Got my run in this afternoon and I have plans to head to the gym later. So this afternoon, we’ve had some lunch here locally, got my hair cut to Kelly’s satisfaction and now, well, I’m bored again. Time to make another dent in my dad’s effects that are still strewn all over the floor of the downstairs spare bedroom. So we figured that it might be a good idea sort through and hang some family photos. I figured then that it would also be an ideal situation to break into the vinyl, beginning with the ‘Mud Slim Slim‘ album by James Taylor.
Kelly didn’t recognize ‘Fire & Rain‘ this afternoon at lunch, much less who it was by – she guessed it might be Jim Croce.
*facepalm*.
I figured then it was high time to educate her beginning with this album, my favorite. Also known as ‘Mud Slide Slim and the Blue Horizon‘, this is James’ 3rd album.
Released in March of 1971 as the follow-up to his commercial breakthrough and critical triumph, ‘Sweet Baby James’, it almost equaled the acclaim and surpassed the success of its predecessor at the time of its release. It contains Taylor’s biggest hit single in the US, a version of the Carole King standard ‘You’ve Got a Friend‘, which became his only #1 on the Billboard charts on July 31st, 1971. The week before, the album itself reached its peak position of #2 in the Billboard album charts (the highest position achieved by Taylor in this list during his career). It was held off the top spot by King, then ruling the charts with her blockbuster ‘Tapestry’ album, which contained her own version of ‘You’ve Got a Friend‘.
How weird is that?
Furthermore, in 1972, ‘You’ve Got a Friend‘ received a Grammy Award for both Taylor (Best Pop Vocal Performance, Male) and King (Song of the Year). Total Twilight Zone shit, eh?
Besides the big hit, there are lots of other gems on this album that would later go virtually ignored by the later Greatest Hits compilations, namely ‘Machine Gun Kelly‘ (originally by Jo Mama – yes, you read that right), my favorite James Taylor song, like, ever. The nucleus of Mud Slide Slim’ though is songs about travel (‘Places in My Past’, ‘Riding on a Railroad‘, and ‘Let Me Ride‘), songs of home, and, finally, songs of songs (‘Hey Mister, That’s Me up on the Jukebox‘).
From start to finish, it was a terrific middle-of-the-day listen, skips n’ all. Not a bad music lesson. Of course, how much Kelly actually retains remains to be seen.
Music in Motion 