Leading the burgeoning female singer-songwriter boom in the early seventies was Carole King. She was already a veteran of many sixties hits written with her ex, Gerry Goffin, and she hit an all-time critical high with this album - one that could be found in the record collections of many female students throughout the seventies.
It is one of the best selling albums of all time but, at the time, it was not an album my early teenage self was interested in but as many years have passed, so my tastes have matured. In the meantime, here's a nice bit of trivia for you - King's cat on the cover was called Telemachus.
It's Too Late was the album's first well-known classic and its deep, sumptuous backing is very, very similar to that used by Carly Simon on her No Secrets album from later in the same year. She had obviously been listening to this. It is a lovely bass-drum guitar-acoustic hook line and a similarly attractive tenor saxophone. King's vocal is beautifully melodic and ideally suited to a hot summer's afternoon.
You've Got A Friend was a big hit for James Taylor. Most people know it by now, especially the "winter, spring, summer or fall..." refrain. It is a song that can be instantly sung along with, whether you have this album or not. Long before I had this album, I knew this song. Where You Lead is almost Stax-y in its lively, deep soulful beat. It is one of the album's best examples of its unexpectedly soulful rock. Carole certainly had far more soul than she was sometimes given credit for. This album is also far more rock than many have imagined, thinking it a folky, acoustic creation, beloved of those earnest students. Just listen to the chunky opener I Feel The Earth Move, yes, it's a ballad but it's ballad with balls. Carole's piano rocks on this one, as does that slightly funky guitar.
So Far Away is a lovely ballad with another of those deliciously warm basslines. The same can be said of the equally lovely Home Again. You would expect the song Beautiful to be in the same vein, but it is a chunkier, McCartney-esque number. Also robust is the saxophone and piano enhanced gospel-influenced Way Over Yonder.The title track is a grandiose piano ballad that sounds as if it should be in a musical.
Will You Love Me Tomorrow? is King's take on her sixties composition for The Shirelles. She does it in a much slowed-down way, turning into a piano-driven lament as opposed to the fairground-style early sixties Motown-ish rock'n'roll of the Shirelles' hit version of it. Smackwater Jack is a delicious piece of lively, bassy blues, showing King's versatility again. It shows that Carole could rock and once more goes against the cliché that this is a light, airy-fairy, acoustic laid-back album.
Then there is this all-time classic (You Make Me Feel Like A) Natural Woman. Of course, the definitive version is surely Aretha Franklin's one, but Carole King wrote it and here she sings it beautifully and with not a little soul herself. Great stuff. It has been remembered as one of the great songs of all time. The latest remaster of the album gives it a nice, warm, bassy sound for probably the first time ever.
