Taylor wrote "Long Ago and Far Away" in 1970, about a year before it was recorded for Mud Slide Slim. Joni Mitchell sings background vocals and Carole King plays piano. It is a sad song that Taylor biographer Timothy White calls "among the most wistful of Taylor's vast catalogue of secular hymns." The theme of the song is how things don't turn out as planned, how dreams don't usually match the ultimate reality and how expectations don't last. The lyrics describe a young man whose dreams have not come true. The lyrics evoke a motif common in Taylor's songs, that of the sea and sailing away for one reason or another. Other images in the lyrics include "tender dreams" and "broken glass." Towards the end of the song the singer asks why his song is so sad. The phrase "long ago and far away" never appears in the lyrics. Rather, Taylor sings that "Long ago a young man sits and plays his waiting game." In 1998 Taylor noted that the lyrics in the second verse "Love is just a word I've heard when things are being said" was the "most coherent" part of the song for him at that time, stating that "it is a musing on the nature of expectations, and how they don't last. Critic Al Rudis notes a resemblance between some of the melody of "Long Ago and Far Away" and that of "Sunny Skies," a song from Taylor's prior album Sweet Baby James. Journalist Peggy Mulloy Glad regards it as an example of how Taylor can use his vocal and guitar playing to "communicate the pain, melancholy and desires that most people experience but few can express." Musicologist James Perone explains that one of Taylor's means of achieving this is that "some of the melodic notes touch and linger on the upper extensions of the chords. He explains that this may be heard as mild dissonances, which may imply sadness. The dissonances also give the song a jazz feel, which is enhanced by Danny Kortchmar's conga-playing. Perone also points out that the song uses many chords that include notes beyond the standard three-note triad.
Reception
Author Dave Thompson described the song as "slight." But Rudis considers it a "nice dreamy number." Author Ian Halperin regards it as the most daring song on Mud Slide Slim. Thirteen years after its initial release, critic Doug Robinson called it a "lesser known gem." Rolling Stone Album Guide critic Mark Coleman considered it the one song on Mud Slide Slim that wasn't sappy or flaccid. Taylor himself considers it "a sentimental song, but good." "Long Ago and Far Away" reached number 31 on the Billboard Hot 100 and reached number 4 on the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart. It reached number 12 in Canada, as well as number 9 on the Canadian Adult Contemporary chart.
"Long Ago and Far Away" was included on the compilation albumsThe Best of James Taylor and The Essential James Taylor. A live recording opens the album James Taylor Live in Rio. New York Voices covered "Long Ago and Far Away" on the 2001 album Sketches of James: Selection from the James Taylor Songbook. Johnny Mathis covered the song on his 1971 album You've Got a Friend. Mathis also released his version as a single. Billboard Magazine described Mathis' version, produced by Richard Perry, as a "ballad beauty" delivered "in top form."
