Long Ago and Far Away: James Taylor His Life and Music

I read the previous reviews, but bought the book anyway. I Love James Taylor's music and he's a local guy so I wanted to learn more about what made him tick.
This book started out talking about his ancestors from the 1600's!!! No offense, but who the hell cares? It was more about his boat building relatives and heritage than his life and music.
Why do people purchase a book about a famous person? Well, in my opinion to learn about the person and how and why he or she became famous and some stories behind the music. What did we get in this case? A bunch of babble and BS... 420 pages (very fine print) about the history of his family, a journal of everyone ever remotely related to Mr. Taylor.
I was hoping for some pleasant reading about HIS life and experiences. This was WAY too long and too difficult to get through. Not even worthy of going on the shelf. What a complete disappointment. I should have given this only one star but can't, just because I love his music. I'm sure somebody out there can write a better biography of James Taylor. Keep it simple, talk about his music, loves. life and legacy. This book isn't it. What an absolute waste of money.

Excellent and sometimes surprising information. I had no idea how long his addiction lasted or how he could write and perform so wonderfully while under the influence. He's so greatly talented that somehow I thought his medical issues were all in his youth. The interviews with James explain lyrics that I had misinterpreted. A very revealing book that helped me see into his feelings and suffering. JT has always been one of my favorite performers. He seemed to be reading my mind with some of his lyrics and brought some of my own issues to better understanding. Love you, James and loved most of the book, though parts hit too close to home.

This book was essentially a Taylor family history followed by a discography. I'm a history buff, and even I couldn't slog through the family history. I'm sure the intent was to show what shaped JT, but with such an exhaustive look at his ancestors, we expect an equally in-depth exploration of the events of Taylor's life and relationships. Alas, it's not here. We get a line or two about his nine months in a psych ward or his second wife having twins between long accounts of who played what on this or that track.

The book is written cautiously, timidly, as by someone who was a friend of Taylor's and didn't want to alienate him, probably because the late Mr. White was a friend of JT's who'd conducted many "softball" interviews with him. And the style is dry. There are no real insights here.

I can't recommend it.

I'm glad I bought this book used & I wish I would have heeded the well over 50% of the reviews. I did not learn a single thing about James Taylor himself that I didn't already know, even 175 pages into the book. When I started skipping whole chapters I decided I'd wasted enough time. I almost learned everything I never needed to know about the lengthy Taylor family history. I almost read everything I already knew about other performers of the times & about James' father's time in Antarctica. Yes, I understand that some of this history might be helpful in understanding James himself, but do I really need to know what a 2-year expedition to Antarctica is like in detail? If I had this on Kindle, I would have searched how many times James Taylor's name is actually mentioned. As one reviewer said, this book could have been cut by a third & I can't disagree.

The book has way too much history for my liking. I thought it would be more about James' life history, from birth to the present. But, it goes way back in the family history. Too much for me.

Writer went into great detail of all world events during periods of stories about him, tedious.

Writer went into great detail of all world events during periods of stories about him, tedious.

I love James Taylor and wanted to read more about his interesting life but I found this bio to be the most boring biography I’ve ever read. The first chapter goes over JT’s family genealogy, going back to the 1600s. Boring! Then when he goes into JTs life, it’s so superficial and mostly a chronology of events in his life. There is very little depth. If you are looking for an in depth bio with insight, this is not it.

The alternate title of this book could be “The History of the World from 1600 Forward”. It’s almost as if the author’s goal was to talk about anything BUT James Taylor! JT’s birth doesn’t even get mentioned until around page 80! And we at around page 100 before the book gets off of JT’s ancestors and father’s life and onto his own. Still the focus is on everyone JT comes into contact with, NOT himself! We get dozens of pages about his father’s trip to Antarctica, Carly Simon’s whole life story (I’m ok with that part as I love her too but already knew it all), the history of every one of JT’s ancestors dating back to the early 1600’s (about 80 pages of this!) The book glosses over major events in JT’s life like his struggle with drugs and his marriages and divorces, with one line blips. The book is written in a very detached, hard to follow manner. I get the impression the author does not particularly like JT either. The only good thing I can say about it is that is does delve into the songs on JT’s albums in some detail which was interesting. Overall, a complete failure as a biography. I can’t fathom the author being proud of this work or a publishing house even approving it for publication.

The book seems very interesting and deep dive about James Taylor. But the printing of the paperback is maddening. The print on each pages runs all the way into the soft binding. You almost have to tear each page out to read it, or completely snap the back to peak into the binding to read each line. see photo. I'm not exaggerating. Seriously difficult to read the paperback version. Worst printing idea I could imagine.