BY JAMES TURANO
Oh, fortune and fame’s such a curious game
Perfect strangers call you by name
And pay good money to hear “Fire and Rain”
Again and again and again.
—lyric from “That’s Why I’m Here” by James Taylor
One of my favorite James Taylor songs is one you may not instantly recognize or associate with pop music’s lanky illuminator.
After almost two decades of writing, singing, and performing many of the rock era’s most beloved ballads and appealing pop songs, with his honest, post-rehab album—1985’s That’s Why I’m Here—James Taylor finally confronted in song his personal demons and accepted his artistic reality.
He used the revealing title track to recall his problematic past, seize his optimistic present, and perfectly crystallize his professional and personal purpose.
The song “That’s Why I’m Here” centers on addressing the levels of varied, longtime relationships and friendships as he reminisces about doing a favor for a pal in need, mourns the untimely passing of dear friend (John Belushi), and apologizes to loved ones.
And with a bolt of clarity and self-awareness, he embraces the unbreakable bond and reciprocal alliance with his loyal legion of listeners with the lyric “Some are like summer coming back every year/Got your baby, got your blanket, got your bucket of beer/I break into a grin from ear to ear/And suddenly it’s perfectly clear/That’s why I’m here.”
And that’s why we’re here, too.
James Taylor may not be an annual Ravinia Festival fixture—à la the late, yet immortal Tony Bennett—like he has become at Tanglewood, near his Boston origins out east. In fact, his two-night stand on June 8 and 9 will be his first return to Highland Park, IL, in a decade, and only his fourth time overall performing at Ravinia (having played such double-headers in 2008, 2012, and 2014).
However, Taylor has been a tireless, touring troubadour for more than 55 years, and has come to define the out-door, communal concert experience that Ravinia helped establish in the nation in 1904 and continues to cultivate.
After all, can there be any better way to spend a soft, summer evening under the stars than on Ravinia’s lawn with a glass of wine in hand and “Sweet Baby James” serenading your ears? Taylor’s vast, five-decade musical catalog is pop music’s greatest comfort food. Since his debut album in 1968, Taylor has created a casserole of countless combinations packed with tasteful hints and familiar flavors; sounds that are a satisfying, addictive, delicious, traditional, memory-inducing musical meal, inducing an emotional warmth and pleasing, happy tingle. Taylor standards such as the tender, nostalgic lullaby “Sweet Baby James”; the loving, adoring “Something In The Way She Moves”; the wistful, promising “Shower the People”; the dreamy, longing “Carolina In My Mind”; the joyful, grinning “Your Smiling Face”; and so many other favorites enforce this metaphor.
Yet, while his musical lineage maybe be founded on solid pop hooks and structures, his legacy is deceptively diverse. Taylor’s muse often expands and expounds into myriad influences of folk, blues, gospel, soul, Motown, and country.
The combination of his dark, contemplative looks; his soft, gentle, calming, welcoming voice; his deadpan, ironic sense of humor; his shy, “aw shucks” vibe; and the patented “James Taylor accidental casual” persona he exudes on stage and on record all helped him inspire and nurture the “sensitive singer-songwriter” genre of the late ’60s and early ’70s. He even found himself as “cover model” on a 1971 issue of Time magazine heralding the emerging movement.
Taylor’s quiet, introspective songs seductively speak of pain, ease the heartbreak, and sprinkle spices of surprise into the mundane. From the beginning, his music offered a new personal perspective, with articulate, reflective, confessional lyrics that made pointed pronouncements for an engaged generation in a chaotic time. “That Baby Boom generation musical expression, which happened between ’62 and 1980, that sort of 20 years of amazing activity that happened, I was in the center of it. I had a real sense of this generational phenomenon ... we were communicating to each other,” Taylor explained to the Associated Press earlier this year.
“I seem to write a lot about going from darkness to light,” Taylor perceives as a common theme of many of his pivotal songs. Cleverly hidden in plain sight behind the signature, soothing sound of his mellow baritone and his bittersweet ballads, Taylor has bravely cited many intimate revelations of his complex life and art.
This emotional and transformational thread is evident in memorable Taylor tales such as the aftermath of a friend’s suicide in “Fire and Rain,” or the bruising adjustment of divorce in “Her Town Too.”
Taylor’s seemingly meteoric rise may look like a fairytale success story with a quick glance. After all, in 1968, then-un-known 19-year-old Taylor auditioned for Paul McCartney and George Harrison, and at the urging of producer Peter Asher he became the first non-British act signed to The Beatles’ fledgling record label, Apple. Both Paul and George played on Taylor’s original version of “Carolina In My Mind,” and his “Some- thing In the Way She Moves” became the impetus for Harrison’s own Beatle masterpiece “Something.” Not a bad start, eh?
However, his early life had its share of serious trials and travails of depression, lack of focus, mental illness, drug addiction, and parental strain. Most significantly, in his late teens, Taylor spent time in a psychiatric hospital to treat his mounting emotional issues. Just a few years later—in the midst of international success and fame, and in a high-profile, seemingly fantasy marriage to Carly Simon—Taylor’s growing drug problem consumed him and worsened his still-lingering, inner pains. This dangerous dance threatened his career and his life.
Thankfully, Taylor eventually overcame his internal battles, finding a new sobriety in 1985. Since 1995, he’s also found a new love and a new family. Today, with his wife, Kim, and their two sons, Rufus and Henry, James appears to live with a newfound contentment and satisfying redemption.
He’s also been a consistent and ardent social activist, lending his prominent voice and talents to many worldwide environmental and humanitarian causes. These date back to the ’70s as a founding member of the “No Nukes” cause and concerts, and includes regularly co-hosting the annual “Rainforest Fund Benefit” at Carnegie Hall with Sting and Elton John since 1992.
The shows—raising money to prevent the destruction of the world’s precious rainforests—gave the featured artists the opportunity to not only support a dire issue, but also break out from their creative comfort zones to excitedly perform music by legendary artists spanning from George Gershwin and Elvis Presley to The Beatles. It was a special treat to hear James Taylor, for example, give stirring, beautiful renditions of the vintage “Paper Moon” and Presley’s “Love Me Tender” among others at these annual benefits.
His selfless sharing of all his struggles and triumphs through music and actions struck cohesive chords with individual listeners and made universal connections with a mass audience.
Though Taylor’s musical output from the ’70s and ’80s is his best-selling, best-known, and most celebrated, during the last 25 years he’s continued to create, entertain, and accomplish.
In 2000, he was inducted into both the Rock and Roll and the Songwriters Halls of Fame. In 2015, President Barack Obama awarded him the nation’s highest civilian honor, the Medal of Freedom, then in 2016 he was fêted by his peers and admirers at the Kennedy Center Honors.
Additionally, Taylor scored his first number-one album on the Billboard chart with 2015’s Before This World, his first album of original songs since 2002’s October Road. And his American Standard, a collection of Taylor’s takes on the Great American Songbook, won him a Grammy—the sixth of his career—for Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album in 2021.
He recently told USA Today it soon could be time for an album of new compositions: “I keep ... little scraps of music and ideas, and when I get into a pre-writing phase, I’ll start pushing those around. I’d like to think there’s another batch of songs in there.”
And let’s not forget—a certain singing “tortured poet” and current global sensation named “Taylor” was named by her parents with him in mind!
Many of James’s gems are his original, timeless songs, but he’s also one of pop music’s best interpreters. Some of his greatest hits are those performed or written by others, and bestowed with Taylor’s unique guitar picking, expressive vocals, and unquestioned charisma and charm. Marvin Gaye’s “How Sweet It Is” (written by the famed Holland-Dozier-Holland team), Jimmy Jones’s “Handy Man” (co-written by Otis Blackwell), Buddy Holly’s “Everyday,” Sam Cooke’s “(What A) Wonderful World” (as a contributor to Art Garfunkel’s remake, which also included Paul Simon), Inez and Charlie Foxx’s “Mockingbird” (with former wife Carly Simon), The Drifters’ “Up On the Roof ” (written by Gerry Goffin and Carole King), and his ultimate cover, King’s assuring “You’ve Got A Friend,” are all among his best recorded efforts.
One of his most underappreciated contributions is on Randy Newman’s ambitious 1995 concept album Faust, which showcases Taylor singing as the voice of God.
Taylor’s personal friendship and artistic collaboration with Carole King dates back almost 60 years, when they first met in the late ’60s. In 2010, the two mounted a sentimental, co-head- lining “Troubadour Reunion Tour,” commemorating when they first performed together in 1970 at the famed Los Angeles music club. King originally wrote her fragile missive “You’ve Got a Friend” as a subtle response to Taylor’s “Fire and Rain,” about the death of his close friend.
She was writing and recording her 1971 milestone album Tapestry when Taylor heard the new song and was instantly impressed. “As soon as I heard it, I was just like, man, that’s just it. That’s a great, great song,” Taylor told CNN.
King graciously let Taylor record and release it as a single before she did, andmany now consider it the one song that best exemplifies the essence of James Taylor and his gift. “Hearing his rendition of it for the first time, it was like oh my God. It’s perfect,” King added.
At age 76, Taylor feels appreciative of those who have followed him for six decades, and he explained to the Associated Press why he continues to regularly perform when he easily could take a deserved respite: “The audience, always. It’s very compelling to go a great distance and to find a crowd of people that have bought tickets to come see me and the band play again.”
From one “J.T.” to another—James, it’s always good to have you back.
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James Turano is a freelance writer and a former entertainment editor, feature writer, and columnist for national and local magazines and newspapers. He has written official programs for eight Elton John tours since 2003 and is also a Chicago radio personality and host on WGN 720AM.