I know it was all a bit Acid Jazz but James Taylor is a decent organist.
― Dingbod Kesterson, Friday, 29 February 2008 09:52 (sixteen years ago) link
kool and gang backed him up, criteria miami sessions still soulful still unreleased.
such knee-jerk isms above--james taylor is good, a bit self-involved but so what. "mexico" and "don't let me be lonely" are really good.
― whisperineddhurt, Friday, 29 February 2008 15:28 (sixteen years ago) link
his voice creates a weird bio-chemical response in me...creating physical sensations of depression and nausea, general off-ness. kind of like car sickness. theres also something about his nostalgic sentimentality that gets me. (cat steven's voice does the same). so i hate the bastard, but can't claim it has anything to do, realy with his merrits or lack thereof.
in general i find the cleanliness of that era of singer-songwriter musics a bit shlocky, but far from hateable. and my love of melanie is documented around here
taylor though can stay as far away as possible from my ears
― bb, Friday, 29 February 2008 15:46 (sixteen years ago) link
Haven't heard this new Covers album, but he did a really good version of John Anderson's "Seminole Wind" on Letterman the other night.
― If Timi Yuro would be still alive, most other singers could shut up, Sunday, 2 November 2008 02:31 (fifteen years ago) link
taylor is perplexing. he seems like a deeply thoughtful and intelligent man. his music is almost unerringly tasteful, his phrasing can be quite good, his voice is appealing, some of his melodies are really pretty. i watch interviews with him and think, here's a guy that should be making really great, subtle music.
and yet all his thought and intelligence seems to be focused on making music that is often deeply, deeply banal. his lyrics tend towards the unforgivably trite (although he can pull off good turns of phrase when he wants to, it seems), his "conceptual" moves are embarrassingly obvious. what is the deal?
― by another name (amateurist), Monday, 2 May 2011 21:27 (twelve years ago) link
i unofficially despise james taylor
― congratulations (n/a), Monday, 2 May 2011 21:33 (twelve years ago) link
^ that was off the record
he's also an excellent guitiarist
think this guy has been getting a bad rap for years, Mud Slide Slim is a good record and so's Sweet Baby James, it's just that he does his own thing and it's low-key and unaggressive and what little darkness there is in it is tempered by this deep conviction that life is sweet
near #1 on my list of music that's underrated by music-thinkin cats -- feel like most people's opinions on this dude are way phoned-in
― five gone cats from Boston (underrated aerosmith bootlegs I have owned), Monday, 2 May 2011 21:36 (twelve years ago) link
funny thing is, when you look a little bit into James Taylor's background, there's a bunch of darkness there...Fritz otm re: him being a drugged out mental patient...
― if hongroes could fly this place would be a geirport (Drugs A. Money), Monday, 2 May 2011 21:39 (twelve years ago) link
oh yeah - some of those mellowest 70s records are written during full-on heroin addiction iirc. and like "fire and rain," if you actually give that one a hard listen it's a profoundly sad song. frankly puzzled by people still being dismissive of James Taylor - a lot of the biases that went into the general animus toward him among Thinking Types have rightly been outgrown but it's like JT has to carry the banner for those biases
― five gone cats from Boston (underrated aerosmith bootlegs I have owned), Monday, 2 May 2011 21:54 (twelve years ago) link
so basically you officially despite amateurist
― congratulations (n/a), Monday, 2 May 2011 21:55 (twelve years ago) link
don't know much about his music other than what makes me change radio stations but can't hate a dude who was in two lane blacktop
― puff puff post (uh oh I'm having a fantasy), Monday, 2 May 2011 22:00 (twelve years ago) link
i don't know why taylor should have to have a "dark" side or why we should care whether his personal biography validates that or not. lots of music is really cheerful and not quite as trite as much of his music.
i should say that i make this criticisms in the context of "rediscovering" some of his albums and getting a reasonable amount of enjoyment out of them.
i guess it's just the disjunct between listening to this guy give really thoughtful, inspired answers to interview questions (and the guy has mega-charisma, in a totally strong-and-silent way) and then listening to, i dunno, pick your least-favorite banal JT song here.
― by another name (amateurist), Monday, 2 May 2011 22:09 (twelve years ago) link
but can't hate a dude who was in two lane blacktop
― puff puff post (uh oh I'm having a fantasy), Monday, May 2, 2011 5:00 PM (8 minutes ago) Bookmark
well, yeah. actually rewatching that movie inspired this whole "maybe i should try JT again" thing.
also say what you will about the man but damn he was/is good looking.
― by another name (amateurist), Monday, 2 May 2011 22:10 (twelve years ago) link
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ErG3tAEqx98/Taik7LBvP5I/AAAAAAAAqn8/EHYptsk_wdY/s1600/James+Taylor+1.jpg
― scott seward, Tuesday, 3 May 2011 12:45 (twelve years ago) link
"don't even try it or i'll cut you..."
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/A1W0JUZFT1L._SL600_.jpg
― scott seward, Tuesday, 3 May 2011 12:47 (twelve years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_D0i7UC9UY&feature=related
― scott seward, Tuesday, 3 May 2011 12:51 (twelve years ago) link
if the singer's voice itself tells half the story, JT's delivery is so well-articulated and non-specific that we miss out on the personality required to get hooked into it. it's like a report of a song instead of the song itself. there's just no purchase there, the brain slides helplessly off its smooth surfaces. which is a shame because he wrote some good songs (as dave q mentions way up there in re: elvis live in hawaii)
― 40% chill and 100% negative (Tracer Hand), Tuesday, 3 May 2011 13:26 (twelve years ago) link
he doesn't have to, he just does and like I said it's not a "dark side" it's that there are these tempered bits of darkness - in a way, I think he's a realist, and that's why he's popular - he writes songs that are a lot like the average life: largely pleasant, not without significant trials and the occasional real glimpse of grief but overall a good thing to be enjoyed - he kinda hits all those bases in "that's why I'm here" actually!
― five gone cats from Boston (underrated aerosmith bootlegs I have owned), Tuesday, 3 May 2011 13:34 (twelve years ago) link
dude is also one of the nicest ppl on Earth
― Dreaded Burrito Gang (DJP), Tuesday, 3 May 2011 13:38 (twelve years ago) link
anyone like alex? or liv? or kate? i don't much...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b9FaUdKL6VE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I83fzex4TmE&feature=related
― scott seward, Tuesday, 3 May 2011 13:41 (twelve years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Brh-_4zmOmc&feature=related
― scott seward, Tuesday, 3 May 2011 13:43 (twelve years ago) link
Gage O.: Lester Bangs's ghost? Taylor shouldn't be in the Rock and Roll HOF (he's not alone there), but "Fire and Rain," "Something in the Way She Moves," and "Carolina on My Mind" are close to as good as early-'70s singer-songwriter gets. "Fire and Rain"'s harrowing.
― clemenza, Tuesday, 3 May 2011 13:58 (twelve years ago) link
- clemenza
I feel the same way about him. Not brilliant and many of his compositions are downright offensive in their corniness but those 3 songs are pretty good. I've had 'something in the way she moves' stuck in my head all morning.
― Moka, Tuesday, 27 September 2011 21:16 (twelve years ago) link
love the hammond people
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4_5csvww0fY
― Dr X O'Skeleton, Wednesday, 28 September 2011 19:29 (twelve years ago) link
Surely there are worse culprits than the otherwise inoffensive James Taylor!― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Monday, October 28, 2002 5:41 PM (8 years ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink
Was really surprised to scroll down and see this tame Alex in NYC post! Expected furious vitriol, tbh.
― jon /via/ chi 2.0, Wednesday, 28 September 2011 19:35 (twelve years ago) link
seek the funny people outtake where seth rogen is improvising some questions to j.t. and j.t. is batting them right back, making adam sandler laugh
― anorange (abanana), Wednesday, 28 September 2011 21:01 (twelve years ago) link
Further evidence that I am not, in fact, a two-dimensional cartoon character.
― Alex in NYC, Thursday, 29 September 2011 16:44 (twelve years ago) link
So that brings the evidence count to...2?
― Janet Snakehole (VegemiteGrrl), Friday, 30 September 2011 16:39 (twelve years ago) link
― five gone cats from Boston (underrated aerosmith bootlegs I have owned), Monday, May 2, 2011 4:36 PM (1 year ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
whats the dopest james taylor record #seriousq
― fanute da croupier (D-40), Saturday, 3 November 2012 08:41 (eleven years ago) link
nb my dad used to play this song out & i liked ithttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uWeaO4ZobeA
― fanute da croupier (D-40), Saturday, 3 November 2012 08:43 (eleven years ago) link
i was also wondering this after reading 'girls like us'. joni and carly can't both be wrong.
― Tim F, Saturday, 3 November 2012 15:18 (eleven years ago) link
His Apple debut has three songs I love: the original versions of "Something in the Way She Moves" and "Carolina on My Mind," and "Circle Round the Sun." The two big LPs after that have lots of good stuff, some of it well known, some not. I understand why, in the context of when he wrote it, Lester Bangs went off on James Taylor--it was 1971, the post-Beatles '70s were starting to take shape, and some of the critics who were aligning themselves with the singer-songwriter wave were dismissing Led Zeppelin and glam and such in the process. Forty years later, that doesn't seem all that important.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rtr5ehjihNU
― clemenza, Saturday, 3 November 2012 15:34 (eleven years ago) link
Ha, I was just thinking about this yesterday while reading the neil young bio Shakey. Apparently him and Linda Ronstadt contributed harmonies to something on Harvest and I was like "maybe I'll have to check out some James Taylor."
― how's life, Saturday, 3 November 2012 15:42 (eleven years ago) link
Sweet Baby James is pretty essential - it's got "Fire and Rain." If you've ever lost anybody, but especially to death, that song can really be there for you at the right time - a remarkable accomplishment in tone and feeling imo. One thing that can be challenging w/Taylor if if you have a great love for Motown and/or blues, he pretty unabashedly does this "well, I'm a super-white dude who digs this tune so here's what it sounds like coming from a super-white dude" and it can be jarring - I hated his take on "Handyman" back when but he's one of those dudes who once you've sorta developed a taste for his schtick you're able to cut him loads of slack. Check also Mud Slide Slim and the Blue Horizon, JT ("Your Smiling Face" is an all time jam imo). That's Why I'm Here from '85 is really good though I don't know if it's diggable unless you're already into his whole deal, I find "That's Why I'm Here" really moving and "Only A Dream in Rio" has a terrific melody
― Inconceivable (to the entire world) (underrated aerosmith bootlegs I have owned), Saturday, 3 November 2012 16:41 (eleven years ago) link
Sweet Baby James is def a great album
― some dude, Saturday, 3 November 2012 17:04 (eleven years ago) link
Every second and every detail of "Fire and Rain" is brilliant. It came out in February of '70: if you don't object to the arbitrariness of what constitutes a decade, I'd put it right alongside "Whole Lotta Love" (Oct. '69) as the two key gateways into the '70s. (I'm probably forgetting something else.)
― clemenza, Saturday, 3 November 2012 17:09 (eleven years ago) link
This is the only James Taylor I can stomach. He plays a great Lord/huckster. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cqHjbowiLPQ
― Jazzbo, Saturday, 3 November 2012 17:19 (eleven years ago) link
his unapologetic-white-dude-voice is kind of what interests me about him, albeit maybe not on Motown covers per se
― fanute da croupier (D-40), Saturday, 3 November 2012 18:20 (eleven years ago) link
some dude otm
― brimstead, Saturday, 3 November 2012 18:29 (eleven years ago) link
underrated Aerosmith otm too. Just a solid album.
i dunno his new stuff is p cool
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ChLJbkfEOp0&feature=player_embedded
― kl0ppa john's (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Tuesday, 22 January 2013 01:09 (eleven years ago) link
reminiscent of
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ugRq52VN6G8
― Bill Goldberg Variations (Merdeyeux), Tuesday, 22 January 2013 01:12 (eleven years ago) link
No love for Steamroller Blues?https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9VXr6U-BwMs
― The Teardrop ILXplodes (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 22 January 2013 15:25 (eleven years ago) link
I used to think Carolina In My Mind was pure nostalgic pap but lately the song is resonating with me and the lyrics are more interesting than I noticed before.
― Fedora Dostoyevsky (man alive), Tuesday, 6 February 2018 05:26 (six years ago) link
I read something the other day saying that the next revival would be James Taylor and now here this is. I blame you.
― Ned Raggett, Tuesday, 6 February 2018 05:29 (six years ago) link
James Taylor wrote some great songs
― niels, Tuesday, 6 February 2018 07:31 (six years ago) link
https://media1.giphy.com/media/V2JcZ0608BfEY/giphy.gif
― velko, Tuesday, 6 February 2018 07:40 (six years ago) link
i continue to dislike the music of james taylorhis lyrics do not resonate with me, i dislike his voice, and the most charitable thing i can say is that he reminds me slightly of Kermitmost loathed song: the one about smothering the people you love with love
― weird woman in a bar (La Lechera), Tuesday, 6 February 2018 13:32 (six years ago) link
I think James Taylor might be the whitest music ever made.
― Evan, Tuesday, 6 February 2018 16:18 (six years ago) link