ROIO of the Week [Recordings of Indeterminate Origin]

We continue our singer-songwriter series with another show from 1971.

Click on the panels to download artwork

James Taylor
Fillmore East 1971 [no label 1CD]
Live at Fillmore East, New York, January 25, 1971.

Paul McCartney was in the audience. The Beatles’ Apple label had given Taylor a big boost by releasing his first solo album and a grateful Taylor opens the show with a Beatles song. Similar to John Denver in style and content, Taylor played "drifting songs" about faraway places and times past. His songs struck a chord with a generation of youths growing up and out of their teenage rages. Fire And Rain, Carolina On My Mind, Sunny Skies all had a calming effect on a generation grinding to a halt after years of experimenting with the counterculture. Together with his fellow singer-songwriters, Taylor was one of those who created the soft-rock category but unlike them, he never grew out of it.

His sound was founded in concerts like this. It has hardly changed over the decades. His disdain for rock can be found in his spoken intros to Steamroller Blues. Hard to believe that the Beatles saw something in him or that he began his career going out as a duo with Joni Mitchell and Carole King. After the initial success of his songs, Taylor spent the rest of the '70s covering pop hits from the '50s and '60s with his inimitable softly, softly style. He may have made the cover of Time magazine but Taylor’s influence remains as father of oldies radio. This show is as good as he ever got.
- The Little Chicken

Click on the highlighted tracks to download the MP3s (these are high quality, stereo MP3s - sample rate of 192 kibit/s). As far as we can ascertain, these live tracks have never been officially released.

These tracks are no longer available for download. Kindly email us at mybigo@bigozine.com if you want to download these tracks at a later time.

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