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106. 'Sweet Baby James' - James Taylor (1970)
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Following the modest reception to his debut, James Taylor released ‘Sweet Baby James’ - an album that would not only define his career but also ignite the singer-songwriter movement of the 1970s. Blending elements of folk, country, blues, and soft rock, Taylor crafted a deeply personal soundscape that resonated with a generation searching for authenticity. Against all odds, 'Sweet Baby James' became a landmark success, forever changing the course of American music and influencing countless artists to follow.
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Transcript
00:00:00
Speaker
In a world dominated by loud guitars and psychedelic rock, James Taylor quietly changed everything. With Sweet Baby James, he delivered a raw, heartfelt album that captured a generation's need for honesty and helped launch the singer-songwriter era.
00:00:15
Speaker
It wasn't meant to reshape pop music, but that's exactly what it did. Welcome back to the Long Live Rock and Roll podcast with your host, Mr. Laz Michaelides. On this screen, on the screen on the beside me is Mr. Felipe Amarum. How you doing, bro?
00:00:27
Speaker
Doing well, man, and you? Good, good, good. Yeah, very well, Matt. How's everyone going? Good, yeah. It's been nice weather here in the yeah UK, isn't it? It is, yeah. go It's time to start complaining about the heat instead of complaining about the cold. There's a brief window, isn't there? There's about a week where we're like, this is fine.
00:00:43
Speaker
This is good. And then after that, it all goes wrong. But yeah, anyway, James Taylor, sweet baby James. um So a few album details. Let's crack on. The album was released on February 1st, 1970.
00:00:56
Speaker
recorded in December of 1969 at the Sunset Sound Studios in LA. The genre is folk rock and it comes in just under 32 minutes long, released on the Warner Brothers label and produced by Peter Asher.
00:01:08
Speaker
So i um I chose this album because... James Taylor is a person I first heard when we were studying at uni. um I remember one of the teachers showing us a song by him and I thought, this is really great. This is just really, really nice songwriting. um And he's got a lovely voice, but it sounds kind of country, kind of American-y.
00:01:29
Speaker
But at the same time, it sounds kind of poppy. So I'd never really ever been bit obsessed with James Taylor or leaned very much into his career. But thought, you know, looking a little bit into the history of him and what he's like and what he's done, it's probably worth putting an album in.
00:01:44
Speaker
So I looked and I thought, right, which one was the defining album? And apparently it was this one, Sweet Baby James. So that's why we're doing it today. and What's your experience with James Taylor? Do you know anything about him? I only knew the hits, you know, like the all all the only the songs that everyone knows. So I wasn't familiar with the album either.
00:02:00
Speaker
ah But every time I heard is his voice, I had a good feeling about it. So it's one of those things you just don't put the time in to listen to a certain artist. yeah um especially in the last few years of my life or ah all I've been listening to is the very best of set list yeah so so unless someone tells me to learn a song I wouldn't listen to it because I don't have the time so that's one of the reasons why we do this podcast I think so we can find stuff ah interesting stuff to listen to not all the albums are familiar to to the boat both of us or maybe ah none of us would know the album so yeah in this case I think
00:02:38
Speaker
I thought you knew the album really well. I thought it was something that you listened to in your childhood and stuff like that. That's really interesting. Yeah, know just one of the yeah it was just one of those where i said, what's the what's the quintessential James Taylor album? What was pretty innovative? What did he pioneer doing this, that and the other? And this one came up. so um i knew that was the defining album, but I yeah i didn't know why. Now I know that. Well, let's talk about why this album is so important. So as a bit of background, and what I've learned doing some research is actually James Taylor was not in a great place doing this album, was he? He was homeless, are pretty much addicted to drugs, and he had some severe mental health issues.
00:03:15
Speaker
I read that he was actually staying. He didn't have a home. He was living on the producer's sofa or living with his guitarist in like his basement or something, which isn't really. Or in the studio. So it would alternate between those three places, staying at the the producer's house or the guitar player's house or in the studio ah whilst recording the albums. And and he came out of a not so successful album with Apple Records, like the Beatles record label, isn't it? So he recorded, he was backed by the Beatles for the first album.
00:03:45
Speaker
and it didn't go well. so And he didn't at all the first album, right which is another reason for for it not going that well. Well, after the Apple failure, so to speak, he was signed by Warner Brothers. um And at the time, you've got to think this is 1970, they were a very small label at the time.
00:04:02
Speaker
um So it didn't really have sort of the momentous name that they have nowadays. um But yeah, I mean, that was just a quick little background. Did you have anything to add with regards to that? Yes, the budget of the album, do you know? Ah, yes. Yeah, go for it. It was a, let me double check the numbers. It like, yeah, the budget was 20k.
00:04:21
Speaker
Yeah. $20,000, which would be in today's money, something around $65,000, which is a really low budget for an artist um to record an album with a band and producer and all that stuff.
00:04:33
Speaker
And um the thing is, he only spent 7,600 out of that budget. They made it even cheaper. yeah So that is the um there's a song written um about the 20K.
00:04:47
Speaker
Because actually he was promised to to get 20,000 pounds at the end of the recording. And he said, if i when I get the money, that's going to keep me going until the album starts to sell and the tours start to come.
00:04:58
Speaker
yeah So that's why the last song, is called sweet for 20 20 g yeah because he i read that he had what he had one more song to write and he just couldn't think he had a bunch of different ideas so he had three different songs or song ideas going on and he said i'll screw i'm just gonna put them all together and we'll call it sweet for 20 g because when i do this i've completed it i get the 20 g so yeah very funny um but yeah so let's i mean where should we go let's uh Well, do you know what? let's Let's try and segue sensibly. and We'll talk about the production because obviously what he did so well is keeping the costs low.
00:05:34
Speaker
And half of that is down to the fact that we have a very nice, simple production going on. Stripped back arrangements. And what I found really interesting about most, or let's say, yeah, yeah majority of songs, when there's other instruments in there, like you've got some horns, double bass, bass, drums, all that sort of stuff.
00:05:54
Speaker
The songs are not busy. They're not un-busy. There's lots going on. But at the same time, you are sat there thinking, i know I'm listening to a singer-songwriter now.
00:06:07
Speaker
Yeah, nothing gets in the way of the guitar and vocals. It sounds like, even if it's not louder in the mix, it sounds like everyone else in the arrangement is just providing ah like a ah background support for for for the sounds of yeah guitar and vocals. Little embellishments here and there.
00:06:29
Speaker
Yeah, we said, is remember when when we did the the the Bob Dylan album, which is essentially acoustic guitar and vocals? This album could have been like that. It didn't need anything else.
00:06:40
Speaker
That's the thing. Obviously, the arrangements make the this this the song sound more powerful. and know And also, sometimes it can get a bit boring if it's just acoustic guitar and vocals. It doesn't matter how good the song is. But...
00:06:52
Speaker
the songs exist regardless of who who is playing in it and regardless of the arrangements having said that we obviously have have a lot to say about the musicians and what they did but um yeah i think it's still about his vocals and guitar and i think the producer kind of captured that like this is like a band it sounds to me like a band in a living room yes and it was exactly like the production started because i think he tried one of the is it um Is it that the single, yeah, Fire and Rain? Yeah, I think they've tried that song previously for the other album as a full band and didn't quite work like ah with a heavier arrangement with more stuff.
00:07:31
Speaker
um then um And then with but this album, there was they were rehearsing to the producers flat or house. and and he said like the neighbors are going to be upset so we need to play with brushes instead of sticks so they started to play quieter to suit the environment so i think that sound is an entire album somehow that that concept of a band rehearsing in a living room instead of a a recording studio yeah that's a great little that's a great little story um and as as you just touched on i think you know we've got to credit the producer peter asher who really had this light touch that he was just putting on the album um
00:08:09
Speaker
in in a coming from the 60s, the late 60s as well, when you have things like, you know, um Phil Spector's The Wall of Sound production, which is just layers upon layers, making everything sound big and, you know, really perfect, you know, well produced. There's no problem with that. But heavy sounds, big sounds coming from the last Beatles, the last couple of Beatles albums, ah Zeppelin, Deep Purple are doing that. And you're getting really hard hitting sounds in rock and popular music.
00:08:35
Speaker
And it was pretty unique at the time to go back to that stripped back minimalist kind of production. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Because it's it's it's the opposite of of what the 60s were. When the Beatles stopped touring to just do albums, they could focus entirely on like, let's just arrange songs in the most complex way. and Obviously, you have um um at the time, you still have like a some ah progressive rock bands are starting at but that time.
00:09:03
Speaker
which is like really over the top in many ways. But he yeah totally got away from from what was going on with the Beach Boys and and and the Beatles and even the Rolling Stones of some of their you know more polished albums.
00:09:19
Speaker
yeah So i think I think what he did was like, this is this is not rock and roll. This is not the 60s. And let's like make it about the song. And with that comes what this album is probably most famous for, which is the birth of singer-songwriter era, where we start finally seeing um musicians and songwriters focus on emotional storytelling, heartfelt lyrics, introspection, as opposed to maybe some rock and roll stuff, isn't it?
00:09:49
Speaker
Yeah. And when you say singer-songwriter, that makes me think immediately of open mic nights. Yeah. you see it It gives us the jitters, yeah. Which is kind of a nightmare ah most of the time. Sorry to anyone ago. Well, no, that's fine. You know, yeah, I think um I make no apologies because, well, I mean, we went to a university and we're not we're not shaming singer-songwriters, not at all. you know, anyone who has a creative output and they put their their feelings and their experiences into a song, I think it's something to celebrate. but There's just so many now because anyone now can have a YouTube channel, you can make a Spotify profile, you can do this. You can put any song you want into these online platforms and call yourself sing a singer-songwriter, which is fine.
00:10:33
Speaker
But I think what we're alluding to in this sense is going back end of the 60s, start the seventy s Well, actually, you know, there's an argument that Bob Dylan was sort of the first one yeah because what it was more about was about the story you're telling a man or a woman and his guitar or instrument, putting
00:10:53
Speaker
stories alongside music. And like I said, I think Bob Dylan was the initial catalyst that set off, but Dylan was political. And on top of that, his stories, like I said, weren't necessarily so personal. They were more kind of folky and, or as I said, political.
00:11:11
Speaker
So this is where we started to see a new, a new kind of era usher in because what's so important about this album is how, vulnerable and personal the songwriting and the lyrics are from James Taylor, isn't it?
00:11:23
Speaker
Yeah, it is. When you make that comparison with them um with the modern singer-songwriter scene which I find funny singer-songwriter being a genre like it's like a guitar player backing vocalist gens show dear ah anyway because it doesn't really define what it is my my opinion and I think he wasn't James Taylor wasn't trying to define a style or anything but um The problem nowadays, as said, is like everyone is doing it like since probably Ed Sheeran came about with the same, like bringing that concept back into mainstream music and media.
00:12:03
Speaker
Everyone wants to be the new James Taylor or the new Ed Sheeran. The thing is, When you strip the song down to acoustic guitar and vocals and you're talking about your personal experiences, there's ah there's a fine line there between being too personal and being capable of communicating with other people's feelings, which I think that's that's where James Diller is really good at. You've got to leave a little bit of room for interpretation.
00:12:27
Speaker
If the lyrics are too much about yourself um and extremely direct to the point, ah then you can't make it universal relatable yeah yeah relatable exactly and universal in a way and i think i think he did that really really well with all those songs also here's the thing i see this sort of music as a movie with a low budget imagine a movie with five or six actors in one location right the only thing that can save that movie is ah really really good script
00:13:00
Speaker
yeah so if you want to be the thing is everyone's like you know i'm going to sing about my feelings pick a guitar and play a song right your story has to be really good because there's no riffs there's no beat there's no like it's just you and your guitar yeah you're not bringing a band you're not creating the style you're not you're not arranging the song you know it's if you want to make it that simple in a way the story needs to be excellent and well told, and your vocals have to be really unique, which is the case.
00:13:32
Speaker
That's a great point. And I think if you look, so what I was going to talk about next is how the, as you said, what what this became was essentially a commercial breakthrough for intimacy and for, let's say, vulnerability of putting your feelings, your story and your issues on the line.
00:13:51
Speaker
yeah And because of this, this is why it kind of showed, you know i think the perfect song is Fire and Rain because it's proof that mass audiences were kind of ready for this introspective confessional kind of songs. And this opened up the pathway for Joni Mitchell, um Jackson Brown, Stevens in the UK, Elton John in the UK as well, just for these people to properly, properly wear their hearts on their sleeves and say to the audiences, you know,
00:14:22
Speaker
They're doing their thing in rock. That's fine. With loud guitars, psychedelic stuff, even the progressive rock. But you can get away with, let's say, I don't want to bad lyrics because I don't want to have a go at rock, but you can get away with let's say non-relatable lyrics. I'm just thinking deep purple highway star. Or even generic lyrics. Or silly lyrics. Deep purple highway star, not everyone has a car, so you can't relate. Not everyone loves their car, so you can't relate. That's fine, great song.
00:14:54
Speaker
On the other side, you've got these singer-songwriters basically saying, I'm going to just open up to you. And I think that this album is one of those that was... credited with igniting that passion in people say, do you know what? It's okay to put our feelings in here. If I'm a drug drug addict, it's okay to sing about my experiences. And we saw this go on and on. You know, we just did Alice in Chains a few episodes ago where we know that the lead singer was plagued with drug addiction.
00:15:19
Speaker
and so But they wouldn't say in the lyrics, I'm singing about my drug addiction. It would be a story. Yeah, it would be a story. so things Singing about suffering.
00:15:30
Speaker
and ah ah So you can be suffering for different reasons. you're still going to relate to that. There's there's an interesting quote from James Taylor but from 2007 in an interview.
00:15:40
Speaker
He said, I write things for personal reasons. And then in some cases, it can be a shared experience. So that's it. That defines what this is. Yeah. Completely. Well, in that vein, let's move on and talk about the lyrics then, because i know you're always the lyrics man. So I'm going to hand this one over to you. But um just from my part, what I'd say is I think it was good to see, and I said it already, the transition because the sixties with the Vietnam war, with the, um with lots of racial tension going on from the back end of the fifties in the USA, we saw lots of political movements, especially around the folk music.
00:16:14
Speaker
And you kind of had, know, If if you you took folk music, added political lyrics, I think it's probably quite a simple way to just say that's how we arrived at the first singer-songwriter, Bob Dylan.
00:16:26
Speaker
not Not just him, obviously, there's a few others, but that image. The first really relevant one. Yes, yeah. And then we'll an era through the sixties, he was sort of piling on doing his politics, doing his his protests and all that sort stuff.
00:16:39
Speaker
And then, as I just mentioned, we took that hop from the end of the sixties into the seventies, where people started singing about themselves. So you want to talk us through some lyrics? Yeah, that'll be interesting that's that you made a really interesting point because like ah James Taylor's lyrics in his album, they're not ah they're not political at all. There's nothing in the album that makes it belong to the end of 60s and 70s like specifically.
00:17:04
Speaker
Yeah. It could have been written now and it's because it's it's about human feelings and how you deal with other people in the world. There's nothing to do. So basically it's looking inside you instead of looking at the world, which I think,
00:17:17
Speaker
um in a way, ah
00:17:22
Speaker
gives people a break from the normal sort of stuff. Even even nowadays, we still have a lot of ah political ah music, rock music, especially. And it's interesting. Like, I think artists should sing about whatever they want to sing.
00:17:35
Speaker
But in the end, um Dave Groh said something interesting that he doesn't like ah talking about his political views or whatever, because... um he wants people to come to his gig and forget about the world, forget about politics, forget about all this stuff.
00:17:52
Speaker
yeah A lot of a lot of ah famous rock singers and and and and writers would say that as well. So you have, and I i believe it's it's really good that we have both in music. We have yeah really political stuff and really personal stuff.
00:18:05
Speaker
And yeah, so in regards to the lyrics, like some of these stories, like Sweet sweet Baby James, such such a beautiful story. It's his older the brother's son. It's called James, ah you know, as a tribute to him. So basically said he named he named his son after after James Taylor.
00:18:24
Speaker
ah So he was driving to his brother's house to see the baby. And he he said the melody and the lyrics just came to his head and was singing the song in the car going to his brother's place. But he said at the time, essential he said, at the time, I had really good memory.
00:18:40
Speaker
ah So he went back home. after meeting the the family and ah his brother and and and his son, he went back home and wrote the song and recorded it straight away.
00:18:52
Speaker
And the final arrangement is not far from what he first had in in his mind. So it's like basically, and has that waltz kind of vibe. It's it's a bit of a cowboy song, a bit of lullaby.
00:19:03
Speaker
That's what I was going to say. Yeah, but what i love about this is that you're right, obviously, that the at its core, the lyrical concept is about his, what did you say? His brother's son. so his His brother's son, yeah. but So his nephew.
00:19:15
Speaker
but to make it more relatable because not everyone has a nephew called James. He wrote it in the style of like an American cowboy ballad yeah with a story and a narrative and and imagery to take you through the song. And I just thought that was such a clever way of combining traditional aspects of this American folk music, but making it personal, which is what he we said he's already done.
00:19:37
Speaker
And i think I think every kid wanted to be a cowboy at some point or a superhero or something like that. So it's it's super cool the way it tells the story. And I think I was going to discuss Fire and Rain next. Yes. Because the song's quite a heavy one. it It discusses depression, addiction, mental health, personal tragedy.
00:19:55
Speaker
ah tragedy and I think um that what be what's interesting about that song like that and how heavy it goes in is that again for the time the 1970 this was unusual this was rarely handled in what we call pop music at the time yeah and and it is and It's interesting how he delivers the song in a way that doesn't feel heavy. That's my opinion. Great point. Great point. I didn't feel like any moment in this album is low, like in a way, like this um doesn't make you feel down in any way, my opinion. so I completely agree. ah you can you can't flu You can't feel the blues out of listening to this album. That's that's my view on it. it's it's
00:20:37
Speaker
There's always something cheerful about the way they arrange or perform the songs. Or his vocal delivery is so soft. That doesn't, in my opinion, it doesn't bring any sadness to the songs at any point. I completely agree. I feel like it's a person just talking about their experiences.
00:20:52
Speaker
And yeah he's not trying to say, feel sorry for me, or this is the lifestyle you should lead. But this is me telling you my story. Yeah. And the thing with Fire and Rain, the first, he says ah three different stories. But the most interesting one for me is the the first verse when he's talking about the death of a friend.
00:21:08
Speaker
um So one of his best friends, she committed suicide. And his close friends didn't tell him because he was really excited about signing with the label and preparing the album. but I think was this album, not the first one. I'm not quite sure. think when he signed with Warner Bros.
00:21:26
Speaker
And he was preparing the album and he was focused on doing it. They didn't tell him. And six months later, they told him. And then it's like writing about something that happened so long ago, but it's hurting you now.
00:21:42
Speaker
yeah And and it's and i I think that feeling is everywhere in the albums. Like when he talks about sadness, it feels like it's so... further into your past that it doesn't affect you now. You're just like going through those feelings and explaining those feelings. But it feels to me like he wasn't sad at the moment he was writing in the album but or not really as depressed as he was in the past.
00:22:07
Speaker
Great point. i think I think what this does is this this essentially humanized pop stars. Yeah. humanized pop stars yeah and really gave them a platform and a basis to say, look, we are just like you know, because rock stars, look at who was, a look at who was around just before coming. youve got Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, gods, rock icons, yeah guitar gods, who people probably thought, wow, with all the money they've got, with the rock star life they lead, how can they have problems?
00:22:41
Speaker
And little do you know that behind the scenes, you know, you've got John Bondman with his alcoholism, you've got, um James Taylor with his drug addiction. you got Lane Staley from Alison Chains with his heroin addiction. We don't always see...
00:22:53
Speaker
on the surface, um the life of a performer. If we want to take it to the next ext extreme, let's talk about Chester Bennington and Chris Cornell yeah from Linkin Park and Soundgarden. People who, on the surface, have it all.
00:23:06
Speaker
Money, rock star lifestyle, they play great music, but beneath, they're hurting. yeah And I think this was one of the first albums to, to especially in this kind of American pop folk scene, that told us it's okay to not be okay.
00:23:22
Speaker
and i'm going to tell you in the form of songs yeah and and yeah well well put man but apart from that there's something about the way he tells the stories it's not moaning about anything it's not like oh look at me i'm suffering or you know uh it's just like this is what happened i'm telling you this story it's like for me it's like watching a movie right yeah the main character in the movie doesn't look at you and and and and asks for for help or whatever.
00:23:49
Speaker
It's just the story. You're just seeing the story in front of your eyes, and that's what it is. Absolutely. And it is what it is. It's good and it's bad. this the And I think, again, the melodies and the arrangements, don't never let the songs feel too depressing.
00:24:03
Speaker
Well, let's... There's one more lyric I want to mention. Sunny Skies. third song. He's got a jazzy beat, super cool and super beautiful melody. And it sounds like a positive thing, but it's kind of sarcastic. Sunny Skye is the character, is someone who is depressed.
00:24:19
Speaker
It might be himself when he was in hospital. He... he put himself into the hospital. He went there ah to to check in as someone who needed help. no right no No one sent him to the hospital. said, need help, I'm depressed.
00:24:33
Speaker
And Sonny Skies is this character who's got no friends. But the the the melody is so like... um cheerful and beautiful and there's a jazzy beat just swings it's super cool but when you hear the lyrics like this guy's got a terrible life he's got no friends he says god you know he's crying at night doesn't even know why and all that stuff but i love the way the way he wrote the song almost in a sarcastic way almost like i'm taking the piss out of my own uh suffering you know yeah so like i'm i making it's not comedy but it's like i'm
00:25:06
Speaker
I'm trying to look at the bright side of this and not taking my suffering so seriously in a way. Have you heard the phrase, if I don't laugh, I'll cry? Yeah. And it's like that. yeah If I don't laugh about my experience, I'll cry about it. But you've you've put us perfectly into the next section where we're going to talk about the music of the album. yeah Now, initially, i I wanted to talk about the genre blend, but actually it turns out as as it kind of expands, there's more to this than just that.
00:25:30
Speaker
So first of all, I'll talk about the blend of genres because I'm really, I'm really, I like what he's done here because just like every other great singer songwriter we talked about, um Elton John, one, you know, ah personally for me, Cat Stevens, Elvis Presley, I know not really a singer songwriter, but it's how they take their influences and blend together.
00:25:52
Speaker
to offer audiences a new style, which is essentially that new style became American singer songwriter, but he's got folk in this. That's obvious from the guitar playing. He's got some country elements as well from the guitar playing.
00:26:06
Speaker
There's some blues in there, like two songs have a full on blues chord progression. There's some soft rock in fire and rain. And then there's some gospel as well. And I just loved how we got a little bit of a taste for each thing in the first bunch of songs.
00:26:20
Speaker
Song one is like a cowboy ballad. Song two is gospel. Song three was so Beatles poppy to me. Sunny skies. It kind of just remember reminded me of getting better. yeah And then song four is a blues. Good Day Sunshine as well. Remind that Yes, as well, yeah. And then the song four of this album is a blues.
00:26:37
Speaker
And I think he just does it so beautifully. He really gently blends them to, as I said before, offer the audiences a nice alternative to this hard-hitting rock music that's going on in the UK and America on this side.
00:26:50
Speaker
And it's also different to the country and folk that's going on here. He's going to take a little bit of the instrumentation here. He's going to take the some guitar playing from here. put his own personal lyrics in and offer them a new a new a new platform, a new medium, some singer-songwriter music.
00:27:05
Speaker
Yeah, and and he did it really well because it's not like... it's a It did in it in a natural way, you know, blending things he actually liked. and and A lot of it reminds me of the band, and he's been compared to them in that way. Yeah, yeah. The band, the band. The band, the band. I say this every time. Every time, yeah. and another Another aspect of this that I think gets lost in the first one or two times you listen to the album is how intricate his guitar playing is.
00:27:33
Speaker
Yeah. how brilliant is, isn't it? He's got this sort of finger picking style, which doesn't, again, it's just done so smoothly, so effortlessly, so subtly, that you don't always pick up on it until I watched a few videos of him doing these songs live.
00:27:47
Speaker
And you just see his right hand kind of like, you know, moving like a spider. There's just all bits going on. Hold on, like, he's singing. And his melodies are not straightforward. I'd i'd say they're simple in terms of don't know, if you're placing notes on a manuscript, they're simple melodies to look at, but actually the rhythm of the melodies don't always match with the rhythm of the guitar or the rhythm of the band. It sounds like there's someone playing guitar and someone singing. It's not the sort of guitar player that most singer-songwriters will do. You know, just strumming or keeping the beat whilst you sing. So I really love that you've got technically challenged
00:28:26
Speaker
technically challenging playing, but sounding effortless and soothing. And half of that, again, has to be his voice. yeah He's saying, you know, I'm just putting the music here for this background feeling for you guys. Make sure you pay attention to the stories I'm telling over here.
00:28:40
Speaker
And it sounds like everything they added to to the songs ah was added because it needed to be there. There's nothing over the top. There's nothing that it was overproduced.
00:28:54
Speaker
all or didn't have a place in the song. There's there's ah there's an interesting quote from him as well from 1994.
00:29:01
Speaker
He said, we just went in and did it. At the time, I didn't know how to think about things like the marketplace or what people were listening to. they that That's really cool.
00:29:12
Speaker
That sums album up. Again, the the musical freedom we keep talking about, that's part of rock and roll. So it's not a rock and roll album, but it's got that rock and roll attitude. This is what I believe music should be like. That's what I want to do.
00:29:26
Speaker
And I don't understand about the market. I don't understand about how to to sell an album or what people are looking for. So, yeah. Yeah. Perfect. ah For those um listening and watching, down in the description and the show notes, you have a a Spotify playlist that we've made.
00:29:41
Speaker
We do it for every episode and all the songs we mention, although we actually haven't mentioned any other than this album, including the album, go into that playlist. So if we mention a song and you want to have a listen to the song, click that that link in the description, then it'll take to the playlist and you can play as we mention a song you can go back and listen.
00:29:56
Speaker
and I mean, is is there anything else you want to say to finish off? Yeah, he's got great hair. That's one thing that must be said. it doesn't look so good now. He's kind of got it. Yeah, but he's honest, though. He's honest now. The hair is gone. He's not pretending to have one. There's so many. We should do a whole episode on rock stars that wear wigs.
00:30:15
Speaker
Oh, yeah. The hair system is something that has been around in the rock industry for a long time. James Taylor is an honest man in his music and with his hair as well. So sos not hair is gone. this doesn't It doesn't pretend to have it. But yeah, great hair. That's what I want to say. Very good, very good. um um I feel like we've spoken about the album in a very broad sense. We haven't really sort of gone into any songs in particular. I mean, which ones did you, were there ones you liked more than others? The last one really surprised me, the Sweet for 20G, because I thought if you if you piece three unfinished songs together just to fill the album, it's like...
00:30:52
Speaker
all right, that's going to be like, that's not going to be a hit for sure. And it's literally just a filler. And I don't think it sounds like that. really surprised me. And there's more participation of the band in that one than in in any other song in a way. yeah So it gets really funky towards the end. So I think that song specifically, you were about to finish the album on and it gets funky. So you're like, you want to get up and start start dancing. It's like, yeah, it's funky. And then, oh, that's it.
00:31:21
Speaker
yeah done that's the end of the album book and then it goes back to the beginning yeah if you loop the album it gets quieter again so that is that really surprised me uh also his version of all susanna which who is a which um uh kind of a folk uh american song that's an interesting story about that song was written by a guy called stephen foster who was the first uh full-time a songwriter in America.
00:31:48
Speaker
The song was written in 1848. Wow. so Yeah, old one. So yeah, um but I think, again, every every song, the order of the songs, the instrumentation, everything is just, in my opinion, absolutely perfect throughout the whole album. I agree. It's a really, really great singer-songwriter album, and it it It doesn't surprise me that you tell me if you tell me this is the one that kicked it all off. It sounds raw. It sounds authentic. It doesn't sound like it's been influenced by anything.
00:32:16
Speaker
It sounds like like, as we've just discussed, which is why this is so significant. This is one man who has decided to put his thoughts, emotions, feelings, life experiences, problems on top of some music.
00:32:27
Speaker
And it's created a whole ah whole sort of sub-genre, if you like. um Just to quickly talk about some accolades. I mean, it's not. Had you heard of this album before? ah Yes. Not listening to it, but people you've heard the name. yes Okay.
00:32:41
Speaker
Still, I had before, but it's never lumped in with those big albums. is It's never lumped in with Dark Side of the Moon, with Sgt. Pepper. Maybe it deserves to, maybe it doesn't, whatever. It still comes up in discussions about the quality of the album. So, for example, VH1 named it the 77th greatest album of all time.
00:32:59
Speaker
ah Rolling Stone put 104 in the 500 greatest albums of all time. um But this is there of this is a sentence i wanted to to talk about. and So William Ruhlman from All Music, he captured the, for me, the essence of the album really nicely in one sentence.
00:33:18
Speaker
Taylor's sense of wounded hopelessness reflects the pessimism and desperation of the 1960s hangover that was the early 70s. It struck a chord with music fans, especially because of its attractive mixture of folk, country, gospel and blues, all of them carefully understated and distanced.
00:33:36
Speaker
It's nice, isn't it Especially that's about really well the hangover of the 60s. I love that word. Or I love that description. You know, the 60s was tough. There was lots of good stuff about the 60s, but a lot of negatives as well, especially in America. So the hangover of it into people actually saying, let's talk about our experiences. Let's talk about what went wrong.
00:33:55
Speaker
Yeah, it was the 60s were really intense. So the album came in a moment where I think it's it's it's like having a break from it. Yeah. And we kind of said the same with the American Pie, the album, didn't we? Don McLean.
00:34:08
Speaker
Anyway, shall I, shall we finish off with my monologue? Yes, please. Excellent. cool Cool. Sweet Baby James opened the door to what audiences could expect from this new wave of singer songwriters.
00:34:21
Speaker
Defying the loud, experimental, in-your-face conventions of 60s psychedelia and rock, favouring instead the soft, introspective mood and vulnerability of a man and his acoustic guitar.
00:34:32
Speaker
Whilst the songs are short and simple, the music is not. His guitar technique is pretty sublime, and he masters the fingerpicking beautifully, whilst his chord progressions are far from conventional, often venturing away from where you'd imagine or be used to them going.
00:34:46
Speaker
As we have said, whenever we do episodes about singer-songwriters, the blend of genres is key in nailing down influences, yet never commits to just one. The first five songs span a variety of styles, from cowboy ballads to blues, from Beatles-esque pop to gospel.
00:35:01
Speaker
Yet the music always feels like it belongs to no one except James. This is thanks to the production of Peter Asher, who, despite doing really well producing and mixing mixing the instruments, exudes an element of simplicity in this.
00:35:14
Speaker
James's vocals first, instruments second, putting the lyrics, melody and story at the forefront of the music. This album's accolades are not as momentous as other the big name albums of the time, but it played a crucial role in opening up mainstream audiences to reflective, sad, stripped back music that they were unused to hearing, paving the way for singer-songwriters all over the world to expand on this beautifully introspective Pandora's box that James Taylor opened.
00:35:42
Speaker
Beautiful. yeah he did so Yeah. He did start something, didn't It's a beautiful album, isn't it? And I'm going to go ahead and assume what what your answer is going to be when I say any final words, because I want to say it this time.
00:35:55
Speaker
go Go listen to the album. <unk> That's your final word. Just listen to it. Listen to an album. but I think especially... If you like classic rock or heavy rock or heavy music in general, or anything that's got a lot of instrumentation, a lot of drumming or loud guitars, this is a good break from that kind of stuff. you know yeah And it's and it's it's not there's no way you're going to get bored with it with this album. So well played and and lyrics and vocals are absolutely beautiful.
00:36:27
Speaker
Yeah, perfect. Cool. Well, thank you guys again for joining us for another episode of the Long Live Rock and Roll podcast. If you are listening to us on Apple, Spotify, or Amazon, do us a favor, scroll down, hit five stars, write us a little sentence, and it does the world of good for us because we get put higher up in the algorithms and we get seen by more people.
00:36:44
Speaker
It takes about 20 seconds of your time, but does the world of good for us. And if watching on YouTube, make sure to like and subscribe to stay up to date with our latest content. Yeah, thanks for being with us one more time. and I don't share anything on social media, so do it for me, please.
00:36:59
Speaker
So thanks for being with us. Keep on rocking everyone and don't do anything I wouldn't do. Don't do anything I wouldn't do, including you, social media. bea And as usual, guys, you'll take care. We'll see you next time and long live rock and roll.