Mud Slide Slim and the Blue Horizon

Mud Slide Slim And The Blue Horizon
Studio album by James Taylor
Released	April 1971
Recorded	January 3-February 28, 1971
Genre	[[Acoustic Rock]Rock]]
Length	37:07
Label	Warner Bros.
Producer	Peter Asher
Professional reviews
Allmusic link Rolling Stone (not rated) link
James Taylor chronology
James Taylor and the Original Flying Machine (1971) Mud Slide Slim and the Blue Horizon (1971) One Man Dog (1972)

Mud Slide Slim and the Blue Horizon is James Taylor's third album. Released in April 1971 as the follow-up of his commercial breakthrough and critical triumph, Sweet Baby James, it almost equaled the acclaim and surpassed the success of its predecessor at the time of its release. It contained Taylor's biggest hit single in the U.S., a version of the Carole King standard "You've Got a Friend", which became his only number 1 on the Billboard charts on July 31, 1971. The week before, the album itself reached its peak position of #2 in the Billboard album charts (the highest position achieved by Taylor in this list during his career). It was knocked-off the top spot also by Carole King, who was at the moment rocketing the charts with the blockbuster Tapestry album.

Months later, the album managed to generate another Top 40 hit, "Long Ago and Far Away", which reached #31 on the Billboard Hot 100. Many of the songs became standards in concert, particularly "You Can Close Your Eyes."

In 1972, "You've Got a Friend" received Grammy Awards both for Taylor (Best Pop Vocal Performance, Male) and King (Song of the Year).

Track listing

All songs by James Taylor unless otherwise noted.

1. "Love Has Brought Me Around" – 2:41
2. "You've Got a Friend" (Carole King) – 4:28
3. "Places in My Past" – 2:01
4. "Riding on a Railroad" – 2:41
5. "Soldiers" – 1:13
6. "Mud Slide Slim" – 5:20
7. "Hey Mister, That's Me up on the Jukebox" – 3:46
8. "You Can Close Your Eyes" – 2:31
9. "Machine Gun Kelly" (Danny Kortchmar) – 2:37
10. "Long Ago and Far Away" – 2:20
11. "Let Me Ride" – 2:42
12. "Highway Song" – 3:51
13. "Isn't It Nice to Be Home Again" – 0:55

Personnel

• James Taylor — guitar, piano, vocals
• Peter Asher — tambourine, backing vocals
• Richard Greene — fiddle
• Gail Haness — backing vocals
• John Hartford — banjo
• Wayne Jackson — trumpet
• Kevin Kelly — piano, accordion
• Carole King — piano, backing vocals
• Danny Kortchmar — guitar, conga
• Russ Kunkel — drums, percussion
• Andrew Love — tenor saxophone
• Leland Sklar — bass
• Joni Mitchell — backing vocals
• Kate Taylor — backing vocals