The Alex Taylor Appreciation Society

Information

Friends and Fans of the late Alex Taylor: Soulful and Eternal

Members: 16
Latest Activity: Sep 6

About Alex Taylor

Alex Taylor (February 28, 1947 - March 12, 1993) was a blues and southern rock singer, and the eldest of five siblings that consisted of singer/songwriters James Taylor, Livingston Taylor and Kate Taylor, who have repeatedly cited Alex as a significant influence in their musical upbringing. His powerful vocals and vibrant live performances also influenced actor Dan Aykroyd for The Blues Brothers. (Aykroyd & Paul Shaffer were known to join Alex Taylor & James Montgomery's band East Coast Funkbusters on stage.)

Alex Taylor recorded two critically acclaimed albums for Capricorn Records in the 1970s. Two more albums followed in 1989 and 1991 from Florida label King Snake Records. A third King Snake album was being recorded at the time of his death.

Discography:
1. With Friends & Neighbors (1971)
2. Dinnertime (1972) [MP3s at Amazon.com]
3. Voodoo in Me (1989)
4. Dancing with the Devil (1991)

Plus provided background vocals on:
1. One Man Dog - James Taylor (1972)
-"One Man Parade"
-"Woh, Don't You Know"
2. Another Passenger - Carly Simon (1976)
3. Kate Taylor - Kate Taylor (1978)
-"A Fool In Love"
4. Flag - James Taylor (1979)
-"Brother Trucker"
5. It's In There - And It's Got To Come Out - Kate Taylor (1979)
-"Kite Woman"
-"Same Old Song"
6. Volcano - Jimmy Buffett (1979)
7. Come Upstairs - Carly Simon (1980)
8. It's Up To You - Hugh Taylor (1991)
-"Ain't Nothin' But A Party"
9. Emergency - Dr. Hector & The Groove Injectors (1991)
10. Crazy Man - Floyd Miles & Friends (1992)

Compilations (Alex has a song or two from the above albums that also appear on these):
1. First Family of New Rock (1969)
2. Coast to Coast Original Soundtrack (1980)
3. Let the Big Dog Eat: Wild Dog Blues Sampler Volume 1 (1993) [MP3s at Amazon.com]
4. Bag o' Blues: The King Snake Collection (1996)
5. Hurricane! Florida Blues Guitars (1999)
6. Anthology - Carly Simon (2002)
7. Reflections: Carly Simon's Greatest Hits - Carly Simon (2004)

Links:
-Wikipedia entry
-AllMusic.com entry

Discussion Forum

Videos of Alex Taylor 5 Replies

Started by Corey. Last reply by Corey Jun 6.

The "Third For Music" Mystery

Started by Corey Jun 2.

Comment Wall

Comment

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Comment by Samuel Légitimus on June 9, 2009 at 4:30pm: I like this one

Comment by Carolyne on June 9, 2009 at 4:19pm: Thanks for this group, Corey. And, for everyone's contributions!

Comment by Corey on June 4, 2009 at 11:10am: Thank you for the joining and the information Benjamin! I've updated the discography information.

Comment by Benjamin deForest on June 4, 2009 at 7:15am: I Love Alex Taylor and all he recorded. Voodoo was before Dancin with the Devil, Voodoo in You was named and covered by Alex after the Johnny Jenkins sessions from the album Ton-Ton Macoute. Alex was in the sound booth for the Ton-Ton sessions with most of the original Allman Brothers Band playing on it. The sessions were going to be for a Duane Allman solo album but Jenkins was so powerful that they made it his record. Alex used to tell his son James and me about that great record when he found an old tape of the original.
I worked for the Funkbusters and they were brought to Dallas by Dan Aykroyd to open the then, Dallas Hard Rock were they were joined onstage by Dan and Paul but they were never fixed members of that band. I was with Alex at KingSnake Records in Sanford Florida the fall before he died and I will Love and Miss him until I join him up there in the party in the sky. Alex you are truly missed by so many.

Comment by Liz Witham - filmmaker on June 3, 2009 at 11:56pm: WOW Corey, great job getting this all together. As I come across any photos, I'll post them here.

Comment by Corey on June 3, 2009 at 5:03pm: Two questions on Alex's discography:

For the first, see the discussion forum above for The "Third for Music" Mystery.

The second one is the release date of Dancing with the Devil. AllMusic.com says 1981, but the CD I have is dated 1991. And every mention of the album I find online seems to have the year 1991 on it as well. Now it's certainly possible that it was re-issued a year later, and this is the version most people have, but I'm starting to wonder if Voodoo In Me isn't Alex's last album, but in fact it is Dancing with the Devil. Vocally, it sounds to me like Voodoo is probably the later album, but it's hard to tell for sure.

Anyone know or have any thoughts?

Kelly, you're right, Alex can be heard on that great track "A Fool for You". I LOVE Kate's version of that song. The whole album is like a Taylor Family affair, except unfortunately no Liv (although he's there in spirit with the inclusion of his song "Rodeo").

And yes, definitely agree about "Highway Song". Alex's version is great!

Comment by Kelly Ames Smith on June 2, 2009 at 7:29pm: If you have the Kate Taylor album, just have yourself a listen to track one: "A Fool In Love"... you'll hear some very choice Alex Taylor plus some sa-weet James singing background to an awesome Kate. ( I am pretty sure--lost the liner notes but the sound is the sound, alright!) ..Matter of fact, better go and have another listen to pick up my day.

Comment by Kelly Ames Smith on June 2, 2009 at 6:27am: He did such a great version of "Highway Song" too--that was the reason I bought his album off of a friend's brother--( in those days of long afternoons of sitting on floors with headphones, sharing tunes) Loved that song whith gritty sound. In retrospect, quite poignant, the song.

Comment by Corey on June 1, 2009 at 11:01pm: Barbara (and all),

I added a link to Amazon.com's page for the MP3 version of Dinnertime above in the "About Alex Taylor" section. If you don't have it yet, I would highly recommend buying it. Sadly the rest of his catalog is currently out-of-print.

Comment by Corey on June 1, 2009 at 10:57pm: Thank you Pat! Good to have you with us!

Barbara, I'm not sure of the legality of adding songs here. But I noticed a couple of YouTube videos posted here. Hopefully that's OK. I'll repost them in here so this group can have quick access to them.

You can also listen to clips and download songs from his album Dinnertime on iTunes and Amazon.