Friday Night Jukebox, Vol. DIII--Carole King: So Far Away

 At least I have a good excuse this week....

I started college in January of 1977 (yes, boys and girls, they had colleges back then), and at roughly the same time I began to explore the still somewhat young history of rock and roll.  Through my oh, so fascinating research, it became evident fairly quickly that the album featuring this week's tune was a watershed moment, and as such, it was one I needed to add to my nascent collection (easily among the first twenty albums I ever bought).  I've always had a soft spot for singer/songwriters, and I'm sure this week's artist, as well as her good friend James Taylor, have an awful lot to do with that love....

Once again, this week I have an artist whose career bio defies being encapsulated into a simple paragraph--but here goes anyway:  Carole King started as a songwriter (with then husband Gerry Goffin) in New York city in the famed Brill Building and wrote a number of classic songs in the early sixties (the songwriting team of King and Goffin have been inducted into both the Songwriters Hall of Fame and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame).  With encouragement from other artists, she eventually started a solo career in 1970, and the next year she released the album that turned her into a superstar.  As is often the case with such huge commercial and critical success, King never repeated her early blockbuster, but nonetheless had a long and varied career including winning four Grammys, numerous world tours (including a quite successful one with James Taylor in 2010), and occasional acting roles.  King has released seventeen studio albums (with three hitting #1), and thirty-three singles (with one of them reaching #1). I would be remiss if I did not note that King is a huge backer of Democratic candidates--in fact, you may have received an e-mail or two from her concerning a local candidate. King was finally inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a solo artist in 2021, and how the ever-living fuck it took so long will be one of the great musical mysteries of all time.

"So Far Away" was the second set (King's first two single releases from the album had A and B side hits) of singles released from her monumentally successful and influential second album, Tapestry.  The song would reach #14 (with a bullet!) on the Billboard Hot 100, while the album would be the first #1 LP of her career.

Fun Fact(s):  Tapestry was truly a groundbreaker when it came to album sales.  It spent fifteen consecutive weeks at #1 which is still a record for a female solo artist.  The album remained on the charts for nearly six years, and at 313 weeks, is second only to Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon (724) for most weeks on the Billboard 200.  It eventually sold over fourteen million copies and was rated at #25 on Rolling Stone's list of the "500 Greatest Albums of All Time."

Nothing says how much great music is available quite like the fact that I'm over five hundred songs into Friday Night Jukebox and am just now finally getting to my first Carole King tune (either that or the forgetfulness that comes with aging).  To be honest, I could have chosen any number of songs from the album, but there's something about the intimacy and simplicity of "So Far Away" that has always struck a chord (so to speak) with me.  King's vocals capture perfectly the yearning of being away from the one you love, and the instruments, from King's luscious piano to the subtle bass, from the understated drums to the wistful flute at the end do not miss a single note (so to speak).  An incredible artist at the height of her talents.

Lyric Sheet:  "Long ago I reached for you and there you stood/Holding you again could only do me good/How I wish I could/But you're so far away..."

Enjoy:

Republicans = Nazis

Peace,

emaycee

Friday Night Jukebox, Vol. CCCLIV--Rod Stewart: Oh No Not My Baby

 I knew a little about Rod Stewart's catalog when I started managing a Camelot Music store in 1981, but a few months after I started I became considerably more familiar with the depth of his hitmaking, thanks to a customer who brought back a defective (that wasn't so defective) copy of a best of compilation LP from his days on the Mercury label.  In fact, it was so good I not only bought it, but the second compilation from those years as well, and spend a good chunk of the early eighties listening to the both of them.

I wrote about Rod Stewart around a million years ago in the third ever post for Friday Night Jukebox.  While the earlier posts didn't have quite the biography of the newer ones, I'll still keep this mercifully short as plenty of writers better than I have covered his illustrious career.  I will make note, though, that since his humble beginning busking on the street with a harmonica in 1962, Stewart has won multiple Grammy Awards, been elected into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice (solo and as a member of Faces), been elected into the U.K. Music Hall of Fame, and been knighted.  He's also sold over 250 million records, and has had ten #1 LP's and six #1 singles in his native U.K., as well as four #1's of each here in the U.S.  And to top it off, he'll be releasing his thirty-first album sometime later this year.

Fun Fact:  The first solo album Stewart released did not chart in his native U.K.  The second one hit #62.  Of the next twenty-eight he released, twenty-seven of them reached the top ten in the U.K., and the one that missed peaked at #11.  That is one hell of a streak....

"Oh No Not My Baby" (which for whatever reason does not make the usual use of punctuation marks) was written by the great Carole King and her one-time husband Gerry Goffin in 1964.  It was originally a hit that same year for Maxine Brown, peaking at #24.  Rod Stewart recorded his version in 1973 while still a member of the Faces, but it was released as a solo effort even though he was backed by them in the studio.  It was never released on a studio album.  The single hit #6 in the U.K. (so many cool kids in Great Britain), and #59 (with a bullet!) on the Billboard Hot 100.

With "Oh No Not My Baby" Rod Stewart (who produced the single himself) took the best of sixties pop, added the best of seventies pop, and created a blue-eyed soul gem.  There haven't been too many rock and roll vocalists who can do vocally what Stewart can, and he makes his voice into an instrument of its own as he sings the tale of a man whose friends and family tell him not to trust his lady love, but who's certain that they're oh so wrong about her.  The Faces--with the help of a string section and possibly some horns--make a musical panoply in the background of Stewart's plaintive wailing (especially impressed with the drumming which give the song a nice funk groove) that glues the other pieces together.  If you're an aficionado of pure sweet pop--I know I am--this one is right up there with the best of what pop has to offer.

Lyric Sheet:   "When my friends told me you had someone new/I didn't believe a single word was true/I told them all I had faith in you/I kept a-right on sayin'/Oh, no, not my baby..."

Enjoy:

The Republican Party Is Now a Fascist Cult Just Like Nazi Germany

Peace,

emaycee