Why Carole King is the “epitome” of the singer-songwriter movement, according to James Taylor
Carole King had known James Taylor for around one year by the time she released Tapestry in 1971. Although she had been active for a number of years prior, this was her moment, and the confessional and realist style of earlier folk pioneers had paved the way for the very thing King would catapult to a new level – the singer-songwriter movement.
Musical lyricism went through several transitions throughout the 1960s. Artists like Bob Dylan, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Leonard Cohen, and Joni Mitchell paved the way by demonstrating the impact of infiltrating musical arrangements with poeticism and romanticism. Dylan, in particular, became a pivotal figure, whose music and lyrics were infused with intellectual musings and criticisms of social culture.
King’s 1970 debut, Writer, followed an already successful period of time for the musician as a singer-songwriter, but it wasn’t until the release of Tapestry that she unleashed her talent to its full potential. Many of its songs became standards that are still widely recognised today, like ‘Will You Love Me Tomorrow?’ and ‘(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman’.
As someone who played on Tapestry, Taylor was at the fore of witnessing her artistry first-hand, even encouraging her to write and perform her own songs more after believing in her since the day they met. Taylor was also a significant purveyor of the movement, and together, they worked to highlight and strengthen the various threads of vulnerability and authenticity that were already becoming central to the wider singer-songwriter explosion.
Although many discuss the singer-songwriter movement as a staple of early-1970s music and culture, Taylor regards the earlier folk and rock pioneers as the first musicians to spark the later singer-songwriter influx, calling notable figures like Dylan, Woody Guthrie, and Robert Johnson as innovators of its earliest iteration. However, overall, he regards King as “its epitome.”
Recalling her early impact on him as a musician, he said he had “been deep into her songs” before “Danny Kortchmar introduced us in Los Angeles in 1970.” She worked on songs for Tapestry while playing piano on his Sweet Baby James album, which sparked an ongoing musical partnership and deep friendship that “was really something wonderful.”
Good minds think alike, as they say, so perhaps it was both King and Taylor’s penchant for crafting beautiful lyrics that kept them in close contact for such a long time. “Carole and I found we spoke the same language,” Taylor explained, adding: “We shared a common ear, a parallel musical/emotional path. And we brought this out in one another, I believe.”