Lesson 1. Carolina in my mind.
Surprisingly, although
this is one of the
most famous of JT’s self-penned songs, it didn’t chart first time
around when
released as a single off his debut album. When it came time to compile
1976’s
Greatest Hits album, his label Warner Bros couldn’t get the rights to
this song
or Something In The Way She Moves (which had been released on The
Beatles’
Apple label), and had to get James to re-record them. It’s as well they
did
because he produced versions far superior to the originals.
Played in the key of D, it uses a couple of brief barre chords and many
hammer on and pull off figures. The easy version uses the same pattern
as Fire and Rain and avoids the hammer ons, pull offs and barre
chords.
Don’t worry if you’re a relative newcomer to the guitar and the promo
looks complicated. We’ve also included an EASY VERSION just for you!
Lesson 2. Country Road
The second single off the Sweet
Baby James album, Country
Road peaked in the lower reaches of the top 40, but remains one of the
most
popular cuts on the Greatest Hits album.
It’s the only song in our JT
series that uses an altered
tuning, but it’s nothing more complicated than lowering the low E
string to D
(‘dropped D’ tuning).
No
barre chords are used in either version.
Lesson 3. Fire and Rain
The video lesson shows 'exactly ' how the piece is played by the
original artist (In this case James Taylor) PLUS we give you another version which is easier and will get you
started if you are not ready for the full piece yet. So you get 2 videos and 2 lots of tabs and tef files all in the same
package.
Taylor
wrote this in 1968 at 3 different times. He started it in London, where
he auditioned for The Beatles' Apple Records. He later worked on it in
a Manhattan Hospital, and finished it while in drug rehab at The Austin
Riggs Center in Massachusetts.
This
is about the high and low points of Taylor's life. He was only 20 when
he wrote this, but was battling depression and drug addiction.
This was Taylor's second single and his first to chart. His first single was "Sweet Baby James."
The stark lyrics about Taylor's depression stand out on Sweet Baby James, which contains mostly lighter, uplifting songs.
The
first verse is Taylor's reaction to the death of a friend. The second
verse is about arriving in America and struggling with depression, the
third is about his stay at the rehab center.
The
line "Flying machines in pieces on the ground" is a reference to a band
Taylor was in called The Flying Machine, which broke up due to his drug
problems.
This
was one of the first big singer-songwriter hits of the early '70s.
Before this, most hits were either written by one person and performed
by another, or written and performed by a group like The Beatles or
Rolling Stones. Artists like Carly Simon, Billy Joel and Elton John
followed the trend of writing and performing their own songs.
Taylor has never revealed the identity of Suzanne, the woman he sings about in this.
This is a deeply personal song. Taylor was surprised to find out so many people were interested in his life.
It
was falsely rumored that this is about the death of Taylor's girlfriend
in a plane crash. The story was that Taylor separated from his
girlfriend (Suzanne) to go on tour, but when his friends arranged to
fly her to see James, she died in a plane crash (flying machines in
pieces on the ground). The story is not true.
Source songfacts.com
Lesson 4. Handyman
Handyman was a huge hit off
1977’s JT album. A cover of a
1960 hit by The Sparks of Rhythm, Taylor re-worked the original by
slowing it
right down, and hit number 4 in the singles chart. It won him a grammy
for best
male vocal performance, and remains a high spot of his live concerts
today.
Relatively
simple by comparison with some of the
others in our James Taylor series, it nonetheless does include a Bm
barre chord
and Taylor’s typical hammer ons and pull offs. The easy version avoids
both of
these. The right hand pattern remains pretty simple in both versions.
Lesson 5. Something In The Way She Moves
Again pulled from the Greatest
Hits album, this song
pre-dates George Harrison’s song that borrows the lyrics of the first
line.
Ironically, it was going to be called ‘I Feel Fine’, but The Beatles
had
already used that title!
It
features hammer ons, pull offs, slides and barre
chords, all of which are eliminated in the easy version.
This was the song that may have inspired George Harrison to write the
Beatles' 1969 hit, "Something"
It was the first single off of James Taylor's self-titled debut album,
which Harrison played on and was released by The Beatles' Apple
Records. When Taylor first started writing this song, it was titled "I
Feel Fine." The title was later changed to "Something In The Way She
Moves" after Taylor discovered that the Beatles already had a song with
the original title
Taylor wrote and
recorded this song in 1968 while staying in an apartment in London. The
album was recorded with an ensemble of members from the London
Philharmonic Orchestra. This was included on a Demo Tape of songs,
which Taylor sent to Paul McCartney, who with the help of Peter Asher,
signed James to the Beatles' Record Company, Apple Records.
Unfortunately for Taylor, Apple Records was struggling, and Taylor's
album suffered from poor promotion. His next release on Warner Brothers
Records in 1970, Sweet Baby James, did much better.
Lesson 6. Wandering
Never averse to recording songs he hadn’t written himself, Wandering is
one of several traditional folk tunes JT has recorded down the years.
Considered as a single off the ‘Gorilla’ album it was rejected in
favour of ‘How Sweet It Is’, but it’s one his most popular songs with
fans, and shows off that delicate guitar style to great effect.
The easy version avoids all barre chords and follows a simple repeating
picking pattern, but the as played version does feature barre chords as
well as hammer ons and pull offs.
You've Got a
Friend
A song from the early 1970s which marked the
singer-songwriter movement.
The song was written by Carole King and appeared on her 1971 album
Tapestry.
James Taylor sang a version of "You've Got a Friend" on his 1971 album
Mud Slide Slim and the Blue Horizon. The most famous version of the
song,
Taylor's rendition hit #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 on July 31,
1971, and won Grammy Awards both for Taylor (Best Pop Vocal
Performance, Male) and King (Song of the Year). It also reached #4 in
the UK Singles Chart, giving Taylor his only Top 20 entry in the United
Kingdom.
