(JT’s best live work on VHS: left: James Taylor In Concert, SMV Enterprises; right: Squibnocket–CMV)
During one Strathcona High school-day lunch-hour, five teachers lost in an hour of JT’s live Boston concert which I’d just recorded. Sitting in front of the tv monitor–all five of us in the same mesmerizing space listening to and watching the spell-binding JT. All of us knocked out by his great songs:
Something in the Way She Moves
Fire and Rain
Smiling Face
Only One
Shower the People
How Sweet It Is
Up on the Roof
Everyday
Don’t Let Me Be Lonely Tonight
Never Die Young (which had just been released)
Steamroller
Carolina in My Mind
Sweet Baby James.
A stunning knockout set, still after nearly 30 years of lost watches.
All of us entranced, deeply moved, and yet each in his or her own private moment/s.
Later when the set ended, the afternoon warning bell rang and we all were literally re-awakened and thrust back suddenly into the cold winter reality of having to go back to our mundane classrooms and classes transformed, still mentally in JT’s web he had so slowly and consciously spun for his audience and unseen video viewers.
A totally unexpected magical, warm, romantic interlude–a seductive massage of both soul and heart. We all fell into it and were, for one brief hour, all on the same basically unspoken sensitive wave-length of sensibility.
Way leads on to way, and all five of us are no longer connected or as tight as we once really were that special day we all owed to the performance art of a master troubadour.
…………………………..
Also recommended, JT’s other video Squibnocket, recorded casually in a seaside Massachussetts barn with his then-musical friends and no audience. Simply outstanding. Works shining some three years after the previous video included:
Secret of Life
I’ve Got to Stop Thinkin’ ‘Bout That
You’ve Got a Friend
Fire and Rain
The Frozen Man
Shed a Little Light
Copperline
Sweet Baby James
Country Road
Mexico
Your Smiling Face
You Can Close Your Eyes.
At 70 now, JT still performs and talks of doing an album (finally) of other people’s songs. He remains intact and is very happy to be alive playing the same old songs that defined his life and career. Anyone who knows of or has experienced JT’s music has his or her own special memories and favorites. The above was mine. A special Moment of Being courtesy of James Taylor.