Credit: Album cover
It may seem like the sweetest and most innocent thing in the world, but as John Lennon already learned, turning your child’s silly school project into a pop song isn’t necessarily a safe play. Who would have thought that a song inspired by a drawing of a magical female child named Lucy flying through the sky with diamonds could be mistaken for an LSD anthem?!
However, despite knowing that there are risks with this type of collaboration, more than a decade later another prominent singer-songwriter decided to co-write a song with his child, in this case James Taylor’s “Jerryman Kelly,” without much controversy.
According to Taylor family lore, the little tuba-driven song originated when James was sitting in his living room with his guitar one day in 1979 when his 5-year-old daughter, Sally, came in and showed him a poem she had written when she was in kindergarten. It was all about a funny and happy character named Jerry Man Kelly and his friend Jenny Mulheny.
“It’s about Jerry Man Kelly / He likes jelly best / Oh, but most of all Jerry Man Kelly / He loves jelly on his toast / Here’s the part about Jenny Maheny / She’s a firefighter’s daughter / Oh, most of all Jenny Maheny / She loves boiling water.”
Papa James, who was once known as “Tender Baby” himself, was understandably impressed and delighted by little Sally’s imaginative poems and offered to help her turn them into songs. So he came up with a simple acoustic guitar line and eventually a bunpatuba part, put his daughter’s words into musical form, and added the chorus of the song Jenny Mulhenney Gave Jellyman Kelly a Visit.
“So Jenny put the kettle on/Can Jerry Man Kelly come home?/Can Jenny come?/So Jenny put the kettle on/Can Jerry Man Kelly come home?”
It’s a great story about a father-daughter bond over music and creativity, and it served as a great backstory for the song when Taylor first performed it on a special in 1980. sesame streetTuba player Howard Johnson joined the choir of kids singers on the chorus.
Now… if you’re a little more cynical at heart, you might think, “Hmm, that’s pretty advanced conceptual poetry and character creation for a 5-year-old.” Maybe so. It may also seem a little suspicious that before James Taylor made his debut with ‘Jerryman Kelly’, he had already been scouted by his sister-in-law Lucy Simon to appear on her upcoming all-star album of nursery rhymes. sesame street an album called in harmony. Taylor and his wife Carly Simon signed on to join Bette Midler, Linda Ronstadt, Al Jarreau, the Doobie Brothers, James’ sister Kate Taylor, and of course his life partners Ernie and Bert.
Is it possible that little Sally Taylor, the daughter of two of the great songwriters of the 1970s, happened to inherit her parents’ talents at a young age and concocted the story of “Jerryman Kelly” just in time to record it on this children’s record that her father had pre-planned? Of course, why not? But as far as I know, the adult Sally Taylor, who went on to become a professional recording artist with three albums to her name, never publicly admitted that this Jerry Fellow was really something she created as a child.
You might be better off just believing this cute myth anyway, especially given the broader context of what was going on in James Taylor’s life at the time he recorded “Jerryman Kelly” and eventually won a Grammy.
When this song was released In Harmony: Sesame Street Records Although Taylor and Carly Simon were still legally married at the time of the compilation in October 1980, their marriage had hit a rocky patch, with Taylor having several public affairs and eventually buying his own private apartment in New York City, separate from his wife and children, including little Sally (whose real name was Sarah Maria Taylor).
Although Taylor’s albums continued to sell well, the critical reaction to the 1979 album was flag At 32 years old, some in the industry thought he had lost his luster, becoming predictable and bland.
What many people didn’t realize was that Taylor had been battling heroin addiction for over a decade, virtually his entire career, and that numerous attempts to kick the habit had yet to yield lasting success. It was a major factor in the gradual breakdown of his relationship with Carly Simon, as was his failure to be present as consistent support during the health scare experienced by his son Ben, who underwent emergency surgery for a malformed kidney in 1979.
Taylor also began socializing with new social groups, which were less than ideal. saturday night live John Belushi, the cast member, turned to drinking to drown his troubles when a slap didn’t go well.
One night in early December 1980, after a social outing, Taylor was walking through the West 72nd Street subway station in Manhattan when he was accosted by a deranged man wearing glasses. “He pushed me against the wall,” Taylor later recalled. “He was sweating like crazy and trying to give a crazy speech about what he was going to do and how he was going to get in touch with John Lennon.” Taylor ran away from the man, but did not realize it was Mark David Chapman until the day after Lennon was assassinated.
“It was incredible that we had contact with that man 24 hours before he shot John,” he added.
Overall, James Taylor later said: rolling stone The period between 1980 and 1981 was “the worst period of my life. I basically think of myself as a depressed person who would stay home and shut down my system, and so many things happened all at once.”
Perhaps the only good thing from this era was, oddly enough, “Jerryman Kelly”, and it was not for nothing. By 1983, Taylor finally came clean, wanting to be a better father and role model to his children.
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