With this album, King moved into more experimental (for her) realms. Writing the entire album herself, without an outside lyricist, she moves away from the introspective songs of Tapestry and its immediate follow-ups to examine the lives of others, in particular of those less fortunate. It’s presented as a concept album of two unbroken suites of songs that all segue together. Moving beyond the spare arrangements of its predecessors, for Fantasy Carole scored brass and string arrangements and experimented with Latin and funk styles. But to me, this is more What's Going On (Carole's Version). And I'm like... Carole, fire your bongo player. Carole King wrote a lot of great soul songs, but she's not a soul singer, and so she seems very out of place with the kind of loose, rolling funk. And (pretty ballad "That's How Things Go Down" aside) the hooks just are not there.

I first heard of Carole King when I was about 16. James Taylor brought her to the attention of the wider world when he asked her to open for him in 1971. But the truth is I had been listening to her most of my life, through the voices of the many women and men who recorded her music. Carole King performing in London in 1970. Photograph: Gijsbert Hanekroot/Redferns MC Taylor, Hiss Golden Messenger It’s Going To Take Some Time – Co-written with King’s writing partner on the smash hit “It’s Too Late,” Toni Stern, “It’s Going To Take Some Time” contains not only a lovely instrumental passage featuring the aforementioned celeste, but also a melody that is likeable right off the bat. If you don’t believe it, just ask The Carpenters, who had a Top 20 hit with it when they covered the song in 1972. When I listened to Tapestry from my mom’s CD collection, I was young enough that it didn’t register as good or bad – it just defined what music sounded like to me, and it’s still a foundation of how I understand songwriting. She’s clever in the good way – queen of internal rhyme – and I love how her melodies reinforce the tone of the lyrics. She keeps it simple, but that’s what makes it universal.Recently I went on a little excursion into Carole King's early '70s discography because I wanted to sort out why the same singer/songwriter who made Tapestry only seems to be remembered for the one album and the songs she wrote that were hits for other people. In doing so I hit upon a couple of discoveries and theories which I will relate to you now: Tapestry is part of the American songbook. I heard those songs even before I knew who she was. I love that book Girls Like Us, a trio of biographies of Joni Mitchell, Carly Simon and Carole King and the story behind Tapestry. The record before it [1970’s Writer] hadn’t performed that well, so she had it in her head that this one had to be great. She was meditating a lot. She was probably in some mental-spiritual prime, and then when she realised what fame entailed she was like: “No way.” She cared more about her personal life.

Music – Bouncing along in 6/8 time unlike anything on “Tapestry,” the album’s title song provides leaving plenty of room for tenor sax player Curtis Amy to stretch out, demonstrating that King is more than comfortable letting her accompanists do their thing.Ken Yerke, Barry Socher, Sheldon Sanov, Haim Shtrum, Kathleen Lenski, Miwako Watanabe, Glenn Dicterow, Polly Sweeney, Robert Lipsett, Gordon Marron - violin Tapestry was one of the first records my mother and I bonded over. It was so meaningful to sing in unison with my mom to a guttural, honest account performed by a stranger to whom I felt so inexplicably connected: a friend, a sister, a mother, and somebody’s daughter, a low voice and an attitude. From that point onward, I carried her music and spirit with me.

King in Lou Adler’s office holding the four Grammys she won for Tapestry in 1971. Photograph: Jim McCrary/Redferns

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I brought Hank Cicalo, my recording engineer from Los Angeles, out to Central Park to record the show as it might possibly become an album,” Adler explains. “Then I had the notion, having done the film Monterey Pop [Adler had produced the groundbreaking 1967 music festival together with John Phillips] I felt that something this big should be filmed. I had no idea what I was going to do with the film at that time, but I felt that something this important should be documented.”

In spite of everything already mentioned, the rest of Carole King's albums hold up well-enough on their own and are probably very overdue for a critical reappraisal. Oricon Album Chart Book: Complete Edition 1970-2005 (in Japanese). Roppongi, Tokyo: Oricon Entertainment. 2006. ISBN 4-87131-077-9.Carole’s songs made me want to sing her melodies and her harmonies and I felt closer to her while finding my path as a singer even at that young age. In my 30s, watching her musical on Broadway, I was overwhelmed with feelings of gratitude for her story. It showed the way in which a woman can pursue her own career, have a family and achieve happiness. That is a delicate balance that I strive for in my own life every day. Joan Armatrading I think you could make a pretty good case that Carole King and Gerry Goffin were the best popular songwriters of the last half of the 20th century. I love Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow. Everything she sings is deeply felt. Sharon Van Etten January 5, 2023 - The brand new feature-length concert documentary “ Home Again: Carole King Live In Central Park,” which presents musical icon Carole King’s triumphant May 26, 1973 homecoming concert on The Great Lawn of New York City’s Central Park before an estimated audience of 100,000, will premiere January 19 at New York’s IFC Film Center via Abramorama. The film will then be released wide on February 9 (also King’s birthday) streaming exclusively on The Coda Collection. Directed by George Scott and produced by Lou Adler and John McDermott, the film presents the complete multi-camera 16mm footage filmed and recorded by Adler in 1973 but never before released. I also have to mention the cat on the cover. It may sound trivial, but that was the most “me” I’d ever seen on a record cover, and maybe opened up the possibility that a person could be humble and modest and human rather than superhuman, and be a triumphant musician. Bethany Cosentino, Best Coast I would have just turned 18 when Tapestry came out, when I was really being influenced by singers and songwriters. Carole King was an inspiration. She was a woman, and she wrote amazing songs – so you’d learn by listening to It’s Too Late or whatever, over and over. She set the stage for other singer-songwriters who came along after her, because there wasn’t a market yet and the industry didn’t know what to do with us.