I OFFICIALLY DESPISE JAMES TAYLOR

Lord Custos, WXPN is far from perfect. Now back in the old days, before some point in the little 1980's thast was a fine station. I remember how they used to play an eclectic. . .

I'm going to say this here since it's a stupid thread anyway but this little habit of Lord C's annoys me a ridiculous, beyond-reason amount: more than James Taylor, Phil Collins, anything else on the board or indeed almost anything else I am likely to encounter in my daily life. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARG.

Don't get me wrong, I officially despise Phil Collins too. But we're talking about James Taylor right now.

By the way Fritz, after recess, it's your turn to clean the erasers. I've GOT DIBS ON THE TETHERBALL!

Yeah, well I have it on pretty good authority that he *HATES YOUR SKINNY WHITE ASS TOO*, so be prepared for a big SWEET BABY JAMES-STYLEEE BEATDOWN when you least expect it, punk, `cos Dad Loves His Work...and hates hatas like yourself!

"HONOR THE FIRE & RAIN!"

(Mod Up Dan Perry: +1 Contrary Asshole)

When I was a little kid my parents had the album 'Sweet Baby James'. And whenever they got it out people would smile in my direction and go "hey, this is for you, sweet baby James. Aaaahh."

And even at the age of 4 that really irritated me.

Man, I love "Fire and Rain" after hearing it in 'Running on Empty', but it would sound even better with a full blown hippy choir joining in on the chorus.

if you despise james taylor you might as well despise bob dylan. that's all I'm saying.

i love james taylor

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go.to/stevek

+2 insightfulness

I know it was all a bit Acid Jazz but James Taylor is a decent organist.

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.

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

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.

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?

i unofficially despise james taylor

^ 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

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...

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

One reason I kept it a sharp cut off after JT was just to have a disc that could trace his development over that length of time, or at least what I thought was the better part of it, especially while the singer-songwriter movement was at its peak with Taylor being representative of it. Sometimes I like hearing a chronological comp for that reason, so I kept it concentrated on those first eight albums.

I've been listening to his 1968 debut album and experiencing a big disconnect between his writing/singing/playing style (which I'd say is fully developed at 20, even if he'd write better songs later) and the psychedelic production trappings. Weird interludes between tracks, "crazy" overdubbed screaming, varispeeded backing vocals, even the bass and drum sounds don't fit with the "tasteful" latter-day James.

birdistheword, you have a greater love for his uptempo songs than I do. Stuff like "Knockin' Round the Zoo" and "Steamroller" sound too cute and showcase his weaknesses more than the ballads do.

Apparently him and Linda Ronstadt contributed harmonies to something on Harvest

He sang and played on Neil Young's two biggest hits, and I just realized that, as far as I know, they never collaborated again before or since.

Every second and every detail of "Fire and Rain" is brilliant.

My favourite detail is the arco bass holding on a pedal C for the entire third verse.

Just wait. In twenty years, the members of ILXOR 2022 will be posting to a thread called I OFFICIALLY DESPISE PHIL COLLINS...and saying the same damn things we're saying about JT now.

It actually seems that despising old music is seen as tedious here, these days.

He sang and played on Neil Young's two biggest hits, and I just realized that, as far as I know, they never collaborated again before or since.

This came about--like the rest of the initial Harvest session in Nashville--because the three of them were in town to film an appearance on the Johnny Cash Show. A snowstorm came in, preventing their return to LA, so studio time was quickly booked at Elliott Mazer's studio with an equally hastily-assembled backing band (who only turned out to be the Stray Gators) and we all know what happened next...

BTW, "Old Man" is/was the only instance of JT playing banjo on a record.

I can't say it's a great album, but I think his Apple debut is more interesting than most, maybe all, of his records. I think it's underrated in the sense that Taylor has openly expressed his reservations about it and it isn't consistently available - after a pretty good 2010 CD reissue, the physical release has again fallen out-of-print. (At least you can still stream it.) IIRC Taylor even mentions in recent interviews that he still cringes when he hears some of the production elements of that album. The interludes weren't his idea - I think Paul McCartney may have suggested them - and the album feels too ornate, but I don't think it was necessarily a bad idea, just overdone in spots. I also think he wrote a surprising number of strong songs for that album, and it kind of makes sense he would want to revisit them later. Not just for practical reasons like avoiding any licensing for his Greatest Hits - I think he really wanted new versions that suited his own tastes.

Halfway, with regard to those two songs, I kind of gravitated towards them because lyrically the former seems like one of his more harrowing songs diving into his own struggles and I actually appreciate the humor behind "Steamroller." I can see how they can seem a bit cute, especially the former, but they've always been more interesting or engaging to me than a lot of his other work. I do think both songs benefit from their original context, specifically the time they were released. I mentioned earlier that I kept my reference chronological for a reason, and this is partly why. I always keep in mind the counterculture when I hear those early songs, and though the production may be too much, it does keep the times in mind, including the drug experimentation that became harmful to that scene. When we shift into the Sweet Baby James songs, they sound better coming after those initial cuts for a lot of reasons: it's clearer why the stripped down production is so groundbreaking for a hit, mainstream album, the idea of the singer-songwriter movement being tied to the fallout from the '60s becomes clearer, and something like "Steamroller" suggests that Taylor came out of his struggles with his sense of humor intact. (It also reminds me that the overdone second-hand blues he was ribbing was fairly popular at that time.)

Imagine having that many thoughts about that album

imagine being a rich, drunk, stupid bitch all the time

he doesn't have to imagine

Shower the people, y'all.

LMAO