Dave Simpson and Laura Snapes in The Guardian have interviewed a variety of people today about Carole King’s ‘Tapestry’ album as it’s now 50 years old, and there are some really interesting takes on it, including commentary from Randy Newman, Hiss Golden Messenger and Margo Price among others. Lucinda Williams said of the record: “I would have just turned 18 when Tapestry came out, when I was really being influenced by singers and songwriters. Carole King was an inspiration. She was a woman, and she wrote amazing songs – so you’d learn by listening to It’s Too Late or whatever, over and over. She set the stage for other singer-songwriters who came along after her, because there wasn’t a market yet and the industry didn’t know what to do with us.” And James Taylor commented: “She started writing by herself, about herself – that is to say, from her own life. It came out of her so strong, so fierce and fresh. So clearly in her own voice. And yet, so immediately accessible, so familiar: you knew these songs already.” You can read the whole piece over at the Guardian website here.
This. My Dad bought it as my Christmas present the year I became 11.
Not the first record that dealt with adult feelings, but certainly the first that spoke of what it was to be an adult woman, with all her desires and emotionel ambitions, doubts and fears. Revealing themselves in equal measures of joy and pain as I grew into womanhood.
Endless hours listening to the music and dissecting the lyrics, carefully choreographed dancing to it with my sister Liz. Crying and jumping around the living room. The soundtrack to all my pre-teen and teenage selves, Carole had the words and music for them.
Eventually superceded by Joni’s Blue, but like a first love or an old and trusted friend, it has deep importance for me.
Still regularly part of our family gatherings, woven into the complex tapestry of our years together and apart. A comfort and a pleasure, timeless.
Happy 50th Anniversary. Thank you Carole King.