Taylor, James

Taylor, James, prominent artist of the 1970s singer-songwriter movement; b. Boston, March 12, 1948. James Taylor established himself in the forefront of the 1970s singer-songwriter movement with the desperately personal ’Tire and Rain” single and Sweet Baby James album. Finding an audience with both pop and easy-listening fans, Taylor continued to be a best-selling album artist through the 1970s, as his songs came to reflect less personal anguish and more gentle compassion. Married to Carly Simon from 1972 to 1983, Taylor continued to record albums of substantial popularity into the 1990s.

James Taylor and his siblings Alex, Kate, and Livingston were raised in affluence and moved with their parents to Chapel Hill, N.C., after Livingston’s birth in 1950. They spent summers on exclusive Martha’s Vineyard beginning in 1953. From an early age, Alex studied violin, Livingston and Kate learned piano, and James took cello lessons. After meeting guitarist Danny “Kootch” Kortchmar on Martha’s Vineyard in 1963, James formed the Fabulous Corsairs with brother Alex and three friends in N.C. in 1964. While later attending boarding school near Boston, James began to suffer bouts of depression, which led him to commit himself voluntarily to a psychiatric hospital in 1965, where he began writing songs. After discharging himself nine months later, he went to N.Y. in summer 1966 and formed the Flying Machine with Kortchmar, bassist Zach Weisner, and drummer Joel O’Brien. The group debuted at the Cafe Bizarre that fall and later moved up to the Night Owl, where they played regularly for seven months. Before disintegrating in spring 1967, they made some recordings that were later issued after the success of Sweet Baby James.

James Taylor next moved to London, where he made a demonstration tape that so impressed Paul McCartney and Apple A&R chief Peter Asher that he was signed to the Beatles’ record label. His debut solo album, which contained odd orchestral segues between songs, included the ominous ’The Blues Is Just a Bad Dream,” “Knocking ’Round the Zoo,” “Something in the Way She Moves” (which provided an opening line for George Harrison’s “Something”), and the excellent “Carolina on My Mind” and “Rainy Day Man.” However, the album went generally unnoticed, and with affairs in disarray at Apple, Peter Asher negotiated a contract for Taylor with Warner Bros. Records.

After debuting at Los Angeles’s Troubadour Club in summer 1969, James Taylor recorded his next album in Calif, with Peter Asher, now his manager, producing. Sweet Baby James established him in the vanguard of the emerging singer-songwriter movement with its anguished smash hit single “Fire and Rain.” Recorded with Danny Kortchmar, Carole King, and drummer Russ Kunkel, among others, the album also featured the moderate hit “Country Road” and the gentle “Sunny Skies” and “Blossom.” Taylor next recorded Mud Slide Slim and the Blue Horizon with Kortchmar, King, Kunkel, and bassist Leland Sklar under producer Asher. The album yielded a top pop and easy-listening hit with King’s “You’ve Got a Friend” and a moderate hit with “Long Ago and Far Away,” while including “Love Has Brought Me Around,” “You Can Close Your Eyes,” and the classic “Hey Mister, That’s Me Up on the Jukebox.” Taylor’s then-girlfriend, Joni Mitchell, provided backing vocals on the record.

In the wake of James Taylor’s enormous success, siblings Livingston, Kate, and Alex launched their own recording careers. Livingston’s modest-selling debut for Ateo produced a minor hit with “Carolina Day,” but subsequent albums for Capricorn sold poorly. He later recorded for Epic, Critique, and Vanguard. Kate recorded her first album with James, Carole King, and Linda Ronstadt, and the album sold moderately without yielding a hit single. In the late 1970s she recorded two albums for Columbia. Alex fared the least well of the three, and he died of a heart attack in Sanford, Fla., on March 12, 1993, at age 47.

In 1972 Danny Kortchmar, already a veteran of the band Jo Mama, formed the Section with keyboardist Craig Doerge, bassist Leland Sklar, and drummer Russ Kunkel to back James Taylor on tour and record independently. Kortchmar also recorded a solo album, and the Section later served as Peter Asher’s “house band” and toured with Jackson Browne on his Running on Empty tour.

On Nov. 3, 1972, James Taylor married songstress Carly Simon, shortly before the release of One Man Dog. Recorded with Simon, Carole King, Linda Ronstadt, and the Section, the album produced a major hit with “Don’t Let Me Be Lonely Tonight” and a minor hit with “One Man Parade.” In 1973 Taylor costarred with Beach Boy Dennis Wilson in the miserable film Two-Lane Blacktop, and scored a smash hit with Carly Simon on a deplorable off-key version of “Mockingbird.” Taylor’s next album, Walking Man, the first not produced by Peter Asher, failed to produce a hit single, but 1975’s Gorilla yielded a smash pop and top easy-listening hit with Holland-Dozier-Holland’s “How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved by You)” and a moderate hit with “Mexico.” Taylor toured again in 1975, and his final album for Warner Bros., In the Pocket, includes the major pop and top easy-listening hit “Shower the People.”

Switching to Columbia Records, James Taylor’s debut for the label, JT, reunited him with producer Peter Asher and furnished a smash hit with a remake of Jimmy Jones’s “Handy Man,” a major hit with “Your Smiling Face,” and a minor country hit with “Bartender’s Blues,” a smash country hit for George Jones in 1978. Early that year Taylor had a major pop and top easy-listening hit with Sam Cooke’s “Wonderful World,” recorded with Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel for Garfunkel’s album Watermark. After scoring a major hit with Carole King and Gerry Goffin’s “Up on the Roof” from Flag, Taylor scored his last major pop hit in 1981 with “Her Town Too,” recorded with J. D. Souther. Taylor had a minor hit in 1985 with a cover of Buddy Holly’s “Everyday,” and another with 1988’s “Never Die Young.” His 1991 album, New Moon Shine, presented him with a more country-style accompaniment, although it failed to perform well in either country or pop markets. Success returned, however, with 1997’s Hourglass, which charted in the Top Ten and earned him a Grammy Award for Best Pop Album.

Discography

T and the Original Flying Machine 1967 (1971); J. T (1968); Sweet Baby James (1970); Mud Slide Slim (1971); One Man Dog (1972); Walking Man (1974); Gorilla (1975); In the Pocket (1976). Greatest Hits (1976); JT (1977); Flag (1979); Dad Lives His Work (1981); That’s Why I’m Here (1985); Never Die Young (1988); New Moon Shine (1991); Live (1993); Best Live (1994); Hourglass (1997); Greatest Hits, Vol. 2 (2000). LIVINGSTON TAYLOR: Livingston Taylor (1970); Liv (1971); Over the Rainbow (1973); 3-Way Mirror (1994); Life Is Good (1988); Our Turn to Dance (1993). KATE TAYLOR: Sister Kate (1971); Kate Taylor (1978); It’s in There and It’s Got to Come Out (1979). ALEX TAYLOR: With Friends and Neighbors (1971); Dinnertime (1972); The Third Time’s for Music (1974); Dancing with the Devil (1991).

—Brock Helander