No Filler Music Podcast - Sidetrack: Something In The Way She Moves - A verse from James Taylor inspires a Beatle

Episode Date: July 2, 2019

A young 20-something James Taylor moves to London in hopes of starting a career in music and somehow manages to get himself an audition to play a few of his demo songs for none other than Paul McCartney & George Harrison at Apple Records. Hear the rest of the story on this week's Sidetrack. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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And welcome to No Filler. The music podcast dedicated to sharing the often overlooked hidden gyms that fill the space between the singles on our favorite records. my name is Quentin. With me as always is my brother Travis. Last week we covered Nick Drake's album from 71, brighter later. And for our sidetrack, I don't know if this really counts as a proper sidetrack, because like I can't tie this artist back to Nick Drake at all, at all, except that like he's in the same era. But we're going to do a song from James Taylor.

and his debut self-titled that came on 68. So you know James Taylor, Trayv? I mean, who doesn't know James Taylor, you know? But am I, am I intimately familiar with his work? No, not at all. Me neither, dude. You know, he's a staple on any easy listening rock station, you know? Right, right.

And he's great. I mean, he's what you're going to hear at the dentist office while you're in the waiting room or something. Yep. So, but I don't remember why I decided to just give his first album a listen. I don't know where, you know, I don't know why I decided to do that, but I did. And I don't know if you've noticed on Spotify, because I had it casted on my TV with Chromecast. and they have this like a lyric kind of like song meaning thing that that'll pop up on screen with some songs and just kind of like dive into really cool facts about the song and you know

also have the lyrics as it's playing and this song pops up on his first album it's called something in the way she moves now that sounds familiar doesn't it Travis sure does So this might be common knowledge to, I don't know, a lot of people that are into, you know, rock and roll history. But this story is pretty crazy. So, yeah, first thing that comes to mind when you hear that phrase, something in the way she moves. I think of the George Harrison song with the Beatles called something. Well, George Harrison pulled that line from James Taylor. He heard it from James Taylor and liked it so much that he used.

used it in that song. Did he hear it at a concert? He heard it directly from James Taylor's face. Well, like James Taylor was playing a song for them, or did he like... So I'm just going to play a kind of lengthy clip. James Taylor is being interviewed, and yeah, he tells it way better than I would have. So here's a little bit of the story, and then we'll go, we'll dive in to the song. Really, he, he, it was an amazing thing.

I had struck out. A band had collapsed that I was in, and I had failed to get anything started here in the States. We're talking about 68, so... Yeah, well, we're talking about 67. 66, 68, right. 66. And I had decided I would just travel some.

I didn't know what else to do, you know. I had passed on going to college, and my folks didn't have any really good ideas about what I might do, and they stake me to a plane ticket to London. and I just thought I would travel and see what occurred to me. And shortly after getting there, some friends of mine got very enthusiastic about my making a demo and trying to get a record deal. And I threw a series of channels, got this thing to Peter Asher, who had just signed on with Apple Records.

They had just started looking for acts to sign themselves, owned by the Beatles. So it was as if suddenly a door opened and I was just sort of handed this key and, you know, it was just... All right. So the story goes, he was around 20 at this time. He had already been treated in the hospital for severe depression. He had already developed a heroin addiction. And then his parents, I mean, I feel like this is kind of a risky move, but they bought him a plane ticket. to move to England

because he was thinking, you know, I just kind of want to travel and maybe clear my head and go from there. So they flew him out to England. He stayed with a friend of his that, you know, agreed to put him up in his place for a few weeks while he got on his feet.

And then he somehow got in touch with this guy, Peter Asher, who had just started working for Apple Records, which is, of course, the Beatles record label. And he, Peter Asher got James Taylor an audition to play songs from his demo in front of Paul McCartney and George Harrison at Apple Records. And they, they heard him and was like, yeah, let's produce this guy.

And he got the deal. He started recording his first album, the self-titled, came out in 68. and he was recording this at the same time that the Beatles were recording the White album. And I read that like the Beatles actually had to kind of like kind of wedge in some time, like a chunk of time, you know, in their allotted recording time for James Taylor to record. So they were also impressed by him that they kind of allowed him in on this, you know, recording time that they had set out to do the white album. Pretty crazy.

So one of the songs that he demoed for them is our sidetrack for today. So this is track six on James Taylor's debut self-titled. It is called Something in the Way She Moves. There's something in the way she moves. Looks my way or calls my name. that seems to leave this trouble world behind And if I'm feeling down in blue A trouble by some foolish game

She always seems to make me change my mind And I feel fine any time She's around me now She's around me now Almost all the time And if I'm well you can't Tell she's been with me now She's been with me now

Quite a long long time and I feel fine Every now and then the things I lean on to lose the meaning And I find myself careening Into places where I should not let me go She has the power to go Where no one else can find me And I silently remind me Of the happiness and happiness and

good times that I know. Just got to know them. It isn't what she's got to say. How she thinks are where she's been. To me, the words are nice the way they sound. I like to hear them best that way. It doesn't matter what they mean. She says they're mostly just to calm me down.

And I feel fine anytime. She's around me now She's around me now Almost all the time And if I'm well, you can tell She's been with me now She's been with me now Quite a long time

And I feel fine Can you imagine just being in this room With your acoustic guitar And you have George Harrison And Paul McCartney like with their arms crossed, you know, all right, let's see what you got. Can you imagine that, dude? Yeah, that's absurd.

I mean, you know, that kind of, that kind of pressure, you know. Oh, my God, yeah. Because, I mean, so James Taylor was in his 20s, he said? He was. I mean, so were the Beatles. Well, I don't know about by the time they were working on the White album. I don't know how old they were at that point, but. Had to be still 20s, man.

Yeah, probably in there's 20s, yeah. Yeah, either way. I mean, the Beatles are the hottest band on the planet at that time, you know? Oh, yeah. So, yeah, it must have been. And James Taylor, he is the first artist that they released on this record label, on Apple Records. He is the first artist. That's crazy.

It's crazy, man. So one thing I thought was great, I'm going to quote James Taylor from an interview he did for Rolling Stone in 2015. He says, The song is about an early girlfriend and the calm that you feel and the presence of someone who knows you really well. When I heard George Harrison used the title for the opening words of something, I was thrilled. I didn't feel like I was being poached at all. Besides, something in the way she moves quotes, the Beatles, I feel fine. You know that Beatles song.

I'm in love with her and I feel fine. Well, the last line and something in the way she moves, he says, she's around me almost all the time and I feel fun. Isn't that funny? That's really cool. Like, he brought this song that he already wrote and he got a chance to play it in front of McCartney and Harrison. He sings, you know, he sings the song and he pulls a line from one of their old songs.

then he gets signed on this record label and then George Harrison loved that line so much that he uses it as the opening lines in the song Something on Abbey Road. Yeah, that's really cool. Yeah, really cool. And I'd never heard this story before and I feel like this is just one of those, you know, like folklore level stories in rock and roll, you know. Yeah, definitely. So, yeah, so that's, I think that's it, man.

That's make this one quick and dirty. And I think I'm just going to fade us out with I feel fine. Why the fuck now? Sure, man. So I think we're doing Tame and Paula next week, dude. Dude. So we're going to do inner speaker, right? Let's do it.

Yep, let's do their first album. Yeah, man. I can't wait. It's going to be a good time. And then, I mean, we'll have to get creative on our sidetrack. maybe we could dig up another kind of psychedelic resurgence band from that time, you know. That's going to be great. I'm excited, man. Yeah, so in the meantime, hop back on our website.

We're at no filler podcast.com. Listen to some of our older episodes. We got quite a few of them up now. Hop back and listen to our episode from last week. We had a really good friend of ours, Larry Lodra, chime in from Austin, Texas, to talk about Nick Drake's album, Brighter Later. It was a really fun, really good episode. Shit, I don't know about fun, dude.

It was kind of, it was depressing, but. Yeah, I mean, some of his life was kind of tragic, you know. It still gets me, man. You can also find us on SoundCloud and pretty much any other podcast app that you got. We should be on there. So, as always, thank you so much for listening. And next week, we'll be back. in your feeds

talking to you about Tame and Pala until then once you have yourself a good week hope you have yeah Yeah

All right hang on And until next time My name is Quentin My name is Travis Good to me You know she's happy As can be You know she said so

I mean I said she's mine You know she tells me all the time You know she said so I made so