James Taylor’s immortal song “Fire and Rain” needs a refresh? No matter. His V2.0 was greeted with cheers after his “Late Show” rendition with Stephen Colbert.
In the wake of Thursday’s posting, the YouTube video has been viewed more than 270,000 times.
Among 90 comments as of Monday:
- “This song could continue for an hour and I’d watch it and enjoy it.”
- “This was awesome and I did NOT want to see it end! Bring on the other 75 verses.”
- And: “JT could sing the menu from cracker barrel and sound awesome!”
Colbert reportedly helped the Rock and Roll Hall of Famer write the new version.
He told Colbert that he’s always updating his songs — even “Fire and Rain,” written when Taylor was 22. (Colbert called it perfect already.)
“The thing is that I wrote that song in 1970, and I just hadn’t seen that much back then — mostly fire and rain,” Taylor said, then gave calzones as an example. “I hadn’t seen those back then, but if I had I definitely would have added them to the song.”
The new version notes everything from Beanie Babies to Fifty Shades of Grey.
JT!! https://t.co/oMnCBAnilW via @youtube
— Siri Smedvig (@SiriSmedvig) November 22, 2015