Taylor achieved his breakthrough in 1970 with the No. 3 single "Fire and Rain" and had his first No. 1 hit the following year with "You've Got a Friend", a recording of Carole King's classic song. His 1976 Greatest Hits album was certified Diamond and has sold 12 million US copies. Following his 1977 album, JT, he has retained a large audience over the decades. Every album that he released from 1977 to 2007 sold over 1 million copies. He enjoyed a resurgence in chart performance during the late 1990s and 2000s, when he recorded some of his most-awarded work (including Hourglass, October Road, and Covers). He achieved his first number-one album in the US in 2015 with his recording Before This World.
He is known for his popular covers of other people's songs, such as "How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved by You)" and the aforementioned "You've Got A Friend", as well as originals such as "Fire and Rain".
Taylor's four siblings (Alex, Livingston, Hugh, and Kate) have also been musicians with recorded albums. Livingston is still an active musician; Kate was active in the 1970s but did not record another album until 2003; Hugh operates a bed-and-breakfast with his wife, The Outermost Inn in Aquinnah on Martha's Vineyard; and Alex died in 1993 on James's birthday.
After his divorce from Carly Simon in 1983, Taylor married actress Kathryn Walker on December 14, 1985 at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York. She had helped him get off heroin, but the marriage ended in divorce in 1996.
On February 18, 2001, at the Emmanuel Episcopal Church, Boston, Taylor wed for the third time, marrying Caroline ("Kim") Smedvig, the director of public relations and marketing for the Boston Symphony Orchestra.[81] They had begun dating in 1995, when they met as he appeared with John Williams and the Boston Pops Orchestra. Part of their relationship was worked into the album October Road, on the song "On the 4th of July". The couple reside in the town of Washington, Massachusetts, with their twin boys, Rufus and Henry, born in April 2001. Henry shares James' intrest and talents.
Sally and Ben, his children with Carly Simon, have also embarked on musical careers. After they were born, Taylor moved with his family to Lenox, Massachusetts.
Sugar Trade
James Taylor Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Was a silver blue jewel
And back when your grandfather's
Father was young,
Men of these shores
Made and gave up their lives
Pulling up fish from the sea.
Stealing young men to cut sugar cane,
Rum to New Bedford
And codfish from Maine,
They were building a wall
That will always remain.
Oh, the crown and the cross
The musket and chain,
The white man's religion,
The family name.
Two hundred years later
And who is to blame?
The captain or the cargo
Or the juice of the sugar cane?
The dory man he knows
When the riptides will run,
He sets out his nets
And he sits in the sun.
He thinks of his family
And drinks of his rum
And he waits for the codfish to come.
It's the same god damned ocean
That keeps them alive,
It will swallow you up,
It will let you survive.
It will heal you and steal you
And take you away
Like a note in a bottle
With nothing to say
Now back when this earth
Was a silver blue jewel
And back when your grandfather's
Father was young,
Men of these shores
Made and gave up their lives
Pulling up fish from the sea.
The song "Sugar Trade" by James Taylor is about the history of North America from the time of American Natives and the arrival of Europeans. The first verse talks about the early days before the slave trade, when local inhabitants lived off the ocean, with the idea of connecting the present to the past. The second verse brings in the darker side of history, about the African slave trade for sugar, rum, and codfish making their way to New Bedford and Maine, as the wall built organizes itself as the basis for a civil society. The omission of blame may suggest that people, both blameless and culpable, are all entwined and culpable in various degrees.
The third verse goes back to the theme of the ocean, this time examining the life of a dory man, a fisher who understands the tides, waits for the codfish and drinks his rum. The ocean is a powerful and mystical force whose parallel in human society is like a note in a bottle with nothing to say. The last verse concludes the song by repeating the first verse, presenting a cyclical view of history as it repeats itself.
Overall, the song addresses themes of history and the environment, connecting the past and the present through the lens of North American history, and examining the impact of the sugar slave trade and fishing industry on both the environment and those who depended on it.
Line by Line Meaning
Now back when this earth
Was a silver blue jewel
In the distant past, when the earth was pristine and beautiful.
And back when your grandfather's
Father was young,
In the time when the previous generation was young and the world was vastly different.
Men of these shores
Made and gave up their lives
Pulling up fish from the sea.
On these shores, men sacrificed their lives to make a living by fishing from the sea.
While down in the African slavery trade,
Stealing young men to cut sugar cane,
Rum to New Bedford
And codfish from Maine,
They were building a wall
That will always remain.
In contrast, others were involved in the grim African slave trade, forcing young men to cultivate sugarcane, importing rum to New Bedford and codfish from Maine, and constructing an immoral legacy for themselves that still exists today.
Oh, the crown and the cross
The musket and chain,
The white man's religion,
The family name.
The slavery trade was driven by the desire for wealth, the Christian religion's moral blindness, guns and chains for force, and the family's determination to provide for future generations regardless of the horrors that they were committing.
Two hundred years later
And who is to blame?
The captain or the cargo
Or the juice of the sugar cane?
Even today, there is no clear answer to assign the blame for the past slavery trade- whether it was the captain, the cargo, or the sugarcane juice that led to the industry's inception.
The dory man he knows
When the riptides will run,
He sets out his nets
And he sits in the sun.
The present-day fishermen who make a living by catching fish know when the sea's tides are favorable; they set out their nets and relax in the sunshine.
He thinks of his family
And drinks of his rum
And he waits for the codfish to come.
As he waits patiently, the fisherman ponders his family and life, taking in the moment while sipping his drink.
It's the same god damned ocean
That keeps them alive,
It will swallow you up,
It will let you survive.
It will heal you and steal you
And take you away
Like a note in a bottle
With nothing to say
The fisherman's fortunes depend on the same ocean that swallows and releases them, giving and taking away at random times, much like messages in a bottle with no other meaning.
Lyrics © O/B/O APRA AMCOS
Written by: JIMMY BUFFETT, TIMOTHY S. MAYER, JAMES VERNON TAYLOR
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind