R. Dean Taylor (who left us in 2022) not only wrote songs with famed Motown songwriting team, Brian Holland, Lamont Dozier & Eddie Holland, but was a hit-making artist in his own right who recorded for Motown – and yet why does it seem like almost nobody in the United States has heard of him?
One reason for Taylor’s lack of visibility in the U.S. might be explained by the fact that he often enjoyed better commercial success in Canada and the UK and abroad. For instance, “Taos New Mexico” – issued on Motown imprint, Rare Earth, in March 1972 – reached #48 in Canada and #23 in the Netherlands but only #83 in its original country of release:
“Taos New Mexico” – a song about doing time that’s disquietingly jaunty – also enjoyed single release in the UK, Netherlands, Germany, Spain, Philippines, Australia & Canada. VancouverSignatureSounds breaks the song down lyrically while also providing some helpful historical context:
R. Dean Taylor wrote “Taos New Mexico”. The song opens with a guy in jail in Taos, New Mexico, getting a letter from his Mama. She writes that his girlfriend, Maria, is getting tired of waiting for him and that she’s been dating other guys. The narrator of the song in prison considers that he was buying her expensive clothes and diamond rings “and so much more.” However, it might be that he did some shoplifting or armed robbery. After all, we learn from the song’s lyrics that he is “ragged and poor.” It’s not viable for a poor person to get into the habit of buying a girlfriend one diamond ring, never mind more than one.
In a lyrical oops, R. Dean Taylor pictures his girlfriend Maria “by the fire, eating cheese and getting higher.” Poetry it is not. Anyway, she’s now spending time with Don José. Back in Taos, New Mexico, the former boyfriend is serving time. Though he promises “he’ll never leave Maria alone” when he gets back to wherever home is, all bets are off on whether she’ll go with her former partner or stick with Don José.
In 1970, R. Dean Taylor’s big hit, “Indiana Wants Me”, ended with spoken lyrics “this is the police, you are surrounded, give yourself up.” Perhaps, “Taos, New Mexico” is a sort of sequel. Now that he’s given himself up, he’s ended up serving time in Taos, New Mexico, after being sentenced in Indiana. In which case, he’d be in a New Mexican jail for a long time doing time for murder. Taylor was one of a very few pop singers given to singing about being in trouble with the law. The Bobby Fuller Four did their part in 1966 with “I Fought The Law”.
Billboard
Dec. 26, 1970
Taos, New Mexico, was established as part of the Spanish Empire in 1615 as Don Fernando de Taos. But previously, it was home to the Ancestral Puebloans who had built the Taos Pueblo before the 13th Century. Taos was a site of conflict between the Spanish and local Taos Indians. By 1795 it was a fortified plaza in the Spanish colony of Santa Fe de Nuevo México. The outpost and region became New Mexico in 1850 after the Mexican-American War. In the late 1890s artists began to flock to Taos and establish an art colony. Taos was incorporated in 1934 and in 1940 had a population of 965. Two years before R. Dean Taylor released his single, Taos, New Mexico had a population of around 2,500.
“Taos New Mexico” peaked at #4 in Vancouver (BC).
45 picture sleeve
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Dean Musical Trivia
– Only two songs are listed in the 45Cat database about the city of Taos and both are by artists named Dean: Eddie Dean & R. Dean Taylor.
– R. Dean Taylor’s scheduled first single (March 1964) for Berry Gordy’s V.I.P. label was the novelty Beatle protest tune, “My Ladybug (Stay Away From That Beatle),” but it was deemed too weak for release and remained unissued – until 2001 CD anthology, R. Dean Taylor: The Essential Collection.
