Best of James Taylor - Taylor, James (Popular) (CD 2003)

It s a testament to James Taylor s soothing voice and quality songwriting that he has maintained such a high level of popularity for almost four decades now. Since strolling onto the scene with an acoustic guitar via The Beatles Apple label in 1969, JT has defined the male singer-songwriter, and in addition to his own success, has served as the musical father to acts ranging from Duncan Sheik to John Mayer, not to mention his own two record-making kids, Ben and Sally.

It s hard to explain what Taylor s voice means to me in words. The identification I always seem to come up with when I hear his voice is dad . Like Mike Brady and Cliff Huxtable and all of the other dads I have experienced in a vicarious fashion, JT s soothing, masculine, a little corny, a little melancholy. It s the aural equivalent of a warm pat on the back, even when the emotions in the song are somewhat depressing.

Songs like Fire & Rain and Carolina In My Mind have become standards over the years, propelling Taylor s original Greatest Hits album (the one with the white cover) to sales well over ten million. Of course, this doesn t even cover the first decade of James career, so the folks at Warner Brothers remastered the greatest hits song, did a little bit of shuffling, added a couple of tunes from Taylor s Columbia Records tenure (1977-present), throw in one brand new song that sums up JT s recorded output in one word ( Bittersweet ) and, voila, you have The Best Of James Taylor , your own personal one-stop shop for the King of The Sensitive Singer-Songwriter .

It s hard to find fault with any one song on this compilation: damn near every one is a classic. And the man was able to wring so much out of simple sentiment. You just call out my name, and you know wherever I am, I ll come runnin to see you again is a line from You ve Got A Friend , the Carole King-written song that has become a standard in the repertoire of several artists. King herself and Joni Mitchell pitch in with angelic background vocals, but the front and center of the song itself is James everyman vocal and the easygoing strum of his guitar. It s emotionally affecting as much as it s a great song to sing along to. Of course, there s also his signature composition, Fire & Rain . The guitar melody sets the mood as James sings about a dearly departed friend. Allegedly, this song was written while JT was spending time in a mental institution for depression, and it remains a haunting and engrossing listen.

The man was/is also capable of writing a fine love song. Don t Let Me Be Lonely Tonight aches and broods. The heavy mood is set by the minor-key acoustic guitar, but it soon falls into a slow-dance standard when David Sanborn s lovely sax solo comes in. Meanwhile, if love-the-world songs are more of your cup of tea, there s Shower The People , a simple declaration to let the folks in your life know that you care for them. It s a simple message, yet always timely. JT s vocal is full of life and joy here, especially as the song shifts into the refrain shower the people you love with love/show them the way that you feel and JT ad-libs soulfully until the end of the record. There's even a love song to a country-"Mexico", featuring Stephen Stills & Graham Nash on backing vocals. It's such an upbeat,fun song, it's a wonder the tourist board of Mexico hasn't adopted it as it's theme song. It perfectly captures the mood of one of those fun drunken benders when you wake up in the morning not exactly sure where you are or how you got there.

Even during the moments that JT seems a little out of his league-he makes the songs fun. I m not sure whether Steamroller is meant to be an actual blues song or James writing a pastiche of blues songs, but hearing him growl and grumble through this song is sort of like the same feeling you d get hearing Kermit The Frog groan his way through a blues song. It s funny, though, and not only do you get to hear JT drop the MF bomb (actually, it s blurred out of this album s version, for what reason I don t know), but you get to hear the man call himself a churnin urn of burnin funk -or, more accurately, a choynin oyn of boynin funk . It s hilarious, quite possibly intentionally so. The churnin urn funks himself up with the bubbly bass-filled pop of Your Smiling Face , quite possibly one of the corniest songs written and performed in history. But JT s corniness is what gets the song off, and there s no doubt that the corniness is sincere.

And let s not forget the man s taste in cover versions. Aside from You ve Got A Friend (a song I m fairly sure but not absolutely certain he wasn t the first to record), he runs his way through the Jimmy Jones 50 s standard Handy Man (which probably holds the record for the most home-repair oriented metaphors in a single love song) and a soft-focus run through of Marvin Gaye s How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You) , which has been a favorite of mine since I heard it on New York s Lite-FM stadiums on a constant basis as a little kid.
My one complaint about this album is that it doesn t devote enough of it s energy to JT s post-1976 tenure on Columbia Records. Only a quarter of the album s tracks are devoted to the later time period, so you wind up without songs like Her Town Too , his hit duet with J.D Souther, or any selections from his excellent album Hourglass . In the grand scheme of things, I suppose that s minor detail, but if you want a good selection of his later stuff, you might want to pick up Greatest Hits Vol. 2 . The man s talent has not diminished with age at all.

JT s music touches me due to some intangible X factor. There are better singers, there are better songwriters, but his music (and his voice) have an honest quality about them that resonates with me. I guess the best example I can give of the way his music has touched me is to remember one Sunday afternoon a decade or so ago when I found myself in the Times Square subway station, on my way home from work. A street performer was perched on the platform, a nondescript guy in his mid-twenties, probably. He had an acoustic guitar and was performing Carolina In My Mind . His voice was a pretty good approximation of JT s, and the combination of James words, the purity of the singer s voice (and my mood at the time) was enough to move me to tears. I m sure the ultimate goal of any singer or songwriter is to get an emotional reaction out of the listener, and despite (or perhaps because of) the simplicity of his music, James Taylor possesses that quality in spades.

"The Best Of James Taylor"


Rating: 4 out of 5 stars (docked a notch or so for being incomplete)


Repeat: "Fire & Rain", "Your Smiling Face", "Carolina in My Mind", "Don't Let Me Be Lonely Tonight", "Mexico", "Shower The People"


Skip: Nothing worth skipping.


Great Music to Play While: Forgiving me if I've up and gone to Carolina in my mind.