"The Official" Carole King Thread

[Soot and Stars]

Carole King

I was looking back into my Bill Withers thread and trying to think of a worthy classic rock artist to try and get some conversation going about. I was thinking who's somebody that had a lot of influence but people seem to have forgotten about. Who deserves a thread but has nothing in their name here. Well, being in a soul mood I thought, Carole King.

I'm no expert on Carole King but I heard her enough through my Mom where I bought:

Tapestry

This c.d. was very influential. I think I could go breathless thinking of the female artist who were inspire by this album. Carole was a great songwriter and these songs really reached people in a way that doesn't happen often and they still live on today as fresh as they were written. Any soul artist could cover them and have a hit. Now, I know it's very female geared, hell if the Lifetime Network wanted a c.d. as their mascot this'd be it, but music especially music with soul is universal. I dig it. I respect her. Here are some standout tracks:

So Far Away


It's Too Late


I Feel The Earth Move


I'll let you guys fill this out but I wanted to get the ball rolling.

 

[Dave78]

If you were into the singer/songwriter genre back in the 70's, Carole King was among those artists such as James Taylor, Carly Simon, Loggins & Messina, Cat Stevens, Joni Mitchell and Jackson Brown whose albums were in your collection.

Tapestry was her signature album to own, but she also had great hits with "Jazzman", "Corazon" and "Been To Canaan" which still hold up more than 35 years later.

 

[rtbuck]

I just picked up her new live cd with James Taylor & it's phenominal. She also released a live album in the 90's & Slash played guitar on 1 or 2 tracks. She wrote a bunch of songs in the 60's such as Little Eva's (& Grand Funk) "Locomotion" & Hermans Hermits "I'm into Something Good"

 

[LG]

Tapestry is the only Carole King CD I own, I have heard the new CD with JT is very very good too, but I haven't picked up a copy yet.

 

[Astrid Kirchherr65]

Love Carole King !!!

Did you know the song 'oh Carole' by Neil Sedaka was about her ?
They were friends and students together at QUEENS COLLEGE ....


anyway i love most of her music.
Great lyrics and musician

heres her with James Taylor singing my favorite

SO FAR AWAY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=urt2cy7AqFs

 

[Soot and Stars]

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Gorgeous version Astrid!

O.K. guys! What was her original connection to James Taylor. I just know her music and figured you guys could fill in the history. I thought James main connection was Carly Simon. Where does Carole fit into that?

 

[LG]

Sorry Sooty I know JT was married to Carly Simon, but other than touring with Carole King and sharing a similar style of music I don't know if there is any connection between the two except longevity in the business, and mutual respect between Carole and him.

I just played "Sweet Baby James" yesterday, you might like that album Sooty, I feel it is his best.

Bucky might be able to answer your question, I would have to look it up so I'll let a real expert tackle that one.

 

[rtbuck]

Actually, King played piano on the 'Sweet Baby James' album & I think that's probably when their collaboration began. Taylor also scored a big hit in the early 70's with King's "You've Got a Friend". As I said King wrote & co-wrote some great classic rock & roll songs so by the time she hooked up with Taylor she was well established in the music industry. I don't know when or how they hooked up but I would imagine her name value was a reason for the collaboration.

A few other songs she was involved in writing were:

Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow
Pleasant Valley Sunday
Up on the Roof
Don't Bring Me Down
One Fine Day

 

[Astrid Kirchherr65]

Actually, King played piano on the 'Sweet Baby James' album & I think that's probably when their collaboration began. Taylor also scored a big hit in the early 70's with King's "You've Got a Friend". As I said King wrote & co-wrote some great classic rock & roll songs so by the time she hooked up with Taylor she was well established in the music industry. I don't know when or how they hooked up but I would imagine her name value was a reason for the collaboration.

A few other songs she was involved in writing were:

Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow
Pleasant Valley Sunday
Up on the Roof
Don't Bring Me Down
One Fine Day

Yes , Carole was a songwriter for one of the early recording companies..along with Neil Sedaka as I mentioned above...

She traveled in the Ny SoHo folk era with Taylor, Carly Simon, Paul Simon ,etc which was a huge community in the late 60's early 70's

 

[LG]

^^And here are two of the experts I was talkin' about.

Thanks for the info Bucky and Astrid folk was never my strong suit musically speaking.