CoronaVinyl Day 108 (RS 100 Greatest Songwriters 51-100): Sweet Baby James by James Taylor

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The past two days, we've looked at Rolling Stone's 100 Greatest Guitarists of All-Time, and now we are moving on to Rolling Stone's 2015 list of the 100 Greatest Songwriters of All-Time.  Like the guitarists, I'm breaking the songwriters into two parts, with today featuring a songwriter ranked between 51 and 100.  I'm choosing James Taylor who is ranked #69 on the list.  Ha! 69.

I'm generally not that into early '70s singer-songwriters, so I'm not going to sit here and say that I'm some big James Taylor fan, but I do think Taylor and his 1970 album Sweet Baby James (his second studio album) have an interesting story.

Before I get to that, I'd like to note the photo above.  I'm not sure when I acquired this album or from where, but when I took the sleeve out this morning, I noticed a small piece of paper folded along one side of the sleeve.  Turns out it is a receipt, showing that whoever bought this did so for $3.83 at Crowley's in Dearborn, Michigan on November 28 of an unknown year.  That's what I'm holding in front of the album cover.  I thought that was pretty cool.

Anyway, Taylor's backstory is kind of insane (no pun intended).  He committed himself to a mental hospital in high school, and got better and eventually graduated on time.  He then moved to New York to be a musician, but then got into heroin, eventually becoming broke, and his dad came get him and took him back to North Carolina (where he was from).  He got more treatment, and then went to London.  While there, he got back into heroin, but was introduced to Peter Asher (of Peter & Gordon), who was head of A&R for the Beatles' Apple Records at the time.  Taylor impressed Asher, Paul McCartney, and George Harrison enough that Apple signed him to a deal.  Apple released his self-titled debut in late 1968, but by that time, Taylor had checked himself back into a psychiatric hospital in Massachusetts to help him with his drug and mental health issues.  He got better, but then in 1969 was involved in a motorcycle crash in which he broke both hands and feet.  During his recovery from that, he signed a record deal with Warner Brothers.


So now we're in late 1969.  Taylor is only 21.  He records Sweet Baby James, with Asher producing and songwriting wunderkind and pop star in her own right, Carole King, on piano, as well as some help from future Eagle Randy Meisner on bass on two songs (and several other musicians as well).  During the recording of the album, Taylor was basically broke and homeless, often staying at Asher's house or sleeping on friends' or fellow musicians' couches.

Sweet Baby James proved to be his breakthrough, reaching #3 on the Billboard album chart and selling 1.5 million copies in the U.S. in its first year (it is now triple platinum in the U.S.).  Perhaps his most famous song, "Fire and Rain" is on the album, and it hit #3 on the Billboard Hot 100, while "Country Road" went to #37.  The album is also ranked #104 on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All-Time.

Since I'm not choosing "Fire and Rain" as one of the songs highlighted below, I think it bears some discussion because it has its own interesting backstory, and some inaccurate legends.  I had heard that it was written about the fact that, while Taylor was recording his first album in London, either the record company or some of his friends wanted to surprise him by flying over his girlfriend (named Suzanne) from the States, but that she died in a plane crash on the way over.  Hence the lyrics "Suzanne, the plans they made put an end to you" and "Sweet dreams and flying machines in pieces on the ground."  Turns out that is wrong.  

Taylor was in rehab when he wrote the song, and its about various things that happened during his early recording career.  The first verse -- which is the one that references Suzanne -- is about a childhood friend who committed suicide when Taylor was in London.  The second verse is about Taylor's drug addiction and depression issues.  The third verse is about Taylor's road to the then-present in the music business, and his former band The Flying Machine, which he was in before he met Asher and signed with Apple.  Carole King, who played piano on the song, wrote "You've Got a Friend" in response to the line "I've seen lonely times when I could not find a friend," and Taylor famously covered "You've Got a Friend" in 1971.  Taylor's version went to #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and remains his only #1 song to date.

Favorite song from Side 1:  "Steamroller"
This song shows that Taylor could sing the blues too.

Favorite song from Side 2:  "Suite for 20G"
The final track on the album is called "Suite for 20G" because Taylor was set to receive $20,000 when the album was finished.  He needed one more song, so he pieced together three unfinished songs into a "suite" to finish the album.  This is a little more uptempo and rocking than some of the other songs, which is why I chose it.