Walking Man by James Taylor (Vinyl record album review)

Album name: Walking Man

Artist name: James Taylor

Year: 1974

Number of discs: one

Label: Warner Bros. Records

Collection: Selman

Distinguishing characteristics:

Sticker on front of album: PROMOTIONAL COPY / NOT FOR SALE

Printed on both sides of LP: PROMOTION NOT FOR SALE

Scratched into side one of LP: 1W2794-40795-1B

Scratched into side two of LP: 1W-2974-40796-1

Buy it on Amazon: $10.00

My review

Level of familiarity before listening

I’ve never heard this record before, but it will be the fifth by James Taylor that I review. The previous four were:

James Taylor (1968): 3/5

Sweet Baby James (1970): 3/5

One Man Dog (1972): 3/5

Gorilla (1975): 2/5

What I expected

More easy listening.

What it was actually like

This was pretty bad, and I had a difficult time listening to it.

Several of the songs had a nod (or more) to a funk sound, such as Me and My Guitar. I don’t think mixing funk into an easy listening record was a wise move, musically.

Rock ‘n’ Roll Is Music Now sounded like it actually could have been a good song, if James Taylor had not been determined to annihilate it with his terminal boringness.

It was difficult to pick a worst song, but Hello Old Friend was certainly a candidate, and I felt that way even before its horrific saxophone part towards the end.

The best song on the record was easily his cover of Chuck Berry’s Promised Land, but it pales in comparison to Chuck Berry performing it himself. There have also been a bunch of great covers of that song by other famous artists, such as Elvis Presley, and by Youtube micro-celebrities, like Lovesick Duo[1].

Grade

2/5: bad, but I was able to listen to the whole thing

References[+]

References

↑1 | And check out some of their other covers, like Beautiful Delilah, Viva Las Vegas and Nadine