Thursday 11th May

James Taylor seems to have been around forever, and almost he has.  He emerged in the late Sixties, and was actually signed to Apple, The Beatles record company where he released his debut album (very hard to find nowadays).  But he really came to prominence in the early Seventies as part of the band of incredibly talented Singer-Songwriters coming out of California.  He shared a stage and a bed with Joni and Carole King, and actually lived with Carly Simon for nearly a decade.  His second album, ‘Sweet Baby James’, was brilliant and had the hit single ‘Fire and Rain’ but his third ‘Mud Slide Slim and the Blue Horizon’ was his first masterpiece.  The whole album just glides from great song to great song; it was rarely off my turntable for years.  I knew every song and every word by heart; favourites are ‘Hey Mister, That’s Me Up On The Jukebox’, the Carole King song ‘You’ve Got A Friend’ and ‘You Can Close Your Eyes’.  His lazy-sounding delivery and great, almost country, backing are simply brilliant.

He went off the boil a bit after that but had several late Seventies excellent records, ‘Gorilla’ and ‘JT’ my favourites.  But the thing about James Taylor is that you are never disappointed, even his lesser albums are good and contain several little gems.  He has also covered other writers with brilliant covers of Chuck Berry’s ‘The Promised Land’, and ‘Handy Man.’  The thing about James Taylor is that he never really seems to be trying, it is just as if he has picked up his guitar in your front room and started singing.

He still makes records and tours where many of his contemporaries have fallen by the wayside.