At the Inauguration, James Taylor Turned ‘America the Beautiful’ into Bizarre Avant-Garde Noise Rock

To think I’ve always considered myself a James Taylor hater, aka someone that enjoys music. Never knew he had such an, uh, “experimental” side, capable of turning “America the Beautiful” into a glitchy anthem of unease for a nation in its twilight. Forget about Beyonce’s lip-synched reality distortion. This is stirring. 

Of course, it’s really a wonky Jumbotron cutting in and out, but the net effect is still pretty cool and way better than listening to James Taylor straight up. Take a note, sir. 

In its peculiar event-distorting qualities, it reminds a bit of the 2009 inauguration’s open-mic incident, in which the idle chatter of various luminaries was projected to the confused backlines of the crowd. Inaugurations, at least the last two, are amazingly seamful/imperfect events, which somehow makes the whole thing a bit more surreal actually. 

Twitter enjoyed it as well, naturally.

Our Jumbotron?

Update: Beyonce also managed to join the devilish jumbotron fail:

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