15 Facts About Shooby Taylor

On September 19,1929, Shooby Taylor was born in Indiana Township, Pennsylvania, a month before the Great Depression.

In March of 1931, at the age of 18 months, Shooby Taylor moved to Harlem, New York City, where he spent the majority of his life.

Circa 1947, as an 18-year-old, Shooby Taylor was drafted into the Army, and he wished to enter as a medic.

Shooby Taylor overcame his alcoholism with Alcoholics Anonymous and Christian beliefs.

Bill of Rights, Shooby Taylor began studying at the Hartnett National Music Studio on 46th Street and 8th Ave in New York; his major was saxophone and his minor was in singing.

Shooby Taylor performed at Harlem clubs and in Greenwich Village jam sessions, emulating the vocal style of Babs Gonzales; Gonzalez was Shooby Taylor's idol as a teenager.

Shooby Taylor's pension allowed him to devote his time to music, making numerous home recordings.

In 1983, Shooby Taylor briefly appeared on the show Amateur Night at the Apollo, but was booed off the stage after roughly twenty seconds.

Shooby Taylor was an exciting character, someone you were drawn to right away.

In 1992, Shooby Taylor moved to a senior complex in Newark, New Jersey.

In 2000, two of Shooby Taylor's songs, covers of "Stout-Hearted Men" and "Lift Every Voice and Sing", were released as part of the outsider music compilation album Songs in the Key of Z, leading to further recognition.

Shooby Taylor died on June 4,2003, at the VA Hospital in East Orange, New Jersey, at the age of 73.

In 2005, Shooby Taylor made a posthumous appearance on a split 7-inch EP by Xiu Xiu and The Dead Science.

In 2017, a posthumous compilation of Shooby Taylor's work, entitled The Human Horn, was digitally released under the Songs in the Key of Z label.

In 2019, Shooby Taylor was the subject of a BBC Radio 4 broadcast by Adam Buxton.