Arts & entertainment

We've Got A Friend

On the occasion of her first concert tour in more than a decade, Carole King
performs Saturday at Meadow Brook Music Festival.

MARTIN NATCHEZ

Special to the Jewish News

W

Still Love Me Tomorrow?" and "Up
On The Roof" in the `60s and "You've
Got a Friend" and "Jazzman" in the
`705, wrote some of the most timeless,
musical jewels of her generation.
But today, despite her indisputable
reputation as the queen of songwriters,
she describes herself as an "anti-diva"
on the generational timeline.
"It's a fancy way of saying I'm
older," King, 63, told National Public
Radio. "I'm proud of it. I've nothing
to hide; nothing to be a shamed of;
nothing to apologize for."
This week, the Jewish Brooklynite,
born Carole Klein, embarks on the
first dates of "The Living Room 2005
Tour," which will bring her one-
woman musical retrospective to
Meadow Brook Music Festival on July
9.
Additionally, her 27-date concert
itinerary coordinates with a forthcom-
ing double-CD release of The Living
Room Tour on King's own Rockingale
Records, scheduled to arrive in stores
and at all Starbucks coffee locations on
July 12.

hatever your age, summer is
the season for melodies and
memories.
So if you're an oldies expert who
knows that Earl-Jean, one of the
Cookies of "Chains" fame, had the
original Top 40 hit of "I'm Into
Something Good" before Herman's
Hermits, or that Steve Lawrence
waxed "Go Away Little Girl" before
Donnie Osmond, or that it was Little
Eva who tracked "Loco-Motion" more
than a decade prior to Grand Funk
Railroad's No. 1 remake, you've been
there, heard that, and are already
familiar with some smash songs writ-
ten by Carole King.
Yes, the same Carole King who, in
the summer of 1971, climbed to the
top of the Billboard charts, singing
"It's Too Late" from her Grammy-win-
ning, multi-platinum album Tapestry,
garnering unprecedented recognition
as a performing singer-songwriter.
Off the same collection spun more
pearls, including "So Far Away," "I
Feel the Earth Move Under My Feet"
New CD
and "Smackwater Jack" — all still
played on the radio and each one a
Recorded last year, the new CD fea-
reminder of how wonderful well-writ-
tures King performing at the piano,
ten pop music used to be.
accompanied by guitarists-vocalists
Few would argue that King, who
Gary Burr and Randy Guess. The sou-
was inducted into the Rock and Roll
venir edition combines her greatest
Hall of Fame in 1990 and also crafted
hits, two new songs and a sampling of
such pop masterpieces as "Will You
tunes written for and made famous by
other artists.
King, herself, was immortal-
ized as the inspiration for Neil
Sedaka's 1959 hit "Oh! Carol."
"We dated off and on for
three years," he recalled in his
autobiography Laughter in the
Rain, "[but] Carole's mother
couldn't stand me. Carole was
a straight-A student, and her
mother felt I was a bad influ-
ence on her daughter."
Their teenage romance may
have faded, but not before
King countered Sedaka's record
HE LIVING Room TOUR
with an obscure novelty 45
called "Oh! Neil." On it, she
King's latest album will be released July 12.
recited cornpone lyrics like "I'd

7/ 7
2005

38

give up a month's
supply of chewin'
tobaccy just to be
known as Mrs.
Neil Sedaky."
For King, that
goofy chunk of
anthracite is no
more than a peb-
ble in her past,
because when the
1960s arrived,
she was poised to
become one of
the new breed of
young Jewish
songwriters who
would revolu-
tionize Tin Pan
Alley.
Teaming with
future first hus-
band Gerry
Goffin, they
wrote, recorded
and produced
their own multi-
million sellers on
shoestring budg-
ets. In fact, it's
King who plays
drums on the
Shirelles' 1961
classic "Will You
Still Love Me
Carole King: "Take charge of what happens in your living
Tomorrow?" and
room, your community, your country and the world"
who sang uncred-
ited background
Political Activist
vocals on Little Eva's "Loco-
Motion."
Today, King is a fiercely private music
And Goffin-King's prolific song-
icon who resides in a mountain village
book delivered hits to early teen sen- near Challis, Idaho, with her fourth
sations Bobby Vee ("Take Good
husband, Richard Sorenson, com-
Care of My Baby"), Tony Orlando
manding her offstage time as a politi-
("Halfway to Paradise"), the
cal activist and lobbyist.
Chiffons ("One Fine Day") and the
King does not label herself a modern
Cookies ("Don't Say Nothin' Bad
kabbalist, but her passions tend to
About My Baby").
exemplify tikkun olam — healing the
The pair would divorce, but not
world with her music, vigorously
before they penned the Top 10 hit
advocating environmental conserva-
"(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural tion and proactively drawing attention
Woman" for Detroit soul legend
to improving America's government.
Aretha Franklin and "Pleasant Valley
That's why the nation saw King on
Sunday," popularized by the
C-SPAN, CNN and speaking at last
Monkees in 1967.
year's Democratic National
Convention as a tireless stumper for