Some great lines from Ben Taylor

The son of James Taylor and Carly Simon is a singer-songwriter who once penned these lines. I couldn’t find the mp3 anywhere on line, but he sounds just like his dad.

Just in Time to Fall Down (Tower for Fools)
-Ben Taylor (2002)
I made bricks of my lies,
Stones of my rules.
I used dreams as my plans,
and obsessions as my tools.
You know I built me a great big old tower for fools,
to look down upon the earth and sing the blues.
Just in time to fall down.

So many interpretations…

22 thoughts on “Some great lines from Ben Taylor”

  1. The Fool on the Hill, by John Lennon, is a song about R. Buckminster “Bucky” Fuller, a designer, futurist and inventor who taught at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale between 1966 and 1983 when he died. Even though he was a full professor, he only used to fly in and give two lectures a year, they were given at the biggest lecture hall that we had, you had to get there 4 hours before the lecture to get a seat, it was open enrollment. I went twice. It was the most densely packed two hours of learning I ever received in my life. Remember the Fool On The Hill saw the sun going down and the eyes in his head saw the world spinning ’round.
    You can Google R. Buckminster Fuller if you want, he actually has a element on the Periodic Table named for him. It’s called: Buckminsterfullerene Bucky Fuller designed the Geodesic Dome and he made a map of the Earth that was totally undistorted. He was a brilliant person. No the song wasn’t about God.

  3. LOL. I have a 2006 CD by Carly called “Into White” and vaguely remembered that ‘her kids sang back up for some of the songs’. I played the CD at work today (and snuck a few peeks at the liner notes). There were several songs where I thought James Taylor was singing the back-up; I learned today that it was Ben. They really do sound alike! (First time I ever heard Julian Lennon, I was amazed how much he sounded like John.)
    I used my lies as building blocks.
    I used my rules as weapons (stones).
    Although they were only dreams, I let them guide me
    And I built this tower…the sum of my lies, my rigidity and my crazy dreams.
    Here in my tower, in the company of fools, I look down on the rest of you
    –and sing the blues.
    (Singing them for himself stuck in his tower? Singing them for the earth he looks down upon? He doesn’t answer but he does fall down.–right away. I imagine he keeps singing the blues, with yet another layer of conviction.)

  5. Those lyrics could apply to Alan Greenspan.
    —
    He kept interest rates low to encourage massive borrowing and debt. He believed that spending money on consumer goods produced in China would make us a rich nation. We followed him like the Pied Piper and completed our house of cards “Just in time to fall down.”
    —
    Pay off your debts folks. The “experts” on TV are wrong. All signs point to the fact that the Great Depression 2.0 will be more severe than 1.0. We entered the 1929 bust at 150% debt to GDP level. We are entering this depression at almost 300% debt to GDP level! It’s like the difference between driving a car into a brick wall at 15mph and 30mph. Neither is good but 30mph is a lot more destructive no matter how well you swerve at the last second.

  6. assertions and values as idolatry?
    I find that I construct a world which gives me comfort and focus for my dreams. When my dreams are unmet, I can’t help but carefully reconsider the world I have constructed…
    After the sadness.

  7. Yes, yes, I was hoping you’d like that one!. Domenico’s is my favorite and thanks for the heads up. I’ll check him out on YouTube.
    Dean’s is just okay for me, sung in his usual way, but I do like the up-beat one by Bobby R. and yes, I agree about Al Martino’s not having the rising POW it needs.
    I like your taste, Eddy.

  8. Domenico Mudugno’s first. Dean’s second. Bobby’s third. Didn’t like Al Martino’s at all. (I want it to start slow and work it’s way to a Volare explosion and I want lots of Italian.) You can watch Domenico himself perform it–in black and white–on YouTube. (And sample some of the other versions as well.)

  9. Eddy, love those numbers.
    I’m very envious–I can’t sing worth a lick nor can my husband although he tries, and all I can do is crack up.
    Carly is one of my favorites–“Coming Around Again” is in my top 10.
    Okay, I just have to know: whose version of “Volare” do you like best?

  10. Carole–
    I prefer the Sergio Mendes version myself. The version I have is by The Beatles. But I don’t plan to perform it. Years back, while the song was on the radio, there was a rumor that ‘The Fool on the Hill’ was a reference to God.(I wondered if it was the fool on Capitol Hill.) So, with hundreds of songs to choose from in my private stash, I’ll likely never get around to “The Fool on the Hill”. (Hey, I won’t do “Me and Mrs Jones” either…I don’t like singing so explicitly about infidelity.)
    Town Without Pity and Volare are the songs I’m requested to sing most. Good Morning Starshine, The Game of Love, Shimmy Shimmy Ko Ko Bob, Love Potion #9, Stormy (Classics IV) , Just Dropped In (to see what condition…), and Spill the Wine are crowd favorities too. (Couldn’t leave you without a few more interesting musical memories.)
    Weren’t James and Carly responsible for my favorite duet: Mockingbird???

  11. Eddy, I just love your references to old songs. The Sergio Mendes version of “Fool on the Hill” is far superior to others IMO, (if you like that Latin beat, and I do!) I don’t suppose that is the version you plan for your karaoke, though, is it? LOL.

  12. Shades of “The Fool on the Hill” and “Nowhere Man”. (LOL. Guess whose songs I’ve been practicing this week.)
    Bad joke: Mick Jagger, Steve Perry (Aerosmith) and Carly Simon are forming a new supergroup: A Pack of Lips Now.
    I shouldn’t pick on Carly. What an incredible talent! Between those two parents, how could he miss coming by a bit of talent himself.
    LOL. Nothing much to add. It’s just that the boys over on the Berg thread had all the ‘recently commented’ slots and I hoped for signs of life elsewhere on the blog as well.

  13. These lines made me think of one of the names of the gnostic demiurge, which is ‘fool’. The gnostic demiurge built a flawed material world which was supposed to represent the divine model. Where’s the resemblance? Well, I thought that both (the gnostics and this singer) were striving to respond to the problem of evil. At least, that’s what they believed.

  15. Wow … could not these lines apply to just about any of us at different times of realization in our lives!!! Love the lyrics.

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