Editing James Taylor (section)

==Early years==
James Vernon Taylor was born at [[Massachusetts General Hospital]] in [[Boston]] on March 12, 1948. His father, [[Isaac M. Taylor]], worked as a [[Resident (medicine)|resident]] physician at the hospital<ref name="cby-428">''Current Biography Yearbook 1972'', p. 428.</ref><ref>White, ''Long Ago and Far Away'', p. 51.</ref> and came from a wealthy [[Southern United States|Southern]] family.<ref name="cby-428"/> Taylor is of English and Scottish descent from the Taylor family of the [[Montrose, Angus|Montrose]] area,<ref>{{Cite book |last=White |first=Timothy |title=Long Ago and Far Away: James Taylor – His Life and Music |publisher=[[Omnibus Press]] |date=October 1, 2001 |isbn=978-0711988033 |edition=1st}}</ref> with the former being rooted in [[Massachusetts Bay Colony]]; his ancestors include [[Edmund Rice (colonist)|Edmund Rice]], an English colonist who co-founded [[Sudbury, Massachusetts]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://famouskin.com/family-group.php?name=91801+james+taylor&ahnum=5320|title=Ancestry of James Taylor|publisher=FamousKin.com|access-date=August 22, 2018|archive-date=August 22, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180822113622/https://famouskin.com/family-group.php?name=91801+james+taylor&ahnum=5320|url-status=live}}</ref> His mother, Gertrude (née Woodard; 1921–2015), studied singing with [[Marie Sundelius]] at the [[New England Conservatory of Music]] and was an aspiring opera singer before she married Isaac in 1946.<ref name="cby-428"/><ref>White, ''Long Ago and Far Away'', pp. 50–51.</ref> Taylor is the younger brother of musician [[Alex Taylor (singer)|Alex Taylor]] (1947–1993) and the older brother of musicians [[Kate Taylor]] (born 1949) and [[Livingston Taylor]] (born 1950).<ref name="white">White, ''Long Ago and Far Away'', pp. 51, 52, 59.</ref> His youngest sibling, a brother named Hugh (born 1952), was also a musician; Hugh eventually left the music industry and has operated The Outermost Inn, a [[bed-and-breakfast]] in [[Aquinnah, Massachusetts]], with his wife since 1989.<ref name="white" /><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://outermostinn.com/our-story/|title=Our Story – Outermost Inn|access-date=October 14, 2021|archive-date=October 27, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211027181813/https://outermostinn.com/our-story/|url-status=live}}</ref>

In 1951, Taylor and his family moved to [[Chapel Hill, North Carolina]],<ref name="nativeson">Susan Broili. "Native son coming to Carolina for tribute – Chapel Hill naming Morgan Creek bridge after James Taylor on April 26", ''The Chapel Hill Herald'' (Chapel Hill, NC), March 27, 2003, p. 1: "Even though Taylor was born in Boston on March 12, 1948, he moved to Chapel Hill when he was three and considers himself a North Carolinian."</ref> when Isaac took a job as an assistant professor of medicine at the [[University of North Carolina School of Medicine]].<ref>White, ''Long Ago and Far Away'', pp. 55, 57.</ref> They built a house in the Morgan Creek area off the present Morgan Creek Road, which was sparsely populated.<ref name="white-61"/> Taylor later said, "Chapel Hill, the Piedmont, the outlying hills, were tranquil, rural, beautiful, but quiet. Thinking of the red soil, caused by local copper mining [Taylor's later song, "Copperline" was a nostalgic salute to that area where Taylor grew up], plus the seasons, the way things smelled down there, I feel as though my experience of coming of age there was more a matter of landscape and climate than people."<ref name="white-61">White, ''Long Ago and Far Away'', p. 61.</ref> James attended a [[Public education|public]] primary school in Chapel Hill.<ref name="cby-428"/> Isaac's career prospered, but he was frequently away from home on [[military service]] at [[Bethesda Naval Hospital]] in [[Maryland]] or as part of [[Operation Deep Freeze]] in [[Antarctica]] in 1955 and 1956.<ref>White, ''Long Ago and Far Away'', pp. 68–69.</ref> Isaac Taylor later rose to become [[dean (education)|dean]] of the [[UNC School of Medicine]] from 1964 to 1971.<ref name="jtmuseum">[http://www.chapelhillmuseum.org/Exhibits/Ongoing/JamesTaylorExhibit/ "Carolina on my mind: The James Taylor story"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090815074724/http://www.chapelhillmuseum.org/Exhibits/Ongoing/JamesTaylorExhibit/ |date=August 15, 2009 }}, exhibit at the Chapel Hill Museum, Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Information retrieved December 24, 2007.</ref> Beginning in 1953, the Taylors spent summers on [[Martha's Vineyard]].<ref>White, ''Long Ago and Far Away'', pp. 68.</ref>

Taylor took cello lessons as a child in [[North Carolina]], before learning the guitar in 1960.<ref>White, ''Long Ago and Far Away'', pp. 93, 98.</ref> His guitar style evolved, influenced by [[hymn]]s, [[carol (music)|carols]], and the music of [[Woody Guthrie]], and his technique derived from his [[bass clef]]-oriented cello training and from experimenting on his sister Kate's keyboards: "My style was a finger-picking style that was meant to be like a piano, as if my thumb were my left hand, and my first, second, and third fingers were my right hand."<ref name="white-106">White, ''Long Ago and Far Away'', pp. 106–107.</ref>  Spending summer holidays with his family on [[Martha's Vineyard]], he met [[Danny Kortchmar]], an aspiring teenage guitarist from [[Larchmont, New York]].<ref>White, ''Long Ago and Far Away'', pp. 102, 103.</ref> The two began listening to and playing [[blues]] and [[folk music]] together, and Kortchmar felt that Taylor's singing had a "natural sense of phrasing, every syllable beautifully in time. I knew James had that ''thing''."<ref>White, ''Long Ago and Far Away'', p. 105.</ref> Taylor wrote his first song on guitar at 14, and he continued to learn the instrument effortlessly.<ref name="white-106"/> By the summer of 1963, he and Kortchmar were playing coffeehouses around the Vineyard, billed as "Jamie & Kootch".<ref>White, ''Long Ago and Far Away'', p. 111.</ref>

In 1961, Taylor went to [[Milton Academy]], a [[University-preparatory school|preparatory]] boarding school in Massachusetts. He faltered during his junior year, feeling uneasy in the high-pressure [[University-preparatory school#United States and Canada|college prep environment]] despite having a good scholastic performance.<ref name="white-112"/> The Milton headmaster later said, "James was more sensitive and less goal-oriented than most students of his day."<ref name="time-cover-story">{{cite magazine | url=https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,878920-1,00.html | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230325222142/https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,878920-1,00.html#federation=archive.wikiwix.com&tab=url | archive-date=March 25, 2023 | title=James Taylor: One Man's Family of Rock | magazine=[[Time (magazine)|Time]] | date=March 1, 1971 | url-status=bot: unknown | access-date=March 26, 2023 }}{{void|comment|link to archive of article as originally published: https://web.archive.org/web/20081221202826/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,878920,00.html }}{{cbignore}}</ref> He returned home to North Carolina to finish out the semester at [[Chapel Hill High School (Chapel Hill, North Carolina)|Chapel Hill High School]].<ref name="white-112">White, ''Long Ago and Far Away'', pp. 111–112, 114.</ref> There he joined a band formed by his brother Alex called The Corsayers (later The Fabulous Corsairs), playing electric guitar; in 1964, they cut a single in [[Raleigh, North Carolina|Raleigh]] that featured James's song "Cha Cha Blues" on the [[B-side]].<ref name="white-112"/> Having lost touch with his former school friends in North Carolina, Taylor returned to Milton for his senior year,<ref name="white-112"/> where he started applying to colleges to complete his education.<ref name="nytmag-71"/> But he felt part of a "life that [he was] unable to lead", and he became [[Major depressive disorder|depressed]]; he slept 20 hours each day, and his grades collapsed.<ref name="white-112"/><ref name="bg112601"/> In late 1965 he committed himself to [[McLean Hospital|McLean]], a psychiatric hospital in [[Belmont, Massachusetts]],<ref name="white-112"/> where he was treated with [[chlorpromazine]], and where the organized days began to give him a sense of time and structure.<ref name="time-cover-story"/><ref name="bg112601"/> As the [[Vietnam War]] escalated, Taylor received a psychological rejection from the [[Selective Service System]], when he appeared before them, uncommunicative, with two white-suited McLean assistants.<ref name="white-115"/> Taylor earned a high school diploma in 1966 from the hospital's associated [[Arlington School]].<ref name="white-115">White, ''Long Ago and Far Away'', p. 115.</ref> He later viewed his nine-month stay at McLean as "a lifesaver... like a pardon or like a reprieve",<ref name="bg112601">{{cite news | url = http://www.james-taylor.com/text/globe-1-2002.shtml | title = Shrink Wrapped Drugs and Rock 'n' Roll Were Regular Features of Life at McLean Psychiatric Hospital in Belmont | access-date = April 12, 2008 | date = November 26, 2001 | last = Beam | first = Alex | work = [[The Boston Globe]] | archive-date = April 20, 2008 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20080420190609/http://www.james-taylor.com/text/globe-1-2002.shtml | url-status = deviated | via = James Taylor Online }}</ref> and both his brother Livingston and his sister Kate later were patients and students there as well.<ref name="time-cover-story"/> As for his mental health struggles, Taylor thought of them as innate and said: "It's an inseparable part of my personality that I have these feelings."<ref name="nytmag-71">{{cite news | url=https://select.nytimes.com/mem/archive/pdf?res=F30916F73B5F127A93C3AB1789D85F458785F9 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131013112717/http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F30916F73B5F127A93C3AB1789D85F458785F9 | archive-date=October 13, 2013 | access-date=March 26, 2023 | title=James Taylor, a New Troubadour | last=Braudy | first=Susan | author-link=Susan Braudy | magazine=[[The New York Times Magazine]] | date=February 21, 1971}}{{cbignore}}</ref>