Free | 23/6
Posted: 5/29/2012
For me, the 1960s called it a decade at 4pm on May 10, 1971 -- give or take an hour.Driving home to 'Lawn Guyland' the day after graduating from Bucknell U. in Lewisburg, PA and blasting progressive rock station WNEW on the radio, I was struck by one of those other-worldly, pull-over-to-the curb musical moments. (I was crossing the Triborough Bridge at the time, so I didn't actually pull over, but you get the idea.)I'd hoped for a track from the Beatles, Stones, Who, Kinks, Beach Boys, Byrds or any of the other rock & roll bands I'd been obsessed with since ninth grade, when the Fab Four launched the British invasion.Instead, a raw but decisive female voice sang out, 'And it's too late baby, now/It's too late/Though we really did try to make it/Something inside has died/And I can't hide/And I just can't fake it.'
The singer and writer (with Toni Stern) of this breathtaking breakup song -- in which it's the woman who has the courage and self-possession to move on -- was Carole King, co-writer with then husband Gerry Goffin of a string of '60s pop masterpieces including, 'Will You Love Me Tomorrow' (Shirelles), 'Up On the Roof' (Drifters) and 'Natural Woman' (Aretha Franklin).'It's Too Late' -- which would soon soar to No. 1 and remain there for five weeks -- was just one of the 12 superb tracks comprising Tapestry, King's second solo album, which, in retrospect, was a key element in the '60s/'70s transition and which has sold over 25 million copies.The heartfelt, stripped-down stories King told in Tapestry stood athwart the new decade saying 'No!' to Yes and other bombastic prog-rockers. James Taylor was her male singer-songwriter counterpart, but it was the woman who inspired the man -- Taylor's cover of Tapestry's 'You've Got A Friend' (which he reportedly called 'the greatest song ever written"