Mudslide Slim and the Blue Horizon

Of all the James Taylor albums... only one is consistent throughout. Mudslide Slim and the Blue Horizon is one of the most perfect albums recorded in the '70's. Sure Led Zep and Pink Floyd did some good stuff too, but what I want out of music is that emotional attachment. You don't have to go very far into Mudslide Slim to find that. The opener Love has Brought Me Around is very anti-James Taylor with its positive upbeat tone, but there is that Taylor pervasive feeling of doom in the first verse. By the time James hits the second verse he declares


When my sky was full of gray
And my day was full of blue
There was nothing I could do
To see myself through
Now my head is full of springtime
And my heart is full of you
Good-bye lonely blue
It shall all come true

Despite how he might feel inside... he thinks all this is a foregone conclusion. He is in love and nothing else matters. To paraphrase Bruce Springsteen, he isn't gonna fuck it up this time. So it seems no wonder that the second track is the massive Carole King cover You've Got a Friend. James feels a little weary... yet almost like someone who is waiting for that chance to make you his own.

Places in My Past is another weary anthem that will be touched upon later. He has enjoyed the company of married women and the like, but never settled down. James hints at that the fact he might be ready to if only to relieve himself of the pain and loneliness.

He follows it up with a song that alludes to the control God has on us.

"There's a man up here who claims to have his hands upon the reins..."

Taylor later admits that maybe he and another person will meet again on their travels... perhaps an old lover... or an old friend.

To follow it up with a song about Vietnam seems a little bit of an odd pairing... but with the song questioning God supplying a prelude before it... it fits into the grand scheme of things.

A somewhat joke song providing satire for his own life is given as the title track. James seems to feel the pressure of leading music into a "blue horizon" and clearly he is that Mudslide Slim.

All of this is just set up for the tremendous country ballad Hey Mister, That's Me Upon the Jukebox. Taylor has always loved country music and has never really strayed all that far from it. He does a splendid cover of George Jones's Bartender's Blues later on in his career. He gives a gutwrenching turn here as a man who finds himself in a bar listening to his own music.

All of this is merely prelude to the pearl he drops next which is my favorite JT track. You Can Close Your Eyes is a moody, acoustic number that tells his lover that

"I don't know no love songs... and I can't sing the blues anymore...
But I can sing this song... and you can sing this song when I'm gone."

He seems to say I can't cry for you anymore... I can't give anything more than this song you can repeat as comfort. And what could be more comforting than JT telling you that he loves you no matter if he can't find a way to put his affection into words.

You get a few well intentioned tracks til you get to the heart of the cd. Highway Song might be JT's ultimate opus. He tells the sad tale of love that he just can't stay to embrace. Everytime it starts happening he has to get out on the road to escape it. Witness the second verse:

I had a little woman in Memphis
She wanted to be my bride
She said, settle on down, traveling man
You can stay right by my side
I tried so hard to please her
But I couldn't hold out too long
'Cause one Saturday night I was laying in bed
And I heard that highway song

This tracks provides a marvelous brother to the short, but sweet Isn't Nice to Home Again. Even though JT wants to be out and about he feels that relief about being home... of course it is shortlived, coz like every great musician... he has to rejoining that great big journey on the road. Our narrator loves the feeling of love, but can't deal with all the attachments of it... sooner or later he has to flee...