Track Listing

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
13. Out In The Cold
14. Smackwater Jack

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #437 in Music
• Released on: 1999-06-14
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .22 pounds

Amazon.co.uk Review
Carole King was famous as a writer of girl group hits in the 1960s. In 1971, she became more famous. That's the year Tapestry became one of the biggest selling LPs of all time. It's easy to hear why--the music is loose, earthy, L.A. session-pop. King is casual, intimate, and tough; she covers all the emotional ground of the post-liberated woman with ease. She brings adult nuance to "Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow?" and comes up with hits ("It's Too Late", "I Feel the Earth Move") whose white soul realism and maturity put pop hits to shame. --Steve Tignor

CD Description
Second solo album by one half of the songwriting partnership of the 1960's, Goffin and King. 'Tapestry' is a quiet, acoustic album which was influential in kickstarting the singer-songwriter movement of the early 1970's. The track, 'It's Too Late', was a UK top ten single.

Customer Reviews

Still my favourite after thirty one years!
I bought the original LP (still have it!) of this in 1971 with money I had for my 21st birthday (from what must have been one of the very early Virgin Record Shops in Birmingham). It was the first album I also bought on cassette (for the car!), the first cd version I bought of an album I already had (at something like 10 times the price of the original LP - how's that for holding your value!). Now I've had to buy another for my 17yr old daughter who loves it (almost) as much as I do.
There's something for every mood, every track has a different appeal. The gentle melancholy of "so far away", don't we all need a place "Way over yonder"? My heart has always twinged with sympathy for the girl who has always wanted "a real home with flowers on the window sill" but who is prepared to follow her man in "Where you lead". Tell me, I want to know, did it work out, did you ever get that real home?
I don't think anyone has ever bettered Carole's version of "Will you still love me tomorrow?", possibly my favourite track, or maybe that should be Tapestry - or maybe "You've got a friend". Impossible to choose - a whole Desert Island's worth!
My kids, poor things, were forced to listen to this on car journeys from a tender age and they even loved "Smackwater Jack" - bellowed out with gusto from a tender age by both of them. Can you listen to that without finding your feet tapping and wanting to jig about?
The mix of tracks, songs, words, instruments, piano - all are just so right - it's hard to imagine how this could be improved. And it has stood the test of time, along with those other favourites "Judith" by Judy Collins and "Bridge over troubled Water by Simon and Garfunkel".
So yes, the best album of all time, at least for me and not one bit less powerful in appeal thirty years on from when I first heard it.
Add something to your life - if you haven't heard it, buy it, sit back and enjoy. And,with luck, you may get as much pleasure out of it as me for a very long time.
And if you're in this part of the world and you notice a mum and daughter singing along to this in a car, note and wordperfect, it's probably us! Enjoy!

We can touch, but can't hold; we can have but can't keep!
Born as Carole Klein in Brooklyn, New York, on 9 February 1941, Carole King, was selling songs in Tin Pan Alley from her teens. King did a few singles in the late fifties and early sixties, but bloomed as a singer/composer after she married lyricist Gerry Goffin. It was not until 1971 that King took the world by storm with her Tapestry album that was destined to become one of the most artistic endeavours of western popular music.

Tapestry came at a time when Rock 'n' Roll was in doldrums. Three tragic events happened in 1970. The Beatles broke up; and Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin died! A generation of music fans (the baby boomers), who had grown up with the artists, were approaching the age of thirty, and needed something to chill them out. "Love Story" was a big hit in 1970 and Tapestry was THE 'Love Story' of Rock 'n' Roll. The songs touched areas never touched by a female singer/composer before.

Tapestry is a classic album. It's characterised by smooth flowing lyrics and superb musical composition. The beauty of the artist lies in their ability to express our emotions for us in a way we may not have been able to do so in a few life times, And what better area to touch? The songs touch the most universal emotion of all-- love and melancholy. Although the lyrics may be based on urban New York blues-- as suggested in "Where You Lead"-- the message is universal, it touches us all.

The album is like a tapestry itself from the first song "I Feel the Earth" to "You Make Me Feel". Each song is set in a perfect order (with the notable exception of "Smackwater Jack"). The songs weave the Tapestry of love and melancholy. The album starts with a strong and forceful "I Feel the Earth Move (Under my feet)", and then drops back to a slow and melancholic "It's Too Late". "Way Over Yonder" gives one a feeling that you're floating on the waves. Then comes "You've Got A Friend". James Taylor made this a hit of his own. The two sang the song at King's Carnegie Hall Concert where Taylor came as a "surprise guest". After "You've Got A Friend" comes a faster "Where You Lead" that's followed by "Will You Love Me Tomorrow"? "Smackwater Jack" seems a misfit. The next song is the title "Tapestry". The last song is "(You Make Me Feel) Like A Natural Woman". This is a perfect finishing to the album. The song is also symphonic. It starts slowly and then bursts out before fading away. Rod Stewart made a hit out of this song (well, he changed the title!). The song, composed by King and Goffin, was a tribute to Aretha Franklin.

The album won four Grammys in 1971 including album of the year. It's still in the top 25 highest selling albums of all time. But statistics is just one side of the story. Popular art becomes a classic only when it has elements that can make it stand the test of time. It has to be simple yet complex. It has to appeal to all audiences speaking their emotions, usually of sorrow and not total happiness. Only then can art travel from one time zone to another. "Tapestry" is definitely one album that's stood the test of time.

I'm not a baby boomer. I first heard "Tapestry" in 1991/92 when I was 21/22. It's one of the few albums I've listened from beginning to end and then fell in love with instantaneously. Tapestry is an ageless album like "Year of The Cat", "Blood on the Tracks", "Déjà vu", and a few more. It doesn't appeal to those baby boomers of 1971 alone, but to all baby boomers of all times. The beauty of the album lies in its touching not only love, but also melancholy-the sweet and sour feeling of love, i.e., life! It reminds us that in "true love" we can touch, but can never hold; we can have but can never keep. This is the beauty of love and life. This is what drives us to want more love and enjoy it as long as it lasts, and enjoy the sweet and sour feelings when it's not there. 'Probably' this is why Tapestry has stood the test of time-- simply because it speaks the truth!

If you haven't' heard the album yet, go out and buy it. Rest assured it'll be one memorable experience...

A Classic By Anyone's Standards
Of all the introspective styled singer-songwriters of the early seventies Carole King would perhaps seem a most unlikely candidate to adopt that genre - after all her success was at its peak a decade earlier when she was predominantly a songwriter alongside her husband Gerry Goffin penning a great many fondly remembered classics aimed at the teen market. Fortunately, her forte had always been strong melodies and 'Tapestry', her second album is no exception although its style is more intimate than the style of her early career.
Actually, it's not unrealistic to regard 'Tapestry' as one of only a handful of truly great albums because there are very few albums that are so consistently great from start to finish without the odd filler. 'Tapestry' certainly isn't amongst those groundbreaking albums often touted for in the best album polls but it really doesn't need to be because it's the album's simplicity that is its biggest asset.
Carole mixes a couple of her old songs with her newer efforts - 'Will You Love Me Tomorrow' and 'Natural Woman' and although these versions are never going to eclipse the well known originals in terms of profile they are nevertheless both highly effective at interpreting the songs differently but also successfully. A number of the newer songs have also acquired classic status - especially 'It's Too Late' and 'You've Got A Friend' - best known through James Taylor's cover but it's really hard to imagine these original versions ever being bettered whoever decided to record them.
'Intimate', 'Sincere', 'Direct' are all words that have been used to describe 'Tapestry' over the years and they are all accurate. 'Classic' has also been used on occasions, too, and this term (despite being overused generally in popular music) is equally applicable in this case.
'Tapestry' is definitely a strong contender for the best album ever made.