Taylor at SPAC: all ‘fire and rain’

by Eric Freedman, The Knickerbocker News, July 11, 1977

I’ve seen fire and I’ve seen rain and I’ve seen James Taylor, who sang with his own mellow style of fire and rain at SPAC Sunday night.

His performance began in an off-beat way. A stagehand wheeled out a large green box, apparently a piece of amplifying equipment. Then, all of a sudden, the giant box swung open and out popped Taylor, guitar and all, launching into his early hit, *Sweet Baby James.” And most of the rest of the evening was as sweet as his opening.

His songs spanned the decade he has been recording professionally, from the late 1960s and “Country Road” to today’s top-rated “Handy Man.”

But there were a few occasions when, as one member of the audience put it, “I was wondering what happened to James Taylor.” Those were the times when he seemed out of his element, trying a hard rock style that is alien to the moods he has traditionally created.

For example, “Honey Don’t Leave L.A.” is not the James Taylor we know, and he appears to be more in his own element when he sings of “going to Carolina in my mind.”

During the performance, he had the support of two New York City singers, Arnold McCuller and David Lasley, whose harmonies fit right in, and of pianist Clarence McDonald.

On stage, Taylor is shy, gentle, trying good-naturedly to joke with his audience but feeling somewhat ill at ease doing so. But when he strums his guitar and sings “Mexico” or his new number, “Another Gray Morning,” all the barriers are down and we sense the personality of the man imbued in his music. He is a personal songwriter, and his work is marked by his own emotions and experiences.

That’s why it feels right when he sings, with some regret, “It don’t look like I’ll ever stop my wandering,” and that’s why something is out of line when he plays “Gorilla,” complete with monkey-like grunts at the end.

There was a dismal showing by The Section, the warm-up group, which put on the type of act that gives hard rock a bad name—ear-shattering—as well as being an inappropriate lead-in to Taylor. They even had the audacity to characterize something titled “Hamsters of Doom” a “tune,” though it was totally lacking in anything resembling melody.

Taylor had an accurate sense of foreboding as he opened his second act, looking over the audience of almost 18,000, which was packed so tightly there was scarcely a sign of the lawn. The song, which he suggested everyone sing on the way home, was “Damn ThisTraffic Jam.”

Views: 49