How to download at MOODWINGS

MOODSWINGS doesn't host direct links any longer. All the links featured here are text files. You will have to download them, extract them (using the usual password) and open them to find your desired link.

Wednesday, December 9, 2009

JAMES TAYLOR

JAMES TAYLOR
SWEET BABY JAMES (1970)
256 KBPS

The heart of James Taylor's appeal is that you can take him two ways. On the one hand, his music, including that warm voice, is soothing; its minor key melodies and restrained playing draw in the listener. On the other hand, his world view, especially on such songs as "Fire and Rain," reflects the pessimism and desperation of the 1960s hangover that was the early '70s. That may not be intentional: "Fire and Rain" was about the suicide of a fellow inmate of Taylor's at a mental institution, not the national malaise. But Taylor's sense of wounded hopelessness -- "I'm all in pieces, you can have your own choice," he sings in "Country Road" -- struck a chord with music fans, especially because of its attractive mixture of folk, country, gospel, and blues elements, all of them carefully understated and distanced. Taylor didn't break your heart; he understood that it was already broken, as was his own, and he offered comfort. As a result, Sweet Baby James sold millions of copies, spawned a Top Ten hit in "Fire and Rain" and a Top 40 hit in "Country Road," and launched not only Taylor's career as a pop superstar but also the entire singer/songwriter movement of the early '70s that included Joni Mitchell, Carole King, Jackson Browne, Cat Stevens, and others. A second legacy became clear two decades later, when country stars like Garth Brooks began to cite Taylor, with his use of steel guitar, references to Jesus, and rural and Western imagery on Sweet Baby James, as a major influence.

1. Sweet Baby James
2. Lo And Behold
3. Sunny Skies
4. Steamroller
5. Country Road
6. Oh, Susannah
7. Fire And Rain
8. Blossom
9. Anywhere Like Heaven
10. Oh Baby, Don't Let Your Lip Loose On Me
11. Suite For 20 G

1 comment:

James said...

I don't think it can be said that Sweet Baby James launched "the entire singer/songwriter movement of the early '70s" - rather it was the appearance of several major albums around the same time that did it. Joni Mitchell's Clouds from the year earlier won the best folk album grammy in '70 and Ladies of the Canyon came out the month after SBJ and then King's Tapestry in '71