Friday, February 7, 2014
Carole King (and a little James Taylor)
So I disagree with the statement: Carole King is like the Bob Dylan etc. Lyrically, I think they both have beautiful lyrics, but vocally Carole King has Bob Dylan beat in my opinion. My parents have a Carole King record and when I brought home the record player she was the first record we listened to. I love her raspy voice I think it adds personality to her songs. I was watching live recordings/shows of Carole King and she is an amazing pianist. I got introduced to Carole King through being introduced to James Taylor by my parents. I really love James Taylor. He is an amazing writer in my opinion. Did you know that he wrote his first song on the guitar when he was 14?? Anyway, I love Carolina On My Mind and Sweet Baby James. They're really sweet songs. You've Got a Friend, when sang with James and Carole, is my favorite though.
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I really love how thoughtfully you and Sofie and Fred write. What I meant by the bob dylan statement is that when he came along, he changed the standard of what was acceptable, and that he introduced an element of honesty and vulnerability into a RECORDED vocal performance. Regardless of whether it's fair or not, Carole King did the same thing, but for women, where the bar is much higher. One could argue that Janis Joplin, or Grace Slick from Jefferson Airplane had already lowered the bar for women, but they were rockers and Carole is more of a chanteuse, but less refined than the contemporaries she was being compared to such as Aretha who made Carole's Natural Woman famous. Again... unfair that we expect women to sing really well, but there's just less women in the field to compare other women to, so the bar is higher for them, at least from the metric of musical technicality. Does that make sense? Let me know what you think.
ReplyDeleteThank you! That means a lot!
DeleteOh, I understand what you mean and completely agree that the bar is set higher for women. I was scrolling though my playlists as well as my brother's music and there were barely any women lead vocals on them and noticed that was odd! But now I have put it all together! Thanks!