Carole And James---Buy This CD and DVD!!

One of the cool things about working at a radio station is that we receive the music first, usually well ahead of the general public.

A while back, I got the CD and DVD combo of Carole King and James Taylor at the Troubadour.

Buy this CD and DVD. It is terrific!

Clearly, it would be best if you are a JT and/or Carole King fan. Their intertwined careers and phenomenal success starting in the early 70’s was the soundtrack of all of our lives as we exited the 60’s and began a new decade searching for more than just a beat (or Beatles) in our music.

The Troubadour is a famous club in Los Angeles, perhaps most notable for launching the career of one Elton John, also in the early 70’s. Not a glamorous setup, to be sure. Some of the artists who played there would call it a dump.

Whatever it was then—apparently it still is now, as James Taylor remarks during his reunion show with Carole King---namely, that not much has changed in the nearly 40 years since the two young singer-songwriters performed there regularly.

A couple of clips today—one is from the 2007 show that spawned this CD/DVD and inspired the summer tour for Carole and James. To be sure, 94.9 WHOM will be giving away tickets to the Boston shows in June!

Check it out:



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJ2ncTGQEA0&feature=related

Now, this clip---vintage Carole King and James Taylor—back when he had HAIR---at the start of their amazing ride in 1971:



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=urt2cy7AqFs

James Taylor was signed to Apple Records, the Beatles label—after Paul McCartney and George Harrison heard the shy teenager and saw in him great talent. The breakup of the Beatles soon after left James a bit lost in the shuffle—and he returned to the U.S. and signed with Warner Brothers Records.

Although the landmark album “Sweet Baby James” was not initially a hit, word of mouth and airplay on FM stations slowly edged the album up the charts. Carole King’s song “You’ve Got A Friend” was a huge #1 song for James.
Concurrently, Carole King was already an accomplished songwriter, having penned or co-written MANY hits, starting with the Shirelles’ , “Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow”.
However, she was not a performer—until hooking up with James and appearing with a host of musicians in club gigs, including The Troubadour.

Then came “Tapestry”—the album that ranked #1 on the Billboard charts for an amazing 13 weeks. It has sold 22 million copies—making it the biggest selling album by a solo female artist in history—a mark that was held until Alanis Morrisette’s “Jagged Little Pill” surpassed King’s sales in the 90’s.

Both singers became huge mega-stars almost overnight.

If you are like me, the songs from “Tapestry” and “Sweet Baby James” are not just “tunes”. Hearing anything off either album immediately transports me back to a specific time, a specific place—and evokes a flood of memories. These songs are literally part of the fabric of my life, interwoven with all of the experiences, both happy and sad—that exemplify those years when I was constantly exposed to this music.

As is the case for me, so it is for literally millions of other people who lives are in part DEFINED by this wonderful music. What an awesome feeling it must be to have something that you wrote—come to mean so much to so many people. James Taylor jokes that little did he know that when Carole King gave him permission to record “You’ve Got A Friend” and release it as a single ahead of her, that he would be “singing that same song every day for the rest of my life!” Perhaps it grows tiresome after a while—and you wonder if these two ever grow weary of their own music after so many performances.

I don’t know the answer to that question— I do know that I never tire of hearing these unbelievable songs—and losing myself in the memories they bring.


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