Carole

[naughty boy]

Where'd she rank in your pantheon of songwriting greats?

[Bent Fabric]

The sheer numbers game puts her pretty high - I don't walk around thinking about her all the time, the way I probably do think of people who have done less, but there's something about the sheer quantity of masterpieces from her purple patch ("The Loco-Motion", "Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow", "One Fine Day", "Up On The Roof", songs the Beatles did, "Natural Woman", "Porpoise Song"...and a number of things she did in the earlier part of her solo career) that is beyond undeniable. I probably love her more than I realize (and the bland out of her "album a year" 70s may [in my mind] also cast an unfair shade over her best moments - which, in truth, probably makes no more sense than dimming one's view of Stevie Wonder/McCartney/Neil Young/etc. based on their 1980s).

[Charlie O.]

I'll second everything Mr. Fabric says, and then some. I'm genuinely not sure that we'd have had a Lennon/McCartney as such without Goffin/King. The degree to which Carole expanded the melodic/harmonic palette of "teen" pop music in the early '60s (both as a songwriter and as an arranger)... I don't think she's received due credit to this day.

As for her '70s... Tapestry is a pretty swell album that I never really feel like listening to (some individual songs aside). The one before that, Writer, is a pretty GREAT album, and I do feel like listening to it now and again. It's interesting how all these disparate threads of the zeitgeist come together (like a you-know-what) and when: with one look at the the covers of Writer and Tapestry you can kind of tell why the earlier album didn't connect, and why the latter took over the world a year later. Timing and packaging.

If subsequent records were underwhelming (and they sure were) - well, like Bent suggests, she'd more than earned her bland-out by then.

[Bent Fabric]

I will also say that Fantasy is the hidden gem in her 70s catalog.

[Charlie O.]

I will also say that Fantasy is the hidden gem in her 70s catalog.

I remember you bigging that up before. I thought it was dreadful, the one time I listened to the whole thing, but I'm willing to give it another try.

[Bent Fabric]

"Goin' Back" - another biggie. Real modest in its way, but somehow very evocative and moving.

[Osgood]

I remember liking Music, but it's been ages since last time I heard it. Might give it a chance

[Matt Wilson]

She's great, who would deny that? After the mid '70s I lose interest though.

[Neige]

The Goffin/King canon is undeniable... but her only album that left an indelible impression at Neigemont Castle (apart from Tapestry, obviously) was this:

[Diamond Dog]

I'm an unabashed worshipper, I guess. The astonishing number of songs she and Goffin composed is (quite rightly) heralded aboove - and then some.

I have a bootleg album of the demos for a lot of those - many of them sound better to me than the 'released' versions. I'm still not sure how Carole managed to get such fabulous production (on some tracks), and glorious harmonies, on a 'demo' budget, but she did and it's a testament to her single-mindedness (and her vocal ability) that she carried them off so brilliantly. The versions of "Crying In The Rain" and "Pleasant Valley Sunday" are particularly magnificent :





I also liked the album she did as part of a three piece (The City) called "Now That Everything's Been Said" inbetween the Goffin/King years and "Tapestry". This is the best track from that ,"Snow Queen" :

[Joe Baxter]

I'm an unabashed worshipper, I guess. The astonishing number of songs she and Goffin composed is (quite rightly) heralded aboove - and then some.

I have a bootleg album of the demos for a lot of those - many of them sound better to me than the 'released' versions. I'm still not sure how Carole managed to get such fabulous production (on some tracks), and glorious harmonies, on a 'demo' budget, but she did and it's a testament to her single-mindedness (and her vocal ability) that she carried them off so brilliantly. The versions of "Crying In The Rain" and "Pleasant Valley Sunday" are particularly magnificent :





I also liked the album she did as part of a three piece (The City) called "Now That Everything's Been Said" inbetween the Goffin/King years and "Tapestry". This is the best track from that ,"Snow Queen" :

I love those demos Pete. She's brilliant.

[Rayge]

Any excuse to trot this one out, with its wonderful piano playing.



Her demos are wonderful. More than once, artists recorded right over her backing tracks for the finished release.
I have always believed, but stand to be corrected, it's more of her piano playing decorating this: