Listener supported, WNYC Studios.

From One World Trade Center in Manhattan, this is The New Yorker Radio Hour, a co-production

of the New Yorker and WNYC Studios.

Welcome to The New Yorker Radio Hour. I'm David Remnick. If you're a James Taylor fan, what would you ask him? If you could ask him anything, the New Yorker's Adam Gopnik got his chance.

James, this evening runs the risk of being an episode in the Chris Farley show.

But I don't know if you remember Chris Farley on Saturday Night Live,

when he would have people he admired on.

He would just say, do you remember when you wrote Fire and Rain?

And say, that was great.

And I could go through everything you've done and simply stand here and sweat and say,

that was great.

But I will try at least to find out why it's all been so great.

Thinking about your music, one of the things that's always sort of stunned me about it is when you first appeared,

you had a distinctive way of playing the

guitar, which wasn't like anybody else's distinctive kind of voicings, and you had an amazing

harmonic language.

You know, I always think when I go through your sheet music and see that wonderful

song like Don't Let Me Be Lonely Tonight starts with an E minor ninth chord and then goes to a major seventh chord.

Those weren't the C, A minor, F, G, progressions of pop music at the time.

Did you study music?

How was it that the language of music came to be the language you speak so naturally?

I studied cello when I was a kid.

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