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James Taylor was amused...but not amused.
Early in his career, while touring with his group Flying Machine (not to be confused with the Flying Machine that had a "Great Song of 1969" called "Smile a Little Smile for Me"), he noticed that the bars and coffee houses were filled with all white blues bands--none of them genuine, and all of them awful.
He also noticed that most of their songs were filled with forced metaphors about sex.
As an exercise, He decided to write a parody of what he'd been hearing, and came up with a song called "Steamroller."
James was pleased at the subtle snarkiness of the song, but decided to sit on it for a few years. When he was putting together his "Sweet Baby James" album in 1970, he dusted it off and recorded it. His voice was a bit hoarse on the recording, but there wasn't enough studio time available to try it again right away, so it went on the album as-is.
Although it was never released as a single, and therefore never charted, it became one of James' signature songs--and we're pretty sure everyone got the joke--with the possible exception of Elvis Presley.
Then again...maybe he did. I've mentioned before that The King had a good ear for songs...and a sneaky sense of humor.
Elvis added the song to his set list...and performed it during his "Aloha from Hawaii" TV special in 1973. After the broadcast, his version was released as a single (as "Steamroller Blues"), and it climbed up the charts to #17 on Billboard's hot 100...and #10 on the Cashbox Chart.
Note: When you watch the video, you can't really tell if Elvis is taking it seriously--or strictly tongue in cheek. I guess we'll never know.
"Steamroller (Blues)" by James Taylor, and then by Elvis: A "Great Song of 1970 and 1973:"
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