Sweet Dreams and Flying Machines: The Life and Music of James Taylor

by Mark Ribowsky

In 1970 a scraggly, antiheroic man from North Carolina by way of Massachusetts began presenting a comforting yet biting new sound. Within a year, when young ears sought the latest in rock, there was "Fire and Rain" and "You've Got a Friend," and a new Southern California-fed branch of pop music. James Taylor was its reluctant leader. 

Remarkably, Taylor has his 2015 release,  Before This World , edged out Taylor Swift and went to No. 1 on the charts. Today he is in better physical (and probably mental) condition than during the whirlwind era when he influenced music so heavily, the decade when magazines and newspapers printed feverish stories about his gawky hunkiness, his love affair with Joni Mitchell, his glittery marriage to Carly Simon, his endlessly carried-out heroin habit, and sometimes even his music. Despite it all, Taylor has become the nearest thing to rock royalty in America. 

Based on fresh interviews with musicians, producers, record company people, and music journalists, as well as previously published interviews, reviews, and profiles,  Sweet Dreams and Flying Machines  is the definitive biography of an elusive superstar.

Genres: Music, Biography, Nonfiction

416 pages, Hardcover

Published June 1, 2016

About the author

Mark Ribowsky is the author of seven books, including the New York Times Notable Book Don't Look Back: Satchel Paige in the Shadows of Baseball. He lives in Plainview, New York.

Reviews

[Karen Cairns]

The author is impressed with his own research. Were no editors available? Not well written and filled with extraneous detail.

[Danny]

It was fascinating to get some insight into the inspirations behind James Taylor's songs, but the author is way too taken with his own opinion and clever wordplay to deliver a decent biography. He pulled the same crap in the Stevie Wonder bio too. Just tell the story about the famous musician dude, and leave your own ideas out of it, Ribowsky!!

[Barbara Q]

James, James, James....I had no idea you were such a womanizing addict from a wealthy East Coast family. Totally surprised me, but then I was just more AWARE of JT than enamored of him and his music. I knew he was out there, actually went to one of his concerts back in the day but didn't follow his life. Still, some wasted musicians pull through and survive, as he has. There's a lot of gossip and a huge amount of detail in this book but it moves along and I mostly wasn't bored.

That he endured/ endures in spite of all the changes in popular musical styles and genres is to his credit. So if you like the many bios and autobios of rock/ folk musicians and the evolution of the pop music scene since the 60s, you'll probably like this book.

[Danielle]

I've loved James Taylor's music for my entire life, but I realize after reading this that I didn't actually know much about his life. While I did learn a lot reading it, this wasn't a very good biography. It didn't feel very cohesive to me and it almost felt like writing a bunch of hearsay. I think partly because I had recently read Warren Zanes' excellent biography on Tom Petty I couldn't help compare the two. This one felt so much more slight than that one. I imagine there are probably better James Taylor biographies out there if you really want to know more about his life beyond the music.

[Karen]

Lots of detail here, too much, in fact, but I did learn about the background to some of the songs i grew up with and I'm amazed that he could function, much less write, such good ones. The author seemed to be impressed with himself, using multiple words when a couple would have sufficed. However, his use of lyrics to detail some of these songs was nicely done.

[James Jackson]

The book is filled with minutia, which I happened to enjoy quite a lot because my music era coincided with James Taylor's and as a result, I could place all the references in the context of my own experiences at the times. Single line snippets of songs or even titles and artists were enough to bring back to hearing the song in my head, or remembering where I had first heard a musician or song.

Which means, if a book this style had been written about (say) Beyonce, I would be totally lost.

So, if you enjoy little details within the larger pallet of James Taylor's life, this might be the book for you. If not, then there is probably a JT bio more suited to your tastes.

[Nicholas]

The many facets of James taylor

I believe this is an honest account of James Taylor's life. It was a good read it only touched on his relationships with his 3 wife's and the relationship with his children and parents which I would have liked to see more of I go to all his concerts when I can I only wish he would have a better relationship with Carly - she still loves him and some of what he does reflects his efforts to still shun and hurt her She is the mother of his first 2 children Their duet of Mockingbird was epic. I hope some day he forgives their differences. I can't wait to read his next or last book

[David Shetler]

Interesting bio of the singer / songwriter. Amazing that he overcame a very long running heroin addiction and today seems to be living a pretty stable and successful life.

[Peter Harland]

A J T fan from 1970, going to Tanglewood for the second time in July, a lost cause to a brilliant musician.

[Doug McCoy]

Seven word review = Shows James, warts and all, names names.

[Jim Swike]

Returned by Library. Enjoy the Artist's music very much. Thought I would learn more. Maybe you will feel differently. Enjoy!

[Stacy Renae]

Slow/boring read. too much details weighing it down. Read Carly Simon's book.

[Kirk Weikart]

This read more like a PhD dissertation than a book. Too much minutiae for my liking. Also, a disproportionate amount of time was spent on certain time periods, while others were given short shrift. While I learned some details, especially about some of the songs, the book drug along a little too slowly and lacked flow.

[Siri]

Good book - James is not a very nice person.