Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

I was a bad influence on the Beatles: James Taylor
The Guardian ^ | Feb 17, 2020 | Jenny Stevens

Posted on 02/17/2020 5:09:42 PM PST by Pelham

..Born in Boston in 1948, Taylor was, according to his memoir, “brought up devoted to progressive politics, self-improvement and the arts”. His father, a doctor, moved the family to the south when he became the dean of the medical school of the University of North Carolina; his mother didn’t want to go, and fought against the politics she found there. She saw the north-eastern state of Massachusetts as a “lost Eden” and would spend her days doing sit-ins at segregated lunch counters, on protests, and hauling her five kids to Martha’s Vineyard every summer to “restore our Yankee credentials”. Not long after moving the family to North Carolina, Taylor’s father was assigned to the navy. He spent two years on an expedition to the south pole, where he held the keys to the liquor cabinet of 100 men. He went to the bottom of the world and returned with a serious drinking problem...

....He hopes this year to perform to help get out the vote ahead of the US presidential election. He met Donald Trump once, “in an airport. I just thought of him as a frivolous, minor player. It drives me crazy how unworthy he is of our attention and how much of it he has.” He is rooting for the Democratic candidates Deval Patrick and Elizabeth Warren – both from Massachusetts, where he now lives. “But at this point, I’d be happy to see pretty much anyone in – the bar is so low. Because the very worst person possible that you could think to be heading the thing is there. It’s like the Confederacy has won the civil war.”

(Excerpt) Read more at theguardian.com ...


TOPICS: History; Miscellaneous; Music/Entertainment
KEYWORDS: boomermusic; heroin; jamestaylor
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-80 ... 101-102 next last
To: Pelham
Heroin and other opiates were very available and very cheap in London at the time. “I picked up pretty soon after I got here,” he says. “I started by …” he pauses. “I shouldn’t go into this kind of stuff. It’s not an AA meeting.” Then he continues. “But you used to be able to buy something called Collis Browne’s Chlorodyne, which was an old-fashioned medication. Essentially, it was a tincture of opium, so you’d drink a couple of bottles and you could take the edge off.” Was it hard to kick the habit, given the circles he was moving in? “Well, I was a bad influence to be around the Beatles at that time, too.” Why? “Because I gave John opiates.” Did you introduce him to them? “I don’t know,” he says. Lennon, by many accounts, picked up a heroin habit in 1968 that contributed to an unhealable rift in the band.
41 posted on 02/17/2020 6:07:58 PM PST by paltz
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: plain talk

Lennon wanted to leave the Beatles beginning in 1966. He used Yoko as a wedge to finally make the break. Yoko and her “art” friends were heavily into opiates. She, not Taylor, introduced John to opiates.


42 posted on 02/17/2020 6:10:17 PM PST by KevinB ("Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge." - Charles Darwin)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 29 | View Replies]

To: Pelham
He must be coming out with a new song which means condemn Trump.
43 posted on 02/17/2020 6:10:18 PM PST by fatima (Free Hugs Today :))
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: dp0622
I won’t be nosy but you must be in a high position at some company or have your own :)

Not really. I am a principal in a small company that had something he needed in order to build a golf course. He negotiated the deal himself over the telephone. Total class. He asked for a price, we gave it to him, he beat us up a little bit (as we anticipated and within limits that we were willing to accept) and he had a check to us exactly when he said he would. His enemies love to give the impression that he is a dick to do business with, but that was far from our experience.

44 posted on 02/17/2020 6:18:49 PM PST by KevinB ("Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge." - Charles Darwin)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 39 | View Replies]

To: plain talk

The Beatles hook in the article was nothing more than that. Seemed like it was just an excuse for putting Beatles in the title.


45 posted on 02/17/2020 6:21:01 PM PST by Pelham (RIP California, killed by massive immigration)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 29 | View Replies]

To: fatima

:)

Eric Clapton,Holy Mother
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AoRwP1_XR-c


46 posted on 02/17/2020 6:22:24 PM PST by fatima (Free Hugs Today :))
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: Pelham

Trump Derangement Syndrome is strong with this singing turd.


47 posted on 02/17/2020 6:22:34 PM PST by wetgundog
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: KevinB

That’s a great story.

Yeah they like to make him out to be a monster.

He’s just a smart, hard working business man.

And of course dems hate anyone like that.


48 posted on 02/17/2020 6:25:13 PM PST by dp0622 (Radicals, racists Don't point finger at me I'm a small town white boy Just tryin' to makne ends meet)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 44 | View Replies]

To: a fool in paradise

I don’t suppose that it has occurred to Sweet Baby James that the North Carolina that his father moved the family to was run by Democrats at the time. For him to have such a negative opinion of Trump when his own mother was laying it on the line way back when? Kinda makes you look like a fool, huh Jimmy?


49 posted on 02/17/2020 6:26:26 PM PST by Tallguy (Facts be d@mned! The narrative must be protected at all costs!))
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: dp0622

He was also a LOUSY father to his first two and Carly wasn’t much as a mother either.


50 posted on 02/17/2020 6:28:42 PM PST by nopardons
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 14 | View Replies]

To: Pelham

His biggest contribution to the Beatles was giving George the idea for the line, “Something in the way she moves.” I think it was a tit-for-tat for something they thought he had stolen from them, but I don’t remember and it wasn’t a contentious situation because they signed him to Apple.


51 posted on 02/17/2020 6:29:09 PM PST by Rastus
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 45 | View Replies]

To: RushIsMyTeddyBear

Oh yes...that was REALLY stupid and disgusting!


52 posted on 02/17/2020 6:29:24 PM PST by nopardons
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 15 | View Replies]

To: Deaf Smith

Thanks.

I sort of half watched it one Saturday afternoon on TV.

I remember the last scene, though.


53 posted on 02/17/2020 6:32:19 PM PST by Pearls Before Swine
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 38 | View Replies]

To: FreedomPoster
He was a creep, a cheater, a bully, a lousy parent and what nowadays---(me, too movement)---passes for a rapist.

He was a highly talented megalomanic, and a monster, in short.

At least according to Carly.

54 posted on 02/17/2020 6:35:12 PM PST by Fightin Whitey
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: Tallguy

Jesse Helms was a North Carolina Democrat when James Taylor lived there. If you think Southern Democrats of that era had anything in common with the current crop you are sadly mistaken.


55 posted on 02/17/2020 6:37:21 PM PST by Pelham (RIP California, killed by massive immigration)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 49 | View Replies]

To: Pearls Before Swine

Fire & Rain and Carolina in My Mind being two of my favorites. Mockingbird with Carly is also pretty good.


56 posted on 02/17/2020 6:38:04 PM PST by bwest
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: bwest

Those are good.

I liked “Copperline” a lot, as well.


57 posted on 02/17/2020 6:42:12 PM PST by Pearls Before Swine
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 56 | View Replies]

To: ClearCase_guy

What a ridiculous comment for him to make. He grew up in Chapel Hill, his father was from NC before he went to school in Boston, where Taylor was born.

The clintons were clearly Klan democrats— that is the “gubmint plantation” handouts for the black votes— an insult to conservative Southern blacks. He supported them— why? Because his idiotic mother kept taking them to Mahthas Vineyard of black Marxists (where obamaumao now resides as a neighbor to labor racketeer Vernon Jordan.

This navel watching, heroin addict constantly “i’ll sing about me and maybe you’ll have the same experiences”— is so passe’. Music that reaches out TO people not constant depressogenic self abuse.

Of course he doesn’t get Trump. Trump does not drink, he’s not an addict. Taylor is still...an addict. And, btw, Joni Mitchell went completely whacko saying she had fibers coming out of her skin (got Congressional funding to “study” her own psychosomatic disorder).

These are broken people— perfect for democrat candidates to take the place of responsibility, with other people’s (OUR) money. EU is going away and so is this Existentialist pablum of Jean Paul Sarte.


58 posted on 02/17/2020 6:47:44 PM PST by John S Mosby (Sic Semper Tyrannis)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: Pelham

Somehow we survived listening to the Atlanta Rhythm Section— who were just drinkers— trying to avoid all the sparkle and coke and heroin the rest of the industry was built on.

ARS—only two surviving members. But what great players, and writers.

“Champagne Jam” and “Georgia Rhythm” had a lot of Hoagy Carmichael and Johnny Mercer way in the back as inspiration.


59 posted on 02/17/2020 6:50:31 PM PST by John S Mosby (Sic Semper Tyrannis)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]

To: Pearls Before Swine

Overrated, IMO and he has a hypernasal voice.


60 posted on 02/17/2020 6:55:11 PM PST by OKSooner (Free Beer Tomorrow)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-80 ... 101-102 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson