Various Artists - The Hitmakers Sing James Taylor (2020)

James Taylor's interest in music started at an early age, taking cello lessons as a child, before learning the guitar at the age of 12. Spending summer holidays with his family on Martha's Vineyard, he met Danny Kortchmar, an aspiring teenage guitarist from Larchmont, New York, and the two of them began listening to and playing blues and folk music together. Taylor wrote his first song on guitar at 14, and he continued to learn the instrument effortlessly, so that by the summer of 1963, he and Kortchmar were playing coffeehouses around the Vineyard, billed as "Jamie & Kootch". In 1965 they moved to New York City to form a band, recruiting Joel O'Brien, formerly of Kortchmar's old band King Bees, to play drums, and Taylor's childhood friend Zachary Wiesner to play bass, calling themselves The Flying Machine. They played songs that Taylor had written, and by the summer of 1966 they were performing regularly at the high-visibility Night Owl Cafe in Greenwich Village, alongside acts such as the Turtles and Lothar And The Hand People. At this time Taylor associated with a motley group of people and began using heroin, much to Kortchmar's dismay, but in late 1966 they did record a single for Jay Gee Records, comprising two Taylor compositions, 'Night Owl' and 'Brighten Your Night With My Day', and it did receive some radio airplay in the Northeast, but only charted at No. 102 nationally. During the final throes of The Flying Machine, Taylor's drug use had developed into full-blown heroin addiction, and after being taken back to North Carolina by his father, he spent six months getting treatment and making a tentative recovery. He then decided to try being a solo act with a change of scenery, and so in late 1967, funded by a small family inheritance, he moved to London. 

His friend Kortchmar gave him his next big break, introducing him to Peter Asher, who was A&R head for the Beatles' newly formed label Apple Records, and later became his manager. After Paul McCartney and George Harrison heard his demo tape they signed him to Apple, and he recorded what would become his first album from July to October 1968 at Trident Studios. During the recording sessions, Taylor fell back into his drug habit by using heroin and methedrine, and returned to New York for treatment at the Austen Riggs Center in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, while back in the UK Apple released his debut album, 'James Taylor', in December 1968. Critical reception was generally positive, including a complimentary review in Rolling Stone, but it suffered commercially due to Taylor's inability to promote it because of his hospitalization, and so it sold poorly. In late 1969 Taylor broke both hands and both feet in a motorcycle accident on Martha's Vineyard and was forced to stop playing for several months, although he continued to write songs while recovering, and in October 1969 he signed a new deal with Warner Bros. Records. Once he'd recovered from his accident he moved to California, keeping Asher as his manager and record producer, and in December 1969 he held recording sessions for his second album, 'Sweet Baby James', which was released in February 1970. This record was Taylor's critical and popular breakthrough, buoyed by the single 'Fire And Rain', with both the album and the single reaching No. 3 on the Billboard charts. 'Sweet Baby James' went on to be listed at No. 103 on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time in 2003, with 'Fire And Rain' listed as No. 227 on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time in 2004. This song is one of Taylor's most covered tracks, but other songs from the record soon began attracting other artists to give their take on them, from Merry Clayton's bluesy version of 'Steamroller', to 'Country Road' by UK folk-rockers Unicorn and 'Lo And Behold' by blues-rockers Mother Earth, featuring Tracy Nelson. Every track from the album has now been covered (omitting 'Oh, Susannah', which he didn't write, and to make up for that I've added another song from the same period), and so enjoy this alternate look at the album which added James Taylor to the list of classic US singer/songwriters of the 70's.     

Track listing

01 Sweet Baby James (The Seldom Scene 1972)               
02 Lo And Behold (Mother Earth 1971)
03 Sunny Skies (Tico de Moraes 2019)
04 Steamroller (Merry Clayton 1971)
05 Country Road (Unicorn 1971)
06 Fire And Rain (McKendree Spring 1970)
07 Blossom (Christine Smith 1971)
08 Anywhere Like Heaven (Warren Marley 1971)
09 Oh Baby, Don't You Loose Your Lip On Me (Gregg Cagno 2020)
10 Suite For 20G (The Meters 1976)

11 Riding On A Railroad (Tom Rush 1970)

Various Artists - The Hitmakers Sing Carole King (1973)

In the late 1950's Carole King attended Queens College, where she met Gerry Goffin, who was later to become her song-writing partner. When she was 17, they married in a Jewish ceremony on Long Island in August 1959, after King became pregnant with her first daughter, Louise. After they quit college they took day jobs, with Goffin working as an assistant chemist and King as a secretary, writing songs together in the evening, and after writing the Shirelles' Billboard Hot 100 number 1 hit 'Will You Love Me Tomorrow', they gave up their daytime jobs to concentrate on the song-writing. In the 1960's, with King composing the music and Goffin writing the lyrics, the two wrote a string of classic songs for a variety of artists, including 'Chains' (later recorded by the Beatles), 'The Loco-Motion' and 'Keep Your Hands Off My Baby' (both for their babysitter Little Eva), and 'It Might As Well Rain Until September', which King recorded herself in 1962, charting at number 22 in the US and number 3 in the UK. Other songs from her early period, up to 1967, included 'Half Way To Paradise' for Billy Fury, 'Take Good Care Of My Baby' for Bobby Vee, 'Up On The Roof' for the Drifters, 'I'm Into Something Good' for Earl-Jean (later recorded by Herman's Hermits), 'One Fine Day' for the Chiffons, and 'Pleasant Valley Sunday' for the Monkees. By 1968, Goffin and King were divorced and were starting to lose contact, and King moved to Laurel Canyon in Los Angeles with her two daughters. There she reactivated her recording career by forming 'The City', a music trio consisting of Charles Larkey, her future husband, on bass, Danny Kortchmar on guitar and vocals, and King on piano and vocals. The group produced one album, 'Now That Everything's Been Said', in 1968, but King's reluctance to perform live meant sales were slow, and the group disbanded in 1969. While in Laurel Canyon, she met James Taylor and Joni Mitchell, as well as Toni Stern, with whom she collaborated on songs, and when  King made her first solo album, 'Writer', in 1970, Taylor played acoustic guitar and provided backing vocals. It peaked at number 84 in the Billboard Top 200, and was followed the next year by 'Tapestry', which featured new compositions as well as reinterpretations of 'Will You Love Me Tomorrow' and '(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman'. 'Tapestry' was an instant success, with numerous hit singles, including a Billboard No.1 with 'It's Too Late', and every song on it has since become a classic. It's therefore no surprise that they have all been covered by a huge variety of artists, and so here are the best of them, reinterpreting this classic album of the 70's.

Track listing

01 I Feel The Earth Move (Design 1973)
02 So Far Away (Marlena Shaw 1972)
03 It's Too Late (The Sandpipers 1971)
04 Home Again (Kate Taylor 1971)
05 Beautiful (Petula Clark 1971)
06 Way Over Yonder (Cornelia 1972)
07 You've Got A Friend (James Taylor 1971)
08 Where You Lead (Barbara Streisand 1971)
09 Will You Love Me Tomorrow? (Roberta Flack 1971)
10 Smackwater Jack (Quincy Jones 1971)
11 Tapestry (Alice Babs 1973)
12 (You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman (Aretha Franklin 1967)

Lowell George - ...and on guitar (1977)

Lowell Thomas George was born in Hollywood, California, on 13 April 1945, and his first instrument was the harmonica, appearing at the age of six on Ted Mack's Original Amateur Hour performing a duet with his older brother, Hampton. As a student at Hollywood High School he took up the flute in the school marching band and orchestra, and had already started to play Hampton's acoustic guitar at age 11, progressing to the electric guitar by his high school years, and later learning to play the saxophone, shakuhachi and sitar. During this period he viewed the teen idol-oriented rock and roll of the era with contempt, instead favoring West Coast jazz and the soul jazz of Les McCann and Mose Allison. Initially funded by the sale of his grandfather's stock, George's first band The Factory formed in 1965 and released at least one single on the Uni Records label, the George co-write 'Smile, Let Your Life Begin'. Members included future Little Feat drummer Richie Hayward (who replaced Dallas Taylor in September 1966), Martin Kibbee (a.k.a. Fred Martin) who would later co-write several Little Feat songs with George, including 'Dixie Chicken' and 'Rock And Roll Doctor', and Warren Klein on guitar, with Frank Zappa producing two tracks for the band which were left unreleased at the time. When The Factory broke up George briefly played in The Standells, before joining Zappa's Mothers Of Invention as rhythm guitarist and nominal lead vocalist, playing on 'Weasels Ripped My Flesh' and 'Burnt Weeny Sandwich', and during this period he absorbed Zappa's autocratic leadership style and avant garde-influenced compositional methods. In 1969 he earned his first co-production credit on The GTO's 'Permanent Damage' album, and later that year he left The Mothers Of Invention under nebulous circumstances, enticing fellow musicians Roy Estrada (bass), Bill Payne (keyboards), and Richie Hayward (drums) to jump ship with him and form a new band that he named Little Feat. George mostly played lead guitar, but focused on slide guitar, although he had to get Ry Cooder to play the slide on 'Willin'' on their debut album after George badly injured his hand while working on a powered model airplane. Neither 'Little Feat' nor it's follow-up 'Sailin' Shoes' were commercially successful, leading to Estrada leaving the band in 1972 to join Captain Beefheart's Magic Band, and he was replaced on bass by Kenny Gradney. 

In addition, the band expanded to a sextet by adding Paul Barrere as second guitarist, thus cementing the classic line-up that took on a New Orleans funk direction with their next album, 1973's 'Dixie Chicken'. While recording and releasing this now-classic trio of albums, George was in demand as a session slide guitar player, adding his distinctive licks to albums from artists such as Nilsson, Carly Simon, Barbara Keith, Van Dyke Parks, and John Cale. Further Little Feat albums followed in the mid 70's including 'Feats Don't Fail Me Now' in 1974 and 'The Last Record Album' in 1975, and 1976 was a particularly busy year for George's session work, appearing on albums by John David Souther, Jackson Browne, and Kate and Anna McGarrigle, among others. In 1978 the band recorded their best-selling album, the live 'Waiting For Columbus', but tensions within the group, especially between George, Payne, and Barrere led to the latter pair's departure in 1979, leading to the break-up of Little Feat after the release of their 'Down On The Farm' album. George released his only solo album 'Thanks, I'll Eat It Here' in 1979, and carried on with his session work, but the early 70's were busiest for him, with enough guest appearances between 1970 and 1977 alone to fill three discs in this series. George led an overindulgent lifestyle of binge eating, alcoholism and drug-taking, becoming morbidly obese in the last years of his life, and on 29 June 1979 he collapsed and died of a heart attack, brought on by an accidental cocaine overdose, in his Arlington, Virginia, hotel room. He was just 34, but in his unjustly short life he produced some of the best US rock music ever made, with Little Feat gaining more appreciation after his death than they ever did before it, and his many contributions to records by his fellow musicians stand as a testament to his skill on his beloved slide guitar.   

Track listing

Disc One
01 Do Me In Once And I'll Be Sad, Do Me In Twice And I'll Know Better (Circular Circulation)

                                                                        (from 'Permanent Damage' by The GTO's 1969)
02 Dream Goin' By (from 'Moments' by Judy Mayhan 1970)
03 Memo From Turner (from the soundtrack from the film 'Performance' 1970)
04 Grand Illusion (from 'The Ice Cream Man' by Ivan Ulz 1970)
05 Sylvie (unreleased track from Country 1970)
06 Somebody's Gone (from 'No Apologies' by Nolan Porter 1971)
07 Detroit Or Buffalo (from 'Barbara Keith' by Barbara Keith 1972)
08 FDR In Trinidad (from 'Discover America' by Van Dyke Parks 1972)
09 Take 54 (from 'Son Of Schmilsson' by Nilsson 1972)
10 Waited So Long (from 'No Secrets' by Carly Simon 1972)
11 San Francisco Song (from 'Tret Fure' by Tret Fure 1973)
12 Macbeth (from 'Paris 1919' by John Cale 1973)

Disc Two
01 Gengis (from 'The Master' by Chico Hamilton' 1973)
02 I Feel The Same (from 'Takin' My Time' by Bonnie Raitt 1973)
03 Sayonara America Sayonara Nippon (from 'Happy End' by Happy End 1973)
04 Cannibal Forest (from 'Amazing' by Kathy Dalton 1973)
05 Everybody Slides (from 'Blues & Bluegrass' by Mike Auldridge 1974)
06 Let's Burn Down The Cornfield (from 'Come A Little Closer' by Etta James 1974)
07 Face Of Appalachia (from 'Tarzana Kid' by John Sebastian 1974)
08 Gringo En Mixico (from 'Waitress In A Donut Shop' by Maria Muldaur 1974)
09 Monkey Grip Glue (from 'Monkey Grip' by Bill Wyman 1974)
10 Just Kissed My Baby (from 'Rejuvenation' by The Meters 1974)

Disc Three
01 How Much Fun (from 'Sneakin' Sally Through the Alley' by Robert Palmer 1974)
02 Angry Blues (from 'Gorilla' by James Taylor 1975)
03 Roll Um Easy (from 'Prisoner In Disguise' by Linda Ronstadt 1975)
04 May You Never (from 'Not A Little Girl Anymore' by Linda Lewis 1975)
05 Midnight Prowl (from 'Black Rose' by John David Souther 1976)
06 Travelling On For Jesus (from 'Kate & Anna McGarrigle' by Kate & Anna McGarrigle 1976)
07 Denwasen (from 'Japanese Girl' by Akiko Yano 1976)
08 Your Bright Baby Blues (from 'The Pretender' by Jackson Browne 1976)
09 Catfish (from 'Lasso From El Paso' by Kinky Friedman 1976)
10 If I Lose (from 'Sandman' by Herb Pedersen 1977)
11 Dance To The Radio (from 'El Mirage' by Jimmy Webb 1977)

Many thanks to Bonita for suggesting George as a candidate for the series, as I wouldn't have thought that he'd played on many songs from other artists, but this has turned out to be a superb three disc set of his extra-curricular work.