If you were to ask me, “Who has been your favorite pop star throughout your life?” I’d have to answer that it is a tie between The Beatles and James Taylor.  Perhaps that dates me; perhaps, on the other hand, it doesn’t.  Both have had such musically triumphant careers and both are sure to be long lasting.

Also both churned out mountains of great music and for me that’s the bottom line.  The Beatles were perhaps more eclectic, but Sweet Baby James was, well, just so sweeeet!

As a lyricist, James can be somewhat impressionistic like Paul and Joni, but also could just nail it down with the best of them.  He wrote this song for a musical, “Working”, and as a story-telling song, it’s one of the best.  It wins my Ira Award for Best Song for a Musical Written by a Pop Star.

Now my grandfather was a sailor

He blew in off the water

My father was a farmer

And I, his only daughter

Took up with a no good mill working man

From Massachusetts

Who dies from too much whiskey

And leaves me these three faces to feed

Millwork ain’t easy

Millwork ain’t hard

Millwork it ain’t nothing

But an awful boring job

I’m waiting for a daydream

To take me through the morning

And put me in my coffee break

Where I can have a sandwich

And remember

Then it’s me and my machine

For the rest of the morning

For the rest of the afternoon

And the rest of my life

Now my mind begins to wander

To the days back on the farm

I can see my father smiling at me

Swinging on his arm

I can hear my granddad’s stories

Of the storms out on Lake Eerie

Where vessels and cargos and fortunes

And sailors’ lives were lost

Yes, but it’s my life has been wasted

And I have been the fool

To let this manufacturer

Use my body for a tool

I can ride home in the evening

Staring at my hands

Swearing by my sorrow that a young girl

Ought to stand a better chance

So may I work the mills just as long as I am able

And never meet the man whose name is on the label

It be me and my machine

For the rest of the morning

And the rest of the afternoon

Gone for the rest of my life

Then James can turn around and write with great depth sharing his own spiritual corner on life with us in this wonderful insight into his style of life.  This song expresses the nature of James the best for me, capturing the essence of the man better than any of his others.  I like to think of him sitting out on his back porch in the Berkshires, pen in one hand, guitar in the other.

The secret of life is enjoying the passage of time

Any fool can do it

There ain’t nothing to it

Nobody knows how we got to

The top of the hill

But since we’re on our way down

We might as well enjoy the ride

The secret of love is in opening up your heart

It’s okay to feel afraid

But don’t let that stand in your way

‘Cause anyone knows that love is the only road

And since we’re only here for a while

Might as well show some style

Give us a smile

Isn’t it a lovely ride

Sliding down

Gliding down

Try not to try too hard

It’s just a lovely ride

Now the thing about time is that time

Isn’t really real

It’s just your point of view

How does it feel for you

Einstein said he could never understand it all

Planets spinning through space

The smile upon your face

Welcome to the human race

Some kind of lovely ride

I’ll be sliding down

I’ll be gliding down

Try not to try too hard

It’s just a lovely ride

Isn’t it a lovely ride

Sliding down

Gliding down

Try not to try too hard

It’s just a lovely ride

Now the secret of life is enjoying the passage of time

James has had a great effect on me in my life and in my music.  His mastery of chord progressions and guitar meanderings always blows my mind and stimulates my imagination.  Musically, he is probably my biggest influence.  When his new CDs come out, I’m always first in line, knowing that in a short time I’ll be lying on the couch back home with my headphones on, a big smile upon my face and wonder in my heart.

I don’t know that his lyrics have had a similar impact, but I do know that one of my favorite songs I’ve ever written came from the wish to some day be able to write a song like the one above, “Isn’t It A Lovely Ride.”

This next song, as beautifully sung by Jenny Burton, is definitely a reaction to my hero, Sweet Baby James, and my own shot at putting my stamp on my own soul.

When I consider the heavens

The works of Thy fingers

The moon and the stars

You ordained

When I consider a child

The steps that he’s taking

His light and his joy

So ingrained

When I think of the way

That each breath comes unnoticed

Sustaining this delicate life

I am swept off my feet

In breathless wonder

At the mystery of life

When I consider the music

Of all the great masters

And know it was You

They all heard

And the works of our Shakespeares

King Davids and Keats

You gave them each

Every word

When I contemplate

The pure fabric of nature

Bewildered by all we have learned

I am swept off my feet

In breathless wonder

At the miracle of life

And I think on these things

And the wonder life brings

From the greatest of things to the small

And though I spend my life

Searching life’s solemn secrets

I know I’ll never know all

As I ponder the atom

The boundless vast ether

The billions of lives

On this stone

I consider the gift

Of God’s imagination

And begin to explore

The unknown

But this whimsical world

It just slips through my fingers

As I try to hold on to the air

And I’m swept off my feet

In breathless wonder

At the miracle of life

And I think on these things

Yes I think on these things

And the wonder life brings