James Taylor: New Tune Meaning

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New Tune Lyrics

"New Tune"

It's written in the surface of her skin, there's been a baby there, given away in love.
I see it in the little lines around her eyes, across her brow.
She'll be drifting away from me now.
She'll shape all the feeling that's...

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anonymous
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Apr 16th 2020 !⃝
I always loved the New Tune lyrics but had difficulty figuring them out (common with James Taylor lyrics back then and he was not offering suggestions, advising people to listen to the songs as they were about his life). It seemed obvious to me that it was always about a woman who had given birth to a child. I never thought about Joni Mitchell but I did find out that she had a daughter whom she gave away as she believed, as I interpreted it, her lifestyle could not accommodate the needs of a child. She reunited with her daughter many years later. Joni and James were good friends but I have seen nothing to suggest James was the father. Carly Simon is not the new mother as he and her children were born well after the release on One Man Dog in 1972.
anonymous
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Apr 12th 2015 !⃝
I believe it was written about Joni Mitchell, when they were on the cusp of breaking up.

She had had a baby that was not publicly known about, years before.

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