And I always felt rather bad about the line, 'The plans they made put an end to you,' because 'they' only meant 'ye gods', or basically 'The Fates'. That's why the 'They let me know you were gone' line came up. I didn't find out until some six months after it happened. But Richard and Joel and Margaret were excited for me having this record deal and making this album, and when Susie killed herself they decided not to tell me about it until later because they didn't want to shake me up. All three of them were really close to Susie Schnerr. At the time I was living with Margaret, and Richard was around a lot and so was Joel O'Brien. James goes on: 'But she committed suicide sometime later while I was over in London.

Susie was a friend of Flying Machine drummer Joel 'Bishop' O'Brien. They met while James was in Greenwich Village. She was a kid, like all of us.' The two mental institutions James stayed in were in Massachusetts, so they did not meet there. Anyway, from James' own mouth: 'I knew Suzanne well in New York, and we used to hang out together and we used to get high together I think she came from Long Island. I guess that's the effect of a truly powerful song - people will let it mean what they want. The interviews are a few decades old, so it's funny that the legends still persist. Both quote James from a few interviews where he's explained the songs.

Timothy White's excellent James Taylor biography 'Long Ago and Far Away' and Joel Risberg's 'The James Taylor Encyclopedia' both make it pretty clear what the song is about. General CommentIt's so funny that the legends of this song still persist. Thought I'd see you, thought I'd see you, fire and rain, now There's just a few things coming my way this time around, now Sweet dreams and flying machines in pieces on the groundД«ut I always thought that I'd see you, baby, one more time again, now Well, there's hours of time on the telephone line to talk about things to come Lord knows when the cold wind blows it'll turn your head around Seen sunny days that I thought would never endД«een walking my mind to an easy time, my back turned towards the sun You've just got to see me through another day I've seen lonely times when I could not find a friendД«ut I always thought that I'd see you again

I've seen sunny days that I thought would never end I walked out this morning and I wrote down this song Suzanne, the plans they made put an end to you Just yesterday morning, they let me know you were gone

I see fire music with words