182. James Taylor, "Sweet Baby James"

 


We're back!  I had a nice vacation to the land of the maskless and free and hopefully did not catch Covid, although dying would probably be preferable to listening to this boring-ass record again.  Now we know where John Mayer and every other white boy coffee house open mic Yamaha acoustic playing singer-songwriter copped their vibe from, so at least there's that.

OK whew, back up, I'm being too mean.  OR AM I.  

Let's get this out of the way and talk about the elephant in this record: "Fire and Rain."  You've heard this song your whole life and, if you're a Gen X like me, you've probably heard the theories; it's written from the point of view of someone in a mental institution, it's about someone who killed themself, it's about a plane crash.  You're partially right!  Taylor himself explained that the first part of the song is about a friend, "Suzanne," who died while he was recording the album.

Just yesterday mornin', they let me know you were gone
Suzanne, the plans they made put an end to you
I walked out this morning and I wrote down this song
I just can't remember who to send it to

The other verses are about his struggles with addiction and the pressures of fame and whatever.  If you really hate yourself, check out Smashing Pumpkins covering it.

Am I being too hard on James Taylor?  I guess the title track isn't so bad, except for the lyrics, which honestly seem kinda cringe today:

There's a song that they sing when they take to the highway
A song that they sing when they take to the sea
Song that they sing of their home in the sky
Maybe you can believe it if it helps you to sleep
But singing works just fine for me

Speaking of cringe, there's an apparently unironic cover of "Oh, Susannah," like what are we doing here?  I mean, I get it, writing songs is hard, sometimes you gotta put a cover on an album, but why on Earth pick this one?  Big hit in 1848, but come on, man.

Look, this album sold a bajillion copies and people loved it and good for James Taylor.  It just scans as very dated today.  I'm guessing it's on this list due largely to "Fire and Rain" and that's fine.  It just failed to do much for me here in 2022.

Does this album deserve to be in the Top 500? Oh, whatever.

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