Boston

Here is a rare Carole King concert from February 29, 1976 Boston Music Hall, Boston, MA . First Set 0:00:00 Song Of Long Ago 3:24 0:03:24 Beautiful 2:37 0:06:01 Home Again 3:16 0:09:17 Tapestry 3:24 0:12:41 Golden Man 4:35 0:17:16 So Far Away 4:08 0:21:24 Been To Canaan 4:18 0:25:42 Alabaster Lady 6:08 0:31:50 Listen To The Music Playing 4:32 0:36:22 Way Over Yonder 4:32 Second Set 0:40:54 tuning 1:42 0:42:36 It's Too Late 4:14 0:46:50 I Want To Believe 4:02 0:50:52 Sweet Seasons 3:45 0:54:36 Space Between Us 3:43 0:58:19 Daughter Of Light 3:42 1:02:01 onstage banter 1:15 1:03:16 Smackwater Jack 3:54 1:07:10 Ambrosia 3:30 1:10:40 introductions 2:47 1:13:27 Jazz Man 4:13 1:17:40 I'd Like To Know You Better 4:52 1:22:32 Boy From The Country 4:46 1:27:18 High Out Of Time 4:18 1:31:36 Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow? 3:21 1:34:57 Up On The Roof 4:06 1:39:03 The Locomotion 3:31 1:42:34 I Feel The Earth Move 4:19 First Encore 1:46:53 Only Love 3:40 1:50:33 You've Got A Friend 6:03 Second Encore 1:56:37 [You Make Me Feel Like] A Natural Woman 4:10 Carole King - piano, guitar, vocals Bobbye Hall - percussion Doyle Hough - guitar, vocals Russ Kunkel - drums Clarence McDonald - keyboards Leland Sklar - bass, vocals Waddy Wachtel - guitar, vocals This concert recorded five years after her record-breaking Tapestry, showed no signs of King slowing down. But by 1977, with the release of Simple Things, King's career was clearly in decline. How did she slip into obscurity so suddenly? In 1971, the songwriter of numerous hits for Neil Sedaka, The Shirelles and Little Eva, finally had her break when her second solo album Tapestry was No 1 on Billboard and stayed there for 15 weeks and remained on the charts for six years. The new generation was in tune to the liberated woman and King proved she had the chops to write the songs and sing them. Tapestry has since sold a total of 22 million copies worldwide. Its record was only surpassed in 1977 when Frampton Comes Alive was released. Music (1971), Rhymes and Reasons (1972) and Wrap Around Joy (1974) followed, each selling respectably. But King's dislike for live performance kept her out of the limelight just as the industry, after Frampton Comes Alive, was looking for multi-platinum artists. King made only one big concert. In 1973, she performed a free concert in New York City's Central Park in front of 100,000 people. A record that was only surpassed in 1981 by Simon and Garfunkel, with 500,000 people. In 1975, King made a detour recording a soundfor Maurice Sendak's Really Rosie. When her husband Rick Evers, whom she married in 1977, died the following year of a drug overdose, King made one last album, Touch The Sky, in 1979 and then retired from active music-making. She emerged only in 1989 with the album City Streets by which time singer-songwriters were no longer in vogue. By 1976, a Carole King show was full of hits from Tapestry, Music and Rhymes And Reasons, her three best solo albums. If she suffers from stage-fright, it is not obvious. King was liberating in the post-women's lib world and Tapestry was filled with songs of fierce independence [Beautiful, A Natural Woman]. But by the mid-'70s, King was no longer satisfied with writing hits but crafting albums. However, when the singles failed to chart ["Nightingale," 1975, "Only Love Is Real," 1976, "High Out of Time," 1976, "Hard Rock Cafe," 1977, "Simple Things," 1977, "Morning Sun," 1978], her album sales also declined. Without continuous touring, King's popularity waned. There are several seldom-played songs in this concert - Golden Man, Alabaster Lady, Space Between Us, Daughter Of Light, Boy From The Country and High Out Of Time - that are of a high caliber but never stuck due to lack of exposure. By the time King returned in 1989, the business was nurturing "divas" not singer-songwriters. Her new songs had to compete against her much-loved repertoire. Still, there are women like Joni Mitchell, Rickie Lee Jones, Sheryl Crow, Sarah McLaughlan and Loreena McKennitt who continue to pave the way for singer-songwriters.

• published: 10 Sep 2014
• views: 19266