The problem I always seem to have with albums in Columbia\u2019s The Essential ______<\/i> series is that the tracks chosen rarely feel like they\u2019re confined to only the most essential ones from that particular artist. Instead, these \u201cnew\u201d collections are often treated as opportunities to take a batch of tunes most listeners already own and throw a handful of relative obscurities into the mix as fan-bait. The end result is often a collection that is definitely not new, and in some significant part not essential.<\/p>\n
Now, to some extent track choices are like picking your fantasy baseball or football team\u2014everyone has their favorites\u2014but still, given the opportunity to pick the very best from the catalogue of an artist as talented and beloved as iconic singer-songwriter James Taylor, you\u2019d like to believe that the powers that be would get it right.<\/p>\n
And to be fair, much of the time here they do. Every single song from JT\u2019s classic original Greatest Hits<\/i> album can be found\u2014even if some chicken-hearted executive edited that one mfing naughty word out of \u201cSteamroller\u201d\u2014and much of Greatest Hits Volume 2<\/i> is similarly present, as it should be. That means warm-hearted classics like \u201cSweet Baby James,\u201d \u201cFire And Rain,\u201d \u201cYou\u2019ve Got A Friend\u201d and \u201cShower The People,\u201d along with key later singles and album tracks like \u201cYour Smiling Face,\u201d \u201cMillworker,\u201d \u201cEveryday\u201d and \u201cCopperline.\u201d<\/p>\n
The questionable choices all come on disc two, where several worthy cuts from GH2<\/i> get the ax in favor of mostly lesser substitutes. Where is \u201cUp On The Roof,\u201d still a concert staple today? Where is \u201cThat\u2019s Why I\u2019m Here,\u201d one of JT\u2019s most charming tunes of the \u201980s? How could you possibly leave out his \u201990s reunion with original bandmate Danny Kortchmar for the wonderful \u201c(I\u2019ve Got To) Stop Thinkin\u2019 \u2019Bout That\u201d?<\/p>\n
Any one of those makes more sense than including \u201cOnly One,\u201d a passable pop song, or \u201cThe Water Is Wide,\u201d a pretty but inconsequential cover. The absence of both the stunning, gorgeous elegy to John Belushi \u201cThat Lonesome Road\u201d and the stunning, gorgeous tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King \u201cShed A Little Light\u201d is also inexplicable. <\/p>\n
Last but not least, if you\u2019re going to feature a collaboration with another artist, why would you choose \u201cHard Times Come Again No More,\u201d featuring Yo-Yo Ma, rather than a track from Taylor\u2019s spectacular 2010 teaming with Carole King, Live At The Troubadour<\/i>? It\u2019s madness, I tell you, madness.<\/p>\n
Perhaps, in the end, we can agree on one thing. While it\u2019s quite arguable whether these tracks are in fact the most essential ones in James Taylor\u2019s catalogue, there can be no doubt about this: James Taylor, the artist whose timeless work as a singer-songwriter captured the hearts and minds of a generation, is indeed essential. Don\u2019t let the nonsensical track choices made on disc two of this collection distract you from that simple fact.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":31687,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[5945],"rating":[5617],"class_list":["post-43397","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-james-taylor","rating-rating-b-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/43397","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43397"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/43397\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31687"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43397"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=43397"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=43397"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}