tapestry

(Ode, 1971)

Amidst a never ending wash up of white, good looking, halfway talented female songwriters whose numbers are way too many to mention and who are gone after two albums and half a dozen videos (and usually one decent song), this record is the blueprint they are all ripped from and nevertheless it is still a great record. It is a feel good record that can soothe your soul on a rainy day just as much as it can get party started. It has at least five super-hits amongst its originally eleven tracks, most of them of the kind that half of the population knows them but cannot tell who the singer is, such as “I feel the earth move”, “You’ve got a friend”, “Where you Lead”, “Will you love me tomorrow” and “You make me feel like a natural woman”. Moreover it has been a source for many soundtracks to tv shows and movies and, of course, advertisements. Finally, being called “Tapestry”, which is the worst fate that music can ever have, it has all the ingredients and then some more (like the totally un-glossy cover with the cat in the foreground and the sun shining in, or winning four Grammys) so I should hate it. And, surprise, I like it and have listened to it a lot in the last decade and I don’t think of stopping.

“Tapestry” is the one off masterpiece that can shape an artist’s career like nothing much else. Like Diana Ross’ solo, “Blue” by Joni Mitchell debut or Bill Wither’s “Still Bill” (all of which could find an entry to best or at least most underrated record) it is one of those rare pop-albums that really deserve the adjective perfect. The songwriting is so fine, you cannot imagine the songs to be any way different. The arrangements are down to earth, simple and dynamic, just the way they used to be during those best years of the west coast sound (that spells Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, The Eagles, Joni Mitchell, Gram Parsons, etc) and which of course are due to the master of the polished pop/country-song James Taylor. The worst thing you can say about “Tapestry” is that there is absolutely no flaw to it. Every song is a winner. Usually, doing everything right means you are doing something more fundamental wrong. Here that is not true. Even the songs that aren’t super hits are good songs. Carole King is a good singer on top. Not that more than talent and a little originality is necessary if the songs are good – and there are many examples to prove that – but she has that certain portion of soul in her voice that will make her sound like a Diane Krall in an average business women’s ears; and like a woman with a big heart in mine.

I have listened to this so many times, pictures and stories started to form in my mind to many of those songs. “Way over yonder” is so melancholic and sad, it makes me feel better whenever rainy weekends dampen my mood. “And I’ll stand up proudly with peace of mind” is such a line that takes away a lot of what worries me. Completely different in many ways is my vision to “You make me feel like a natural woman”, which boils down to a home video of a middle aged man in the privacy of his sleeping room living out his own transvestite passion in satin and lingerie. Yeah, strange. But not as embarrassing to mention as the romantic kind of love stories that cross my mind when listening to “Will you love me tomorrow?” – that is the kind of sap I actually am. Well, I am too old to be embarrassed about anything I do, as Fritz Ostermayer said.

Maybe all that this music is deep down and truly connected with for me is the dream of a simple and straight live in the country, where things are simple and easy and the mind is free. Where days with sunshine are good and there is no noise, no stress, no hectic schedules and no deadlines. Where nature is the only boundary and dates are set by morning and night and by the seasons and not by quarterly reports and ad hoc demands of bosses and clients. This record sounds as if it was done in the easiest mood that a place like Laurel Canyon is all about and that mood shines through every note of every song. This kind of ease is something I long for when days are getting long and work is getting heavy. And after all, who doesn’t dream of a love that is a true friendship at the same time, the everlasting kind? Or at least of a true friendship, which is so hard to find as well.