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? ~ William Ruhlmann