Everyday Goddess

Listening to Carole King's Tapestry - Music of My Birth

A recent Facebook game suggested that you research what song was the number one hit on the day of your birth, find a YouTube video of said song, and post it. I find that most people aren't super sharey about their age, so I suspected it wouldn't catch on, but I loved the idea. Here's mine:

What is the power of music?

Moving earth, untameable emotions, tumbling passion - Oh, I am born of this stuff. Forever intellectual, often oddly serious, I'll drop it all for a dance, a laugh, a drink, a song. Love.

Apparently, even frizzy hair was socially acceptable in 1971.

At my finger tips in 2012: iTunes and the power and the financial danger of instant access to most media. Click, click, spend, Click, click, spend. "I Feel the Earth Move" is from Carole King's album "Tapestry," and I bought it, and I listened.

The experience had an unexpected parallel to that time I finally sat down and listened to Nirvana's Nevermind. Didn't see that one coming.

Like "Nevermind" there are a surprising number of tracks that are awesome songs I already know: "So Far Away," "It's Too Late," "(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman." "You've Got a Friend" was a big hit for James Taylor that year, and ended up on a sorority slide show I made in the early 90s. I remember one sorority sister was "so over it" but I used it anyway and the slide show, which involved multiple songs, was way too long.

And "Where You Lead": AWESOME, as the Gilmore Girls theme song. I love that that song got redefined by one of my favorite shows. To me it feels more about friendship and family, thanks to Gilmore Girls.

"Will You Love Me Tomorrow" made me think of Vonda Shepard, and the title track, "Tapestry" made me think of Lorrie Morgan's "Something in Red." "Will You Love Me Tomorrow," at least according to this page right here, was on Season 4 of Ally McBeal, performed by Lisa Nicole Carson and Vonda Shepard. (Seriously, somewhere in the recesses of my mind, I remembered that?!) But as for "Tapestry," I have to admit that "Something In Red" gives me goosebumps in a way that "Tapestry" does not.

The CD reissue version of the album that's available on iTunes also comes with a bonus track, "Out In The Cold." This song brought Wanda Jackson to mind, but it hits a preachy note without being particularly catchy, and the original vinyl album was stronger without it.

I'm thinking here about physical media of a particular length encouraging creative choices and cutting the fat. But it feels too much like, "Oh, The good old days" and I'm more of an "Onward, Ho!" type person. Now we have all the space in the world and we're just going to have to learn to constrict ourselves when our art calls for it and fight the urge to just throw stuff in because we can. A new creative skill, since digital isn't going to do it for you.

That said, any album reissue is going to make the business end want to add bonus tracks.

And my favorite song on the album, and one I hadn't heard before, is "Smackwater Jack." LOVE this song that totally hits my sweetspot, and the CD reissue version of the album came with a live version bonus. Score!

So you win some, you lose some.

Someday, I am going to buy myself one of those all-in-one record players so that I can play my vinyl. Which I still have, and which I will never part with despite my regular purging of other physical media like books and CDs, etc. (I guess I do have a touch of nostalgia for the good old days, at least when it comes to music.) And someday, in my record cabinet, I'm holding a spot for Carole King's Tapestry. It's a wonderful album, and someday, I'm gonna spin it.

Listening to Nirvana's "Nevermind" - For the First Time.

I'm so in love with my generation, that I once wrote either Time or Newsweek - can't remember which it was - an impassioned letter to tell them off about their Gen-X cover story. It was right when "Reality Bites" had come out, and the article featured numerous quotes from 30-something Gen-Xers decrying the film. We don't float checks for pizza, one person said.

Um... Fuck yeah we floated checks for pizza. Those of us in the HEART of Gen-X anyway. I was 23 years old, and I wrote in decrying the fact that their article only quoted the leading edge of the generation - I mean, come on, if you were born in the 60s, are you really going to lay claim? And how on earth do you do a cover story on Gen-X in 1994 and not talk to ANYONE in their 20s? Bullshit, that's what that was.

But as much as I hold my generation in my heart, there was one important area in which I was lacking. When Rolling Stone called Kurt Cobain the "spokesman of a generation" and Nirvana the "flagship band" of Generation X in 1992, I was like, What? Who? Oh, them?

I mean, their music rocks, of course. It simply wasn't what I was listening to on the radio. So it wasn't speaking to me at the time. If I remember correctly, I was really rather pissy about it. Please forgive me, I was 21.

Cut to 2010. It's Weezer's "Heart Songs" that has driven me to finally rectify this deficiency in my music experience. I am crazy in love with "Heart Songs," which starts to really rock when it gets to this bit:

Back in 1991, I wasn't havin' any fun

'Til my roommate said, "Come on and put a brand new record on"

Had a baby on it, he was naked on it

Then I heard the chords that broke the chains I had upon me

I also recently watched an interview with B.o.B where he talks about loving to just sit down, do nothing, and listen to music. I know people do this, but I usually listen to music while doing something else: Cooking, cleaning, driving, dancing, writing, etc. Thinking about just listening to an album always makes me think of somebody's basement in the 70s, with people just chilling out and spinning records.

Suddenly, I realized. I should just download the album - which I did not even know was called "Nevermind" - in iTunes and listen to it from beginning to end. This would be an excellent exercise in music appreciation, one that was long overdue.

Well, first off, I apparently cannot simply sit and listen to music. I did manage not to multitask while listening to "Nevermind" for the first time, but I ended up pacing my living room, moving to the music, and tossing a paperweight in my hands, which in a completely unrelated anecdote, I have kept for years because I saw it used as an amusing prop in an episode of Power Rangers.

So, pacing my apartment, listening to Nevermind by Nirvana - The first thing that hits is big song after big song in massive waves of awesome. Like, wow, all these are from one album. And they totally rock.

Out of the songs I'd never heard before, I particularly like "Breed" and "Something in the Way." And "Territorial Pissings" made me laugh out loud.

Is "Nevermind" a great album? Yes, it is. Voice of my generation? Well, not for me personally, but there's no denying its power. I had to resist the urge to download "Bleach" and "In Utero" immediately - iTunes makes buying music so, so dangerously easy.

All in all, a successful and pleasing music foray. Important Gen-X album: Check. Listening without multi-tasking: Check.

Now, if you'll excuse me, a friend just gave me some Keb' Mo' to check out. I am nothing if not diverse in my love of music.