The song James Taylor wrote for Joni Mitchell
In 1970, Joni Mitchell found a like-minded soul in James Taylor, and they soon started a romantic relationship. Both musicians were flying high artistically and saw life from a shared lens. Sadly, however, the relationship only lasted for 12 months before it all came crumbling down.
Although their relationship failed to last the test of time, Taylor and Mitchell remain great friends over 50 years later. Their short time together also gave Taylor one of his most beloved efforts, ‘You Can Close Your Eyes’. Meanwhile, Mitchell used him as a muse too, and he was the inspiration behind ‘See You Sometime’, which appeared on 1972’s For the Roses.
Famously, during their inseparable time as a couple, Mitchell and Taylor performed for the BBC at London’s Paris Theatre in 1970 and showed off their love to the nation. Taylor also contributed on the guitar to the Blue tracks, ‘All I Want’, ‘California’, ‘Carey’, and ‘A Case of You’.
“Joni had succeeded in music,” Taylor reflected during an interview with The Guardian about their relationship. “She had a house and an automobile and wanted to have fun and see the world. After a year or two travelling in Europe with her portable dulcimer, she came back with lots of songs and ideas. We moved in the same circles and ended up together. I’m not saying I was sober, but my then addiction to heroin was relatively quiet”.
He continued: “It was a calm, peaceful, amazing, creative time. She quit smoking and her voice was excellent. She was at the height of her powers. It felt natural and easy for me to play on the album. There were very few people in the sessions. Blue’s brilliance lies in its minimalism. It thrives on her voice, melody and personality. It’s pure Joni”.
Besides working on Mitchell’s music, Taylor kept himself busy creatively by working on his third studio album, Mud Slide Slim and the Blue Horizon. The album track, ‘You Can Close Your Eyes’, finds Taylor comforting his partner in her hour of need. He sings: “It won’t be long before another day, We gonna have a good time, And no one’s gonna take that time away, You can stay as long as you like”.
Although Taylor doesn’t explicitly say it’s written about Joni, there was no need to confirm the blatantly obvious. He wrote it in an Alberquerque hotel room following a visit by Mitchell during the filming of Two-Lane Blacktop. While his acting debut was a hellish experience for Taylor, the time they shared in the Southwest was priceless and inspired him to create the track.
Listen below to their duet on ‘You Can Close Your Eyes’.
