James Taylor is an artist you would not expect to hear on rock radio, but if Phoebe Snow and Joni Mitchell can get played, then so can he.
Released in June 1976, In The Pocket got negative reviews. While it would eventually be certified Gold in the U.S., it only peaked at #16 on the Billboard 200, his lowest placement on that chart since his debut and his lowest placement in all of the Seventies.
That’s unfortunate because a lot of people worked on the album. Our friend Michael Brecker played on two songs, having already worked with James before. Legendary producers Danny Kortchmar and Waddy Wachtel played instruments on several songs. Carly Simon, who was married to James at the time, sang on a few tracks. Art Garfunkel, Bonnie Raitt, David Crosby, and Graham Nash all sang harmony vocals on the album.
So why was the album a disappointment? It might’ve had something to do with its dalliance with R&B. The penultimate song is a light funky track called “Family Man.” There’s a cover of “Woman’s Gotta Have It” by Bobby Womack, and another song that features Stevie Wonder. Except for him and Michael Brecker, none of the people I mentioned specialized in R&B. That might be why the scathing review from Rolling Stone magazine decried the album’s “R&B sendups that embarrass their sources.”
That isn’t to say the whole album is trash. “Nothing Like A Hundred Miles” is quite good. I kind of liked “Money Machine” (no connection to 100 gecs, tragically). The opening track and lead single, “Shower The People,” was a decent hit on the Hot 100 and a #1 hit on Easy Listening. The album’s other two singles didn’t enter the Hot 100, but hey, he’ll always have “Shower The People.” Oh yeah, and the album closer “Golden Moments” is very pretty.
In all honesty, I didn’t dislike In The Pocket. I can see why people didn’t like the idea of James Taylor trying to be funky. Someone at the time probably made the joke that the cocaine made him do it, but I don’t think it was impossible for him to pull off that style in a way that the critics would’ve liked. Lionel Richie went from being in a funk band to making soft ballads. David Bowie has written some great ballads, and he had just recently received critical acclaim for getting funky on both Young Americans and Station To Station. Maybe check out In The Pocket if you like James Taylor’s hits but never heard a full album by him, and in that case, listen to his first four albums before this one.
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