Song Lyric of the Day (James Taylor, Invoking “Blossom” As Muse)

“Blossom, it's been much too long a day
Seems my dreams have frozen
Melt my cares away.”—“Blossom,” written and performed by James Taylor, from his Sweet Baby James LP (1970)

Funny how the songs of youth have a way of rooting themselves in you, played so often at the time that they’re taken for granted, then appearing in your consciousness fully formed, years later, like a glistening, watery landscape revealed after an iceberg has melted.

So it is now with James Taylor, the first performer I ever saw in concert, in 1975, at the then-Garden State Arts Center in Holmdel, N.J. This particular song was not the Top 40 hit that the shattering “Fire and Rain” was from the same Sweet Baby James album. But that soothing voice, calling for an antidote to deep world-weariness, seems fresh and meaningful to a now-middle-aged listener, four decades later.

In some ways, I would have liked sunlit blossoms for this shot. But this image, taken outside a senior-citizen project in my hometown of Englewood, N.J., at twilight, seems appropriate for this set of lyrics, so here it is...