James Taylor: the quintessential American singer-songwriter

Out of habit I was looking for DGratis weekly English feature by Michael Richman when I came across a familiar face (James Taylor with his inseparable acoustic guitar) and a familiar song: You've got a Friend. The thing is that it wasn't James, no doubt one of the most popular American singer-songwriters, who actually composed this famous song, but his good friend, another accomplished female colleague, the great Carole King. But it was indeed James who turned "Friend" into a worldwide hit. 

Needless to say, the article's title reflects Michael's love for James Taylor's music, who I'm glad to say we both share as he has also been one of my all-time favourite musicians across the Atlantic. His velvety voice grabs your soul and can move you to tears. 

I became acquainted with James's music in the early 80s when an old friend borrowed me a cassette (those were the days!) of his 1971 album Mud Slide Slim and the Blue Horizon (which I shortly after bought myself and still have to this day), containing, among others, the above mentioned JT classic "You've got a Friend" and another song I do love, "Close your eyes". But it wasn't until I purchased another tape, curiously enough an earlier work, the 1970 album Sweet Baby James, that I fell head over heels for his music. Two songs caught my attention right away: the opening one, which gave the album its title and, above all, the gloriously moving Fire and Rain. Even though in those days I couldn't fully understand the lyrics, I immediately loved James's melodic guitar playing and the deep warmth of his voice. Apparently James had written the song in the late 60s to come to terms with the high (fire?) and low (rain?) moments of his life. He was only in his 20s but already struggling against depression and drug addiction. 

There are so many other songs I could recommend if you've never listened to James Taylor. But indeed the one that always comes to mind is, which else, Carolina in my mind, featured in his 1968 self-titled debut album. Legend has it that James recorded it for the Beatles's label, Apple, while staying in London. James sings about his longing to return to the state of North Carolina, the land he would call home in his childhood days (actually he was born in Boston but moved further south at a very young age). The lyrics are so heartfelt that you can feel James's homesickness. In this old clip below he tells the small audience it's a song he "wrote in Spain" and he was "homesick at the time", and goes on to say that though he "didn't have a home that doesn't keep you from being homesick sometimes".




The quality of both the sound and picture is not great, is it, so I'm embedding this other YouTube clip with the full lyrics. I never seem to get tired of listening to the song!

There has been a legendary speculation as regards the identity of Karen, the woman he mentions in the famous line "Karen, she's a silver sun." Until very recently, James was reluctant to reveal the girl's identity, which resulted in lots of odd theories: some people argued that Karen might be a poetic name for Carolina, while others believed that Karen was actually a beautiful young girl that James met in our country. Many have even interpreted that the song could be about drugs, since, when it was written, Taylor was battling a severe addiction to heroin, as I said above. Not until he gave a concert on the BBC in 2009 did he disclose the real identity of "Karen". Apparently, his afore-mentioned "James Taylor" debut LP was recorded at around the same time the Beatles were producing their famous Double White album; it seems that Taylor flew to Formentera, where he bumped into a young Scandinavian woman by the name of Karen in what seemed a fleeting relationship, just a casual meeting, because he never saw her again. 

Whatever the story, Carolina is one of the most beautiful, delicate songs I've ever heard. Wouldn't you agree? As  Michael says in his DGratis feature, James was awarded this year the National medal of Arts by President Obama for "his remarkable contribution to American music". As the voiceover reads, "his distinctive voice and masterful guitar playing are among the most recognized in popular music and his expensive catalogue of songs has had a profound influence on songwriters and music lovers from all walks of life". I wouldn't be able to put it in a better way. This is a short CBS video of the ceremony.

As this entry is becoming way too long, let me end up saying that James was famously married to another notable fellow singer-songwriter (birds of a feather ...), the ever so popular Carly Simon. In this last video they sing a duet (they divorced years later), namely a delightful love song I mentioned earlier, "Close your eyes". So please guys, do as the song says and let James and Carly's voices fill your ears: "I don't know no love songs and I can't sing the blues any more. But I can sing this song and you can sing this song when I'm gone ..." A beautiful duet, no doubt.

Thank you so much, dear Michael, for the inspiration you've given me by writing your fantastic article in DGratis. I wonder if we might go to see JT live in Madrid together ...

SUSANNE: Skiing – my secret passion

I love skiing. Since the age of seven I’ve been skiing at least once a year, so I can’t imagine a winter without going to the mountains. Now, when the cold season is beginning, I’m eagerly looking forward to the first snow and the next skiing holiday. You can’t imagine the incredible feeling of carving through the powdery snow while you have the spectacular mountain panorama in front of you, the sun shining in your face and the glittering snow particles spraying into the air in front of you.

It was in the 70s when we, that is, my parents, my brother and I, went to the Alps for the first time to try this upcoming sport. I remember the fashionable equipment: a Norwegian woolen pullover, an anorak, leather ski boots up to the shins, large heavy skis and neither a helmet nor special ski glasses. After a couple of hours we were dripping with sweat or, what's worse, if it was snowing, we were soaked to the skin. Compare with today’s functional self-breathing skiwear! What else has changed? Skiing has become a mass sport: Each year thousands of people travel to the popular ski resorts and try to gain a free track on the crowded ski slope, so they have to find accommodation, eat and shop in the formerly cute mountain villages. If you go skiing in the high season, expect queuing at the ski lift and in the restaurant. Apropos restaurants: In those days, fast food didn’t exist in ski areas, and we had lunch in kind of little Alpine cottages which were run by their owners. I especially remember one where a busy old lady offered her delicious home-made crepes. On the other hand, now you have the comfort of artificial snow-powdered runs that guarantee easy downhill descents to the town below without scratching your skis.

The above mentioned and other collateral effects of mass tourism make me increasingly worried about nature in high mountain areas (and that also fits with our topic, as you must remember the “sacred balance”, don’t you?). But I admit that it would be hard for me to abstain from skiing, although there might be a sustainable way of practising this sport, as the first video below "Ski for Nature" demonstrates.  Do you notice that the people ski in a different way? It’s an old form of skiing, the telemark style, which is enjoying a revival in recent years. 

Then I’d like to show you how beautiful skiing can be: The first video is an advertising clip from Atomic, a well-known ski manufacturer.  

The second, a teaser trailer from the film Claim ("the greatest ski movie ever"), shows some daring extreme skiers in their element. 

I hope you enjoy the clips and, maybe, they will encourage you to try out this wonderful sport. 

Hi,  it's me again! I've found a short video that promotes respect towards mountain areas. 

Thanks for the lovely nature-oriented post, dear Susanne. I can see you're a keen skiing fanatic and rightly so. I mean, I've never practiced the sport myself but my children have, well, on and off, and I know it's great fun. Actually, my daughter is going skiing (snow permitting!) to Andorra only next week with her secondary school mates.

Now that I think of it ... I "kind of" skied twenty-five years ago, when I was a budding young teacher in Leon, the year before I passed my competitive exam ... may I reminisce the anecdote? Mariano, one of my students and an inveterate skier, invited me to join him and his wife for a weekend in the popular ski resort up in the north, San Isidro. He provided me with the whole (branded) gear: the warm clothing, a pair of skis, glasses, gloves ... the lot! I looked like a real Fernandez Ochoa, ha ha!

But to cut a long story short, believe me, it was frustrating. However hard Mariano tried to teach me the rudiments of the sport, I felt my legs weak and kept stumbling on the immaculate white snow, much to the hilarity of the able kids around. And to cap it all, my delicate white complexion got severely burnt under the winter sun as it got reflected on the sun like on a mirror. I was a staggering "tomato" on skis! So that was in a nutshell the one time I kind of experienced the pleasure (!) of feeling the soft white blanket under my feet - again. Long gone had been my childhood days in Germany when there were knee-high snowfalls and I would go downhill on my sleigh ...

Gustavo: "The Real Dirt on Farmer John"

(Or the magnificent translation into Spanish: Las calabazas gigantes del granjero John)

Did you ever think that another type of agriculture is possible? This documentary really made me change my mind. After all, even in one of the most polluting countries on earth (yes! The United States of America) it is possible to live in peace with Mother Nature … and “Farmer John” has the key. Don’t you want to know more about this brilliant, unusual guy? 

The documentary tells the story of a Midwestern farmer called John. Born within a family of farmers, he soon realized that farming would be both his dream and his nightmare. But John didn’t look like his neighbors (in fact, he didn’t want to, since he was quite different). When he went to college he discovered the hippie revolution of the sixties and brought some friends to his father’s farm. And then the problems came as the neighbors started to talk bullshit about John … 

But this wasn’t the only problem John had to face. The wrongly called “green revolution” ruined most Midwest farming families, including John and his smart hippie project. However, he came up with a truly “green” solution to save his farm, his (and his roots) way of life and his funny, liberal personal view of life … I guess you want to know how the story ends! 

Thanks a lot Gustavo, this is a most interesting post on our blog. You just forgot one thing: the film / documentary in its entirety is available here in case anyone wants to watch it. At least I'll do as soon as I can, as the story has aroused my curiosity ...

George Harrison: The "reluctant" Beatle

Slightly over ten years after Freddie Mercury’s death, on November 29th 2001, another legend of popular music left this world: George Harrison, the “darker, more spiritual” member of the greatest band that ever was - unquestionably: The Mop Tops, The Fab Four … of course, THE BEATLES!

He will never be considered the most accomplished guitarist (though he’s recently ranked # 11 - not bad! - in a poll conducted by Rolling Stone magazine, “The 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time”) or a brilliant singer. George always kept a low profile within the band, never bothered to steal the limelight, the leading role selfishly shared by John and Paul (or is it John and Paul?), the two giant egos who constantly clashed with one another up until the day the Beatles inevitably split up. 

But to me, an unconditional Beatles fan, and this is something I admit that took me years to find out, George was the most talented musician of the Liverpudlian act, sort of the glue that kept the band together. I don’t think their musical adventure would have worked out without him. Because, though much less prolific than the most famous composing duet in the history of rock, Lennon-McCartney (or McCartney-Lennon, what would you say?), George Harrison penned such memorable Beatles songs as “Taxman”, “If I needed someone”, “While my guitar gently weeps”, “Here comes the Sun” or indeed “Something”, which the great Frank Sinatra ignorantly, almost disgracefully, called his favourite “Lennon-McCartney theme” but also - and not many would disagree - “the greatest love song ever written”. 

Or would you indeed disagree with the archetypal “crooner”, the man who sang so many unforgettable love songs? If you do, maybe you need to listen to “Something” once again. Because sure thing you’ve already done it ... or have you? In any case, I don’t even have to insert the lyrics scroller, since it’s so easy to follow the words that George came up with. I love the naive video, featuring the four greats and their wives at the time: Patty, Yoko (yuk, I’ll always kind of blame her for the Beatles’s separation!), Maureen and Linda, in order of appearance. You know guys, I can’t help it, the more I listen to the song, the more it … “woooos me”!

Harrison's wife, the gorgeous Patty Boyd, was later famously “snatched” by the Beatle's close-friend and guitar hero (at least to me!) Eric Clapton, who years before had written “Layla” (a song many of you are probably familiar with - “You’ve got me on my knees, Layla!”) as a token of Eric’s then unrequited love for Patty Boyd-Harrison. I’ll get back to this love/hate relationship between George and Eric later on. 

Going back to George alone, he was a man of profound spirituality who soon became fascinated by Indian culture and religion, so much so that he eventually converted to Hinduism. It all began when he had met Ravi Shankar, often considered the greatest contemporary Indian musician as well as the ultimate sitar virtuoso. George himself found the instrument so appealing that he introduced it in a few Beatles songs. Arguably his biggest hit as a solo artist, My Sweet Lord, even includes the complete recitation of the famous Hindu mantra, “Hare krishna”, and I guess I should also embed the song right at this point, shouldn’t I?

I remember the hit being aired endlessly on the Spanish FM stations during the 80s and how I felt so soothed by it (Hallelujah!). That’s why, if I had to recommend you something quintaessentially “Harrison-ian”, I’d urge you to buy his 1970 album “All things must pass”, produced by himself and the famed Phil Spector, where My Sweet Lord is included. To me it’s definitely George at his most intimate, with beautifully-written, accurately-orchestrated songs that will stir your heart no doubt. It’s difficult for me to pick up a single song other than “MSL” from the album so I’ll embed the one that gives the whole record its title.





My last selected piece comes from the 1991 reunion album between George and Eric (curiously enough, barely a few months after Freddie’s untimely death) and it’s not, I’m sure, his most famous song. It’s called “Cloud Nine”, from the successful namesake comeback album that George recorded in 1987 after a long absence from the music scene. I particularly like this 1991 live rendition in Japan alongside his “bittersweet” friend Eric Clapton. They had sort of smoked the pipes of peace after a short row over the Patty Boys affair (actually she'd divorced Eric a couple of years before this gig). I love him playing - and singing - a bluesy rock with a slide on an unusual in his early days Fender Stratocaster.

Wow, I’m making this too long, aren’t I? So to cut a long story short, I must say that, however big I wanted this tribute to be, it feels very small compared to the extraordinary documentary that American director Martin Scorsese, a great Beatles fan himself, recently released to commemorate George Harrison’ death. It’s called “Living in the material world”  and it’s a fantastic 3-hour journey through the life and music of the often deemed “reluctant” Beatle. Needless to say, I’ve seen it – and enjoyed every minute of it! – and I’ll be delighted to lend it to you guys. But let me put an end to this lengthy post by inserting a CBS news clip on the sad day of his passing in L.A. to lung cancer at the age of 58, which summarizes George’s life and death. 

As a voiceover suitably reads, “There’s a Beatles’ song for just about every occasion”, and I couldn’t agree more. Of course, George Harrison was an essential part of a glorious one-off band that filled with sheer joy – and still does today - the ordinary lives of many across the world …

(Allow me to dedicate this post to David, a keen musician and talented guitarist who, I'm proud to say, has inherited his dad's love for the Beatles - and indeed to all the Fab Four enthusiasts worldwide. This is for you, sonny!)