May 25th – Don’t know what it is about her, but Carole king
has been a woman in my musical consciousnesses for a great many years and,
unusually for me, this has nothing to do with her looks…as I mentioned way back
in January when I first started this daily verbiage, what I write often doesn't
show me up in a particularly pretty light; I am, after all, just a chap. Not
that she wasn't or indeed isn't an attractive lass, not at all, but I have to say, honestly,
is that what first grabbed me about her was her song writing abilities.
Even I, a guttersnipe from the gravel
beds of Wolverhampton , was startled by the
brutal honesty of, Will You Still Love Me
Tomorrow? (WYSLMT?) in fact most
all of the tracks on her Tapestry
album, released in 1971 for goodness sakes, is one I still play tracks from to
this day and say to myself, when I hear WYSLMT,
or I Feel the Earth Move or You've Got a Friend;
‘Blimey girl, that’s a rare talent you’ve
got there.’
It’s also because her list of clients
holds such names as Gloria Estefan, Celine Dion, Shania Twain, Aretha Franklin,
Mariah Carey, Clapton, Slash, Mary J Bilge...these people queue up for her to
write them a hit, include them on her next album or want her to guest with them
on tour. But then, when you've won four Grammys my guess is you've cut your
chops or, as one music journo once said about her live performances;
“On stage, Carole King's performance is all
spunk and exuberance”
(I've seen the ‘Live at the
Troubadour’ gig she did with James Taylor…let me tell you, that description is
accurate).
No, what it is, apart from her
phenomenal tune-smithing, is that politically and environmentally she is on
song with much of the things I believe in. However, what sealed the deal for me
is that at the height of her fame and earning potential and after concluding a
12 show tour, on this day in 1973 she gave a free concert in NY’s 
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