James Taylor: Millworker (1979)
[purchase]
James Taylor: Millworker (live, 1994)
[out-of-print, from 2 Meter Sessies, Vol. 5]
Written for the score of the musical Working, which was in turn based on the Studs Terkel novel of the same name, James Taylor's Millworker found its way to his 1979 album Flag, which I discovered long ago buried among the rest of Taylor's catalog in my father's record collection. Neither the play nor the album were terribly well received, but I've always liked this song, and ol' JT clearly does, too, or he wouldn't keep recording it, trying to find just the right balance between the resignation and the desperation of the narrator, a widowed blue-collar millworker and mother from my home state of Massachusetts.
The second version above is from a long out-of-print collection from the 2 Meter Sessies series, which feature amazing live performances of various artists originally performed for Dutch TV and radio. Like much of Taylor's work in the mid nineties, it is mellow and pensive, even moreso than the original, which was a slow standout on an album otherwise dominated by the kind of easy listening poprock (Up On The Roof, a cheesy cover of Day Tripper) that keeps most folks from taking him seriously today.
I'd say more, but I start a new union job tomorrow morning, and I really need to get some sleep.
