[SACD-R][OF] James Taylor – Flag - 1979/2003 (Folk, Country)

Flag is singer-songwriter James Taylor’s ninth album. Released in 1979, it included songs from Taylor’s music score to Studs Terkel and Stephen Schwartz’s Broadway musical, Working (“Millworker”, “Brother Trucker”).

The album was not particularly well received, but it did provide a hit in Taylor’s cover version of the Gerry Goffin/Carole King composition, “Up on the Roof”. The signal flag that makes up the cover of the album is “O (Oscar)”, standing for “man overboard.” On the 12 May 1979 episode of Saturday Night Live, James Taylor was the musical guest, and performed three songs from the album, “Up on the Roof”, “Millworker”, and “Johnnie Comes Back”.
James Taylor followed his double-platinum Columbia Records label debut, JT, with this hodgepodge of a record. There are pointless covers of the Beatles’ “Day Tripper” and the Drifters’ “Up on the Roof,” a remake of Taylor’s own “Rainy Day Man,” songs written for the failed Broadway musical Working, and a few inconsequential new Taylor compositions. The usual brain trust (producer Peter Asher), and the usual backup team (Danny “Kootch” Kortchmar, Dan Grolnick, Leland Sklar, Russ Kunkel) were on board, but the cruise was a snooze.