Customer Reviews

Fire and Rain : The James Taylor Story

5 star:		(47)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(12)
1 star:		(27)

 

 

The artist is richly deserving, but the book falls woefully short, to the point of irritation. It's filled with so many inexplicable flubs I found it insulting to someone of James Taylor's stature.

The first meeting between 13-year-old Taylor and long-time musical collaborator Danny "Kootch" Kortchmar describes Kootch as a "peace-loving hippie-type teenager." In 1961? Hello?

On a single page describing the failure of Apple records to adequately promote "James Taylor," JT's first album, the author writes "..."if Apple had been on more solid financial footing, Taylor's album would have received much more attention than it did." Two paragraphs later we read, "Taylor's album was destined for failure from the start because of Apple's financial troubles." One paragraph later we are informed that the album "was a disaster only because Apple Records did not spend enough money promoting it." Can you say redundant? Did anyone proof this puppy?

The first paragraph of Chapter 7 says Taylor's London phase began when he arrived in Great Britian "in March, 1968." The first paragraph of Chapter 9 says Taylor "returned to the United States in October 1968, after being in Europe for more than a year." Was there an editor involved here or what?

For so many of us, JT's music has been a touchstone in our lives...evocative, honest, evolving, poignant. His voice is richer than ever. His live concerts are legendary to this day. Perhaps at some point Taylor will make himself available for an authorized biography, absent the predictable focus on his love life, drug use and early episodes in mental institutions. I hope so. There's a story to be told here, but this attempt is sophomoric; simply not commensurate with one of the most thoughtful artists of our lifetime.

I was drawn to this book entirely because of its subject matter. I have been a JT fan for well over twenty years and know his music extremely well. I approached this book with positive enthusiasm.

The whole book spends more time talking about the drug problems and sex parties than the music. Throughout the book, Halperin rightly stresses the importance of music in Taylor's life. However he spends virtually no time discussing the music or the lyrics, none of which are printed anywhere in the book. There's no discussion or analysis of the art that made the man. Halperin brushes over the releases of albums and sums them up in little paragraphs, sandwiched between cheesy gossip-column-like accounts of conversations to which he could never have been privy.

Halperin talks about a whole array of people in Taylor's life--parents, siblings, fellow artists, managers, wives, children--it makes the reader want to see pictures of them. The most important ones, save for Carly, aren't here. No childhood photos, no pics of old homes, no copies of scrawled lyrics. Rank amateur.

The book is generally favorable toward Taylor. If Halperin really wanted to show us James Taylor, he should have done his homework and immersed himself in the music. He even quotes James saying that if you want to understand him, all you had to do is listen to his music. It's all there.

Halperin is a hack. He's selling this schlock to buy a new Mercedes. I don't know of a good biography of James Taylor to recommend, but this, I can promise you, is not one of them.

I got Fire and Rain as a Christmas present and immediately began to read it. From the start it was apparent that Ian Halperin had probably knocked this book off while on a weekend getaway...not to Martha's Vineyard. It is so poorly written that as much as I love JT's music and know a bit about him, I am having a hard time just reading the book. Throughout the book, Halperin infers motives and thoughts to JT's parents, friends, teachers and JT with little or no supporting information. He says that because JT's father, Isaac, took a job in the mid-sixties that kept him away for two years, Isaac and his wife got divorced in the late 70's...12 years later! (again, with no supporting information) One minute James is suicidal and so he checks into the hospital in Belmont, the next, he checked-in to avoid the draft. He refers to comments made by James' "burly attendant, Carl" with no last name. He jumps around chronologically constantly, causing confusion. He refers to JT's Silvertone guitar as a "Silverstone", mentions that James lived "IN Martha's Vineyard" not ON MV. How this guy got the contract to write this book I will never know! If his editor had just done some editing, the book had potential, but this book is not worth the star I had to give it to write this review. Somebody call Kensington Publishing and give them the bloody bad news! Everyone else...Save your money!

Despite a predisposition to enjoy Mr. Halperin's book (after all, I've been a fan of Mr. Taylor's for 20 years), I cannot escape the conclusion that the writing, research and organization of Fire and Rain: The James Taylor Story are undoubtedly the worst I have ever encountered. It is regrettable that the first biography of Mr. Taylor is such a hackneyed one.

To list all of the shortcomings of this biography would take far too long and be counterproductive. However, among the more significant errors in this book is the author's complete failure to actually research his subject in any detail using authoritative sources and then to cite those sources. For instance, in a contemptible effort to interpret the lyrics to the song Fire and Rain, Mr. Halperin points to the interpretation posed by several persons whose qualifications appear to be only that they are "big fans" of Mr. Taylor. In addition, Mr. Halperin never cites any of his sources, which precludes the reader from determining how the quote used falls in the context of time and place.

I will not recount the numerous typographical and factual errors contained in this volume, as other posters have already mentioned many of them.

In short, I do not recommend this book either to fans of good prose or of Mr. Taylor. Unfortunately, this book is equally embarrassing both to its author and to his subject.

I am a big fan of James Taylor, own over a dozen of his CDs, have seen him in concert numerous times, and had the pleasure of meeting him on Martha's Vineyard. I looked forward to Halperin's unauthorized biography of JT, but was ultimately disappointed. It is poorly written, poorly organized, and unbalanced. Halperin writes more about Mr. Taylor's sex life than he does his music. An entire chapter is devoted to his relationship with Joni Mitchell, and over a third discusses in boring detail his marriage to Carly Simon. Three quarters of the book covers Mr. Taylor's life from the age of 18 to 30 with little on the last 20 years of his life!

I give Mr. Halperin one star for the obvious work he put into the book and another star for the little bit of insight I gained into Mr. Taylor's life. For true JT fans who want to learn more about him, I would recommend sticking to the numerous interviews he has given over the years, or better yet, just listen to his music.

I have followed James Taylor's career for years. He is the most respected, loved and sweet figure of his generation. The author clearly shows that JT went through a lot of despair but vanquished it all to become a true music legend. Unlike some of the other reviews here I must maintain an objective outlook. There's no doubt that this book is fair, accurate and a great read about what the music scene was like back in the 60 and 70s. I cannot waste time laying the blame squarely at the feet of the author who certainly did not do a hack job. In fact, I found the writing to be entertaining and encapsulating. Over the years JT's fans have swelled well into the millions. I count myself as one of the die-hards. I'm glad that there is finally a book out about such a great man. I hope that he eventually comes out with his own account which would be much appreciated by his army of fans. Until then, Fire And Rain is a good alternative.

Granted, James Taylor is one of the most private of pop stars. The reason there have been few detailed tomes on him is that he is very private, and his friends and family (even ex-wives) are just as much so, respectful of the artist's privacy.

Thus, this nice little book is light on details and is a general reference of Taylor's career, going as deep as his research could take him. That's the not so good news.

The better news is that another - far more professional and certainly more talented - author has gained access to Taylor and his inner circle of friends and family. That's the one you want, it's here on Amazon, and it's the one you should buy if you really want to learn about the inspirations, the history and the muse of James Taylor:

James Taylor: Long Ago and Far Away
by Timothy White

So get off this page and go to that one!

I read this as a casual fan of JT, and a person who enjoys the biography genre. It was a difficult read - Halperin jumps from thought to unrelated thought like a frog hopping from lily pad to lily pad. He considers "a fan said" to be verification and documentation of his odd suppositions. In the introduction, he lists people interviewed for the book, yet most of these are never mentioned in the text of the book.

The sex, drugs and mental illness themes are harrangued constantly throughout the book, with little to no validation (it couldn't be THAT hard to have found SOME, and it's not worth mentioning the rest.) Misspellings of names, of words and poor grammar is rife.

This is a poorly written and edited book....

Positive feelings about James Taylor himself are the only reason I can imagine someone giving a positive review to this book. There is certainly a lot of information presented, but most of it is either rehashes of previously published interviews or "friend of a friend" stories. The writing style is pedestrian at best, thoroughly graceless and awkward most of the time, and repetitive to an extreme degree, as has been mentioned in many other reviews (so I guess I'm being redundant, too). Even the chapter titles (e.g. "Joni Mitchell, The Woman He Loved Too Much") are bad.

The publisher and "editor(s)" of this mess must only be out to gouge money out of Mr. Taylor's adoring public by being the first to release his biography, since they obviously didn't make the effort to produce a book worthy of the artist or his fans.

As a fan of James Taylor for some years, this book was painful to attempt to read. The book is so poorly written and organized that it is difficult to follow. Clearly only a dedicated fan would even try to finish the book. The book is an embarrassment. It is a major disappointment and shame that such a poor effort was published. More emphasis should have been placed on Mr. Taylor's incredible talent and musical growth rather than countless repitition of his sexual exploits. It is of little surprise and less consequence that a music star in the 70s had numerous sexual encounters. It would have been more interesting to hear about experiences that influenced particular songs. My 10 year old son writes better than Mr. Halperin. This book wasted my time and money.