Carole
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Carole
Where'd she rank in your pantheon of songwriting greats?
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Re: Carole
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).
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Re: Carole
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.
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.
Last edited by Charlie O. on 08 Oct 2017, 06:14, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: Carole
I will also say that Fantasy is the hidden gem in her 70s catalog.
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Re: Carole
Bent Fabric wrote: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.
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Re: Carole
"Goin' Back" - another biggie. Real modest in its way, but somehow very evocative and moving.
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Re: Carole
I remember liking Music, but it's been ages since last time I heard it. Might give it a chance
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Re: Carole
She's great, who would deny that? After the mid '70s I lose interest though.
- Neige
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Re: Carole
The Goffin/King canon is undeniable... but her only album that left an indelible impression at Neigemont Castle (apart from Tapestry, obviously) was this:
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Re: Carole
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 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" :
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Re: Carole
Diamond Dog wrote: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.
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Re: Carole
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:
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:
In timeless moments we live forever
You can't play a tune on an absolute
Negative Capability...when a man is capable of being in uncertainties, Mysteries, doubts, without any irritable reaching after fact & reason”