CoronaVinyl Day 415 (T): James Taylor by James Taylor

For an explanation of CoronaVinyl, click here.

Today's CoronaVinyl category is "T," and my choice was James Taylor's eponymous 1968 debut album.

Taylor's back story is more interesting than his music for me.  He came from a well-to-do family, as his dad was a doctor, professor, and the dead of the University of North Carolina Medical School for seven years, and his family has roots in the early Massachusetts Bay Colony.  Taylor got into music at a pretty young age, and played in bands in high school, but before he graduated, he committed himself to a mental hospital to treat depression and ended up getting his diploma from the high school associated with the hospital.

After he got out, he moved to New York and formed a band with his friend Danny Kortchmar -- who would go on to have a long and successful career as a backing musician, studio musician, collaborator, and producer.  Then Taylor got heavy into heroin, and his dad had to come rescue him and take him back to North Carolina.

After another six months of treatment and a throat operation, Taylor moved to London, where Kortchmar also was at the time.  Kortchmar introduced Taylor to Peter Asher -- of Peter & Gordon fame, brother of Jane Asher (who was Paul McCartney's longtime girlfriend), and more importantly at the time, the A&R man for The Beatles' fledgling Apple Records.  The result was that Taylor was the first non-British act signed to Apple.

He recorded his debut album in 1968, but then got back into hard drugs before it was released, so he went to a few rehab facilities.  The album was released in December 1968 in the UK and February 1969 in the U.S., and it was a critical success, though it only reached #62 on the Billboard album chart.

The album is a good, mostly acoustic folk and folk rock album.  It contains one of his signature songs, "Carolina On My Mind," which featured Paul McCartney on bass and George Harrison on backing vocals.  There is also "Something In The Way She Moves," which inspired the first line in George's sublime love song "Something" from the Abbey Road album.

Later in 1969, he got into a bad motorcycle accident (not that there are good motorcycle accidents), breaking both hands and feet, which obviously kept him playing for a few months.  But he continued to write music, and then signed with Warner Brothers, released the Sweet Baby James album in 1970, and the rest is history.

The Spotify version of the album has four bonus tracks.

Favorite Song on Side 1:  "Knocking 'Round the Zoo"
This song is peppy, with some horns and almost a Blood, Sweat & Tears feel.

Favorite Song on Side 2:  "The Blues is Just a Bad Dream"
If there was anyone who knew about having the blues, it was Taylor, and this is a nice acoustic blues song -- just Taylor and his acoustic guitar, with some muted strings in the background.