I OFFICIALLY DESPISE JAMES TAYLOR

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

so basically you officially despite amateurist

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

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.

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.

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ErG3tAEqx98/Taik7LBvP5I/AAAAAAAAqn8/EHYptsk_wdY/s1600/James+Taylor+1.jpg

"don't even try it or i'll cut you..."

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/A1W0JUZFT1L._SL600_.jpg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_D0i7UC9UY&feature=related

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)

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.

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!

dude is also one of the nicest ppl on Earth

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

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Brh-_4zmOmc&feature=related

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.

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

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.

love the hammond people

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4_5csvww0fY

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.

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

Further evidence that I am not, in fact, a two-dimensional cartoon character.

So that brings the evidence count to...2?

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, May 2, 2011 4:36 PM (1 year ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

whats the dopest james taylor record #seriousq

nb my dad used to play this song out & i liked it
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uWeaO4ZobeA

i was also wondering this after reading 'girls like us'. joni and carly can't both be wrong.

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

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."

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

Sweet Baby James is def a great album

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.)

This is the only James Taylor I can stomach. He plays a great Lord/huckster.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cqHjbowiLPQ

his unapologetic-white-dude-voice is kind of what interests me about him, albeit maybe not on Motown covers per se

some dude otm

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

reminiscent of

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ugRq52VN6G8

No love for Steamroller Blues?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9VXr6U-BwMs

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.

I read something the other day saying that the next revival would be James Taylor and now here this is. I blame you.

James Taylor wrote some great songs

https://media1.giphy.com/media/V2JcZ0608BfEY/giphy.gif

i continue to dislike the music of james taylor
his 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 Kermit
most loathed song: the one about smothering the people you love with love

I think James Taylor might be the whitest music ever made.

and "Mexico" is certainly the whitest song

just checked into a hotel on the spanish island of fuertaventura

playing in the lobby? james taylor

Say hi to him from ILX

i would but tbh I think i pissed on my chips when i yelled ‘freebird’ at him

Depends. Was he playing Angry Birds?

He's revered in Americana, so don't worry, the revival has been quietly gathering steam for a while. I have no idea what saying that Taylor is the "whitest artist ever" even means, btw. I can't take the guy for more than 10 minutes, but those 10 minutes are often sort of good. "Mexico" is his best song unless it's "Don't Let Me Be Lonely." I always heard the lyric in that one as "Go away, Ben Daniel," as if he were writing in the mode of the Band or something similar in the tune.

the most charitable thing i can say is that he reminds me slightly of Kermit

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=WJoU2sTqslM

He's revered in Americana, so don't worry, the revival has been quietly gathering steam for a while. I have no idea what saying that Taylor is the "whitest artist ever" even means, btw. I can't take the guy for more than 10 minutes, but those 10 minutes are often sort of good. "Mexico" is his best song unless it's "Don't Let Me Be Lonely." I always heard the lyric in that one as "Go away, Ben Daniel," as if he were writing in the mode of the Band or something similar in the tune.

― eddhurt, Tuesday, February 6, 2018 12:11 PM (one minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Whitest music* ever. Like his work embodies all of the cliche lazy comedian old white people music qualities: stiff, safe, inoffensive etc.

For me it's the most direct audio association to the image of a bunch of old rich white people in the suburbs snapping their fingers and bobbing their heads down at the local concert hall.

whitest comment ever