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Music – Bouncing along in 6/8 time unlike anything on “Tapestry,” the album’s title song provides leaving plenty of room for tenor sax player Curtis Amy to stretch out, demonstrating that King is more than comfortable letting her accompanists do their thing.

January 5, 2023 - The brand new feature-length concert documentary “ Home Again: Carole King Live In Central Park,” which presents musical icon Carole King’s triumphant May 26, 1973 homecoming concert on The Great Lawn of New York City’s Central Park before an estimated audience of 100,000, will premiere January 19 at New York’s IFC Film Center via Abramorama. The film will then be released wide on February 9 (also King’s birthday) streaming exclusively on The Coda Collection. Directed by George Scott and produced by Lou Adler and John McDermott, the film presents the complete multi-camera 16mm footage filmed and recorded by Adler in 1973 but never before released. I’ll be honest that the song of hers I’ve heard the most is Where You Lead as the Gilmore Girls theme – the version she sings with her daughter. How many hours have I spent sitting on the couch with my mom harmonising to that song? It’s a tradition we’ve carried on a few times during quarantine over the phone. Born as Carole King Klein in 1942, the New York-born and raised singer-songwriter first learned how to play the piano when she was still a small child. It was discovered by her parents her ability to identify a musical note with precision without an actual reference tone to go on. This rare talent was instrumental in shaping the young lady to become who the world knows better today as Carole King. At seventeen years of age, Carole King wed Gerry Goffin and had her first child, Louise Goffin. This was shortly after her first studio recording, The Right Girl, which was used as a promotional song at the time. After the couple quit college to support their child, it wasn’t long before both King and Coffin engaged in full-time songwriting. By 1968, the couple divorced and King, who was now making a name for herself as a singer and songwriter, took what were now two daughters with her to California. This move ultimately carved out a path for Carole King to evolve into one of the most beloved songstresses of all time. I also have to mention the cat on the cover. It may sound trivial, but that was the most “me” I’d ever seen on a record cover, and maybe opened up the possibility that a person could be humble and modest and human rather than superhuman, and be a triumphant musician. Bethany Cosentino, Best Coast King, producer Lou Adler and Taylor in Los Angeles during sessions for Tapestry in 1970. Photograph: Jim McCrary/Redferns Stephin Merritt, the Magnetic FieldsOn February 10, a live album, Home Again, will be released digital ly via Ode Records and Legacy Recordings, the catalog division of Sony Music Entertainment. Pre-save the album here . Tapestry is performed and produced without pretence. You can hear clearly the subtle twists and turns of the chord progressions, the nuanced choices in harmony. Those vocal harmonies at the end of It’s Too Late and the bridge on Beautiful! Is it wrong to pine for songs of such quality? Songs allowed to shine through as they are, unadorned and utterly remarkable. I think you could make a pretty good case that Carole King and Gerry Goffin were the best popular songwriters of the last half of the 20th century. I love Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow. Everything she sings is deeply felt. Sharon Van Etten When I listened to Tapestry from my mom’s CD collection, I was young enough that it didn’t register as good or bad – it just defined what music sounded like to me, and it’s still a foundation of how I understand songwriting. She’s clever in the good way – queen of internal rhyme – and I love how her melodies reinforce the tone of the lyrics. She keeps it simple, but that’s what makes it universal.

But you won’t find mention of “Music” in the hit Broadway musical about King’s life, “Beautiful,” nor in American Masters’ biographical film, Carole King: Natural Woman . Hell, you won’t even find it in King’s own memoir, the similarly titled “A Natural Woman,” in which she writes about “Tapestry” and the subsequent tour she played that year, then skips right over “Music” to the next chapter of her life. King in Lou Adler’s office holding the four Grammys she won for Tapestry in 1971. Photograph: Jim McCrary/Redferns Recently I went on a little excursion into Carole King's early '70s discography because I wanted to sort out why the same singer/songwriter who made Tapestry only seems to be remembered for the one album and the songs she wrote that were hits for other people. In doing so I hit upon a couple of discoveries and theories which I will relate to you now: Holden, Stephen (1973-08-02). "Carole King: Fantasy: Music Review". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on 2008-05-15.

8. Pearls: Songs of Goffin and King

Carole King ... ‘My life has been a tapestry.’ Photograph: Jim McCrary/Ode Records / Lou Adler Archive Ken Yerke, Barry Socher, Sheldon Sanov, Haim Shtrum, Kathleen Lenski, Miwako Watanabe, Glenn Dicterow, Polly Sweeney, Robert Lipsett, Gordon Marron - violin Carole King performing in London in 1970. Photograph: Gijsbert Hanekroot/Redferns MC Taylor, Hiss Golden Messenger New film features exclusive interviews & never before seen performance footage from her landmark 1973 concert on Central Park's famed Great Lawn.

Tapestry was the most important record of its time. I won’t qualify it by saying female, songwriter or any of that. It signalled the country and the people’s desire to have a simple and beautiful song to sing. With Carole King, matters of personality and the adoration of the star are set aside. She is first a working woman. Her hit You’ve Got a Friend was written for Gerry, who had mental illness, to let him know that even though she may not be by his side, she was always on his side. I know nothing about the two of them except this: they wrote great songs, and the culture that I call mine is shaped in part by the music they wrote while Carole was still just a kid.It’s Going To Take Some Time – Co-written with King’s writing partner on the smash hit “It’s Too Late,” Toni Stern, “It’s Going To Take Some Time” contains not only a lovely instrumental passage featuring the aforementioned celeste, but also a melody that is likeable right off the bat. If you don’t believe it, just ask The Carpenters, who had a Top 20 hit with it when they covered the song in 1972. Tapestry is part of the American songbook. I heard those songs even before I knew who she was. I love that book Girls Like Us, a trio of biographies of Joni Mitchell, Carly Simon and Carole King and the story behind Tapestry. The record before it [1970’s Writer] hadn’t performed that well, so she had it in her head that this one had to be great. She was meditating a lot. She was probably in some mental-spiritual prime, and then when she realised what fame entailed she was like: “No way.” She cared more about her personal life. I first heard of Carole King when I was about 16. James Taylor brought her to the attention of the wider world when he asked her to open for him in 1971. But the truth is I had been listening to her most of my life, through the voices of the many women and men who recorded her music.