Watch James Taylor Sing ‘Fire and Rain and Calzones’ With Stephen Colbert
James Taylor visited The Late Show Wednesday to debut an updated version of his classic “Fire and Rain” with Stephen Colbert. “I consider my songs to be living things; they’re always growing. For example, I’m still working on ‘Fire and Rain,'” Taylor said. “The thing is, I wrote that song in 1970, I just hadn’t seen that much back then, mostly fire and rain. So that’s why I keep saying it over and over again since then.” Taylor explained that, over the ensuing decades, he’s updated the song to include all the things he’s encountered, such as skinny jeans, Fifty Shades of Grey, Snakes on a Plane and especially calzones.
Taylor and Colbert then performed their “Fire and Rain and Calzones” together. “I’ve seen fire and I’ve rain / I’ve seen the rise and fall of the Beanie Babies trend / I’ve seen man buns, MySpace and the Baha Men / But I never thought I’d see a new Star Wars again,” Taylor sings on his new version.
Taylor joked that he had 75 more verses of things he’s seen since “Fire and Rain,” but Colbert cuts the rendition short as the commercial break nears. “I’ve seen toast that’s multigrain. I’ve seen almost every episode of Friends. I’ve seen adult diapers, I think they’re called Depends / But I never saw that show with the Olsen twins,” Taylor adds. “It’s called Full House,” the host noted.