Eén van de mooiste nummers van James Taylor is Long Ago And Far Away, dat hij hier zingt tijdens een optreden bij de BBC in November 1971 toen hij 23 jaar oud was. Het komt van zijn 3e album Mud Slide Slim & The Blue Horizon uit 1971. Dat was de eerste plaat die ik van hem had en mijn liefde voor zijn muziek is constant gebleven, zoals je hier ook regelmatig merkt.

In zijn aankondiging zegt hij: “This is a tune about things not always turning out as you expected they would.” En later beschreef hij het lied als: “a musing on the nature of expectations, and how they don’t last.”

Long Ago and Far Away
Long ago, a young man sits
and plays his waiting game.
But things are not the samei it seems
as in such tender dreams.

Slowly passing sailing ships
and Sunday afternoon.
Like people on the moon I see,
are things not meant to be.

Where do your golden rainbows end?
Why is this song so sad?
Dreaming the dreams
I’ve dreamed my friend.
Loving the love I love.

To love is just a word I’ve heard
when things are being said.
Stories my poor head has told me
cannot stand the cold.

Yes and in between what might have been
and what has come to pass.
A misbegotten guess, alas,
and bits of broken glass.

Where do your golden rainbows end?
Why is this song I sing so sad?
Dreaming the dreams I dream, my friend.
Loving the love I love
to love, to love, to love.
Oh no, no, no, now.