Live At The Troubadour
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Album Description
In November of 1970 James Taylor and Carole King first performed together at the Troubadour on Santa Monica Boulevard in West Hollywood, California. Taylor had just released his debut album for the Beatles’ newly formed Apple Records and King was finding her way as a first time solo performer even though by then she was a famous songwriter with a string of hits for other artists. When they returned to the club for a two-week co-headlining run in 1971 their lives were somewhat different. That summer Taylor’s “Fire and Rain” was topping the charts and King’s landmark Tapestry was on its way to making her a music superstar. Thirty-six years later, in November 2007, James Taylor, Carole King and members of their renowned original band “The Section” (featuring guitarist Danny Kortchmar, bassist Leland Sklar and drummer Russell Kunkel) returned to the Troubadour for a three-night, six-show run to celebrate the venue’s 50th anniversary. Those historic shows are documented in Live at the Troubadour, a special 2-disc CD/DVD. This remarkable recording, culled from these unforgettable shows, features 15 songs and 75 minutes of pristine video and audio including stunning performances of the pair’s most beloved hits such as Carole King’s “So Far Away,” “It’s Too Late,” and “Will You Love Me Tomorrow?” as well as James Taylor’s “Carolina in My Mind,” “Sweet Baby James,” and “Fire and Rain,” to name just a few.
The return to the intimate Troubadour–the fertile ground that served as the unofficial home to a some of the era’s defining musicians such as the Eagles, Elton John, Jackson Browne, Linda Ronstadt and Joni Mitchell–rekindled King’s and Taylor’s love for making music together. Variety enthused at the time, “Taylor and King reminded us about the intensity of the song, that the artistically-rich and commercially-viable are not mutually exclusive and how one tiny club continues to be a birthing room for some of this city’s most memorable music.” The experience was deeply felt by everyone, the musicians on stage, and the fans in attendance as well as the project’s technical crew: audio producer Peter Asher (an instrumental figure throughout Taylor’s career) and Emmy-winning video director, Martyn Atkins. Live at the Troubadour is captured in sterling 5.1 stereo and state-of-the-art high definition video.
In the album’s liner notes, Taylor states: “The Troubadour in 1971 wasn’t the beginning, but it was a big step into the light for both of us. When we reunited for the Troubadour’s 50th Anniversary celebration in 2007, it felt like yesterday. It was, and still is, all about the music and the celebration of performing together.” King adds, “What’s even more remarkable is that James’s and my musical connection and friendship continue to transcend time and place. Whenever we’re together, there we are. I feel a tremendous gratitude to be able to share this experience with James, with this fine band, and most of all, with the fans.”
Check Rank: Live At The Troubadour
I’m sorry but I can’t listen to any music by a guy who dodged the draft during the Vietnam War by checking himself into a private hospital when there was nothing wrong with him, except him being a coward. While I was in Vietnam everyone I knew there hated him. He even made money out of being a coward by writing a song about a girl he met at the hospital.
Rating: 1 / 5
This CD/DVD combination proves what human beings since the start of the 1980s have already known: James Taylor and Carole King are two of the worst singers/songwriters of all time that the planet Earth has ever seen. Separately, they’re quite shabby already–possessing none of the grace, musicianship or soul that more intelligent and refined artists like Eminem or the Insane Clown Posse have, for instance–but put them together on one stage for a series of shows, and…oh, man! They stink up the joint so ferociously that it’s like putting a smelly diaper together with a filled-up garbage bag and telling those two items to go out and “perform” on stage together!
Where to start…where to…start? Oh…geez! There is so much wrong with this CD/DVD combo that I hope to be able to condense my critique neatly in a couple of paragraphs. First of all, Taylor and King never were ever considered giants in the annals of American music; take it from me, a 50-something, proud immigrant from Saudi Arabia who was happy to get his US citizenship just a few years ago and who still religiously listens to CDs of Quranic recitations.
James Taylor, besides being washed out and not displaying the finesse of good guitar players like the lead guitarist from the Insane Clown Posse, was always considered the poor man’s Tiny Tim. Only whereas Tiny Tim had a rich and well-studied background of classical, musical training and sheer, God-given talent, Taylor is of course well-renowned for being a hack musician, copying the musical and singing styles of giants that came before him, giants like The Big Bopper, AKA, Jiles Perry Richardson Junior, or, even more flagrantly, the h o m o s e x u a l man called Liberace himself.
As for Carole King, well, where do I even start? Let me ask you, “Do you have a few weeks for me to explain to you what’s wrong with her?” Hahaha, tiny immigrant joke there, for you. Anywho, like Taylor, she is also remembered as a poor man’s musician–or should I say “poor woman’s musician?” Anyone who has ever taken a course in American musical history–like I have from my local high school, which I attend for night classes–knows that King’s role in American music was to be a poor woman’s Petula Clark…only with a lot more mindlessness, silliness and, ultimately, forgettable songwriting and stage presence. Whereas Petula Clark at least had a devotion to performing live and writing some of the most memorable lyrics ever to come out of music in the last 50 years…the has-been known as Carole King was another hack musician who liked to copy great, female singers who came before her. That would be singers like the now-missed Eartha Kitt, the illustrious Tennille who carried Tony Orlando’s carcass throughout their whole career, and the ever-legendary Nancy Sinatra, who showed the whole world in her short-lived career that she was better than her dad, ol’ gray eyes himself, Franco Sinatra.
In conclusion, I can only speculate as to the reason for why the disgusting recording label even put out this tripe by Taylor and King. Perhaps they were obligated under some oppressive contract to lazily crank out just one more album by these two dinosaurs…I really don’t know. For my part, as a proud, Islamic male, I am happy just to continue listening and devoting myself to inspirational recitations of my beloved holy book, the Quran. I’ll even recommend The Music of Islam 10: Qur’ An Recitation, which Amazon sells, thank Allah, as that should go a long way towards outreach to my Muslim community.
Rating: 3 / 5
I love both of these artists but really…no Blu-Ray? Why would they go to this much trouble to make a video /cd combo and then not release it in Blu-Ray? The music is great but I am truly disappointed that the video is not in HD format.
Rating: 3 / 5
I received this 2 CD package and found that the first CD would not play. In fact I am having problems with the CD changer now. I was so looking forward to this CD – having heard a sample on my local radio station. I am now VERY hesitant to buy anything other electronic type product from Amazon. I will stick to books.
Rating: 1 / 5
I am a big fan of James Taylor. Bought all the albums up until One Man Band and the covers deal. I’ve seen him live, and I think he’s great live — with his usual backing band. I would rather see new material. October Road was pretty good. James should push himself to write more. I have several Carole King albums as well, and it’s fair to say I love much of her early solo work. Together, there is obvious mutual respect, admiration, and friendship between them.
James and Carole are both in good voice, Carole even better than I’ve heard her lately. For one reason or another I wasn’t excited by these performances. Kootch sounded a bit rusty to me. Not bad, but like he was still getting re-acquainted with the songs and hadn’t found the exact groove yet. Sklar was solid, and Kunkel solid as always. The band was together but not Steely Dan tight, if you know what I mean. I wonder if the performances might not have had more zip if they’d been done at the end of the tour when they’d played together a lot more.
So the verdict is pretty good but not great, unless you are grading purely on feeling. If you want the warm feeling of old friends and mutual admirers getting together and playing again in a relatively intimate setting, you’ll get spades of that. If you’re looking for something that really adds a new angle or a newfound power to these old songs, I don’t think you’ll feel that way about it. It’s a nostalgia trip. And there’s nothing wrong with that. I doubt I am going to watch this more than once, though.
Rating: 3 / 5