James Taylor, the #46 Artist of the Rock Era Part One

"These are songs that dance on your soul. His music erases pain; it creates emotional bonds to reality"

"An excellent artist."

"His music is universal. What an amazing voice."

"This man is a great musical storyteller."

"In his voice  I hear  a kind , sharing and respectful sensibilities/messages."

"He's a master!"

"He has what has to be one of the smoothest voices of all-time."

"His mellow sound was a healing balm for the nation."

"One of the best songwriters ever."

"His music is so innocent and simple and makes me feel so many emotions."

"Brilliant guitarist and songs from the soul."

"What a legend."

"One of the all-time greats!"








He is the embodiment of the singer-songwriter, though he has traveled a long and difficult road along the way.

James Taylor was born March 12, 1948 in Boston, Massachusetts.  When James was three, the family moved to Chapel Hill, North Carolina when his father, Isaac, accepted a job as assistant professor at the University of North Carolina.

Taylor played the cello early in his childhood, but switched to guitar in 1960.  James enrolled in Milton Academy, a preparatory school in Massachusetts, in 1961.  The family enjoyed summer vacations on Martha's Vineyard, where James met guitarist and songwriter Danny Kortchmar.  Taylor wrote his first song at age 14, and by the summer of 1963, James and Kortchmar played coffeehouses around the Vineyard, promoting themselves as Jamie & Kootch.  

Taylor wasn't comfortable at Milton and finished his junior year at Chapel Hill High School.  During this time, he played electric guitar with a group that his brother Alex had formed called the Corsairs.  But since James was no longer close to his former schoolmates, he returned to Milton for his senior year.

Taylor began applying to colleges but was about to enter a critical stage of his life.  He slept 20 hours a day, his grades went downhill and James fell into depression.  To his credit, James committed himself to McLean Hospital in 1965 and earned his diploma the next year from the hospital's associated Arlington School.  

Taylor (left, above) decided on Elon University, but left after one semester to form a band with Kortchmar that they named the Flying Machine.  Soon, the group played at the Night Owl Cafe in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan, New York.  They recorded one of James' songs, "Brighten Your Night With My Day", which received airplay in the Northeast but did not spread nationally.  Taylor became addicted to heroin during this time and shortly afterwards, the group broke up.

Taylor played guitar in Washington Square Park, but when he ran out of money, James called his father Isaac, who flew to New York City and rescued him, renting a car and driving James back to North Carolina.  James received treatment for six months and made a temporary recovery.

Spending part of a family inheritance, James (above, right with Peter Asher) moved to London in 1967 to begin a solo career.  After recording some demos in Soho, old friend Kortchmar set up a meeting with Peter Asher, formerly part of the duo Peter & Gordon and A&R head of the recently formed Beatles label Apple Records.  Paul McCartney and George Harrison both loved the tape and after hearing him perform live, signed Taylor to a recording contract.  Asher later signed on to be James' manager.

In 1968, Taylor (above on right with, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr) recorded his debut album at Trident Studios at the time the Beatles were recording The White Album.   

But James reverted to using heroin and methedrine again.  He underwent treatment in England before returning to a New York hospital and finally committing himself again to the Austin Riggs Center in Stockbridge, Massachusetts.  

The album received good reviews, but did not sell well because James was unable to promote it due to his condition.  Taylor headlined a six-night stay at the famous nightclub The Troubadour in Los Angeles in 1969 and performed at the Newport Folk Festival.  Soon after, however, James broke both hands and both feet in a motorcycle accident on Martha's Vineyard.  While recovering, he continued to write songs and decided to switch to Warner Brothers Records.

James moved to California and recorded his second album there.  In 1970, he released the album Sweet Baby James, which contained many of the songs he had written while at Riggs.  The single "Fire And Rain" is his personal story of trying to break his drug addiction and the suicide of his friend, Suzanne Schnerr.  Lacking a full-time bassist, Taylor turned to session musician Bobby West for help with this song.  West played an upright bowed bass, which is sometimes mistaken for a viola or cello.  It was a huge hit, rising to #2 in Canada and #5 in the United States.  

Sweet Baby James has now sold over three million copies worldwide.   Taylor wrote this song in 1968 in London while longing to return to North Carolina.  The line "holy host of others standing around me" in "Carolina In My Mind" refers to the Beatles, as McCartney (bass and vocals) and Harrison (vocals) helped him on the song.  James re-released the single "Carolina In My Mind", which he had first issued from his debut album.  It still only peaked at #67, highly underrated considering its popularity today.

 

"Suite for 20G" is a combination of three songs that Taylor was working on but hadn't yet completed.  As Warner Brothers was pressuring him to complete the album, Asher had James string together the three songs in a "suite" in order to get the $20,000 that the label promised him; hence the title of the song!  Peter said, "We were completely broke and desperately needed the money."

"Country Road" refers to Somerset Street in Belmont, Massachusetts, a road lined by trees that ran adjacent to the land owned by McLean Hospital, where Taylor first committed himself to receive treatment for depression in 1965.

 

Here we have one of the most requested Taylor song at concerts.  "Steamroller" pokes fun at white people trying to sing Blues songs and at the overtly sexual metaphors in the songs.  

Another favorite of Taylor fans is the title song.

Taylor appeared in the movie Two-Lane BlackTop, and in 1971, performed in a Vancouver, Canada benefit concert to raise money for Greenpeace's protests of nuclear weapons tests by the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission.  On March 1, 1971, James appeared in a Time magazine cover story.

 

Taylor released the album Mud Slide Slim and the Blue Horizon.  Written by his friend Carole King, who plays piano on the song, James recorded this song first with Carole recording it for her monumental album Tapestry just a few days later.  "You've Got A Friend" went to #1 in the U.S., #2 in Canada and #4 in the U.K.  

"You've Got A Friend" earned a Grammy Award for Best Pop Vocal Performance, Male, while King won Song of the Year.

 

The album soared to #2 and has sold over 2.5 million copies in the U.S. alone.  "Long Ago And Far Away", about how things don't always go as planned and dreams are often not matched by reality,  gave James a #4 Adult hit.  King played piano on this one as well and listen for Joni Mitchell on backing vocals.

 

JT wrote "You Can Close Your Eyes" for his girlfriend Joni while the two were in New Mexico for the filming of James' acting debut in Two-Lane Blacktop in 1968. 

"Machine Gun Kelly" was a gangster from Memphis, Tennessee.  Kortchmar wrote this one for James.

 

Mud Slide Slim and the Blue Horizon is a fictionalized version of Taylor's band, featuring the characters Stoney Lee Blue Borne (bassist Leland Sklar), Oil Slick (drummer Russ Kunkel) and Kootcheroo (Kortchmar).  Taylor also name-dropped the people (Jimmy, Jimmy-John and Nick and Laurie/The No Jets Construction) who helped him build the home on Martha's Vineyard in Massachusetts, where he lived with Carly Simon for many years.  Here is the title song.

 

In 1972, Taylor released the album One Man Dog, which featured King, Linda Ronstadt and Carly Simon.   The single "Don't Let Me Be Lonely Tonight" climbed to #3 on the Adult chart and #14 overall.  Michael Brecker plays the wonderful sax solo at the end. 

 

Taylor released the album Walking Man, with Paul and Linda McCartney helping out.  With no hits, the album failed to go Gold.  But the title song is a very worthy track.

James and Carly recorded their remake of the Inez and Charlie Foxx hit "Mockingbird" in 1974, a #3 hit in Canada that reached #5 in the U.S.  Brecker again provides the sax solo with keyboards from Dr. John and Robbie Robertson of the Band on rhythm guitar.

Enjoy Part Two of this remarkable story!

John Mellencamp, The #47 Artist of the Rock Era, Part Four

 

(Continued from Part Three)

The following year, Mellencamp released the album Rough Harvest, a collection of acoustical and reworked versions of earlier songs in his catalog.  In 2000, he performed several free unannounced concerts in several cities as a way of giving back after the support his fans had given him over the years.

 

In 2000, John recorded "Yours Forever" for the movie Perfect Storm. 

         In 2001, Mellencamp released the album Cuttin' Heads.  He won the Billboard Century Award in 2001 and earned a Grammy nomination for Best Male Rock Vocal Performance for "Peaceful World", which he co-wrote with India.Arie and for whom he sings a duet with.  

The song was born after a conversation Mellencamp had with backup singer Pat Peterson.  John asked her what was the one thing that she found most disturbing.  "There was no question about it," John related to the Denver Post newspaper.  "It's how this new rap music is really harmful to the black race."

     You have the new Uncle Tom, the guy wagging the                   $200,000 watch and saying, ... 'Gimme the money,

     man, look what I got that you ain't got ... I'll say

     whatever you want me to say, and when this (ends),

     I'll just go back to whatever I'm doing, and I don't 

     care about the damage that I've done.' Meanwhile, 

     white kids in suburbs who buy these records find it                   entertaining if not comical half the time. They have a

     really distorted view of what the black race is about.

     It's a very bad thing."

Mellencamp narrated the voice for a part in the movie Madison and also appeared in the movie After Image.  

 

John followed up Peaceful World with the 2003 release of Trouble No More, an album of Blues and Folk.  Here is his remake of "Teardrops Will Fall", originally recorded by Dickey Doo and the Don'ts in 1958.

 "Stones In My Passway" was recorded by blues musician Robert Johnson in 1937.  Mellencamp does a solid cover of the song on the album.

 

The following year, Mellencamp released the album Words & Music:  John Mellencamp's Greatest Hits, a two-disc compilation.  In 2007, John released the album Freedom's Road, which included "Our Country".  Mellencamp agreed to let Chevrolet use the song, and he sang it prior to Game 2 of the 2006 World Series.  The song was nominated for Best Rock Solo Vocal Performance at the Grammy Awards.

 "Ghost Towns Along The Highway" continues Mellencamp's observations about the decline of American life.  

 

In 2008, Mellencamp was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.  He also released the album Life, Death, Love and Freedom, his ninth Top 10 album.  A standout track is "Longest Days", and John told this story before playing it at a concert in Chicago, Illinois:

     My grandmother lived to be 100 years old, and she

     was doing pretty good until she got to 99 and 3/4. And 

     then that last quarter kind of got her. She's the only 

     woman that ever really loved me. She never called

     me John, she always called me Buddy. She called me

     up and said, 'Buddy, why don't you come over here 

     and spend the afternoon with me because I'm not 

     going to be here much longer.'

     She was bedridden, so I had to lay in bed to talk to 

     her. But one day, we're laying there talking, and she 

     said, '"Buddy, we need to pray.' She started saying a 

     prayer we all grew up with, then I noticed her

     breathing was getting kind of heavy, and next thing 

     I know, her voice is kind of raising in volume and she

     says, 'Me and Buddy are ready to come home!"

     I said, "Grandma, Buddy is not ready to come home. 

    Buddy has a lot more sinning he intends on doing."
     Well, I shouldn't have said that. She says, "It's just

     like you to say something smart-alec-y at a time like

     this. And you're not going to get to heaven yourself 

     if you don't stop that cussing and smoking.'

     Then we locked eyes, and the strangest thing 

     happened. Her face turned into a 13-year-old girl,

     and her voice even changed. She looked at me with

     such love and affection, and she goes, 'You know

     Buddy, you're going to find out one day real soon that 

     life is short, even in its longest days.'"

 

Mellencamp wrote the song "If I Die Sudden" after several close friends died, including George Green, who co-wrote many of his songs, including "Hurts So Good" and "Rain On The Scarecrow".  Mellencamp told Mojo magazine in December of 2008:

  

    This song goes back 20 years to an uncle of mine

      who died of cancer at 58 from smoking." He added:

      "On his death bed he said, 'I'm an atheist. Do not 

      have a preacher come here and say what a great

      Christian life I've led. I didn't.' For me that was like, 

     Wow! You gotta be pretty damn sure of yourself or

     pretty damn stupid to say that. I couldn't figure out 

     which one it was."

 

Two years later, he released the album No Better Than This, another Top 10 album.  Mellencamp debuted "Save Some Time To Dream" at a fundraiser for U.S. President Barack Obama.  It is about individual freedom and controlling our own lives.

 

34 years after he debuted, John proved he could still record and release quality music such as the title song.

 Another Top Track* is "Coming Down The Road".

Mellencamp recorded much of the album at the famous Sun Studios in Memphis, Tennessee with bare bones studio equipment and recording techniques intentionally to produce a raw sound.

Later in the year, John released the box set On the Rural Route 7609, which consisted of album tracks and demos.  Mellencamp toured North America and Europe.

Mellencamp collaborated with author Stephen King for a music entitled Ghost Brothers of Darkland County, which premiered in 2012 and has been performed in 38 cities.

In 2014, John released his 22nd studio album, Plain Spoken, and performed 120 shows in North America to support it.  

In 2016, John received the Founders Award at the ASCAP Pop Music Awards.  "For the last four decades, John Mellencamp has captured the American experience in his songs," ASCAP President Paul Williams said. "His infectious melodies and compassionate lyrics, wrapped in workingman's rock, crystallize life's joys and struggles and illuminate the human condition. A national treasure, he's also one of the truly great music creators that can make us care, move, clap and sing along."  

Mellencamp has been working with Carlene Carter, his opening act on the tour, on a new album expected for release in 2017.

Mellencamp has displayed some of his aforementioned paintings at shows throughout the United States, including in New York City and Augusta, Georgia.

Johnny Cash called Mellencamp "one of the 10 best songwriters" in music.

John has 29 career hits to his credit, with 10 Top 10 songs and one #1, but has excelled on the Mainstream Rock chart, with 45 hits, 23 of which reached the Top 10 in that sub-genre and seven #1's.  

Mellencamp has been nominated for 14 Grammy Awards in his career, winning one.  He also won one American Music Award from two nominations and a Billboard Music Award and was nominated for an MTV Video Music Award.

John Mellencamp, The #47 Artist of the Rock Era, Part Three

 

(Continued from Part Two)

 

John was nominated for Producer of the Year and received a nomination for Best Performance in a Music Video at the Grammy Awards for "Check It Out".  He released "Pop Singer", a #1 smash in New Zealand that also rose to #8 in Canada and Australia but only #15 in the U.S.  John's message, however, goes deeper, and is about the disposable pop world in general that society has become.

Mellencamp spent more time painting rather than tour to promote the album, with his paintings available for viewing at several exhibitions.  Still, Big Daddy became his sixth consecutive Platinum-selling album.

 

Here is John's account of a stubborn independent woman as he cautions her to "look out".  This is "Martha Say".

In 1990, John was nominated for Favorite Pop/Rock Male Artist at the American Music Awards.  In 1991, Mellencamp released the album Whenever We Wanted, another million-seller.  The single "Get A Leg Up" topped the Mainstream Rock chart and reached #14 overall in the United States and #7 in Canada.

 

John was nominated for Best Male Video at the MTV Video Music Awards for "Get A Leg Up" and he was nominated for Best Rock Solo Performance at the Grammy Awards for his work on the album.  "Again Tonight" gave him another #1 on the Mainstream Rock chart.

The following year, John appeared in and directed the movie Falling from Grace.

 

After his previous two albums featured instruments such as the violin and accordion, Mellencamp said he wanted to put those instruments "back in their cases", get back to basics, and return to a harder-edged sound.  "Love And Happiness" features the work of his new guitarist, Mike Wanchic.

 

You will recognize the woman on the album cover as the one who appeared in Mellencamp's video "Get A Leg Up".  Mellencamp and Irwin saw each other again six months later when he played in New York City.  They married later in 1992, but divorced in 2011.  Here is the title song.

 Mellencamp released the album Human Wheels in 1993, with the title song reaching #2 on the MR chart.  John's friend George Green wrote the lyrics as a eulogy to his grandfather.  "Human Wheels" could be about the alienation of labor, with workers feeling like they are just another wheel in the machine.  John revised the lyrics for the song and wrote the chorus, describing to American Songwriter that he "wrote that song without a guitar or anything.  I figured out the cadence in my head, and then I went to my guitar to figure out the chords."  

 Human Wheels also has sold over one million copies.  "What If I Came Knocking" topped the Mainstream Rock chart.

 

The following year, John released Dance Naked, another Platinum album.  He invited Meshell Ndegocello to record a remake of Van Morrison's "Wild Night" and the pair easily did better with it, reaching #3 on the Popular chart and #1 on the Adult Contemporary chart.  John and Meshell were nominated for Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals at the Grammy Awards.

Mellencamp toured in support of the album that summer, but a minor heart attack forced him to cut the tour short.  "We'd finish a show and I'd go out and have steak and french fries and eggs at 4 in the morning and then go to sleep with all that in my gut. It was just a terrible lifestyle," Mellencamp told the Boston Herald.

 

John released the album Mr. Happy Go Lucky in 1996, which yielded the #14 song "Key West Intermezzo (I Saw You First)", his last Top 40 hit.  John collected his 10th consecutive Platinum award for the album and received a Grammy nomination for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance.

In 1997, John released the compilation album The Best That I Could Do 1978-1988, which has sold over three million units.

 Mellencamp signed a new four-album contract with Columbia.  In 1998, he released his self-titled album on Columbia and also released a book of some of his early paintings, called Paintings and Reflections.  John was nominated for Best Male Rock Vocal Performance at the Grammy Awards for "Just Another Day", his final #1 hit in Canada. 

Mellencamp was also nominated for a Grammy in the same category for "Your Life Is Now".  Having survived his own heart attack and knowing many others who had, John and friend George Green wrote the song about the importance of living life to its fullest before it ends.

 

Although most artists don't release a self-titled album this late in their career, he did so at Columbia's request to serve as a fresh start and a creative rebirth.  "I'm Not Running Anymore" is a solid song on the album.

Mellencamp has been a fixture writing songs about the average American and has an uncanny ability to write about the American Heartland in a powerful way.  He has continued to excel, as you will hear in Part Four!

John Mellencamp, The #47 Artist of the Rock Era, Part Two

 

(Continued from Part One)

 Cougar Mellencamp launched his own recording studio in Belmont, Indiana called Belmont Mall.  He released the album of his career with Scarecrow in 1985, about the declining American dream due to corporate greed.  

Both the title and the hook of the first single were taken from the movie Hud, when Brandon De Wilde's character asks, "It's a lonesome old night, isn't it?".  To which Paul Newman answers, "Ain't they all?"  John liked the movie so much he named one of his sons Hud.  Hud is featured on the cover of his 2010 album No Better Than This.  Mellencamp also refers to the Four Tops smash "Standing In The Shadows Of Love" in the track.  "Lonely 'Ol Night" started it out by going to #1 on the Mainstream Rock chart and #6 overall in the U.S. and #4 in Canada.

 

John had a way of connecting with the listener, writing about themes that they could identify with, such as "Small Town", a #2 MR hit that reached #6 on the Popular chart.  John wrote it about his experience growing up in Seymour.  A fan of music in the 60's, John often included bits of 60's music in his songs.  Listen for the riff from the Supremes' hit "Back In My Arms Again" in the bridge of "Small Town".

Rolling Stone magazine reported that members of the band played 100 songs from the 60's for a month so that they could learn the techniques used by those artists and incorporate them into John's songs.  "Justice And Independence '85" stalled at #28 on the Mainstream Rock chart, one of The Top Tracks of the Rock Era*.

 

As more people discover this amazing album, it continues to sell, to the tune of over five million now.  "Minutes To Memories", a #14 MR hit, is one of the best songs John has ever done and one of The Top Unknown/Underrated Songs of the Rock Era*.

John received a nomination for Best Male Rock Vocal Performance at the Grammy Awards for "Pink Houses".  The following year, the entire album was deservedly recognized in a second nomination for Cougar Mellencamp at the Grammys.

 

You have learned that John paid tribute to 60's artists and music in many of his songs.  He wrote this song specifically about the music from that era and name-drops some of his influences, the Rascals, James Brown, Jackie Wilson, Frankie Lyman, Bobby Fuller, Mitch Ryder, and others.  The mention of Fuller's name not only earned Mellencamp a credit on a Fuller compilation album but John said:

     When I played in Albuquerque, I think it was,

      his [Fuller's] mom and some of his family came

      down to see me play.  They acted like I gave them

      60 million dollars just for mentioning his name.  They

      gave me his belt that he died in.

"R.O.C.K. In The U.S.A." climbed to #2 in the United States and #6 in Canada.

That year, John worked on another of his most outstanding achievements, teaming up with Neil Young and Willie Nelson to initiate the Farm Aid benefit concerts, with the first one taking place September 22, 1985 in Champaign, Illinois.  To date, the concerts have raised over $50 million for struggling American farmers.

 

And, he wrote songs that reflected the farmers' plight, such as "Rain On The Scarecrow", another highly underrated song at #21.  It tells the story of a man pushed to the brink dealing with the many pressures of being a modern American farmer, so dependent on the weather and the market while combatting insects, wind, and natural disasters.  Combining the heartbreak of loss with fierce anger results in some of his most memorable lyrics and vocal accomplishments.

 

John pulled another hit off the album when "Rumbleseat" reached #4 on the MR chart.

 Another of The Top Unknown/Underrated Songs of the Rock Era* is "You've Got To Stand For Somethin'".  Mellencamp told Creem magazine:

      I never did say what you should stand for.  Except 

     your own truth.  But I think that's the key to the 

     whole LP - suggesting that each person come to 

     grips with their own individual truth - and try to like                     themselves a little bit more.  Find out what you as a

     person are - and don't let the world drag you down. 

     People should have respect for and believe in 

     themselves. 

Mellencamp testified before the U.S. Senate in 1987 about the family farm crisis.

 Cougar Mellencamp released the album The Lonesome Jubilee in 1987.  John consistently wrote about the main theme of income and social inequality in America.  "Paper In Fire" refers to the dreams that disappear when Americans are overcome with the harsh realities of life.  Featuring a mean fiddle played by Lisa Germano, it hit #1 in Canada and #9 in the United States.

 

The name of his next single, "Cherry Bomb", is from a popular teen nightclub (no one over 21 was allowed) in Central Michigan.  John reflected on his own teenage years hanging out at the Last Exit Teen Club in Indiana.  "Cherry Bomb" climbed to #1 on the Mainstream Rock chart and #8 overall in the U.S. while reaching #4 in Canada and New Zealand.

 

"Hard Times For An Honest Man" and "The Real Life" received significant airplay on Mainstream Rock stations.  "Check It Out" is about standing at the crossroads between childhood and adulthood, having gotten there much more rapidly than you thought, and needing to analyze your life to plot a course forward.  John puts out the question of how do we teach future generations about the sudden emotional growth, or will they just be better at understanding it than us? 

"Check It Out" reached #3 on the MR chart and #14 overall.

Be sure to join us for Part Three!