“Fire and Rain” (James Taylor)

Today’s classic song of the day, keeping with our ongoing rain theme, is James Taylor’s “Fire and Rain.” Included as the first track on side two of Mr. Taylor’s Sweet Baby James album, the single, released in August of 1970, rose to #3 on the Billboard Hot 100. It was later inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.

“Fire and Rain” was a significant song back when it was released and it has only grown in importance since then. It’s a song that has touched millions of people around the world due to its raw and honest lyrics:

Won’t you look down upon me, Jesus?
You’ve got to help me make a stand
You’ve just got to see me through another day
My body’s aching and my time is at hand
And I won’t make it any other way

Oh, I’ve seen fire and I’ve seen rain
I’ve seen sunny days that I thought would never end
I’ve seen lonely times when I could not find a friend
But I always thought that I’d see you again

“Fire and Rain” details three very real incidents in Mr. Taylor’s life when he was in England recording his first album (for Apple Records) and shortly after. I’ll let him explain it:

“My friend Suzanne had committed suicide a couple of months before my friends let me know. They didn’t know how the news would hit me and kept it from me until we were well into mixing that album. Then they told me about it, so that’s why the song starts with that first verse. I started it in London…

“When I finished making the Apple album, I was institutionalized at Austen Riggs in Massachusetts. I wrote the second two verses there. They put me in a little room, and I wrote a lot of songs there. It was very productive. I was getting my strength back, I was getting my nervous system back. Writing a lot of stuff…

“[The song] details three different episodes of hard times. The first one learning of Suzanne’s death, the second one coming back to the United States sick and strung out, physically exhausted, undernourished and addicted. And then the third one is, I think, hopeful. It’s much more general, about remembering one’s life, thinking back to my band The Flying Machine. Like a postcard from the loony bin before going back out into the world and reengaging.” 

The instrumentation on this track was a little unusual. James played acoustic guitar, of course, and his new friend (and fellow songwriter) Carole King played piano. Bobby West played acoustic bass (instead of electric) and Russ Kunkel played drums with brushes (instead of sticks). Russ said that came about because they rehearsed the song at producer Peter Asher’s house and needed to keep the volume down so as not to disturb the neighbors; when they went into the studio, Asher told Kunkel to play it the way he had when they rehearsed it. It’s one of the, if not the first instance of using brushes like sticks on on a song, to play a hi hat beat and tom fills and all that, instead of just “stirring the soup” on the snare drum. It was extremely effective—and extremely influential in the drumming community.

Here’s what Mr. Taylor remembers about recording the song:

“We recorded it at Sunset Sound. I was living at [producer Peter Asher’s] house on Olympic, down in the flats. Carole came over, and I played it for her then. I taught her the song at Peter Asher’s piano. She has this energy about how she plays. She’s a lively player. She and I share a common language. We were definitely on the same page musically. She is so good at getting the feel of what I was doing. We cut it live. I was in a booth, playing [guitar] and singing. Carole on piano. Russell Kunkel on drums, a remarkably versatile and powerful drummer. I hadn’t heard anybody play like that. His tom fills, playing with brushes but lively, with passion. And Bobby West was on upright bass, just nailing down the bass part. He bowed the last verse, which built a lot of tension, that arco bass.”

The result was a song that is timeless, a true classic. It’s been covered by dozens if not hundreds of other artists, although few have done it as well as Mr. Taylor himself. My favorite cover version was by the jazz-rock group Blood, Sweat & Tears on their 1970 album, Blood, Sweat & Tears 3. It’s a sensitive treatment with a subtle horn arrangement and a powerful vocal by David Clayton-Thomas. If you haven’t heard it, give it a listen.