James Taylor - Fire And Rain (RARE live TV, 1969) 

And now 76 - crazy - isn't it?

Just a kid.

wow.... just wow....

To write such a beautiful song at that age is crazy. Wisdom!

My father fought on Okinawa when he was 19. Hard times make you hard.

For me it’s “Sweet dreams and fine machines in pieces on the ground”

@@westhighlands522 hi. I think it's Flying Machines in pieces.....that was the name of his first band. But I'm not sure, to be honest

‘I’ve seen lonely times when I could not find a friend’ - ouch

It was about a childhood friend of his that died by suicide. At the time he was in London working on his first album, his friends and family didn't want to distract him in the middle of his big break so they didn't tell him till six months after it happened. Really makes it even sadder.

She died

"The plans you made put an end to you" Brilliant.

Absolutely! The volume knob is always guaranteed to be turned up whenever it plays.

He's kept it updated over the years.

Great campus!

This is a great comment

Your generation, your music is engraved in our genration's DNA (x) and my daugthers(z) and my grandkids(whatever the hell the letter is) for pepetuity. Yes we have our music - 80's and 90's etc but YOUR Beatles change the way we listen and preceive music as a whole, forever. Actually, your MLK, your Muhammed Ali, your Andy Warhol, etc were NECESSARY for us to have the opportunity to have an open mind, to discover new things, to dare to try, to live life free with no remorse or reservations whatsoever and to care for your fellow friend like your hippies did. We got that from your generation and pass it over to our kids etc. So no, your generation is not ending.

Too bad you tanked the economy, environment & foreign policy on your way out. Thanks, I guess.

Retrospective always.

Fortunately I’ve passed my musical tastes and various genres onto my children. They Love James Taylor

How true! I am also 68 and still go to the gym, and the music they play is hip-hop and screeching heavy metal. These poor souls have no idea of the music, with poetry and melody describing an authentic life and not some cartoon caricature of life. Plato Cave, as it were.

I am 33. I love and admire these tunes from before my time

Bet your grandparents thought your music was hippy shit

Your grandkids will be just fine. You're still young. Live like it. I understand you must be having a tough time but as long as you draw breath you can create, and love... Don't ever believe that can't be your future.

In the 50s & 60s, older generations held the same attitudes with classical music being supplanted by rock. The poor hippies and burn-outs had no idea of the beauty of the classics and were allured by the blaring perverseness and excess of rock. Sound familiar? Many Baby Boomer's parents felt the same way about over-sexualized and explicit rock and roll songs that many BB/Gen X feel about Millennial/Gen Z's interests in rap/etc.. Hell, the rock and roll revolution actually pioneered the drug culture that continues today at festivals. That doesn't mean hundreds of years ago we didn't enjoy getting down and having some good dirty fun. In the context its done today though, that started really with rock and roll. You might counter that rock and roll had soul and sounded good, and rap doesn't. Your parents' generation countered the same about the Classics and Jazz. Rock and Roll was soul-less didn't/sound good to many of them. There's no absolutes. Some Greatest/Silent generation loved rock and roll. Some BB/Gen X love modern genre's. Rock was littered with songs describing caricatures of life. You probably don't remember a lot of the shallow chart topping songs from the 60s/70s. Look back at some of the billboard charts from the time and see how many of them had songs that held fleeting significance culturally. There's lots of fresh artists making beautiful guitar-heavy music. They're not the mainstream chart toppers anymore but that's ok. The same happened in the 60s/70s to Classics and Jazz. They weren't topping the charts any longer but there were still artists producing beautiful works. All these generations later the Classics and Jazz still have their influence and place in music even though they aren't topping the charts and flooding the airwaves as isolated genres. Life is cyclical. Think about how you would have liked your parents' generation to react to rock and roll. Just accept and celebrate what people like. Ton's of young people don't like modern chart topping genres and listen to rock and roll-derived music; new and old. In general, love what you love and don't try to hold it above or below what other people love. They're both stuff we love.

It was pretty bleak back then too.. a war in Vietnam that seemed to have no end, police shooting American kids, the threat of nuclear war with the USSR, racial civil unrest, 3 kids murdered by racists in the South, Buddhist monks setting themselves on fire. We just tend to remember the good times, and we can be thankful for that.

@@BugGenerat0r Yes you are correct . I am thinking more of a micro level . No mobile phones , little or no technological addiction as we have now , family existed ! You could back pack across the Middle East safely ( my family did that ) It was a far more respectful time towards others , TV had 3 channels in the UK ( thus was far healthier than it is now , children could go and play in the woods without a fear of being kidnapped …etc etc I could go on

Crime was higher in the 70’s than it is now. And families still exist

...Life is only ever how you imagine it to be.

The older we get the less we fit in this crazy world

I remember hearing this song in 1969 and it inspired me to learn to play the guitar. I never became a professional musician, but continue to play to this day. Music has greatly enriched my life and I owe a debt of thanks to James Taylor for providing this inspiration.

@@jackdemask4177 I hear y! This is the first song I ever sang. It inspired me to explore my voice more and, as I got better at guitar, it all started to come together. JT did that for me 🥰🙏

Still plenty of musicians like this if you take the time to look!

@@anyandeverything15 I’m a musician myself so I’m surrounded by talented musicians. But, by and larger, much of the mainstream pop and rock music is over-processed to my ears these days. Smaller underground musicians are where I look for inspiration now.

I'm not looking to argue really. I just tend to get annoyed by the mindset that the pop music of the past was better than it is today. It goes through ebbs and flows. James Taylor wasn't exactly a top 40 star. Almost every era has a ton of completely throwaway and unmemorable hits. Just look at how many copies of a copy of a beachboys there was in the 60's. The only era of pop I can think of that was truly horrid was the party pop of the early 2010's, or maybe some of the horribly overwrought vocals of the late 90's/early 2000's radio rock, but even they had their standouts. By disparaging the present, you're doing a disservice to the artists who ARE in the mainstream and are doing it right. I'm not a huge fan of her tracks but I really like the production on a lot of Eilish's stuff. Likewise people like Laufey are scoring hits with some fairly sophisticated arrangements, while working with some of the most talented session musicians of today. There's great stuff out there, even in the mainstream.

Agreed, my parents were of his time, but this song always hit me in that at the time he was writing this he was rehabilitating from heroin, and one of his past bandmates at the time was in a fatal plane crash (all of the former in these lyrics). Such a great song. James Taylor and America were a couple (of many more) of the greats of the era

The people don't want this anymore. Nowadays the solo artist has to have looping and background tracks and everything. I never did and I never will.

Seriously, just perfect.

I love JT but around this time there was also Tiny Tim and Beach Blanket Bingo. Every generation has stupid fads, we just tend to forget them as time passes and the good ones stand the test of time.

Don't forget the smack!

@@WendelltheSongwriterWe’ve gone backwards in my opinion. The people who don’t want to hear this anymore probably don’t even know what they are missing. James Taylor looks so young back in 1969. I have no idea if he is still living or not. Anyway, all I can say is, “Wow! Wow! Wow!”.

You’re

​@@jeanniemainzer8551Unnecessary

@@jeanniemainzer8551the grammar police the grammar police

@@bornwin-sx9oz Yup, even then, you still can't put in a comma. I rest my case.

Pot and beer is for 13 y/o girls. If you didn't shoot smack or its modern day equivalent, you don't measure up.

Now that’s a great memory!! They don’t making them like that anymore.

​​@@scottsent8120Hes Glorious..but God Does Not do drugs..fk drugs..Just Devotional Love Of God And All And YourSelf In All You Are And Do is Whts Up Always..Being True To That Is Why We Dig This Clip..fk intoxication..alcohol too..Oppressers shit to fk with People..NaturalNess Is Wht We Dig And Thats Why We Dig This Clip..

I’m unclear how the male nurse fits into this memory. Was a nurse in the van providing nursing care?

@JasonArcherKnepper The nurse was there so James would not misbehave by either overdosing or committing suicide. James had undergone intensive electric shock therapy. He didn't talk or do anything- just play and sing. It was a strange night because the storm ,which was almost a blizzard came up and there we were stuck. Fortunately we had a case of beer, a case of beer, a bag of pot - and James for intertainment. So what would been a bummer turned out to be a cool night. James sang until dawn.

Excellent

Good song choice, but I do hope that day is a day far from today!

Great choice. Mine is a song by Queen. 🙏🏻💕

I believe you correct in that..when I first heard this it was a studio recording on the radio…almost, probably AS impactive as hearing the first Beatles’ on the radio

James didn't sing about things being allright very often.

And here's the thing, I saw him live last summer (2023) and if you closed your eyes he sounded exactly like he does here!

As I get older the deep poignancy of "Suzanne, the plans You made put an end to You!" really sinks in.😭B.W.

He came over here to the U.K in the 1990’s, he was on a TV interview , he said something that gave me great encouragement while learning the guitar, when asking about his guitar style he was asked if he was ever worried about forgetting something or making a mistake, he said..’oh I make mistakes all the time, but I’m so good at covering them up no one ever really notices’ 🤣🤣

@@coldeb8911 What a great memory. He still is interested in helping young people with their music....I've attached here a video I think you will find interesting and for me was very touching to see. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-isB3i1r8pa0.html&pp=ygUXSmFtcnMgVGF5bG9yIEFsbCBJIFdhbnQ%3D

Leland Sklar is very complimentary of James’ guitar playing. Says it’s very unique.

Yes, It hurts so good.!!! 😘🥲

Agreed its greed now , health matters most

Reminds me of my dear departed sweetheart .. died in his sleep, so they say .. maybe they were being gentle with me? Doesn't matter .. end result is the same .. sobbing ..

@@SundaysChild1966 It is so hard to lose a loved one. I wrote a song for Suzanne but haven't gotten around to recording it as it is still so hard. She would have liked my other songs, though.

must have practised to a metronome. fantastic timing

Truth.

I miss 1969 too. Thanks for reminding me it has to be said and how to say it. I was in Stockbridge, Massachusetts that summer. Stockbridge one of James Taylor's alma mater's too.

That sucks. condolences!

People still make acoustic songs like this all the time.

We never really die. I really don’t even know if we know we die. It just keeps going and going. But for the ones left behind it doesn’t seem that way.

@@mikezurella6174 My neighbour keeps saying that. He says he’s alright he’s just gone home. But all I can reply to him is ‘Is I don’t want him to go home, I want him here.’ But we all die eventually, but for the ones left behind it’s getting used to the ‘new normal’ but the new normal sucks. Thanks 🙏

My girlfriend was murdered two years ago is what I think of

@@terryvaughn677 I’m so sorry to hear that. I can’t begin to imagine what that’s like or what you’re going through. We just have to get through each moment of each day and it hurts like hell. Everyone says it’s time, but it doesn’t seem to get easier. Bless you ❤️

@@michelle88960 thank you for the response... I doing a lot better now...the two year anniversary is coming on May first so I think about her more.... what's even worse my mom died two weeks before she did

A desperate plea, indeed. One that I understand.

Thanks for sharing. Nice to see and hear JT playing his old Martin.😎

Correction: it's his old Gibson.

😔B.W.

Sending love - because that sounds so hard.

Thought I’d see you one more time again / There’s just a few things coming my way this time around now /

He looks like Jimmy Page here.

I think he understood his family history. His uncle warned about opiates will destroy a Taylor. His great-great grandfather Alexander got addicted to morphine due to fighting in the Civil War.