Album of the Day
Album of the Day
Carole King — Tapestry (50th Anniversary) — 1971
Carole King — Tapestry (50th Anniversary) — 1971
Carole King
Tapestry
1971
An artist is rarely part of one music movement … rarer is to be part of two … and rarer still is creating a genre-defining album in the later.
But then, not every artist is Carole King.
With her then-husband, Gerry Goffin, they were two of the many writers installed at the famed Brill Building in the early ’60s.
Goffin-King songs defined a large chunk of the ’60s and included:
“The Loco-Motion” (hits for — Little Eva, Grand Funk Railroad, and Kylie Minogue)
“One Fine Day” (the Chiffons)
“Up On the Roof” (hits for the Drifters and later James Taylor)
“(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman” (Aretha Franklin)
“Pleasant Valley Sunday” (the Monkees)
They wrote so many hits that in 1963 John Lennon quipped that he and Paul McCartney “wanted to be the Goffin-King of England.”
King’s divorce from Gerry Coffin coincided with the music business's shift from the Henry Ford method of writing songs employed in the Brill Building to something more intimate and personal.
Carole King left New York City and headed west.
In 1968, Laurel Canyon was the growing Mecca of singer/songwriters. Residents included David Crosby, Joni Mitchell, Graham Nash, The Beach Boys genius Brian Wilson, Mickey Dolenz and Peter Tork of The Monkees, Frank Zappa, Jackson Browne, Jim Morrison, et al.
By the time King arrived, the scene was a hotbed of creativity. King became so embedded in Laurel Canyon that Joni Mitchell gave it a shout-out on her third album, Ladies of the Canyon.
Arguably, Tapestry would come to define both the Laurel Canyon sound and much of the sound of the ‘70s.
She then recorded her first solo album, Writer, in 1970 with friend James Taylor playing guitar and providing background vocals.
Writer peaked at #84 on the Billboard Top 200.
As we all know, the scars of a failed relationship can last a lifetime. And Tapestry opens with a three-song cycle that has the arc of any failed relationship.
The opening piano intro to “I Feel the Earth Move” is one of the most recognizable music pieces. It beats in the same way your heart does when you first meet someone special. The someone who makes your stomach drop and heart skip a beat.”
I feel the earth move under my feet
I feel the sky tumbling down
I feel my heart start to tremble
Whenever you’re around
The next song, “So Far Away,” is the collapse of a relationship. It could be for any reason: work, school, travel, physical or emotional distance, whatever it is, your lover is no longer next to you. This song details the ache of being in love but not together:
So far away
Doesn’t anybody stay in one place anymore
It would be so fine to see your face at my door
Doesn’t help to know you’re just time away
Long ago I reached for you and there you stood
Holding you again could only do me good
Oh, how I wish I could
But you’re so far away
Then, the final movement in this three-song love cycle, “It’s Too Late.” The relationship is over:
Stayed in bed all mornin’ just to pass the time
There’s somethin’ wrong here, there can be no denyin’
One of us is changin’, or maybe we’ve just stopped tryin’
And it’s too late, baby now, it’s too late
Though we really did try to make it
Somethin’ inside has died, and I can’t hide
And I just can’t fake it, oh, no, no
If you’ve been in love and broken up, then you know this arc.
Tori Amos said:
“Her songs are like stories or sonic movies. You want to walk into them. With ‘I Feel the Earth Move’ or ‘It’s Too Late’, you’re right there.”
Tapestry's songs drop the esotericism of love and reveal the universality of emotions that accompany the feeling.
But love isn’t all doom and gloom on Tapestry.
On “Beautiful,” King lets you know that once all that heartache is over, and it always is, you can’t give up on love. But like most things, it’s all on you:
I have often asked myself the reason for sadness
In a world where tears are just a lullaby
If there’s any answer, maybe love can end the madness
Maybe not, oh, but we can only try
You’ve got to get up every morning
With a smile in your face
And show the world all the love in your heart
Then people gonna treat you better
You’re gonna find, yes you will
That you’re beautiful
You’re beautiful
You’re beautiful as you feel
In recording Tapestry, King wrote new songs and reached into her back pocket to reinterpret some of her earlier compositions. One of those songs was “Will You Love Me Tomorrow,” a #1 hit for The Shirelles in 1960.
The difference between King’s version and The Shirelles is the difference between love and loss, naivete and knowledge, hope and resignation.
The Shirelles sing with a sense of hope that only first love can bring. That moment when two people give the most valuable thing, the only thing they have to offer — their bodies.
Carole King’s version lacks the buoyancy of the original. King’s version here is the voice of innocence lost and replaced by age and resignation. Yet still hopeful, knowing the potential of what could lay ahead.
Having the ability to make yourself vulnerable to love and loss experiences is not something everyone is willing to do. Thankfully, we have artists like Carole King to sort through their own wreckage and share some common insight.
Revealing her vulnerability and ability to express that across the emotional spectrum so adroitly as King does here on Tapestry would set the template for singer/songwriters for decades. In fact, it’s still going strong.
No Carole King … no Taylor Swift. Might it have been someone else? Maybe. But it wasn’t. It was Carole King. And it's what makes Tapestry one of the musical masterpieces of the 20th century.
In 2003, the National Recording Registry determined that Tapestry was added to the Library of Congress as deemed “culturally, historically, or aesthetically important.”
Upon release, Tapestry was universally applauded. Future Bruce Springsteen manager, but then Rolling Stone rock critic Jon Landau said in his review that King was one of the most creative music figures and Tapestry was an album “surpassing personal-intimacy and musical accomplishment.”
Tapestry — noun: a piece of thick textile fabric with pictures or designs formed by weaving colored threads or embroidering on canvas, used as a wall hanging or furniture covering.
Tapestry is a sonic representation of this thing we call “life.” In each of her songs, she covers all the things that help provide a full life: falling in love, out of love, friendship, experiences, characters, but mostly love.
It is love that would be the thematic substratum that would define the “California Sound” of the ’70s.
Throughout her career, Carole King has been one of the most feminine voices in music. But make no mistake, King was no pushover or wallflower. In a masculine industry, King set a songwriting standard the transcended gender and created an unparalleled career, regardless of gender.
Tapestry wasn’t just an album when released; it was a clarion call that everyone is vulnerable in love. And as Carole King proves here, you can fall in and out of love and be vulnerable without losing your identity.
[Fun Fact: For the trivia-minded, that’s her cat, Telemachus, at her feet on the cover.]