From the Heart
“When you’re down and troubled (You’ve got a friend)
You’ve got to get up every morning with a smile on your face (Beautiful)
Doesn’t anybody stay in one place anymore (So far away)”
Lyrics that take you back in time.
Can you name the album? Can you name the musical artist/musician/songwriter/musical genius? If you are someone who was a teenager or a bit older in the 1970s, you know the answers to those questions are …
Tapestry and Carole King.
- I was a freshman in high school.
I still have the album. My favorite album. 33 1/3, played on the console stereo. Played over and over.
I can still sing the lyrics to almost every song. The album was released 50 years ago. I read that this week and I thought, “Oh my goodness, I AM old.”
What is it about those songs? What is it about her voice? For me, that was when music WAS music.
How much more romantic can it be than the words … “Tonight you’re mine, completely.”
If you ever have a chance to see the Broadway musical Beautiful, go. I seriously mean GO! Her story is amazing. I saw it a few years ago at Clowes Hall.
The songs she wrote for so many artists, as well as herself, are ones that made me crank up the volume of the radio in my ‘65 Mustang.
Her songs told stories. Her songs touched the heart. Her songs left their mark on the soul of those who loved her music.
Playing the music of Carole King is like taking a road trip back in your mind. Back to a place where we were a little bit funky and a whole lot groovy.
Bell bottom pants, hip-hugger jeans, hippie clothes and ponchos hung in my closet. I wore my hair long and straight and parted in the middle. Later, I actually had an afro.
Tapestry is the 81st best-selling album of all time: 10 million copies sold, 44 minutes of sheer musical magic.
I guess I felt a little bit nostalgic when I read that it was 50 years ago when the album was released. It was just a feel-good album even with a bit of sadness in the music. She often added a bit of James Taylor, and oh my goodness, it was music at its finest. Well, it was for me anyway.
Fifty years later I am still singing along with the music. I sometimes wonder if that will be said of any artist recording music today. So many songs have lyrics I can’t understand and several have lyrics I can’t repeat. As my mother would say, they need their mouths and their vocal cords washed out with soap.
I am certainly showing my age with my taste in music and with my opinion in this column. You can disagree with me, but as Carole sings, “Will you still love me tomorrow?”