[TR24][OF] James Taylor - Gorilla - 1975/2013 (Folk-Rock)

James Taylor - acoustic guitar, vocals, electric guitar, high-string acoustic guitar, ukulele
Arthur Adams - electric guitar
George Bohannon - trombone
David Crosby - vocals
Nick DeCaro - organ, strings, accordion
Victor Feldman - percussion
Chuck Findley - trumpet
Lowell George - slide guitar, vocals
Valerie Carter - vocals
David Grisman - mandolin
Milt Holland - percussion, wind chimes
Jules Jacob - clarinet, oboe
Jim Keltner - drums
Danny Kortchmar - electric guitar
Russ Kunkel - drums, percussion, shaker, tambourine, congas
Gayle Levant - harp
Clarence McDonald - piano, ARP String Ensemble synthesizer, Fender Rhodes electric piano
Graham Nash - vocals
Randy Newman - hornorgan
Andy Newmark - drums
Al Perkins - pedal steel guitar
David Sanborn - saxophone
Carly Simon - vocals
Lee Sklar - bass
Willie Weeks - bass

Gorilla served notice to anyone expecting James Taylor to continue on in the personal, confessional vein of his first few albums that he did not intend to do so. Recording in Burbank with Warners staff producers Lenny Waronker and Russ Titelman, Taylor used a stellar backup band augmented by such guests as Graham Nash and David Crosby (who harmonized on the chart single "Mexico"), his wife Carly Simon, mandolinist David Grisman, saxophone player David Sanborn, Randy Newman on "hornorgan," and Little Feat slide guitarist Lowell George. This team worked on a set of light, pleasant songs that bordered on the generic -- one was called "Music," another "Love Songs" -- but were performed and sung with taste and care. Taylor was relentlessly upbeat; even "Angry Blues," which confessed, "I can't help it if I don't feel so good," didn't sound like things were that bad. But then, these songs didn't seem to be about Taylor, or if they were, as in the extended metaphor of the title track, the connection was so oblique that it was hard to say what the point was. Still, one could glide on Taylor's easy vocals and the band's competence, and Gorilla was an enjoyable listening experience. "How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved by You)," the first of a series of bleached R&B covers, became a Top Ten hit, and the album restored Taylor's commercial fortunes, setting him on the steady path he would follow for decades after. But who would have thought only a few years before that the king of the confessional song poets would turn into such a lightweight?