Happy 50th Anniversary to Carole King’s second studio album Tapestry, originally released February 10, 1971.
Carole King's Tapestry is the second album in her illustrious career. It has consistently been placed in many top 100 greatest albums of all time. Before it was released, King was primarily known as a songwriter who wrote hit songs for many acts. Along with her then-husband, Gerry Goffin, they wrote "The Loco-Motion" by Little Eva, The Shirelles' "Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow," and The Monkees' "Pleasant Valley Sunday." But their most famous composition was "(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman" by the Queen of Soul, Aretha Franklin.
King herself was a performer in the early sixties, releasing a couple of singles that were not as successful as those she wrote for other people. By 1966, she put a halt to her recording career to concentrate on songwriting. In 1968, King made a decision that changed her life entirely but influenced the way singer-songwriters were perceived.
Divorced from Goffin, she and her two daughters moved to Laurel Canyon in Los Angeles, which at the time was a hotbed of musical creativity. King was among other artists like Joni Mitchell and James Taylor, forming a great singer-songwriter community.
King created a partnership with lyricist Toni Stern, and they eventually wrote: "It's Too Late." She also revived her recording career by forming a band called The City with Danny Kortchmar on guitar and vocals and Charles Larkey on bass. He would eventually become her second husband. They recorded one album with producer Lou Adler called Now That Everything's Been Said, but King's reluctance to tour hurt its sales, and the group disbanded.
Adler was not available to produce King's debut album Writer (1970) and it suffered without his skilled hand in the booth. It's a good album that was saved by King's immense talent and extraordinary songwriting. Adler did helm Tapestry, and the production was vastly different.
The vulnerability in King's performance makes Tapestry such an easy listen. The album was recorded in January 1971 at A&M Recording Studios simultaneously as Taylor recorded his album Mud Slide Slim and the Blue Horizon. Several of the studio musicians played on both albums, Taylor and Mitchell contributed backing vocals. There was so much cross-pollination on these records, Taylor wound up recording "You've Got a Friend" as well.
King's Tapestry changed the game for female singer-songwriters, shattering the paint-by-the-numbers rule book. The Village Voice's Robert Christgau wrote in his review of the album, "King has done for the female voice what countless singer-composers achieved years ago for the male: liberated it from technical decorum. She insists on being heard as she is--not raunchy and hot-to-trot or sweet and be-yoo-ti-ful, just human, with all the cracks and imperfections that implies." There is something magical about hearing King interpret her own work. The raw intimacy and emotion in "It's Too Late" make it one of the best breakup songs ever written.
King received GRAMMY awards for Album of the Year, Best Female Pop Vocal Performance, Record of the Year ("It's Too Late"), and Song of the Year ("You've Got a Friend"). Tapestry's lasting power is nothing short of amazing. When I was a clerk at Tower Records Lincoln Center in the mid-eighties, we couldn't keep enough copies of it. There wasn't a week that went by without me seeing someone purchase Tapestry. Only The Dark Side of the Moon spent more weeks on the Billboard album charts.
King is one of the greatest living songwriters and Tapestry is just one of many reasons why.
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