Author's note, 1998: Given James Taylor's minimal output, this review could have been written yesterday. The live CD will be the only James Taylor record to consider buying for many years to come. I tweaked this review for publication this time around - it was unfair to review his work without admitting where I stand, vis a vis a guilty pleasure like this one. As I reread this review, one thing that really surprises me is that this CD did not sell nearly as well as I predicted it would. People continue to opt for the Greatest Hits collection instead. This may be the one review I wrote that may please both the fans and the anti-fans of a particular artist. -JR

James Taylor is (a)Live?

As James Taylor (Live) proves, the main reason James Taylor is still around is because he can play. Taylor is an excellent musician and singer. His live performances are well-known for their classy musicianship and intimate good-time atmosphere. James Taylor (Live) is a faithful testament to his live prowess, and its large sales figures will help to hide the gravedigging - many of Taylor's best songs were written before 1973.

Taylor hasn't been recording much (two studio albums in the last 12 years), but he has been touring consistently, and the results are obvious: flawless yet fresh vocal deliveries, creative live arrangements that always stay true to the originals, and a superb supporting cast of musicians and backup vocalists. James Taylor (Live) is the best make-out album since Clapton's Unplugged - the 30-song double-disc set really sets the mood, and works much better for this purpose than the comparatively brief Greatest Hits collection, which always seemed to end just when things were steaming up.

Unfortunately, the longevity of (Live) can be grating under less romantic listening conditions. Taylor's big dilemma is that he can't rock, but at the same time he can't rely on mellowness too heavily without dragging. Pseudo-rockers like "Slap Leather" and "Everybody Has The Blues" are closer to rude interruptions than hip jams. Taylor has much less luck with the folk-rock crossover that Bob Dylan did; he fares much better by spicing up his familiar sap-pop terrain. "Shower the People" and "How Sweet it Is" are strong live renditions - "Shower" for its climactic choral harmonies and "How Sweet" for its unbridled verve and surprisingly convincing joy.

A number of Taylor's most famous songs have a very similar sound and attitude. Together on one set for the first time, they beg the perennial question: Why does James Taylor spin-doctor his material? Everyone has good days, but nobody could possibly have as many epiphanies as James "Handy Man"/"Your Smiling Face"/"Something in the Way She Moves"/"How Sweet it Is"/"Only One"/"You Make it Easy" Taylor. Taylor never gives desperation its due, and this selective songwriting has cost him much credibility over the years. Nothing on this CD will change that - his moodier moments are not well represented here, and only the legendary "Fire and Rain" recalls the dark side of Taylor's own struggles with sanity.

By glossing over his struggle with new age platitudes ("Secret O' Life") and middle-class escapism ("Up on the Roof"), Taylor withholds something important. It is Taylor's habit of skimming in very shallow water that keeps critics critical and gives him one of the more apologetic (though no less impassioned) followings. As for where I stand and whether or not I am in this following (always the question to dread when it comes to James Taylor), I will admit to a few guilty pleasures in the mix (but only a few!), and one song, in "Fire and Rain," that carries no guilt whatsoever. As I see it, "Fire and Rain" has always been enough to atone for the sins that were to follow.

-JR