'Walking Man'

Walking Man, James Taylor's 5th album, came at a difficult juncture in his career. His previous album, One Man Dog, was generally successful and did have its critical supporters, with many still seeing "Don't Let Me Be Lonely Tonight" as an enduring success. Some of the short songs around it seemed somewhat unfinished, however, and while the album did reward repeated listening, many never got that far. Sales did not match the gigantic numbers reached by the previous two Taylor albums (Sweet Baby James and Mud Slide Slim and the Blue Horizon) and some spoke as though Taylor's musical dominance was all in the past tense.

What's more it seemed that what had supplanted James on the pop charts was his own wife, Carly Simon. Simon was riding high on both the singles and album charts, with one prominent single being a remake of Charles and Inez Foxx's hit "Mockingbird," sung as a duet with James but featured on her Hotcakes album, an album whose cover featured a photo of Carly very pregnant with James's first child.

"Mockingbird" was very much a pop exercise but did feature excellent musicianship from Robbie Robertson, Dr. John, Jim Keltner, Klaus Voorman, Michael Brecker, and Bobby Keys. Its success did keep James in the pubic eye and perhaps gave him a clue that one way to stay on the pop charts when the songwriting well runs dry is to remake oldies, a trick that would serve him well in the not too distant future.

But for the time being his only big recent success was as a backing artist on his wife's album and Taylor was in need of success, perhaps the reason Walking Man was the first James Taylor album not to be produced by James's manager Peter Asher. Instead, production duties were guitarist/producer David Spinozza.

Unfortunately, Walking Man was not the hit Taylor was seeking, in fact selling only 300,000 copies on its release in June 1974. Until 2008's Covers, it was the only Taylor album not to be certified gold or platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America.

Walking Man was recorded in New York and features no musical contributions from any member associated with his previous primary backing band, the Section. Instead were recruited such high-profile New York studio musicians as guitarist Hugh McCracken , keyboardist Don Grolnick ,drummer Rick Marotta, bassist Andy Muson and percussionist Ralph McDonald, none of whom should be given any blame for the album's poor sales. However, to a certain extent the freewheeling presence of players like Danny Kortchmar and Lee Sklar are sorely missed.

The album opens with the title track, an excellent ballad regarding the autumn of the year, featuring strings arranged by Gene Orloff. The song very quietly hit number 26 in October 1974. But it was the only song from the LP added to the 1976 Warner Bros. Greatest Hits juggernaut and like every other song on that disc became a bona fide Taylor classic, performed to this day.

"Rock and Roll Is Music Now" is a bit slight lyrically, but is a good uptempo tune with a horn section that includes the Brecker Brothers and an even more prominent pair of backing vocalists: Paul and Linda McCartney. Make that a trio, as Carly Simon also features in the backing cast.

A musical snippet of "Hail to the Chief" introduces the next song, "Let It All Fall Down." This prescient piece was inspired by the end of the Nixon era, which in actuality wouldn't officially end until two months after the release of Walking Man. It's an underrated song musically, once again featuring background vocals by Paul, Linda and Carly. The events around Nixon's departure from the White House in August 1974 would be on James's mind again two decades on when he wrote the song "Line 'Em Up."

"Me And My Guitar" is a novelty song about the relationship between a man and his guitar, but it was effective enough to be covered by one very prominent guitar man, bluegrass player Tony Rice, who died on Christmas Day in 2020. Musically, it's fairly average Taylor filler, with Peter Asher and Carly Simon add backing vocals.

"Daddy's Baby" is a soft, acoustic guitar-based lullaby-type song, clearly written after the birth of his son Ben, whose mother adds backing vocals. Don Grolnick adds a pretty "vox humana" solo to close out the song.

"Ain't No Song" covers a song written by producer David Spinozza and Joey Levine. Peter Asher makes another vocal appearance, along with Carly, and fuzz guitar from Spinozza and the horn section making the key musical contributions.

"Hello Old Friend" is next and features more of Gene Orloff's strings and Peter Gordon (note to Asher fans: not Peter AND Gordon) on French Horn. It's a pretty song, different than the songs of the past albums, but the type of ballad James would be doing more of, and with greater success on future albums.

"Migration" is another ballad that offers a wistful look at times of change and migration. It features prominent piano from Kenny Archer, vox humana from Don Grolnick and triangle from Ralph McDonald.

"The Promised Land" is a cover of one of Chuck Berry's notable travelogues and the most upbeat rocker on the album. The song is about a journey from Norfolk Virginia to the "Promised Land" of Los Angeles, California, which is not the paradise he had hoped for. Taylor has had hits with covers, but this is one of many he should have left for the original author. This version doesn't come close to the impact of the original.

"Fading Away" is another mid-tempo ballad that closes the album with what almost seems like an admission from James that he's in the slump much of the world sees him in. "I thought I was a thinking man, but I'm a shrinking man, a sinking man, I'm fading fading away." It's confessional but not in any new or special way; one wonders whether Taylor knew that this one wasn't going to sell either.

But those fears would all go away on the next album. And as for this one, it's not a disaster. Like the previous album, repeated listens do make most of the album resonate a bit more. And even minor James Taylor has some golden moments, to borrow a phrase from a song that would soon be part of his reemergence.