Taylor was in any other films about cars or guns, but maybe he should have been....
Warren & Monty
PG & BTK was written by Rudy Wurlitzer, not Monte Hellman. Warren Oates starred in a wonderful obscurity directed by Hellman and written by pulp specialist Charles Willeford, Cockfighter (1974).
whoops
That'll teach me to try and rely upon my chequered memory. You are of course absolutely correct. I shouldn't ramble on a blog. Is there a Hellman/Peckinpah crossover? Or did I make that completely up.
In The Pocket....
is one of the great under appreciated albums of all time. I just bought it on CD recently having had a cassette copy for years. Two songs that really stand out are 'Money Machine' and his collaboration with Stevie Wonder 'Don't Be Sad Cause Your Sun Is Down'. A classic! I'm constantly surprised that this particular song has never shown up on any best of collections.