Tapestry

Carole King • Tapestry • 1971

Tapestry. The magnum opus of the Queen of Pop Song Writing, Carole King. Carole King had been co-writing pop hits with her husband and lyricist, Gerry Goffin, for more than a decade (for artists like The Shirelles, Bobby Vee, The Monkees, The Everly Brothers, and Aretha Franklin, to name a few), but didn’t do her own records. In time, friends like James Taylor challenged her to release an album of her own, to sing and perform, not just create great records for other artists. She finally decided to go for it. The result: Tapestry, one of the monumental albums of all time. Tapestry is great because:

• It embodies the authentic expressions of a writer who has lived enough of life to acquire a lot of wisdom, be seasoned in living and love, but not yet jaded and disillusioned.

• Each song is a unique work of art, that you will have to go back and listen to again.

• While Carole King has practiced (with exquisite excellence) her craft on all of the previous hits she wrote, with Tapestry she has saved the best for last, and blessed the world with a masterpiece of warmth, sentiment, witty lyrics, and songs that seem to know you somehow as if they are a sort of kindred spirit.

Tapestry quickly became the best selling album of all time in it’s day (25 million copies sold). It spent 300 weeks on the Billboard charts, including 15 straight weeks at number 1 on the Billboard 200 Album chart. I highly suggest you invest 51 minutes of your life, sit down with a friend, a nice beverage, some good headphones, and savor the musical mastery of this important album.

For a more detailed analysis, check out this excellent Pitchfork review:

https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/carole-king-tapestry/amp/