https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kxwi-EuY7QU Taylor's first, self-titled album, is pretty good, but it wasn't the phenomenon of Sweet Baby James, which might as well have been his first album, because it is one of that very special rarity: a perfect album. There's not one lousy song on the whole track list; there's nothing but gold from the title song all the way through to the closing track, "Suite For 20 G." If "Suite" sounds like a mishmash of three different songs, that's because it started out as three different songs. You see, Taylor was in dire financial straits during the recording of the album. Peter Asher, the album's producer, had promised Taylor twenty thousand dollars upon the album's completion, but unfortunately, writer's block was draining Taylor of inspiration. Desperate to get his hands on that twenty grand, Taylor stitched together three uncompleted songs into a suite, hastily recorded it and slapped it onto the end of the album. It's miraculous to hear how well the three pieces sound together: the three song sections come from three musical genres (pop, folk, and blues) that you wouldn't think would blend together, but Taylor pulls it off by pouring a ton of soul into each portion. All of the pieces are wonderful, but the blues section is particularly fun; it ends the song on an upbeat note that leaves you tapping your foot.
Alan Howell is a native of Southern California. He loves movies of any and all kinds, Hollywood, indie, and everywhere in between. He loves pizza, sitcoms, rock and pop music, surfing, baseball, reading, and girls (not necessarily in that order).