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The Song that Inspired James Taylor to Become a Singer
by Charly Mann
In January of 1952, Dr. Isaac Taylor left his job at Harvard Medical School in Boston to become an assistant professor at the UNC School of Medicine. Ike and his wife Trudy, along with their four children, moved to the outskirts of Carrboro to a two story farmhouse off Old Greensboro Road near University Lake. The family was made up of three boys and one girl each born one year apart from 1947 to 1950. In birth order their names were Alex, James, Katherine, and Livingston. (An additional son was born later at Duke Hospital in 1952 – his name was Hugh).
Alex, James, and Kate with Livingston on Ike Taylor's lap - June 1952 - Carrboro
From anecdotal information it seems that all of the Taylor children loved music from an early age and were somewhat precocious in their talent. For two of the kids, James and Livingston, there was one contributing factor that may have put them on the road to musical stardom. It was the fact that the first song each leaned was the commercial jingle for Tube Rose Snuff. Liv says "I sang along in my crib with the Tube Rose Snuff commercial which was popular on the radio in the South…." James, as the recording you can listen to here claims, it was he, and not Liv, that was indoctrinated by this song. We can not say where the truth in the contentious controversy lies, but speculate that without their exposure to the Tube Rose Snuff song it is very possible that James and Liv might have followed their Dad into a medical career instead of becoming professional musicians.
James and Livingston Taylor's Tube Rose Snuff
Lest you think that the snuff commercial dispute has created a schism between the two brothers, the additional interview you can listen to here, as well as a duet Livingston and James performing City Lights at Martha's Vineyard in 1981, indicate the rift has been healed.
For you snuff commercial fans I can tell you that when I was young, (I am the same age as Kate Taylor), I recall hearing the Tube Rose Snuff jingle many times on the Arthur Smith Show which was broadcast on WFMY, Channel 2, in Greensboro during much of the 1950's. Arthur Smith and his band, the Crackerjacks, would perform the song at least once every show. As I recall, the Smith show was actually taped in Charlotte and re-broadcast on WFMY. In addition the show was recorded for radio and broadcast from Durham.
Arthur Smith and the Crackerjacks - The group that sang the Tube Rose Snuff jingle
Comments:
Corey
2:16 PM Sun 11/22/2009
Great stuff!
I have a copy of that live duet of "City Lights" but it says it is from 1988. The album Livingston is plugging was released in 1988, Life Is Good, so I'm inclined to go with that date.
sue w
5:10 PM Mon 8/10/2009
Alex Taylor was in my class & he was a wild man....loved blues & I think James credits him for going into folk instead of classical music.... funny guy....RIP Alex.
Carol Davis
1:24 PM Wed 7/8/2009
I got such a kick out of hearing the Taylor boys sing the Tube Rose snuff song. I wish one of them would record it and put it on an album.
Allison Richards
1:01 PM Mon 7/6/2009
It is uncanny how much James today looks like his father in 1952. Was his Dad a musical influence on the family?
Dan Monk
7:32 PM Fri 7/3/2009
Wonderful piece. I laughed as soon as I figured you were not totally serious.
Sylvia Clark
9:02 PM Thu 7/2/2009
This place is incredible for Chapel Hill nostalgia and history. I hope you do a piece on Alex Taylor someday. He was the greatest voice to come out of Chapel Hill.
CHHS67
3:05 PM Thu 7/2/2009
Tube Rose Snuff is still avialable. Maybe James and Liv could bury the hatchet and do a duet of this song for them.
Mollie Alvin
1:37 PM Thu 7/2/2009
Thanks for sharing these rare songs and interviews with James and Livingston. That version of CITY LIGHTS is incredible.
George Goodman
10:31 AM Thu 7/2/2009
Your story is hilarous, and I suspect has a kernal of truth. I really can imagine both James and Livingston as physicians if snuff had not gone to their brain.
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Investment strategies and advice about Apple Inc. and related technology companies by Charly Mann. www.appleinvesting.com
Investment strategies and advice about Apple Inc. and related technology companies by Charly Mann. www.appleinvesting.com
Chapel Hill is located on a hill whose only distinguishing feature in the 18th century was a small chapel on top called New Hope Chapel. This church was built in 1752 and is currently the location of The Carolina Inn. The town was founded in 1819, and chartered in 1851.
What is it that binds us to this place as to no other? It is not the well or the bell or the stone walls. or the crisp October nights. No, our love for this place is based upon the fact that it is as it was meant to be, The University of the People.
-- Charles Kuralt
Dark Side of the Hill -- Pink Floyd, the creators of the most popular album in history, Dark Side of the Moon, took the second half of their name from Floyd Council, a Chapel Hill native, and great blues singer and guitarist. He once belonged to a group called "The Chapel Hillbillies".
Check out Charly Mann's other website:
Oklahoma Birds and Butterflies
http://oklahomabirdsandbutterflies.com
Oklahoma Birds and Butterflies
http://oklahomabirdsandbutterflies.com
There would probably be no Chapel Hill if the University of North Carolina Board of Trustees in 1793 had not chosen land across from New Hope Chapel for the location of the university. By 1800 there were about 100 people living in thirty houses surrounding the campus.
The University North Carolina's first student was Hinton James, who enrolled in February, 1795. There is now a dormitory on the campus named in his honor.
The University of North Carolina was closed from 1870 to 1875 because of lack of state funding.
William Ackland left his art collection and $1.25 million to Duke University in 1940 on the condition that he would be buried in the art museum that the University was to build with his bequest. Duke rejected this condition even though members of the Duke Family are buried in Duke Chapel. What followed was a long and acrimonious legal battle between Ackland relatives who now wanted the inheritance, Rollins College, and the University of North Carolina, each attempting to receive the funds. The case went all the way to the United States Supreme Court, and in 1949 UNC was awarded the money for the museum. Ackland is buried near the museum's entrance. When the museum first opened, in the early sixties, there were rumors that his remains were leaking out of the mausoleum.
The official name of the Arboretum on the University of North Carolina campus is the Coker Arboretum. It is named after Dr. William Cocker, the University's first botany professor. It occupies a little more than five acres. It was founded in 1903.
Chapel Hill's main street has always been called Franklin Street. It was named after Benjamin Franklin in the early 1790s.
Chapel Hill High School and Chapel Hill Junior High were on Franklin Street in the same location as University Square until the mid 1960s.
The Colonial Drug Store at 450 West Franklin Street was owned and operated by John Carswell. It was famous for a fresh-squeezed carbonated orange beverage called a "Big O". In the early 1970s, I managed the Record and Tape Center next door, and must have had over 100 of those drinks. The Colonial Drug Store closed in 1996.
Sutton's Drugstore, which opened in 1923, has one of the last soda fountains in the South. It is one of the few businesses remaining on Franklin Street that was in operation when I was growing up in the 1950s.
Future President Gerald Ford lived in Chapel Hill twice. First when he was 24, in 1938, he took a law couse in summer school at UNC. He lived in the Carr Building, which was a law school dormitory. At the same time, Richard Nixon, the man he served under as Vice President, was attending law school at Duke. In 1942, Ford returned to Chapel Hill to attend the U.S. Navy's Pre-Flight School training program. He lived in a rental house on Hidden Hills Drive.
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That "two story farmhouse off Old Greensboro Road near University Lake" is the house I grew up in and my parents still live there. It's neat to see a picture of the Taylor family there!