Carole King - Tapestry

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Free Music Notes for Tapestry

Free Music Review: Caroles everlasting tapestry with a rich and royal hue
Hit: 5 Stars

"So Far Away" is a slow, thoughtful, introspective song, well, "one more song about the highway" asking "doesn't anybody stay in one place any more?" Carole is on piano, and her friend James Taylor on guitar.

Then comes the Grammy-winner "It's Too Late" which is basically about how two people tried, but "something inside has died," and all from being "light and breezy" down to "look[ing] so unhappy." The key here is that something inside happened to one of the party, "or maybe we've just both stopped trying." Gloria Estefan covered this on her cover songs album, Hold Me Thrill Me.

One of my favourites here is "Home Again," about wanting to return home and having someone to talk to after being on the road. If Carole King was my psychiatrist, she'd give me an F for not following the mindset adopted in "Beautiful." She's clearly wondered why people are always sad but she believes that one is as beautiful as one feels. In that case, I'm ugly down to the bone at times. However, she comes up with an answer: "maybe love can end the madness/maybe not, oh, but we can only try." I'm still skeptical at her belief that a smile will get people to treat you better.

"Way Over Yonder" is a search for a true utopia without troubles, a place of "the sweet tasting good life." The sun shining down is nice, with the rivers of honey having some biblical connotations. "A garden of wisdom from long ago dream", huh? When's the next train?

The universally ever-inspiring "You've Got A Friend" would definitely have a place in my top 100 songs. This came out the same year as James Taylor's version. Apart from Carole's piano and Taylor's guitar, there's an accompanying string quartet. Ofra Haza did a cover of this on her last album but it didn't top this rendition. The words of the chorus are immortal, but my mind latches on to this particular verse: "Ain't it good to know that you've got a friend/when people can be so cold/they'll hurt you and desert you/and take your soul if you let them/oh, but don't you let them."

"Where you lead I will follow" goes the chorus on "Where You Lead" on this nice number on emotional fealty. Simple but comforting lyrics.

The oft-covered "Will You Love Me Tomorrow", originally done by the Shirelles, is done in a mellowed piano ballad, again with help on guitar by James Taylor, without the polish and extra sugar of the original.

The most uptempo song here is "Smackwater Jack" of someone who loses his head and shoots down the people in a church, only to be captured by a posse, but is hung instead of being brought to trial. While I note her belief in law and order and the injustice of justice without trial, I wonder if King embodies more traditional values. What would today's society think of "You can't talk to a man with a shotgun in his hand?" And if one thinks about it, isn't that the mentality which the US had in Iraq last March? The live version, one of two bonus tracks for the remaster, isn't bad.

It's only Carole here on piano with the title track, where she uses a tapestry as a metaphor for her life and that of a man of fortune whose ups and downs she sees in that tapestry. There's a degree of sadness when the tapestry unravels, just as the song starts to end. She does her own take of "(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman", making it less brassy than Aretha Franklin's rendition.

With a sound that matches the rest of Tapestry, the bonus song "Out In The Cold" is a nice afterthought which doesn't spoil an album that's one of the most popular of all time.

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