“Above all else, performers need to be what I call ‘ferociously curious.’ Secondly, they need to watch their creativity land: to watch it arrive. It’s not enough to just create and throw it out there. You have to watch it land. When you do things that people like, do those things again. When you do things that they don’t like, don’t do ’em any more. This is not rocket science here.” – Professor Livingston Taylor,  Berklee College of Music

We’ve heard at least the beginning of this bio before…Born in Boston he grew up in Chapel Hill, North Carolina where his father was a medical professor at UNC and his mother who had studied at the New England Conservatory of Music had once been an aspiring opera singer  … However, this time the focus isn’t on the second Taylor son, James, it’s on third son, Livingston, born in 1950.

Like his older brother and later his younger sister (Kate), Livingston suffered from severe depression as a teen and committed himself to McLean Psychiatric Hospital in Belmont, where much of his therapy centered around his guitar playing and singing.

After his release in the late ’60s, he remained in Boston and began to perform in local clubs and coffeehouses, while touring with the likes of Linda Ronstadt, Jimmy Buffett and Jethro Tull.  His eponymous debut album was released in 1970.

Those of us living in the Boston-area in the ’70s had the opportunity to see him perform on a regular basis, much as we do now as Livingston Taylor still maintains a concert schedule of over 80 anecdote-laden shows a year, while serving as a full professor at Berklee (since 1989).

With easy proficiency within a range of musical genres, including folk, gospel, pop, jazz and musical theatre, his courses on Stage Performance (I and II) are by all accounts among the most popular at the college, with some of his students given the opportunity to perform at his concerts.

Written in 1991, various versions of “Our Turn to Dance” have been included on a number of his studio and live performance albums.  Today’s selection was featured on the 1997 studio effort, “Ink”

LISTEN TO TODAY’S SELECTION – Tuesday 9 October

 Our Turn to Dance

 We are working everyday…

…This is good for you

Fine things will come your way…

Ah, this aching back is sore…

…This is no problem

Because you’re building character…

 Thank you please, no more character…

It’s our turn to dance

Our turn to sing

Our turn to turn the world around

To give the best of everything

 No looking back

This is our chance

Our turn to sing

Our turn to dance

I was 1-8-0 on 95 (!)

So much youth

So few brains

How am I still alive?

 Darkly praying to the light

The tingling begins

Believing in the gospel of the state that I was in

 It was our turn to dance

Our turn to sing

Our turn to turn the world around

To give the best of everything

 No looking back

This is our chance

Our turn to sing

Our turn to dance

 Magic is the moonlight

Look into my eyes

Look at all those golden moments passing by

Forget about your heavy heart

This is romance

This is what we’ve waited for…

…This is our chance

It’s our turn to dance

Our turn to sing

Our turn to turn the world around

To give the best of everything

 No looking back

This is our chance

Our turn to sing

Our turn to dance