Carole King
The Carnegie Hall Concert: June 18, 1971

THE REVIEW

How many times have we seen it, among the dusty records at a fair, among the organized ones of a friend, sometimes even framed in some venue and hung on the wall.

The little face of the cat Telemaco, with his eyes watching those who observe him, behind him his friend Carole. "Tapestry," what an album. One of those few albums that universally enrich music collections around every corner of the world. June 18, 1971, Carole King's very first concert, essential and simple like her music made of many notes on the piano, few other instruments. A live performance at Carnegie Hall sold out at the time, listened to today with the right mindset is very intimate, with songs that unwind between the classics written with her husband Gerry Goffin in the '60s and the tracks from her two solo LPs, with the '71 album providing the greatest contribution. The heart-pounding start of "I Feel the Earth Move", the enveloping "Child of Mine" to the already classic then "It's Too Late" up to the duet with James Taylor for a "You've got a Friend" of heartbreaking beauty.

A different era, made of many words and many hopes, early '70s New York; Carole King, Joni Mitchell have sung and recounted well the transition between two very different decades, often placing their life, their being a woman, at the center of their music. You can savor all the fragrance of those particular years, of change for a decade that would be very contradictory and in many ways difficult..."looking out in the morning rain, i used to feel so inspired, and when i knew i had to face another day, Lord it made me feel so tired..."