I don't like James Taylor at all... there is literally nothing about his music or singing style that excites me. I look upon him as the Perry Como of the 70's.
Off topic but this reminds me of an episode of The Mary Tyler Moore Show where Lou Grant describes his effect on women. "Some men excite 'em, I calm 'em down."
The only Laura Lee song I like is "If I'm Good Enuff To Love". I'm thinking the guy was a misogynist.
The only Laura Lee song I ever liked from the Invictus/Hot Wax years was "It's Not Who You Fall For, It's What You Stand For." And that wasn't even a single; I had to score a copy of the Women's Love Rights album to get to it. Predictably, "Fall/Stand" is the only good song, but it was worth it. Otherwise, as I said earlier, her best things were on other labels, usually with the same hard-hitting attitude. If you dig 1960s southern soul, Lee's Chess recordings are worth seeking out.
I see the same people who produced The Honey Cone did the honors here, too so I'm guessing that's why the opening riff is so similar to One Monkey Don't Stop No Show.
I'm a big fan of James Taylor. I think his guitar playing style is innovative and is instantly recognizable. His songwriting is deeply personal and his delivery is spot-on for the material. It's a shame that his only #1 is this cover, which is just an average performance.
There were all sorts of Columbia label designs in the 1970-73 period, although I will only get to the ones pertinent to the period up to what we're looking at. They had a red-and-white "ring around" label that was in effect from mid-April to mid-July 1970: (Apropos, given the #1 record we'd been examining.) Then, from mid-July to mid-August 1970 was this "wallpaper" label that had a bit darker shade of orange, and was a precursor to the March 1971-April 1972 (around January if Santa Maria) version seen on later "Indian Reservation" pressings: Both those designs, it should be emphasized, were only on styrene pressings from Pitman (the label fonts shown in both these examples) and Terre Haute; Santa Maria vinyl pressings still used the old-style red label design - some with Pitman fonts, others they did their own type. The next label design we'll get to when we get to the only #1 on Columbia to bear it.
With all due apologies to JT-haters, I'm preferential towards this one over Ms. King's (on which he was part of the accompaniment, on guitar; strange that her ivories weren't heard backing up his rendition, given she played piano on at least his first two Warners' albums, and also on his first big hit single "Fire And Rain"). I think that could be considered an insult to Mr. Como, if you were to ask . . . However, except for "Mockingbird" (which, again, I'll take over Ms. Foxx') and this one, I could take or leave Mr. Taylor's other covers (was Peter Asher priming him to be the "male Linda Ronstadt" at that juncture, I wonder?). He was, with those two exceptions, better with his own compositions. The other thing about this record that stands out is in label typesetting. First-pressings, each of Columbia's three plants did their own label type work. My own copy (surprise, surprise) is Pitman's: And here is a link to the images of the Terre Haute pressing. But notice - despite Ms. King breaking out of the gate with her Tapestry album and the double-sided chart-topper she'd had - on both they misspell her first name sans the ending "e" as was common back in the days when she and Gerry Goffin were toiling in one of the rooms of a publisher situated across the street from and within a block of the Brill Building. (To be fair, Santa Maria's WLP's also made that error - but at least they corrected it.) Also notice the absence of running times for this and its B side, "You Can Close Your Eyes." Ultimately, Pitman's and Terre Haute's own label copy would be scrapped in favor of Santa Maria's on later pressings from each. This is remarkable insofar as Pitman fonts were almost never seen on Warners' releases (or those of sister label Reprise).
Really isn't a mystery - it was basically impossible to pick out any of the words. It was catchy, unique, and if all you knew about the lyrics was the chorus "Brown Sugar" that was enough for it to be a hit. It wasn't like there was an authority that "allowed" songs to be hits.
I don't reach for James Taylor when I want to hear something exciting, that's true. That's just not what he does. What he does do, he does extraordinarily well - the "Sweet Baby James" album is excellent and one of the pillars of the early singer-songwriter movement. "Fire and rain" might be the apex of it.
In the "green-label" period, only one other Warners' single I know of bore Pitman fonts on Pitman pressings - this record which apparently went nowhere:
I don't think I've ever seen a Warners single from 1971-76 that had this kind of font. Just about every label I've seen from that company in that era had those weird raised letters that looked like THIS:
Santa Maria's. Which ultimately would be used on all later pressings of this single. But notice how more tastefully laid out Pitman's fonts were. Santa Maria seemed to be all over the map type-wise.
This single from Mud Slide is much more to my liking when it comes to James Taylor tunes. It's basically in the style of a lullaby and just sort of noodles along but for me it hits the right spots. Joni's vocals don't hurt either.
The organ was played by arranger Artie Butler. Paul Revere did the face-to-face promotion for the song. He drove too many radio stations at the west coast and east coast.
Another great thing about this period in music. So many soon-to-be iconic musicians were all over each other's records. Half the fun was looking at the credits and being delighted to see who was lending a helping hand.
This was another great rock hit in 1971 I never get tired of hearing. Lee Michaels was a great artist for the few years he was making music and this tune along with the earlier Heighty Hi were staples around these parts. And can't forget Frosty the drummer!
I posted this before, but for decades, I looked for this song and thought it was The Rolling Stones. Well, you have to admit that he sounds like Mick Jagger on this song. It wasn't until I got those Rhino "Have A Nice Day" CDs that I found out it was Lee Michaels.
This was originally the B side of something called "Keep The Circle Turning" - which, chart-wise, didn't do diddly-squat. Radio stations turned around the record, and Mr. Michaels, by jove, had his biggest hit. Of course, for me CP's the thang . . . A clue as to its being originally a lowly B side can be found on how the other side was laid out by the Pitman print shop . . .
On her Carnegie Hall concert CD (recorded around this time, although unreleased until the 90s), she introduces "Song of Long Ago" as "Not to be confused with 'Long Ago and Far Away'...you see, I wrote this under the heavy influence of James Taylor." And yes, it sounds like she did.
How right you are. I was surprised when I first got the 1971 Supremes album "Touch" to find the liner notes written by Elton John.
"You've Got a Friend" - James Taylor version --- I heard this on the radio constantly in the '70s. I heard it so often through those years that I remember being initially surprised when I found out it had been a #1 in 1971. But on the other hand I cannot remember a time when I didn't hear it. We never owned this single (or any album with it) so the only time I would have heard the song was on the radio. I'm lukewarm towards this song, as I've never had anyone actually say that (or act that way) to me. Carole King version of the song -- I did not hear this until I heard the Tapestry album in its entirety. This did not occur for me until about mid-1980s. As far as James Taylor is concerned, I don't know him very well outside of his singles. Of all the songs I have heard from him, the only one I like enough to (potentially) want to own is "Your Smiling Face" from 1977(?). I do remember it as a new song, I liked that it was bouncy, and I also remember liking the key change in the middle of the song (or whatever change it is -- right before the first time he sings "No one can tell me that I'm doing wrong today"). I also remember that song being rather short, it can't be much more than 2 minutes in length.
