When Unicorns Could
Dance
Yesterday on the
radio
They played that
old James Taylor song,
Brought memories,
flooding back to me;
A walled up space
inside my head,
Sealed up for many
years,
Crumbled, at the
first lines of the melody.
Outside just then,
it began to rain,
As if some old God
had heard it too;
And splashed tears
on my windowpane,
That streaked
slowly down in two’s.
I was for a moment
transferred, to a different time,
When we both
believed, that unicorns could dance,
I walked out this
morning and I wrote down this poem,
So sorry, we never
made it for that second chance.
Dancing Unicorn -- Le Van Tai
James Taylor is a 5-time Grammy winner whose 19 albums and singles have sold more than 100 million copies. In his teens he spent 9 months at the McLean Hospital, a psychiatric facility in Belmont, Massachusetts, and graduated from the Arlington School, a college preparatory high school on its premises. At the instigation of Danny Kortchmar, who had been part of the Jamie and Kootch folksinging duo before he committed himself to McLean, he formed the Flying Machine and began playing songs he had written as a patient. He adapted his guitar playing to his earlier training on piano and the bass clef-oriented cello, calling his approach "a finger-picking style that was meant to be like a piano, as if my thumb were my left hand, and my first, second, and third fingers were my right hand." After the band broke up Kortchmar connected Taylor to Peter Asher, who performed as 1/2 of Peter and Gordon and worked A&R (Artists and Repertoire) for Apple Records, the new studio owned by is sister's former boyfriend Paul McCartney of the Beatles. Taylor became the 1st non-British artist to be signed by the label. Asher continued as Taylor's manager and record producer, and they recorded "Sweet Baby James" for Warner Bros. Records late in 1969. It contained his most popular song, the autobiographical "Fire and Rain," which referenced the suicide of a childhood friend and his own struggle against depression and addiction, and his career.
ReplyDeleteJust yesterday mornin', they let me know you were gone
Suzanne 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
I won't make it any other way
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
Carole King played piano on the song, and a line in the refrain inspired her to write "You've Got a Friend," which she recorded in 1971 for her "Tapestry" album at the same time that James sang it for his "Mud Slide Slim and the Blue Horizon" album; both sessions shared backing musicians Joni Mitchell and Kortchmar, and both went to No. 1 on the sales charts.