"Fire and Rain" is a folk rock song written and performed by James Taylor. Released on Warner Bros. Records as a single from his second album, Sweet Baby James, in February 1970, the song follows Taylor's reaction to the suicide of Suzanne Schnerr, a childhood friend, and his experiences with drug addiction and fame. After its release, "Fire and Rain" peaked at number two on RPM's Canada Top Singles chart and at number three on the Billboard Hot 100.
Maps, Directions, and Place Reviews
Background and composition
On the VH1 series Story Tellers, Taylor said the song was about several incidents during his early recording career. The second line "Suzanne the plans they made put an end to you" refers to Suzanne Schnerr, a childhood friend of his who committed suicide while he was in London, England, recording his first album. In that same account, Taylor said he had been in a deep depression after the failure of his new band The Flying Machine to coalesce (the lyric "Sweet dreams and Flying Machines in pieces on the ground"; the reference is to the name of the band rather than a fatal plane crash, as was long rumored).
In 2005, during an interview on NPR, Taylor explained to host Scott Simon that the song was written in three parts:
- The first part was about Taylor's friend Suzanne, who died while Taylor was in London working on his first album after being signed to Apple Records. Friends at home, concerned that it might distract Taylor from his big break, kept the tragic news from him and he found out six months later.
- The second part details Taylor's struggle to overcome drug addiction and depression.
- The third part deals with coming to grips with fame and fortune, looking back at the road that got him there. It includes a reference to James Taylor and The Flying Machine, a band he briefly worked with before his big break with Paul McCartney, Peter Asher, and Apple Records.
Carole King played piano on the song. Drummer Russ Kunkel used brushes rather than sticks on his drum kit, and Bobby West played double bass in place of a bass guitar to "underscore the melancholy on the song".
King has stated that her song "You've Got a Friend," that Taylor recorded, was a response to the line in the refrain that "I've seen lonely times when I could not find a friend."
Fire And Rain Lyrics Video
Reception
Broadcast Music, Inc. ranked "Fire and Rain" at number 82 on its "Top 100 Songs of the Century" list, while voters for the National Endowment for the Arts and Recording Industry Association of America's Songs of the Century list, which comprises 365 songs of "historical significance" recorded from 1900 to 2000, placed "Fire and Rain" at number 85. In April 2011, the song was named at number 227 on Rolling Stone's list of 500 greatest songs of all time.
Updated versions
In 2015, Taylor appeared on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert and told host Stephen Colbert that he had updated the song:
"The thing is, I wrote that song in 1970; I just hadn't seen that much back then, mostly fire and rain. So that's why I keep saying it over and over again since then." Taylor explained that, over the ensuing decades, he's updated the song to include all the things he's encountered, such as skinny jeans, Fifty Shades of Grey, Snakes on a Plane and especially calzones.
Taylor and Colbert then performed a highly ironic version of "Fire and Rain and Calzones", packed with post-1970 pop-cultural references, functioning as a satire of superficial commercialism.
Chart performance
Year-end charts
Marcia Hines version
Marcia Hines recorded a version of the track and released it as her debut single from her debut studio album, Marcia Shines (1975).
In a 2004 interview with George Negus Hines said; "To this day, 'Fire and Rain' ... is something I've lived. "I thought I'd see you one more time again" - maybe that was about my mum. It's about loneliness. It's about being far away from all the things that you love. And it was being played on the radio in Boston, when I left home. And then I turned on the radio when I got into Australia, and it was being played on the radio here. So it just gave me a connection."
Track listing
- "Fire and Rain" (James Taylor) - 4:30
- "You" (Bill Withers) - 4:15
Weekly charts
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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