EVERYTHING
Everything you know or think you know
Everything you know is wrong
Life ain't no hootenanny
and you don't have to sing along
You can laugh and you can mumble
You can hold your breath
Take a little piece of my heart now honey…
THE LESSON
I saw her in a music store in Fort Worth, Texas
I'd driven in to buy some strings
It was like getting hit by a little fist in my solar plexis
when she said, “Can you help me tune this thing?”
She had a smile. A thin disguise…
TESLA
Who invented remote control? TESLA
Who invented the fluorescent light? TESLA
Who invented the radio? TESLA
And who died alone and forgotten in 1943? TESLA
So, you say now, “Don’t be angry.”
And you say, “Just tell the story…
THE LESSON
I saw her in a music store in Fort Worth, Texas
I'd driven in to buy some strings
It was like getting hit by a little fist in my solar plexis
when she said, “Can you help me tune this thing?”
She had a smile. A thin disguise…
A PICTURE I CAN'T THROW AWAY Key C
Capo @ 4
(Yes. It's a true story. I changed it to 1st person. It was a friend of my brother, Joe's.)
This audio is missing. I will have to find it in the archives or re-record it some day…
It’s a small town. Woodlake, California. East side of the San Joaquin Valley. 14 miles from where all those “Lindsey” olives you see on your grocery store shelves come from. The Woodlake Echo, says, “In the foothills of the Sequoias”.
FOOTHILLS…
STEPPIN' ON SOME TOES Key - Em and E
Em
Well, some folks got big noses
Some folks got big hats
Some folks stand out in the aisle
Make it hard to pass
Am
Some folks they got money
Em
They…
WHERE
Where will I spend the rest of our life?
Where will I live our tomorrow
Our only hope springs from within your sorrow
And if I thot your pain could be bought
I'd start saving today for tomorrow
Where, where
Our only hope springs…
" ...and if I thought, your pain could be bought, I'd start saving today, for tomorrow." My Gawd, My Gawd! Who else but JMT could write such a great line!
This song is akin to REMEMBERING BABE. Another night to Keren's. Almost got caught by the cops. Saw 'em coming so Babe and I hid in the olive orchard until they turned off the spot light and left. THEN, I did what came to be called my Night Ride…
My favorite song by Jane Bowers
She was still alive back when I 1st learned
this song from the Kingston Trio.
I didn't know, back then, that I could have met her.
WHEN I WAS YOUNG by Jane Bowers
When I was young and dreams were new…
Sadly, Annie and Allan are now divorced...
The games are over...
Annie & Allan
Annie and Allan were having a problem
Made a decision to go their own ways
Annie and Allan made an announcement
Not even knowing how it saddened…
I was in Spain, in the Pyrenees, working on THE STONE RAFT. I was the only American, read, "English speaker." I was feeling very alone.
SOLITARY WALK Am
INTRO Am F Am F
Am (walking down) G F G
Tho I follow in the footprints of my friends…
Dear James, thanks for sharing this song that remains me the days we spent together in Pirineos, Spain. Congrats and big hugs from the Summertime at Madrid
The Fading Yellow Ribbon
There’s a fading yellow ribbon
around the oak tree in the yard
Each day they walk out to the mail box
but even walking’s getting hard
And they’re looking for a letter
that they fear will not arrive
It’s a letter…
Well you've made my eyes leak again. I keep listening to your songs and I keep leaking. I might have developed an allergy of some kind but I'll keep listening. Really touching.
I wrote this at my dad's urging. He likes it. We sing it together. I have YouTube Video of it up.
EULOGY
He grew up in Clinton, Oklahoma
Red dirt back yard, Gramma's place
Honey suckle in a dust bowl
Life as hard as limestone lace…
Returned today to listen, and so glad I did! It is a wonderful song. I like the timber of your vocals, too. There is a soft edge that serves the song so well because of its subject. I respond too, as an Okie, having lived for 40 years in Sapulpa and Tulsa, Oklahoma. Fav lines might be, "Red dirt back yard, Gramma’s place
Honey suckle in a dust bowl
Life as hard as limestone lace
Remembering the red dirt...
Know these accents and sounds like the back of my hand... thanks for posting! --Gwyn Henry
Next in the little pile of songs from the shoe-box. This one has the date 27th January 1994 written on it, but it's describing an episode from many years earlier when I was, I'm guessing, something like 12 or 13 years old.
I had to go to a…
At last... I've managed to finish something.
This was written months ago. I was about to try recording it with one or two others when this year's decorating started. With various buggered fingers, back muscles, etc, etc, I wasn't actually able…
Seasons
OsCKilO
Changing Room 2013
What is the Earth without the wind
To turn the soil
To let the water in
When it comes
At the moment of the rain
Those cracks the wind swept
Now left to drink the whole sky in
Till its bubble rise a top on…
Dear Listener, Thank you for your comment. It's a brand new song and still being written. Your comment helps me figure out what needs to be done to make the song understandable.
I read Siddhartha when I was young and tho it promised a beautiful mate it also promised the loss of that beautiful mate and ending life alone. For some reason that frightened me at the time and sure enough, 28 years with my beautiful mate and she walked out...
FEATHERS IN THE WIND is about a high school girlfriend, dead now. But Keren is still alive.
I look forward to hearing your music. j mt
First installment of a record of "experimental" tracks, mostly me doing weird stuff around the house and at some point deciding to record "that". Well, in fact that's how most of my music gets done, but well, you get the point. Don't say I didn…
The first version of this is on Songs of The Heart. This version was written around 9/11 and is a plea for America to hold on to God, not move away from Him.
The first version of this is on Songs of The Heart. This version was written around 9/11 and is a plea for America to hold on to God, not move away from Him.
This is one of the saddest must beautiful songs I have ever heard. Listening to it over and over. A love song to a love that has forsaken you. Yet you cling.Yet you hope. Yet you believe.
The first version of this is on Songs of The Heart. This version was written around 9/11 and is a plea for America to hold on to God, not move away from Him.
The first version of this is on Songs of The Heart. This version was written around 9/11 and is a plea for America to hold on to God, not move away from Him.
This is about Mary, the Mother of God and mother of us all. For those who aren't Catholic, Catholics don't worship Mary, we honor her and pray for her intercession, just as people ask other people to pray for them. Mary brings us to Jesus.
Finally, finished this one. Its been a battle finding time and fending off a few bouts with allergies and colds etc...A very windy winter and early spring season in the desert was one of the worst in many years. Hoping to get to working on some…
Such clean acoustic guitar sound. Like the way it grows/builds...how the sound of the voice fills out. Cool voice and song. Starts to sound like the Beatles at the end.
I wrote this in the early 1990's during Desert Storm and after a conversation with my brother-in-law, Er4ic, t the time who was sent over there to fight.
Comments on James Michael Taylor's stuff
Love the melody and harmonies on this one! Good toe tapping this morning
Love your voice. What a great story.
LOVELOVELOVELOVELOVE!!!!!!!!!
Enjoyed this story and the song. Thank you for uploading it!
Wow!
Great lyrics and imagery. Love this. Feels like an anthem!!
Love it Jim!
" ...and if I thought, your pain could be bought, I'd start saving today, for tomorrow." My Gawd, My Gawd! Who else but JMT could write such a great line!
Great song!
lovely....
very very nice !
Dear James, thanks for sharing this song that remains me the days we spent together in Pirineos, Spain. Congrats and big hugs from the Summertime at Madrid
Well that makes me happy.
Besides you that is.
Russ Emerick wondered, who is singing?
Well you've made my eyes leak again. I keep listening to your songs and I keep leaking. I might have developed an allergy of some kind but I'll keep listening. Really touching.
A great day-starter!
Full of drama, sounds like a movie track
That's the way it happened.
Returned today to listen, and so glad I did! It is a wonderful song. I like the timber of your vocals, too. There is a soft edge that serves the song so well because of its subject. I respond too, as an Okie, having lived for 40 years in Sapulpa and Tulsa, Oklahoma. Fav lines might be, "Red dirt back yard, Gramma’s place Honey suckle in a dust bowl Life as hard as limestone lace Remembering the red dirt... Know these accents and sounds like the back of my hand... thanks for posting! --Gwyn Henry
Comments made by James Michael Taylor
What a universal little scene. Well told. Every little boy has to deal with that uncertainty. Will she? Sad it never changes for so many of us.
Pensive, maybe. But not dirgy. Just a little more voice in the mix please.
Dear Listener, Thank you for your comment. It's a brand new song and still being written. Your comment helps me figure out what needs to be done to make the song understandable. I read Siddhartha when I was young and tho it promised a beautiful mate it also promised the loss of that beautiful mate and ending life alone. For some reason that frightened me at the time and sure enough, 28 years with my beautiful mate and she walked out... FEATHERS IN THE WIND is about a high school girlfriend, dead now. But Keren is still alive. I look forward to hearing your music. j mt
Mix this with OSMPTS and I bet it would work.
Reminds me, right ff, of 50's tv music. Those great vocals again.
Love the vocal sound.
very sad...
Paul, PLease tell me the words of this. There are some I can't understand. My email is: jamesmichaeltaylor@jamesmichaeltaylor.com
This is one of the saddest must beautiful songs I have ever heard. Listening to it over and over. A love song to a love that has forsaken you. Yet you cling.Yet you hope. Yet you believe.
...bespeaks such loss of innocence. A real tearjerker because the betrayal seems so unanswerable.
Gorgeous. Lovely.
...another beautiful vocal and melody.
This really rings... Like it.All the energy and brightness and that little dip into darkness. And the cool guitar work at the end. j mt
Such clean acoustic guitar sound. Like the way it grows/builds...how the sound of the voice fills out. Cool voice and song. Starts to sound like the Beatles at the end.
The link to your web site isn't working for me.
Beautiful. Voice, voices.
This is beautiful.
...really like your story about your childhood at your web page...
Raw and Rockin'...
Beach Boys and Beatles showing thru...always good.