Carole King had already co-written a truckload of songs that made it to the Top 40 in America between 1960 and 1970 with her husband Gerry Goffin when the pair made up the core of the infamous Brill Building writing collective in New York City.
When 1971 came along, King was at the zenith of her powers, and she produced Tapestry, the album that would make her name as a solo artist forever after.
With 40 years gone by and over 25 million copies sold Tapestry makes up half of this evening’s setlist in Sydney. With the faithful gathered and comfortably seated, this was quite possibly the perfect place for couples to spend a cosy Valentine’s evening with King and her love songs.
Even King joked about her passionate numbers and how her kids had made fun of them, she told them to watch what they say, those songs paid for their college education.
The songs may be about love, but truly they are classics, which many in the audience proved they knew all the words to throughout the 90 minute performance.
At the age of 72, King gave an hour and a half’s entertainment, and the first few out of the gate included the stunning “Home Again”, the classic “Up On The Roof” (where she talked about summer times spent up there), and “Way Over Yonder”.
Following that she took a break from Tapestry and touched on some other parts of her catalogue. Long-time collaborators Danny ‘Kootch” Kortchmar on guitar, Russ Kunkel on drums, and Bob Glaub on bass, provided a solid and polished sound for King’s songs throughout the night.
This trio of musicians were the cream of session musicians in the 70s and 80s, working with everyone from James Taylor to The Bee Gees, and would give Steely Dan a good run for their money based on their slick delivery.
King’s voice wavered a bit during the middle section of the set and songs like “Love Is Like A Boomerang”, “Jazzman”, and “Song Of Long Ago” were a bit turgid.
“Sweet Seasons” brought King to her feet and had the audience singing along once again and this was followed by one of the lesser-known highlights of the evening, ‘City Lights’.
A fairly unassuming mid-tempo pop song from 1989 stripped back to just voice and piano that gave all a true insight into her power as a singer and keys player. This was definitely a magical moment.
With the chords struck for “It’s Too Late” the energy level picked up and the sing-along commenced to this huge hit.
Ending the set proper with a robust and upbeat “I Feel The Earth Move” the back-up singers and King made a futile attempt to get people out of their seated positions. This did not diminish the audience’s enjoyment however, who were then treated to the final trio of songs from King’s classic album.
Aretha Franklin may have owned “You Make Me Feel Like A Natural Woman”, but Carole King delivered it with such style and grace that tears came to the eyes of a number of people in the venue.
There was only one more that needed to be done, and “You’ve Got A Friend” was rolled out (quite possibly for the last time in Sydney) by this amazing woman from New York.
Carole King may be hanging up her touring shoes but she has left us a songbook that remains timeless and beautiful and will be played until the end of time.
