Songfacts®:

• James isn't the only Taylor to write a song about growing up in North Carolina. His younger brother, Livingston Taylor, wrote "Carolina Day" when he was just 16. The song deals with their upbringing in Chapel Hill, and mentions all four of his siblings: James, Alex, Hugh and Kate. The song also mentions Alex' wife, Brent, and Livingston's childhood friend, Louis.
• In 1970, this was released on Taylor's first album, his only one on Capricorn Records. Released as a single, it charted for two weeks in February 1971, peaking at #93. Livingston never reached the great heights of his brother, but that's fine with him: his career was just as long and he never had to deal with the crushing forces of fame. "You never want to be recognized walking around," he said in a Songfacts interview. "Your anonymity is very important."
• "James is becoming a star," Livingston sings here. James Taylor's first album was released on the Beatles' label, Apple Records, two years earlier. His first single was "Carolina In My Mind," but it wasn't until his second album, released in 1970 after leaving Apple, that his career took off thanks to the hit "Fire and Rain."
• Logan airport in Boston gets a mention in the line, "On a plane out of Logan, up pops a slogan."
  
  "I don't know why I wrote that," Livingston told Songfacts in 2018. "I Just liked the rhyme of 'slogan' and 'Logan.' That sort of thing would worry me hopelessly today - I would not be able to write a lyric that was as unresolved as that."