Carole King's "Tapestry"

Message Bookmarked

Bookmark Removed

Not all messages are displayed: show all messages (107 of them)

I think its too late for you now Ned.

― Pete (Pete), Friday, 20 September 2002 13:25 (10 years ago) Permalink

Something inside has died and you can't hide it and you can't fake it, no.

― Nicole (Nicole), Friday, 20 September 2002 13:39 (10 years ago) Permalink

Having never encountered it (to my knowledge), nothing has died since of course it never lived. The quandaries of existence set free!

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 20 September 2002 14:25 (10 years ago) Permalink

So many negative words about a simple, beautiful album. I have to wonder what kind of people would try to look for "deep" meaning or lyrics on what was intended to express simple human emotions. Yes Ned I spelled Carol without an "e" at the end. Doesn't make me less of a fan. Not concerned with the details just the simple message and the sing along quality the album gives off even after all these years. Carole got me through a really rough time in my life and I will always find comfort in her songs. Don't know what to say to those of you here who have never heard of the album or the songs on it. Wondering how big the rock is that you've all been hiding under since 1971... Belinda Carlisle cover????? Sad really sad!

― Stevie, Tuesday, 24 September 2002 20:36 (10 years ago) Permalink

1 year passes...

I love Carole King's Tapestry

― Gina, Saturday, 27 March 2004 00:41 (9 years ago) Permalink

"(but I must admit I think Gordon Lightfoot has worn much better...). "

word up

― dukeheavy, Saturday, 27 March 2004 01:04 (9 years ago) Permalink

Carole King's 'Tapestry' - good album. Stll gets an airing now and again. I was 13 when it first came out and yes, every girlfriend or close female friend I had for the next 10 years, without exception, raved about it.

But, beware: Big Statement coming! Her later single 'Jazzman' (which I only ever heard on Kasey Kasam's American Top 40 show, where from memory it reached no 7 sometime late in 1974) is one of the best of all time.

Re Gordy L: Loved 'Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald'. Didn't mind 'Read My Mind' or 'Sundown'.

― Fred Nerk (Fred Nerk), Saturday, 27 March 2004 03:03 (9 years ago) Permalink

"Carol King's "Tapestry" is number one on my list of "crappy records most often come across in thrift stores." I know I've seen it at least 150 times..give or take a few."

There's a guy called Cliff Portwood whose albums I have ONLY EVER seen in thrift shops, and who I have otherwise never heard of.

― Fred Nerk (Fred Nerk), Saturday, 27 March 2004 03:08 (9 years ago) Permalink

There is at least one old vinyl copy of it in every Jewish home in Northwest London.

I think it's crap.

― @d@ml (nordicskilla), Saturday, 27 March 2004 03:32 (9 years ago) Permalink

amusing thread - I can't imagine feeling so strongly either way about Tapestry. I like it but don't love it and some of the tunes are definitely overplayed but it's one of those albums where the songs, performances and production just clicked - maybe it's possible to enjoy it as a musical gestalt thing.

I do have to admit my own cringeworthy experience of a Carole King live show video I saw once, which cut to her Big Chill audience mouthing the words along to "You Got A Friend", clinging like shellshocked life-victims to a guru's every platitude. epitome of singersongwriter blahness! I thought - ha, how radical was I ? (this is the enemy?)

Carole King is on my mind though, cos "Snow Queen", in both the Roger Nichols & the Small Circle Of Friends and Carole King & The City versions, is one of my new favourite songs.

interesting parallel with Judy Henske too - both of them left their husbands for new bandmates.

― Paul (scifisoul), Saturday, 27 March 2004 05:39 (9 years ago) Permalink

Carole King started life as a wannabe singer and stalled out in obscurity. She then became a pop songwriter in the Brill Building and learned her craft very well. She wrote "Locomotion" for Little Eva, among many other hits. Most of the songs on Tapestry that are associated with other singers, she wrote for them.

After a decade of launching other people's hits, she got the itch to sing again. Bad choice. Some good songs, though.

― Aimless (Aimless), Saturday, 27 March 2004 06:22 (9 years ago) Permalink

Tapestry is on the bad side of mediocrity. Best thing she ever done = "It Might As Well Rain Until September"

― Johnney B (Johnney B), Saturday, 27 March 2004 09:16 (9 years ago) Permalink

"There is at least one old vinyl copy of it in every Jewish home in Northwest London."

you say this like it's a bad thing

it's a good album, really good

― amateur!st (amateurist), Saturday, 27 March 2004 11:20 (9 years ago) Permalink

it suprises me that Tom started this thread off, because in a way Tapestry reminds me almost exactly of albums like Dare or Cupid & Psyche, etc (biggest exception being the cover versions)
so, 70's vs 80's then?

― Paul (scifisoul), Saturday, 27 March 2004 16:58 (9 years ago) Permalink

you say this like it's a bad thing

not neccesarily. But it's sheer ubiquity is pretty mind-boggling. I prefer The Carpenters, myself.

― @d@ml (nordicskilla), Saturday, 27 March 2004 17:23 (9 years ago) Permalink

it's not as unavoidable as, the beatles, say

― amateur!st (amateurist), Saturday, 27 March 2004 21:38 (9 years ago) Permalink

personally, i think that if you have to waste time by talking about carol king and her tapestry album(only those who deny her incredible writing talent),must be insanely jealous!! that album created some great hits. why do you think so many others have rerecored them....many of which went on to become total classics. now, i don't think she has the best voice inthe history of music making, but let's be honest here, people. she certainly has more talent than what is on the market nowadays....

― Marissa, Sunday, 28 March 2004 03:23 (9 years ago) Permalink

I've heard her live a number of times in a very small venue and met her a couple of times. She's a really nice person and I like the muzak too.

― Skottie, Sunday, 28 March 2004 03:42 (9 years ago) Permalink

YO CAROLE I LOVE YOU AND YOR MUSIC YOU ARE SO FINE DON LISTEN TO THE HATAS THEY JUST WANT YOUR RIDE AND YO HOS KEEP BEING TRU TO YOURSELF LOVE YOU DOG

― amateur!st (amateurist), Sunday, 28 March 2004 11:20 (9 years ago) Permalink

*AMAZING*

my mom likes this record a lot. i stole a copy of it since she hd two. i never listen to it. it's just there. i listened to it a few times when i first found it. then like... no. never.

― Ian Johnson (orion), Monday, 29 March 2004 01:55 (9 years ago) Permalink

funny, i've been aware of its existence all my life and i knew a lot of the songs simply by virtue of being alive in america, but -- despite my inclination to like singer/songwriter types of that era (randy newman, harry nilsson, steely dan, for example) -- i never sat down and actually listened to it until a couple of months ago. at which point i realized -- holy shit is it a great album. short, sweet, tuneful songs, nice nasal voice, and that beautifully dry '70s piano-and-drums sound that i can't get enough of these days.

― fact checking cuz (fcc), Monday, 29 March 2004 02:29 (9 years ago) Permalink

When my wife and I moved in together and found a place to keep our records, we went through each other's collections and Tapestry was one of only about three we had in common out of hundreds of selections. Happy to say we're still together and Tapestry is one of our all-time favorites.

Ned, if you're still on this thread: For chronological reference, Maggie May and It's Too Late were huge AM hits at the same time in the spring of 1971.

― jim wentworth (wench), Monday, 29 March 2004 03:18 (9 years ago) Permalink

Dude, Ned is everywhere!

― Hunter (Hunter), Monday, 29 March 2004 03:26 (9 years ago) Permalink

Yeah, what a silly thing for me to say.

― jim wentworth (wench), Monday, 29 March 2004 03:34 (9 years ago) Permalink

I was born the week "It's Too Late"/"I Feel The Earth Move" went #1 on the Billboard charts.

― Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Monday, 29 March 2004 03:42 (9 years ago) Permalink

2 weeks pass...

wait am I to understand that a person named Marissa came into the thread and nobody even blinked? Jesus, people, get a cup of coffee or something

― J0hn Darn1elle (J0hn Darn1elle), Tuesday, 13 April 2004 19:57 (9 years ago) Permalink

4 years pass...

i'm not sure how anyone could call this rubbish?

― Surmounter, Sunday, 19 October 2008 00:25 (4 years ago) Permalink

short, sweet, tuneful songs, nice nasal voice, and that beautifully dry '70s piano-and-drums sound that i can't get enough of these days.

― fact checking cuz (fcc), Sunday, March 28, 2004 9:29 PM (4 years ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

― Surmounter, Sunday, 19 October 2008 00:30 (4 years ago) Permalink

"i'm not sure how anyone could call this rubbish?"

At least sometimes, terminal rockists feel an insatiable need to flash their credentials.

― Fred Nerk, Sunday, 19 October 2008 02:33 (4 years ago) Permalink

Having never encountered it (to my knowledge), nothing has died since of course it never lived. The quandaries of existence set free!

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, September 20, 2002 9:25 AM Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

REALLY?

― ☑ (Pleasant Plains), Sunday, 19 October 2008 02:42 (4 years ago) Permalink

Other hypothetical Ned posts:

Having never encountered it (to my knowledge), no one has strummed my pain with his finger, so I have never been filled up by anyone's words.
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, September 20, 2002 9:26 AM Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Having never encountered it (to my knowledge), I am proud of not being vain, so yes, I do think that this song is not about me. ;-)
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, September 20, 2002 9:28 AM Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

I have never encountered it (to my knowledge), but I can certainly empathize with the notion of paradise being paved and turned into a parking lot.
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, September 20, 2002 9:30 AM Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

― ☑ (Pleasant Plains), Sunday, 19 October 2008 02:47 (4 years ago) Permalink

Sorry. Ned knows his shit, but I can't get over anyone my age not having a passing knowledge about Tapestry.

Sunny would get on to me for being a music snob right now, but fuck.

― ☑ (Pleasant Plains), Sunday, 19 October 2008 03:04 (4 years ago) Permalink

my boyfriend started playing it in the house and i was like who is this?

― Surmounter, Sunday, 19 October 2008 03:13 (4 years ago) Permalink

and then he told me. it was carole king.

― Surmounter, Sunday, 19 October 2008 03:13 (4 years ago) Permalink

I went through a huge Tapestry phase last semester. I went into a record store hoping/expecting to find it used, and I did, for like 5 dollars, and then it defined the next month of my life. J'adore.

― Steve (Not Stevie) (Stevie D), Sunday, 19 October 2008 03:59 (4 years ago) Permalink

i saw carole king in a supermarket a few years back. (no, she wasn't playing the dairy aisle). she looked good for a sixty something. late goffin/king tunes that showed up on notorious byrd brothers & head are like the pinnacles of psych pop imo. so for that she will always be classic. tapestry is alright, i can see how it got played out back in the day but that shouldn't count now.

― velko, Sunday, 19 October 2008 04:05 (4 years ago) Permalink

Carole King?!?! Tapestry?!?!? O come on peeps. Carole King was a great songwriter among the ranks of Paul anka, JT and Carly simon. She was an icon in her day and everyone knew and could sing along with her lyrics no matter if it was your parents playing it or you were a teen or adult listening to it voluntarily at the time. I cannot believe that any one of you; especially you Ned, who is so savvy and knowledgeable in musicology, claim you have no remembered knowledge of her, Tapestry or her other stuff. Like manilow and anka, she has a huge catalog of songs although she herself may not have recorded them commercially herself. She wrote scads of songs that either she herself recorded or were recorded by others of her contemporary musicians. In fact, Tapestry was on the top of the Billboard charts for over 6 years in the mid '70s and won at least 4 Grammy's and was again up for album of the year in '82 against MJ's "Thriller" to which it finally lost and fell from the charts AFTER SIX YEARS. King, along with others like Neil Sedaka, James Taylor, and so many others were legendary fellows of the '70s songwriter genre. How can anyone be ignorant of this fact whether or not you're a fan? The album "Tapestry" was re-recorded in the early '90s covered by artists like the Bee Gees, Amy Grant, Celene Dion, Rod Stewart and Faith Hill to mention a few. If there wasn't some significant value to it, then I question why anyone would bother to re-record and release the same album. But this is just me, and just sayin.

― Wiggy Woo, Sunday, 19 October 2008 05:54 (4 years ago) Permalink

I even did this one time:

― ☑ (Pleasant Plains), Sunday, 19 October 2008 06:02 (4 years ago) Permalink

watched tv with a cat?

― the valves of houston (gbx), Sunday, 19 October 2008 06:03 (4 years ago) Permalink

</slocki>

― jaymc, Sunday, 19 October 2008 06:12 (4 years ago) Permalink

carole is laughing at us all right to the bank. She has a steady income from music rights/royalties and doesn't have to do a thing she doesn't want to do. All this at only 66 years old. I don't know about the rest of you, but it sounds pretty effing awesome to me. My life should be so easy! <sigh> maybe in my next life. Ill be taller then too more than my current 5' 4".

― Wiggy Woo, Sunday, 19 October 2008 07:00 (4 years ago) Permalink

i remember reading this thread the day it went up, it was not long after i began reading ilx and a while before i posted, and saying to myself, "who are these jokers".

― estela, Sunday, 19 October 2008 09:25 (4 years ago) Permalink

yeah, ignorance is never a good starting point

― velko, Sunday, 19 October 2008 09:29 (4 years ago) Permalink

12 Carole King Songs Every Gay Man Should Know

1. I Feel The Earth Move
2. So Far Away
3. It's Too Late
4. Home Again
5. Beautiful
6. Way Over Yonder
7. You've Got A Friend
8. Where You Lead
9. Will You Love Me Tomorrow?
10. Smackwater Jack
11. Tapestry
12. (You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman

― crusty but benign (kenan), Sunday, 19 October 2008 22:07 (4 years ago) Permalink

this album is great.

― caek, Sunday, 19 October 2008 22:09 (4 years ago) Permalink

new deluxe version about to drop, with live voice/piano demos of eleven of the twelve songs...

love this album muchly.

― graft Veronica's limbless torso to the 'paalmino' pony called Juno (stevie), Sunday, 19 October 2008 22:20 (4 years ago) Permalink

Aw yeah. People be goin' crazy an' shit when that Carole King drops. Sheeeeit.

― crusty but benign (kenan), Sunday, 19 October 2008 22:43 (4 years ago) Permalink

the first post is perplexing, carole king is obv great.

― lex pretend, Sunday, 19 October 2008 22:44 (4 years ago) Permalink

Carole talked to Obama supporters in my town today. I reported on it. I asked her a question about the difference between campaigning in 2004 and in 2008. Then I had her sign my copy of Tapestry because i'm a music reporter, not a news reporter.

― Tape Store, Wednesday, 22 October 2008 01:48 (4 years ago) Permalink

you are the coolest

― Surmounter, Wednesday, 22 October 2008 03:33 (4 years ago) Permalink

Skipping 7 messages at this point... Click here if you want to load them all.

"Home Again" makes me cry every time, like clockwork, and "Where You Lead" firmed my resolve to someday throw my lot in with the man of my heart and fit my dreams to his. Which hasn't quite worked out and chances are I'd stab him with a grapefruit spoon in that scenario but hey, I was 17.

― Vampire romances depend on me (Laurel), Wednesday, 22 October 2008 13:35 (4 years ago) Permalink

i apologise on behalf of the british haterz, they know not how wrong they are

― lex pretend, Wednesday, 22 October 2008 13:39 (4 years ago) Permalink

Like Tom I prefer Martika's version

ffs

― DavidM, Wednesday, 22 October 2008 15:06 (4 years ago) Permalink

I was standing in line with a copy of "Writer", my personal favorite

i love writer! "spaceship races"... sigh.

― lauren, Wednesday, 22 October 2008 15:25 (4 years ago) Permalink

it's too late just came on the radio. wows

― Surmounter, Wednesday, 22 October 2008 15:34 (4 years ago) Permalink

YOU'VE GOT TO GET UP EVERY MORNING WITH A SMILE ON YOUR FACE AND SHOW THE WORLD ALL THE LOVE IN YOUR HEART.

― ☑ (Pleasant Plains), Wednesday, 22 October 2008 18:59 (4 years ago) Permalink

i can roll with tapestry.

― M@tt He1ges0n, Wednesday, 22 October 2008 19:16 (4 years ago) Permalink

YOU'VE GOT TO GET UP EVERY MORNING WITH A SMILE ON YOUR FACE AND SHOW THE WORLD ALL THE LOVE IN YOUR HEART.

otm

― Full of high sentence, but a bit obtuse (kenan), Thursday, 23 October 2008 06:27 (4 years ago) Permalink

I didn't know how much I liked this album until I was in Japan, far far away from my parents' record collection, and was seized by the desire to listen to it so so strong that I could almost not bear it. And then I went to a record store and discovered there was some fancy new edition so it didn't feel too redundant to be buying it again. But it was weird to hear it again - the way it's arranged, in my head, is a hell of a lot better. Plus the version in my head doesn't have the title track or 'smackwater jack' on it because they're laaaaaaame.

I guess it's a comfort album for me? 'so far away' and 'it's too late' make me ridiculously sentimental, they're so simple and her voice is at its best, and they seem... rooted in an adult world? I get that sense of reality that I get from, uh, Luomo's 'the present lover' or something (...i don't know, i can't really explain it, there's this feeling of: this is, genuinely, what people do with their emotions in order to understand them. which isn't a feeling I get from a lot of records).

― king lame (c sharp major), Thursday, 23 October 2008 08:41 (4 years ago) Permalink

"So Far Away" gets me misty

― Full of high sentence, but a bit obtuse (kenan), Thursday, 23 October 2008 08:42 (4 years ago) Permalink

Another reminder of the mythical i.e. non-existent golden age of ILx.

― Eric in the East Neuk of Anglia (Marcello Carlin), Thursday, 23 October 2008 08:44 (4 years ago) Permalink

There was a golden age.

It was in 2005.

― Mark G, Thursday, 23 October 2008 09:07 (4 years ago) Permalink

1 year passes...

― iago g., Sunday, 11 April 2010 23:32 (3 years ago) Permalink

2 years pass...

RIP photographer Jim McCrary - the photographer who took the cover picture.

― Vini Reilly Invasion (Elvis Telecom), Monday, 7 May 2012 03:01 (1 year ago) Permalink

You must be logged in to post. Please either login here, or if you are not registered, you may register here.