Sunday March 21, 2021 “Fire & Rain” James Taylor

When we did James Taylor’s “Shower the People” back at Christmastime one of our song of the dayers pointed out that Taylor was the first person he had heard of to receive his high school diploma from a psychiatric hospital.  A result of Taylor’s troubled early life.

 “Fire and Rain” was Taylor’s breakthrough hit that carried him from struggling singer/songwriter to superstar and was written over three separate occasions and thematically it covers three periods of James’ life.  The first, deals with the loss of his friend Susanne, the second his struggles with addiction and finally his career, mentioning one of his early bands Flying Machine, “in pieces on the ground”.

 James Taylor was one of the first artists signed to the Beatles record label, Apple Records.  He was signed by Peter Asher, who was Paul McCartney’s then girlfriend Jane Asher’s older brother as well as being the Peter half of successful vocal duo Peter & Gordon.  Asher would go on to become a prominent music producer at Apple and beyond, working on all of James Taylor’s early platinum albums/CDs and producing artists like Bonnie Raitt, JD Souther, Andrew Gold and Linda Ronstadt whose career he would also manage.

 James Taylor has had a remarkable, well deserved fifty year successful career.  He is a member of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, the Songwriters Hall of Fame, has an Emmy, a Presidential Medal of Freedom and has sold over one hundred million albums/CDs and surprisingly his first number one album/CD was not until 2002.

 Taylor is also one of the finest guitarists playing today.

 Stay safe and well...and do cherish those important to you every day.

Just yesterday morning they let me know you were gone

Susanne the plans they made put an end to you

I walked out this morning and I wrote down this song

I just can't remember who to send it to

 I've seen fire and I've seen rain

I've seen sunny days that I thought would never end

I've seen lonely times when I could not find a friend

But I always thought that I'd see you again

 Won't you look down upon me, jesus

You've got to help me make a stand

You've just got to see me through another day

My body's aching and my time is at hand

And I won't make it any other way

 Oh, I've seen fire and I've seen rain

I've seen sunny days that I thought would never end

I've seen lonely times when I could not find a friend

But I always thought that I'd see you again

 Been walking my mind to an easy time my back turned towards the sun

Lord knows when the cold wind blows it'll turn your head around

Well, there's hours of time on the telephone line to talk about things

To come

Sweet dreams and flying machines in pieces on the ground

 Oh, I've seen fire and I've seen rain

I've seen sunny days that I thought would never end

I've seen lonely times when I could not find a friend

But I always thought that I'd see you, baby, one more time again, now

 Thought I'd see you one more time again

There's just a few things coming my way this time around, now

Thought I'd see you, thought I'd see you fire and rain, now