Tapestry

King, Carole

album cover

Still Capable of Moving the Earth

The copyright date on nine of the twelve songs of Carole King's Tapestry reads 1971, the year the album was released. Theoretically, it's possible that some of these accounts of frazzled road-damaged romance were written years before and kept on the shelf. But the prolific King—who in the '60s cowrote such incandescent blasts as Little Eva's "The Loco-Motion" and the Aretha Franklin hit "(You Make Me Feel like) A Natural Woman" with her then-husband Gerry Goffin—had issued her first solo album, the erratic Writer, the year before. She probably wouldn't have held back anything great on purpose.

That means the core songs of the biggestselling album of the '70s, and the East Coast's best answer to all the singer-songwriter strumming California was exporting at the time, came together quickly, in a matter of months. That might not seem so terribly impressive until you stop to really savor the songs in question: "I Feel the Earth Move," "So Far Away," "It's Too Late," "Home Again," "Beautiful," "Way Over Yonder," "You've Got a Friend," "Where You Lead," "Smackwater Jack," and "Tapestry." Individually, these are delicate, sophisticated, and effortlessly beautiful pop odes. Each is rich in backstory and loaded with interpersonal tension. Each has at least one sturdy, splendid melody (often several). And each is brought to an aching place by King's matter-of-fact delivery. Any one of them would make a normal tunesmith's year. So many, in such close proximity, qualifies Tapestry as one of the most extravagant bundles ever dropped by a generous muse.

Genre: Pop
Released: 1971, Ode
Key Tracks: "I Feel the Earth Move," "So Far Away," "Beautiful," "You've Got a Friend."
Catalog Choice: Rhymes and Reasons.
Next Stop: Bread: The Best of Bread
After That: Norah Jones: Not Too Late.
Book Pages: 426–427