James Taylor "Fire and rain" - here's the lyrics, but what's the story?

[Leo Vester]

A couple of weeks ago at a friends house, I was browsing through her
CD collection. I found a CD of James Taylor and put on my favorite
song, "Fire and Rain".
She then told me that song was about a guy in a mental hospital who
has just been told his wife or girlfriend just died in a plane crash.

I didn't know that, and the lyrics don't really explain themselves.
Generally I happen to know those kind of trivial facts and it still
bugs me. Out of all the songs on all the records in that collection, I
had to play the one with a story I never heard before.

Now what i would like to know is: is it really true or was she just
pulling my leg? Does anyone know more about this?

===================================================
Fire And Rain

Just yesterday mornin' they let me know you were gone
Suzanne the plans they made put an end to you
I walked out this mornin' and I wrote down this song
I just can't remember who to send it to

Refrain:
I've seen fire and I've seen rain
I've seen sunny days that I thought would never end
I've seen lonely times when I could not find a friend
but I always thought that I'd see you again

Won't you look down upon me Jesus,
you've gotta help me make a stand
You just got to see me through another day
My body's aching and my time is at hand
I won't make it any other way.

Repeat Refrain

I've been walking my mind to an easy time
my back turned toward the sun
Lord knows when the cold wind blows
it'll turn your head around
Well there's hours of time on the telephone line
to talk about things to come
Sweet dreams and flying machines in pieces on the ground

Repeat Refrain

When replying to this msg please remove *NOSPAM* from
my adress. I only placed it there in order to... well
you've guessed it already.

[VSS DOUG]

Leo Vester wrote

> I found a CD of James Taylor and put on my favorite
>song, "Fire and Rain".
>She then told me that song was about a guy in a mental hospital who
>has just been told his wife or girlfriend just died in a plane crash

I allways thought that it refered to when Taylor was in a instituion, but
anyway check out the following web site.

The following is from http://www.james-taylor.com/
take your pick as to which, if any is true.
The last quote is from Taylor

7.0 S O N G O R I G I N S
7.1 "Fire and Rain"

From William Palmer (wpa...@oasys.dt.navy.mil):
Something I heard about this line goes like this: JT had a girlfriend
that he was really focusing on. Some friends decided that she was a bad
influence on him, and convinced her to go away for awhile. They bought
her a plane ticket, she got on the plane, and en route, it crashed and
she was killed in the accident. She was the 'sweet dream', and the plane
was the 'flying machine'.

From Jonathan Abramowitz (jabra...@msuvx1.memst.edu):
The real story behind "Fire and Rain", as I understand it, is that some
friends of James' were going to surprise james by bringing his
girlfriend, Suzanne, to one of his concerts- unbeknownst to James.
According to the story, Suzanne's plane crashed ("sweet dreams and
flying machines in pieces on the ground") on her way to see the concert
and Suzanne dies (Suzanne the plans they made put an end to you").

From Carrie Schwanke (c...@gwis.circ.gwu.edu):
"Fire and Rain" was written about a friend of JT's, Suzanne. They met
when they were in Austin Riggs for heroin addition. They became very
close *friends*. After JT was released, they spoke on the phone alot,
helping each other out ("hours of time on the telephone line"). Suzanne
was supposed to be released, but committed suicide very close to her
release date. The line "Sweet dreams and flying machines in pieces on
the ground" refers to JT's past--and the breakup of his first band
(Flying Machine).

From Ellen M. Roberts (eu...@cleveland.freenet.edu):
Actually, the song is sort of a mini-trilogy dealing with three bad
times in his life.
Verse I -- in 1968 -- making his first record. A friend of his died --
her name was Suzanne and he got to know her when she was at Austin Riggs
with him. She had some surgery and didn't come through it. (Suzanne, the
plans they made put an end to you). He also refers to her in the
refrain: I've seen lonely times when I could not find a friend, but I
always thought that I'd see you again. At the time of Suzanne's death,
his friends didn't tell him because they felt he was too strung out to
handle the news.
Verse II -- refers to the NYC drug scene
Verse III - refers to leaving NY to escape heroin. The flying machines
in pieces on the ground refers to his original group breaking up after
being together only a bit more than one year.

From Ken Kwartler (kmkl...@corp.sgi.com):
Quoting Flying Machine drummer Joel Bishop:
James wrote it after the album was pretty well done. There was this
friend of my brother's - we both really liked her, and she had killed
herself six months before. No one had told James - they were afraid I
guess. One night late we got drunk, and I told him because I'd wanted
to. In a week and a half, he had that song written.

Quoting JT in a 2/18/71 Rolling Stone article:
The first verse was a reaction to a friend of mine killing herself. . .
The second verse of it is about my kicking junk just before I left
England. And the third verse is about my going into a hospital in
Western Massachusetts. It's just a hard-time song, a blues without
having the blues form.

[Simon Moore]

Almost but not quite.

James Taylor spent some time during the late 1960s in a mental hospital,
some say due to trying to overcome heroin addiction (but thats just what
some people would say) - anyway, he was in there. He apparently wrote
the song about a female friend who had committed suicide (whether she did
this while he was in the hospital I'm not sure).

The lyrics are not very explicit at all, and of course, all of the above
may be complete crap, but it is true as far as I have been made aware.

[Earth Mother]

Everytime I hear this song I think about my brother's suicide. I never
understood this song until the day after his death. Suddenly, "Just
yesterday morning they let me know you were gone" made perfect since. So
did the rest of it. I still can't hear it without getting shivers. Sigh.
--
"Oh please! Not another learning experience!"