JAMES TAYLOR - THE FROZEN MAN

THE FROZEN MAN

JAMES TAYLOR

SONGWRITER: JAMES TAYLOR

COUNTRY: U. S. A.

ALBUM: NEW MOON SHINE

LABEL: COLUMBIA RECORDS

GENRE: FOLK ROCK

YEAR: 1991

 

           James Vernon Taylor(born March 12, 1948) is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist. A six-time Grammy Award winner, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2000. He is one of the best-selling music artists of all time, having sold more than 100 million records worldwide.

             Taylor achieved his breakthrough in 1970 with the No. 3 single "Fire and Rain" and had his first Nº 1 hit in 1971 with his recording of "You've Got a Friend", written by Carole King in the same year. His 1976 Greatest Hits album was certified Diamond and has sold 12 million US copies. Following his 1977 album JT, he has retained a large audience over the decades. Every album that he released from 1977 to 2007 sold over 1 million copies. He enjoyed a resurgence in chart performance during the late 1990s and 2000s, when he recorded some of his most-awarded work (including Hourglass, October Road, and Covers). He achieved his first number-one album in the US in 2015 with his recording Before This World.

          Taylor is known for his covers, such as "How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved by You)" and "Handy Man", as well as originals such as "Sweet Baby James". He was the leading role in Monte Hellman's 1971 film Two-Lane Blacktop.

        New Moon Shine is singer-songwriter James Taylor's 13th studio album, which was certified platinum. Released September 24, 1991, the album peaked the following month at number 37 on the Billboard 200 albums list. The album received generally good reviews; the New York Times's Stephen Holden observed that New Moon Shine "finds [Taylor] near the top of his form in songs like 'Slap Leather,' a playfully pungent rock-and-roll critique of social and environmental ills, and 'Copperline,' a nostalgic ballad remembering his North Carolina roots." The album was producer/pianist Don Grolnick's sixth and final studio album with Taylor prior to his death in 1996 at age 48 from Non-Hodgkin lymphoma.

Last thing I remember is the freezing cold

Water reaching up just to swallow me whole

Ice in the rigging and howling wind

Shock to my body as we tumbled in

 

Then my brothers and the others are lost at sea

I alone am returned to tell thee

Hidden in ice for a century

To walk the world again

Lord, have mercy on the frozen man

 

Next words that were spoken to me

Nurse asked me what my name might be

She was all in white at the foot of my bed

I said, "Angel of mercy, I'm alive or am I dead?"

 

My name is William James McPhee

I was born in 1843

Raised in Liverpool by the sea

But that ain't who I am

Lord have mercy on the frozen man

 

It took a lot of money to start my heart

To peg my leg and to buy my eye

The newspapers call me State of the art

And the children, when they see me, cry

I thought it'd be nice just to visit my grave

See what kind of tombstone I might have

 

I saw my wife and my daughter and it seemed so strange

Both of them dead and gone from extreme old age

See here, when I die make sure I'm gone

Don't leave 'em nothing to work on

You can raise your arm, you can wiggle your hand

And you can wave goodbye to the frozen man

 

I know what it means to freeze to death

To lose a little life with every breath

To say goodbye to life on earth

To come around again

 

Lord have mercy on the frozen man

Lord have mercy on the frozen man.