For the past few days we’ve focused on songs and performers coming out of the Laurel Canyon scene in the late ’60s/early ’70s—Crosby, Stills & Nash, Judy Collins, and Joni Mitchell, all of whom (as well as Carole King, Jackson Browne, Cass Elliott, Warren Zevon, Linda Ronstadt, the Eagles, J.D. Souther, Harry Nilsson, and a handful of Monkees) had an overlapping succession of personal and romantic relationships. Today’s classic song of the day is from another member of that Laurel Canyon scene, James Taylor, and his song “Sweet Baby James.” It was side one, track one on his groundbreaking album of the same name, released in 1970.
Sweet Baby James was Mr. Taylor’s second album (his first was on Apple Records after we was signed by the Beatles) and his big breakthrough. This is the album that featured “Fire and Rain,” “Country Road,” “Sunny Skies,” and this tune. The album went to #3 on the Billboard album chart and over the years reached 3X Platinum status. It’s a keeper, as is this song, which indeed was written for his baby nephew James.
The story goes that James the elder was driving from snowy Massachusetts to North Carolina to see his newborn nephew James for the first time, and that’s when this song came about. It’s a cross between a cowboy song and a lullaby in sweet three-quarter time, and it’s warm and gentle and a perfect tune to sing to a newborn or an 8 year-old or maybe even someone a little more senior.
The lyrics, with their fairly intricate rhyme scheme, go like this:
There is a young cowboy, he lives on the range
His horse and his cattle are his only companions
He works in the saddle and he sleeps in the canyons
Waiting for summer, his pastures to change
And as the moon rises, he sits by his fire
Thinkin’ about women and glasses of beer
Reclosing his eyes as the doggies retire
He sings out a song which is soft, but it’s clear
As if maybe someone could hear
Goodnight, you moonlight ladies
Rockabye, sweet baby James
Deep greens and blues are the colors I choose
Won’t you let me go down in my dreams?
And rockabye, sweet baby James
Now, the first of December was covered with snow
So was the turnpike from Stockbridge to Boston
Though the Berkshires seemed dreamlike on account of that frostin’
With ten miles behind me and ten thousand more to go
There’s a song that they sing when they take to the highway
A song that they sing when they take to the sea
Song that they sing of their home in the sky
Maybe you can believe it if it helps you to sleep
But singing works just fine for me
So goodnight, you moonlight ladies
Rockabye, sweet baby James
Deep greens and blues are the colors I choose
Won’t you let me go down in my dreams?
And rockabye, sweet baby James
I particularly like the sneaky false rhyme of “Boston” and “frosting.” Clever songwriting from Mr. Taylor.
My grandson Collin got into James Taylor when he was 8 years old. Little Collin came down into our bedroom late one evening when I was watching a folk music special on PBS. He listened attentively and his favorite song was this one. I told him the story of how James wrote it as a lullaby for his nephew, also named James. So for the longest time Collin asked me to play “the song that guy wrote for his baby nephew.” That was a very good thing.
Collin is now 16 years old and a musician himself. His little brother Jackson went through his own James Taylor period a few years back, too. I’d like to think that if I dialed up “Sweet Baby James” on the audio system today they’d both stop and listen and smile. It’s that kind of song.
