Walking Man

The "walking man" is James Taylor's father, Ike. The peripatetic Ike Taylor graduated from Harvard Medical School and became a lieutenant commander in the United States Navy. He and Trudy Taylor had five children in a span of six years, settling in North Carolina. In the mid-'50s, when James was about seven years old, Ike was called away for military service (which he had deferred for medical school), and then he volunteered for a mission setting up bases in Antarctica. When he returned home, Ike had a hard time making the transition back to domestic life, and he was emotionally distant. In 1972, he and Trudy got divorced. Ike Taylor, who died in 1996 at age 75, was the subject of a few other James Taylor songs, including "Only For Me" and "Jump Up Behind Me."

This is the title track to Taylor's fifth album, released in 1974. Walking Man didn't contain any hits, but Taylor still made the charts that year with a cover of "Mockingbird," his duet with wife Carly Simon that hit #5 US.