James Taylor - Sweet Baby James
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Music CD Cover
Artist: James TaylorBrand: Taylor
Edition: Music CD
Audio: English (Original Language)
CD Release Date: 1990-10-25
Music Label: Warner Bros / Wea
Product features:
- TAYLOR JAMES SWEET BABY JAMES
- Sweet Baby James
- Lo And Behold
- Sunny Skies
- Steamroller
- Country Road
- Oh, Susannah
- Fire And Rain
- Blossom
- Anywhere Like Heaven
- Oh Baby, Don't You Loose Your Lip On Me
- Suite For 20 G
Free Music Notes for Sweet Baby James
Free Music Review: Still Shiny After Many Decades
Hit: 5 Stars
One sign that an album is strong on quality is its continuing sales and popularity through many years, even decades after it was initially released. Many records have gone out of print after a number of years due to declining interest and sales and are "forgotten", especially to newer listeners. Others persist in the catalog market because of positive response by the listening audience. Among these is "Sweet Baby James" by singer-songwriter James Taylor, one of his earlier albums, which was released in 1970. Although this is actually his second recorded album in his career as a singer, it is the first to enjoy widespread recognition and market sales. It reached #3 on the pop music chart, which is documentation of its mass appeal to a music fan base.
This album is an introduction to his style of presenting music, which includes a great variety of genres, all found in this one collection. Although he basically performs folk type of music, he also brings in country, rock 'n' roll, jazz, and expecially blues to his work, as can be heard on this album. A common trait to the songs here is his smooth, mellow voice, and his down-to-earth lyrics about feelings, thoughts, relationships, traveling through life and going to places. All of these songs consist of straightforward words about these experiences and feelings, in a contemplative and personal way. The album also initially appeared during a turbulent era in society, yet does not hint at the issues that were swirling around at the time, as many other records of that year did so prominently. The listener can retreat from those issues by tuning in to the "Sweet Baby James" album which hosts themes that are timeless and not connected to any particular date or historical events and concerns. If someone were to hear these songs for the first time, more than thirty years after they were released, they would sound as fresh and contemporary as they did in the early 1970s.
The folk style predominates in several of these tracks that are found in the central part of the album. A very popular and perhaps the most well-known of these songs is "Fire And Rain", about the unexpected death of a friend or a loved one; it deals with feelings about various things, both good and bad. This song reached #3 on the pop chart, and was remade into a country hit by another singer many years later. The other folk-sounding hit that came off of this album is "Country Road", an introspective, mild piece in which he contemplates thoughts as he walks down a road, both literally and figuratively. It reached #37 on the pop music chart. "Blossom" is a guitar piece that compares a girlfriend to a flower that brings sunshine and "melts my cares away." Then there is the remake of singer-songwriter Stephen Foster's poem "Oh Suzanna", addressed to a girl. James Taylor puts his own twist on this timeless gem.
The steel guitar so prevalent in country music is heard in a couple of the songs here: the title track (and initial song) is "Sweet Baby James", a country/Western lullaby ballad in 3/4 time, first a story of a cowboy singing a song, then about traveling on a long snow-covered highway from Stockbridge to Boston and beyond. "Anywhere Like Heaven" is a country-style track that contemplates about life, time slipping by, and visiting a town and realizing that the city is not a place in which he would be happy.
"Sunny Skies" is bouncy, light-hearted and jazzy, with lively folk guitar picking; it personifies the sun-filled sky as if it were a person, a friend, with its own feelings and actions. The preceding track "Lo And Behold" showcases blues and soul gospel, with religious overtone amidst a backdrop of folk guitar. James sings the verses, then the background singers join in for the chorus. The popullar "Steam Roller Blues" starts out gently with a folk guitar along with a blues overtone, then changes pace and steps up the volume midway through with brass horns, adopting the jazz and rock 'n' roll sound while still retaining its blues features. The fairly brief blues track, "Oh Baby, Don't You Lose Your Lip On Me" very much fulfills the description of blues, where wailing depicts the sadness, and ends with brisk strumming.
The last track "Suite For 20 G" is the longest and serves as a grand finale to this versatile album. This composition begins as a gentle folk ballad with introspective and observant lyrics about spring days passing by, relationships, love and letting go, being free someday. James' friends accompany him on vocals in the background. This changes to a high energy style midway through, with jazz, blues, and rock 'n' roll all blended together. Musical insturments are mentioned as cures for ailments like the common cold, rockin' pneumonia, and boogie woogie flu. The track (and the album) end with just the instruments: brass horns, guitars, and drums as they gradually fade away.
This album should be considered a classic among the popular music listings. Even with the passage of time, these songs sound as fresh as when they were brand new. They have withstood the changes in times and years. Once again, troublesome issues surround the world, but James Taylor's songs still offer a welcome retreat from these concerns.
Sweet Baby James Poster
Japanese only SHM paper sleeve pressing. Features 2010 Remastering. The SHM-CD [Super High Material CD] format features enhanced audio quality through the use of a special polycarbonate plastic. Using a process developed by JVC and Universal Music Japan discovered through the joint companies' research into LCD display manufacturing, SHM-CDs feature improved transparency on the data side of the disc, allowing for more accurate reading of CD data by the CD player laser head. SHM-CD format CDs are fully compatible with standard CD players.The album that launched a thousand heavy-hearted singer-songwriters on their not-so-merry way, Sweet Baby James was arguably the first shot in what became the soft revolution of the early '70s. A refugee of the Beatles' Apple label, Taylor struck commercial gold with Sweet Baby James by augmenting his acoustic guitar and soothing vocals with laid-back accompaniment (which included equally influential singer-songwriter insurrectionist Carole King on piano) and penning a slew of songs that drew upon folk, soul, and rock influences. "Fire and Rain" stands as the quintessential early Taylor tune: musically mellow and lyrically restive, it put Taylor in the Top 10 and set the tone for a popular school of '70s sound. --Steven Stolder
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