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.

My only wish in life is for James Taylor's singing to not be laggy on this jumbotron.

— Joe (@Mantoshak) January 21, 2013

James Taylor sounds like he's playing on someone's old vinyl back on the jumbotron. Does it sound any better at home?

— Tyler Waldman (@aresef) January 21, 2013

Our jumbotron was ridic at inauguration. Listen to James Taylor song like a robot. Haha youtube.com/watch?v=Efufbl…

— Camille Harris (@camillevic) January 22, 2013

Our Jumbotron?

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

Reach this writer at michaelb@motherboard.tv