All language subtitles for CAROLE KING - Carole King Story

Welcome to the White House,
everybody.

Tonight, it is my great pleasure

to present America's highest
award for popular music

to a living legend, Carole King.

She's passionate. As a musician,
she's brilliant.

As a songwriter,
she's brilliant

and intellectually,
she's right at the top.

I think she's one of the greatest
American songwriters of our time.

And her voice touches us
because it's honest.

By the age of four, Carole was
already mastering the piano.

By 15, she'd already conducted
her first orchestra.

By 17, she'd already written
her first number-one hit,

Will You Love Me Tomorrow,
with Gerry Goffin.

So at this point, all of you
are feeling like underachievers,
I understand.

LAUGHTER

She really has her finger on the
pulse of, er...of human emotions.

And she can paint them in a song.

And then, in 1971 came the biggest
break of all

when she showed the world that

she couldn't just write hit songs,
she could sing them, too.

If Carole had never written
a song after that era,

she would still be a legend.

If Tapestry had never happened,

she'd be one of the most important
people in rock'n'roll history.

So the fact that she pulled off
that whole other career, you know,

er...is just mindboggling.

Nobody else has done
what she's done.

Her album, Tapestry, struck a chord
with a whole new legion of fans.

Carole has written more
than 400 compositions

that have been
recorded by over 1,000 artists,

resulting in over 100 hits.

As Carole tells it, the secret
to her success is that,

"I try to get out of the way

"and let the process be guided
by whatever is driving me."

That's what makes her songs
so personal

and so powerful. So enduring.

She has a quality of...

sympathy and..and...normalcy,

but in fact, it's accompanied
by also a quality of genius.

Carole King.

RAPTUROUS APPLAUSE

You've got to get up every morning

With a smile on your face

And show the world
all the love in your heart

Then people going
to treat you better

You're going to find, yes, you will

That you're beautiful
as you feel.

APPLAUSE

My mother had a piano, you know,
right from before I was born.

And so I was able to play it

and work on it by ear
and write little ditties.

But my mother also had been trained
in piano,

so she trained me so I knew how
to read music, as well.

I know some music theory.

My mother and father both were
supportive and were can-do people.

I just started writing little tunes

and then when rock'n'roll
was being born with Alan Freed,

I was hearing the music and thinking,
"I could do that!"

Every high school in Brooklyn during
the '50s had a rock'n'roll group.

They were all over the place.
They were proliferating.

Danny and the Juniors
were singing in the Bronx

and Neil Sedaka
at that time with The Tokens,

was singing out
of Lincoln High School.

Well, there must have been
something in the water

but a lot of people have achieved
fame or notoriety

as songwriters and singers
and recording artists.

Barbra Streisand grew up in Brooklyn
around the same time.

Neil Diamond, Neil Sedaka,

though I didn't know any of them
except Neil Sedaka.

We started the Cosines,

which I believe she got the idea for
in junior high school.

The name of the quartet, it was
so imaginative, the Cosines.

And we were taking trigonometry
at the time.

We performed at school dances
and parties.

Anywhere we kind of had a chance

or, you know, school shows.

She was the singer,
she was the writer,

she was the piano player
for the group.

And she wanted this.

She wanted this as a career.

In those days, you could be a kid,
as Carole was,

16 years old, coming from Brooklyn,

you could be a kid and go into 1650
Broadway or into the Brill Building,

one of the two buildings
people think of

when they're talking about
the Brill Building Sound.

And I'd always been fascinated
by that culture,

which is to say an office building
in New York City, in Times Square,

that used to be where the
Tin Pan Alley songwriters

came in the '20s
to sell their songs.

And now, in the '50s, was taken over
by kids, teenagers, a lot of them,

to create the new sound
of rock'n'roll.

You could knock on a door,
you could get a producer

or someone in the business
to listen to your song.

There were pianos in all
those offices.

She came in,
she played her piano for people.

And they'd hear the song and they'd
think, "OK, I can sell that song."

And I was in the waiting room
and there was this kid there.

She looked like she was about
15 years old, in jeans.

And I started to talk with her.

And I thought to myself,
"God, this girl is so confident."

And I said to myself,
"If this girl has talent,

"she's going to be a huge star."

And it happened to be Carole.

She was simply being paid
to write songs

for top groups that needed songs.

Because in those days, there were
very few singer/songwriters.

That phenomenon had not yet really
occurred.

It was made-to-order song writing.

You were either writing
for a specific artist

or you were writing a song
that the publisher

you were working for
would go out and shop

to various singers.

There was a breakdown in those days

between who wrote the song
and who sang it.

There's a lot of things I want

A lot of things that I'd like to be

But, girl, I don't foresee
a rags-to-riches story...

I was going to be a teacher
and marry some nice doctor.

Instead, I married Gerry Goffin.

There's just one little dream

I've got to make come true

There's just one round
I've got to win

I can't be a loser with you

Baby, baby, just once in my life

Let me get what I want...

He definitely came at a time
in my life

when I needed somebody to write
better lyrics than,

"Baby, baby, baby, baby sitting."

There's a myth we used
to write in the Brill Building.

We actually wrote in 1650 Broadway.

Aldon Music was a music-publishing
company

that was started by two fellas.

Don Kirshner and Al Nevins.

So the name is Al and Don together.

And they built up such
a great reputation.

Don Kirshner was the best publisher
that I've ever come across.

And their company became
so powerful

that he would get record companies
to promise him

the backside of a record
just to get our material.

In those days,
records had two sides.

That's right. There were things
called records, too.

I forgot that! They had two sides.
Right.

Donny Kirshner,
who was a great publisher

who had a really good ear, um...that
group of writers,

Barry Mann, Cynthia Weil,
Howie Greenfield,

Neil Sedaka, Carole, Gerry,

and some others in that group,

they had 36 top-ten records
in three years.

All of us then were fans
of American music

and would study every detail
of the label.

And, of course, the names Goffin
and King

kept occurring in those
little brackets

under some of our very
favourite songs.

Goffin and King
wrote songs to order.

It was like, OK, somebody needs
a hit, you write the song.

I hate the word "factory."
I really hate it.

It was a songwriting school.

You went in in the morning

and you went to your cubicle
or your little office.

There was a piano there.

One of you sat there and the other
one jotted down some words.

And you both sang or one of you sang
and you tried to come up with songs.

I like that but it's got to be
harder.

You know, when we write the
lyrics to it, it will be different.

La-la La-la La-la La-la La-la.

Let's sing again.

La-la La-la La-la.

On the right side of the main room,
there were about four
different cubicles

and the cubicles
would have an upright piano

and a piano stool
and one chair and an ashtray

because everybody
smoked like crazy back then.

And it's amazing
we didn't get cancer.

There's still time! Thank you!

Cynthia Weil and Barry Mann,
who was her husband,

and Gerry Goffin and I,
who were at that time married,

were a pair of writing teams
that wrote for Don Kirshner.

They would write a song they picked,
they'd start and finish.

There was no, let's work
on it for a few days

and see what we come up with.

There was none of that.
They would start, they would finish.

Some of the best songs you ever
heard done in 20 minutes,

half an hour, 45 minutes.
Unbelievable, you know.

It came surprisingly quickly.

It was a craft to finish them off,

but we already had the model
in front of us

in the last hit
that that artist had.

So all we had to do
was catch the mood.

It wasn't too hard to do for us.

It was a lot of fun too.

It would be very competitive.

With Carol and Gerry we ended up
being really good friends

but at the same time,
we would be jealous of each other

if the other team got the record.

And that was very confusing to us
because as friends we loved them.

But if they got the record,
we hated them!

'Will You Love Me Tomorrow' was a
follow-up to a hit by The Shirelles.

Their hit was
'Tonight's The Night'.

In writing 'Will You Love me
Tomorrow',

we tried to write 'Tonight's The
Night' sideways and upside down,

so it had some of the same feeling
and yet was a new idea.

Tonight you're mine completely

You give your love so sweetly.

Tonight the light of love

Is in your eyes

But will you love me tomorrow.

There's a reason why
that song has lasted

and why people keep
coming back to it.

There's an extraordinary
beauty in it

and a kind of emotional texture
that you might not ordinarily

hear in something you would
think of as a pop hit.

We had at that time one child.
That was in '61. That was Louise.

Sherry wasn't born until '62.

Gerry was working as a chemist
to support the family.

I was at home with the child.
The traditional male-female roles.

We were also writing to try
and make it to free ourselves
from the nine to five,

except I was still taking care
of the child and the house as well.

But that was fine.
It worked out fine.

This was pre-Beatles, so a lot
of pop music was bubble gum music.

And a lot of it was... I don't know.

There wasn't a lot going on in pop
music and they stood out completely.

I'd like to know that your love

Is a love I can be sure of

So tell me now

And I won't ask again.

Will you still love me tomorrow.

Gerry Goffin wrote those words
from a woman's perspective.

But Carole wrote this incredibly
beautiful music that has this drama

of that moment of making
your sexual passage.

So tell me now

And I won't ask again

Will you still love me tomorrow.

'Will You Love Me Tomorrow' was a big
hit and it went to number one

and we were delighted because then
we could devote ourselves

to working on songs full-time.

Carole's melodies are sometimes
more joyful than Gerry's lyrics.

The lyrics can sometimes have
a lot of darkness in it

that she sets off with a more
optimistic melody.

Take good care of my baby

Now don't you ever make her cry

Just let your love surround her

Paint a rainbow all around her

Don't let her see your cloudy sky

Once upon a time

That little girl was mine.

If I'd been true

I know she'd never be with you

So take good care of my baby

Be just as kind as you can be

And if you should discover

That you don't really love her

Just send my baby

Back home to me.

We were so into writing for other
artists that after 'Take Good
Care Of My Baby' was written

we liked the demo I did
on it so much

that we did another demo
in that mode.

I think we were going to give that to
Bobby Vee but we said no,
let's put this one out.

And that was my first record
as an artist

called 'It Might As Well
Rain Until September'.

What should I write

What can I say

How can I tell you

How much I miss you

The weather here

Has been as nice as it can be

Although it doesn't really

Matter much to me

For all the fun I'll have

While you're so far away

It might as well rain
until September.

We got to the point where we
were spending a lot of time
in the studio making demos

and I used to bring Louise to the
studio in her little playpen.

And it got kind of hard to do both

so Little Eva came to stay
with Louise

and people had the impression
she was pushing a broom

around the kitchen one day,
singing

and we heard her sing and said,
"Stop! We must record that voice."

But the fact of the matter is,
we knew she could sing
when she came to work for us

and it was just a matter of time
before we were going to have her
singing some of our demos.

Everybody's doing
a brand new dance now

(Come on baby do the loco-motion)

I know you'll get to like it
if you give it a chance now

(Come on baby do the loco-motion)

My little baby sister
can do it with ease

It's easier than learning your ABCs

So come, on come on

Do the loco-motion with me.

There never was a dance
the loco-motion until after it was

a number one hit record and everybody
says, how does this dance go?

So Little Eva had to make up
a dance!

Chains

My baby's got me
locked up in chains

And they ain't the kind

That you can see.

The original image was that old
street corner music, you know.

Three people standing there
just doing it in harmony,

which we do in concert sometimes.

Chains

My baby's got me
locked up in chains

And they ain't the kind

That you can see

Oh-oh, these chains of love

Got a hold on me

Yeah.

When the Beatles started
to write songs,

I have no question
they looked to Goffin and King

and they overtly spoke of Goffin
and King as among
their inspirations.

Chains

I can't break away
from these chains

Can't run around

Cos I'm not free.

I thought it was really neat
when the Beatles did my song 'Chains'

because they were this big
phenomenon in this country

and everybody was going, "Oh, wow!"
And "They're great song writers."

Gerry and I had written
'Chains' for The Cookies

and had a record with it here
and then they went and did it.

I sort of feel like I'm still
learning things about Carole King.

I mean, this woman wrote
so many amazing songs.

I walked home and she held my hand

I knew it couldn't be
just a one-night stand

So I asked to see her next week
and she told me I could

(I asked to see her
and she told me I could)

Something tells me
I'm into something good

(Something tells me
I'm into something)

Something tells me
I'm into something good

(Something tells me
I'm into something)

To something good

Oh, yeah.

I remember making a suggestion
about writing something
about a secret place.

Some place somebody goes, you know.
Where do you go?

In New York,
where we lived at the time,

one of the few places you could go
to get away was up on the roof.

When this old world
starts getting me down

And people are just too much

For me to face

I climb way up
to the top of the stairs

And all my cares just drift

Right into space

On the roof's
the only place I know

Where you just have to wish
to make it so

Let's go up on the roof

Up on the roof.

My mum wanted to live
in the suburbs.

My dad probably would have loved
to live in the West Village

or in New York City somewhere.

But my mum just wanted to be
a normal housewife.

So all I remember is this
house in West Orange, New Jersey,

and having these two
kind of weird-ish parents,

compared to the other
parents on the street.

She was traditional
in the sense

that she wanted
a house in the suburbs.

That was what she thought
her life would be.

She also was the only person our age
I knew who played mahjong.

She said you'll find out that even

when I was a teenager
I was an old Jewish lady.

That's what I was
right from the beginning.

So she wanted a house and a tree
and the yard and the kids

and the dog and the cat.

That is so much who she is

and I think that's why people
feel connected to her.

You make me feel.

Jerry Wexler presented Gerry Goffin
and me with the title

and said I need something for Aretha.

Here's the title - 'Natural Woman'.

Then he rolls up
the window in his limo

and drives off and we were like, OK.

When my soul was in
the lost and found

You came around to claim it

I didn't know just
what was wrong with me

Until your kiss helped me name it

Now I'm no longer doubtful
of what I'm living for

Cos if I make you happy
Do I need to do more

Because you make me feel

You make me feel

You make me feel
like a natural woman.

'Natural Woman'.
That is a Gerry Goffin lyric.

That is a man writing about what
a woman feels, which is incredible.

That's how great he was
as a lyricist.

"When my soul was in the lost and
found you came along to claim it."

Those words, how he packed all that
emotion in those words is a miracle.

For Carole to sing a song,
or anyone,

that Aretha Franklin had sung

is, you know,
I mean, that takes something.

Carole's voice is so personal,

it really seemed as if you were
reading something

written in someone's soul.

Oh, baby, what you done to me

You make me feel so good inside

And I just want to be

Close to you

You make me feel so alive

You make me feel

You make me feel like a natural

Natural woman.

It was socially conscious writing
without the sledgehammer.

"Another pleasant valley Sunday
here in status symbol land."

You know?

Lyrics like that that are a comment

and yet were very much attuned
to the times and very much

reflective of that he and Carole had
moved to the New Jersey suburbs.

Rows of houses
that are all the same

And no-one seems to care.

I think he felt that he was
trapped in suburbia

and 'Pleasant Valley Sunday'
was his anthem of rebellion.

See Mrs Gray she's proud today

Because her roses are in bloom

And Mr Green he's so serene

He's got a TV in every room

Another Pleasant Valley Sunday

Here in status symbol land.

I remember being so impressed
when my mum and dad

had a song on The Monkees album

because The Monkees
were all that then.

And I do remember Davy Jones came
over to our house one time,

which just floored me.

At six years old,
Davy Jones was, you know,

he's the perfect height
for a six-year-old!

But he was just
the whole world to me.

Those songs are, to my mind,
they are masterpieces, you know.

Without the self-consciousness of
Dylan or something like that,

you can go back and revisit those
songs and really enjoy them

and find a lot of meaning in them.

There's a lot of forgiveness
in her music.

There's a lot of compassion
in her music.

But forgiveness is a key thing.

She goes through a real break-up
in her life.

Her husband has been unfaithful
to her more than once.

She loved him a lot. He loved her
too but it couldn't work.

They were married very young,
very young,

when they were teenagers
because she got pregnant.

And that infidelity came out
of a real frustration that they

had been married for four years
and Gerry was still only 23.

They had been surrounded by,
he was a very handsome guy,

there were a lot of beautiful
women around all the time

and he told Carole about it
before he did it.

It's one of the interesting
things about the story.

He kind of asked for her permission.

I remember the divorce happened
simultaneous with the move to LA.

They were splitting up
and moving into separate houses

as we moved to LA
from our house together.

And I just thought, "Oh, cool,
we're going to have two houses!

"That's going to be so cool."

It didn't hit me like, "Oh, my God,
my parents are splitting up."

And they kept writing together.

Even after they split up
they would get together

and write often enough to me that it
looked like there was harmony.

It was like part of our family
was being taken away from us.

It was very disturbing for us.

And I worried about her
and I worried about the kids

and I worried about him.

and what was going to happen
to everybody.

I moved to California in about 1968
and James Taylor

was just in the process of coming
over with Peter Asher

and Charles Larkey, who I had known
back East was moving there also.

So James's guitar player
was Danny Kootch.

We all were looking at California
as the place to be.

One year ago you were cycling home
from school in London

at four in the afternoon
and it was raining and dark,

and suddenly you're in a Mustang
convertible and it's not raining,

it's not dark and there are
beautiful blondes everywhere.

And you go, this is
probably an improvement!

I think this is a good move!

Most of the musicians
in New York, they did pit bands,

they did work for the Broadway
shows, things like that.

In LA, everyone was doing
rock 'n' roll.

They were making Jan and Dean
records, Beach Boys records.
So it was very different.

It was a very exciting scene
at the time.

We were all friends
and liked to play the same music.

Before too long I found myself
teamed up professionally

and personally with Charles Larkey.

Charles Larkey moved in with us.

He was my stepdad.
He moved into Wonderland with us.

When the sun comes up
in the canyon

And you are feeling lost
and abandoned

Some stranger may knock
upon your door.

I was contacted by Carole when
she moved out here from New York.

She didn't know a lot
of people out here,

or a lot of people in the
music industry for sure.

She had gotten together
with Danny Kortchmar

and Charlie Larkey
as a group called The City.

That's the first thing I recorded
with Carole on the West Coast.

'Now That Everything's Been Said'
was the name of the album.

Lou produced. We recorded it at
a studio on Gower in Hollywood.

It was the first album I played on.

The first full-length album
I had ever played on.

And certainly, I had never
met anyone like Lou, who was
a brilliant record producer.

My friend and mentor, Bert
Schneider, had been encouraging me

to write lyrics and Carole had
just divorced from her husband.

She had come into Bert's office

and he was producing
The Monkees movie.

Bert pulled the lyrics
out of his desk,

handed them to Carol and she said,
"They're good, did you write them?"

He said, "No, my friend Toni did."

And we just got along well and
I remember feeling good about it

and obviously she did too.

She became my writing partner
from that night on

and we worked together
for around five years.

The City album probably happened

because Carole didn't want to be
a solo artist.

And Charlie and Kootch,
Danny Kortchmar,

probably talked her
into recording as a group.

The thing I remember about The City
is the songs are wonderful.

Remember the tempo. They were just
getting their sea legs as a band.

If you listen closely
you can see the roots,

or the beginnings of 'Tapestry'.

How come you want to leave me here

Is there something else
I should know

You may think it's strange
I never noticed the change

That made you want
to get up and go

Get up and go

Now that everything's been said

Now that everything's been done

How come you want
to leave me here.

I would write the lyrics first,
I would give it to Carole

and she would write the melodies
to my lyrics in an hour.

Including the arrangement.

The first thing that I envisioned
with Carole after The City album,

which I had to treat as a group,

was a solo artist
that you always felt,

she was sitting at the piano
and singing to you.

That was the basis of 'Tapestry'.

At the time the
'Tapestry' album came,

James was also doing his second album
which was the 'Sweet Baby James'

album and so Peter was working
with James in one studio

and Lou was working with me
and Charles in the other studio.

Lou was the kind of guy,

he likes to have things
very cool and very quiet.

No fuss, no muss.

Whatever had to be done with Carole,
they would discuss it in the office.

When they got to the studio,

I got into the room
and it was up to Carole.

A and M was located on the corner
of Sunset and La Brea

and it's a former Charlie Chaplin
Studios, which isn't bad to

have that sort of vibe going,
if you will.

The Carpenters were in studio
A, and they were creating.

Joni Mitchell doing
'Blue' in studio C.

She liked that small intimate room.

Carole was here.

We were making a good record. We
knew that. It was a simple record.

Records like 'Tapestry' could
be overproduced in a minute.

Let's add more guitars,
let's add more of this or that.

Lou and Carole wanted
that simplicity.

They wanted it to be nice and warm

and a very comfortable record
for people to enjoy.

I feel the earth move under my feet

I feel the sky tumbling down

I feel my heart start to trembling

Whenever you're around.

I wanted it to stay that simple
and always have that feeling that

Carole was singing to you
and playing the piano.

We turned all the lights down in
the room, all the lights we are

seeing and all the background
lights down and all that stuff.

Everything was what makes
an artist comfortable

so you had all of that ambiance
and environment going.

After a while they got
so comfortable with that,

they were like playing
in their living room.

It felt a lot like family

and everyone wanted everyone
else to succeed.

'Will You Love Me Tomorrow',
Joni and James sang background on.

James was on a lot of 'Tapestry'.

If he wasn't singing,
he was playing.

They were all friends. Joni
and James, they were all friendly.

It was fun. They would come in
and Carole knew what she wanted.

When it comes to her music,
she is in control of what it's going

to be and how it's
going to come out.

It's wonderful to work with her
and wonderful to work with

a person that has that kind
of confidence in what they want.

A lot of the material
they are recording or the show
they are putting on,

it makes it really easy for
someone like me to find out what
they need and give it to them.

We were doing two or three tunes
a day. It's hard to imagine now.

The day we cut
'I Feel The Earth Move',

we did two other tunes that day.

It took us three weeks
to make 'Tapestry'. $22,000.

She got involved
in every single part.

She had specific ideas of what
she wanted me to play.

Specific ideas for the
bass player to play.

I played the solos off the floor.
The solos were not even overdubbed.
They were just played live.

I didn't have time to think about it
and it's a good thing

because if I'd thought about it,
I would've screwed them up.

I didn't have time to think about
it. Carole just said, you play
a solo here, and I did.

GUITAR SOLO

Vinyl used to have two sides.

There used to be a logical
place for a pause

and we as the creators of that
product had to build in

a place for that pause
and I think that made for a really

interesting theatre almost, it would
be like the intermission in a play.

And then the actual sequencing
of an album is kind of a lost art.

Sequencing at that time
was very important

because you go through one side,
you turn it over

and so all of that was based
on one person listening to it

and not, how is this going to go
over with 25 million people?

Lou saw what was going on and he
described it, in an interview,

he said this is going to be
the Love Story -

Love Story at the time was
the big book and movie -

the Love Story of albums,
and he was right on the money.

As I watched in sorrow

There suddenly appeared

A figure grey and ghostly

Beneath a flowing beard

In times of deepest darkness

I've seen him dressed in black

Now my tapestry's unravelling

He's come to take me back

He's come to take me back.

'Tapestry' was one of those albums

that it come out
and it was everywhere immediately.

Maybe 'Sgt Pepper' was the only
other experience, at least I've

ever had like that, where the
record appears and then suddenly

every song and everywhere you go,
people are playing it.

The album exploded.

It wasn't one of those where we
had to sit around and wait

and see what was going to happen.
It truly exploded.

I was reading Rolling Stone
and there was a review of her album.

It was an incredible review.

I went out and I bought the album
and I started listening to it

and her lyrics just blew me away.

I was so surprised.
She was a really good lyricist.

And I remember shopping in grocery
stores and hearing it.

And it's too late, baby.

And going, "I hear my mom's voice."

Oh, I thought
it was my mom calling me.

The same timbre of voice
that goes "Sherry!"

is the voice that was,

Too late, baby.

I hear my mom...
Oh, she's on the radio.

It was the right songs at the
right time for the audience

that was ready for them.

They said everything that
people were feeling

and couldn't really express.

She never did any press,
interviews, anything.

She never brought any of that home
so it still felt like this

thing was going on outside
of our world in the big world.

The transition from the '60s to the
'70s in the US was a very
complicated time.

I'm sure it was everywhere, but here
the Vietnam War was still raging.

There were 550,000 American
troops in Vietnam in 1969.

Vietnam is not that big a country.
It's half a million troops.

There were still the after-effects
of the assassinations

of Robert Kennedy
and Martin Luther King.

There was still a lot of anger
in the atmosphere

and it was very unpleasant.

A very unpleasant period
in the history of America.

'The great '60s ambitions,
the great utopian hopes,

'clearly weren't going
to materialise,'

so people began looking inward and
that was the singer-songwriter
movement.

Carole's record was so warm
and so welcoming

and so made you feel that a friend
was taking care of you, and a

friend was saying things that you
were feeling, but couldn't express.

First of all,
it instantly touched me.

It felt intimate and it felt like
she could be singing for me,

or I could be singing those
songs myself.

I think it really hit home for
so many people, especially women.

It was my go-to record for any
time I wanted to feel better.

It was like a friend.

The record was like having
a close friend

and her voice was your girlfriend.

It still affects women to this day

because it wasn't trying to do
anything or trying to be anything.

It was a very honest album.

Carole has, to me,
one of the great voices,

but it's not classically
a great voice.

It's not like Aretha or Barbra
or Celine. It's not.

It's a voice that every woman
thinks she could have.

It's an art to be able to connect
with a listening audience

the way Carole did and I think
the simplicity of the songs and

the simplicity of the arrangement
and the trueness of the emotion

that came out through them,
people could relate to that.

And they made it their own.

It was an artist
expressing what she felt.

That is what was different about it.
All of a sudden

the artists were singing the songs
that they wrote about their lives.

SONG: "It's Too Late"

Stayed in bed all morning
just to pass the time

There's something wrong here
there can be no denying

One of us is changing

Or maybe we just stopped trying

And it's too late baby now

It's too late

Though we really did try to make it

Something inside has died

And I can't hide it
I just can't fake it

Oh, no, no, no, no...

This is a song about disappointment,

but the ever-youthful
optimism of youth.

And I'm an optimistic person,
so the last verse addresses that,

that we both have a future,
though not with one another.

That's what the song is about.

There'll be good times again
for me and you

But we just can't stay together

Don't you feel it too?

Still I'm glad for what we had

And how I once loved you...

You get it right.

It's the right combination
of the songs, the lyrics,

the way Carole sang them,
the band, the way Lou did it.

Just everything came out right.

It's just one of those records
that couldn't be bettered.

She was reluctant to go
out on the road for months

and leave her daughters
and to be gone.

She was very reluctant to go out.
She didn't want to tour.

It was mixed for me.

There was times when she'd go
on the road and she would take us.

That was a really special,
wonderful time for me.

When she went on the road
and we couldn't go

because we were in school, she left
us home with a friend of hers who

was taking care of us. I would get
really...

I remember crying
listening to So Far Away,

like she was singing it to me.

What's your take on how difficult
it is for a woman to have a

career in the performing arts

and also maintain a family?

Very difficult.
Very difficult.

The only time, I guess, when I had
really young children, that I ever
was on tour, was with you.

I remember we were away for six
weeks, home for two weeks

and then away for another six weeks.

And that six weeks was very
difficult.

SONG: "So Far Away"

So far away

Doesn't anybody stay
in one place any more?

It would be so fine
to see your face at my door

It doesn't help to know

You're just time away

Long ago I reached for you and

There you stood

Holding you again

Could only do me good...

I like that song a lot.

That song...

The part I'm playing on it's
incredibly simple

but that song meant a lot to me
because

I have spent my whole life
on the road

and that brings
certain kind of, um...

a kind of weight to bear

when you're away from your family
and your loved ones.

I've always had
confidence in the fact that

when I played music,

it touched
people in some way and...

The place I didn't have confidence
was as a performer,

that's where I had no confidence

and that's where you came in.

It was James and me saying to
Carole,

"Look, would you sing some of them
to open the show?"

And she agreed to do so.

She was very nervous,
she was scared.

She got over her stage fright
very quickly

because she had an incident
that happened when she
was performing at the Troubadour.

She sits down and plays
one-and-a-half songs

and then Doug Weston, who owns
the Troubadour, says,

"I'm sorry, we're going to have to
empty the building, we've had a bomb
threat."

So we walked out and then
we came back in

and Carole sat down at the piano and
they cleared it and she said,

about the bomb,

"As long as it's not me."

That cracked the audience up and
she said from then on,
she was not nervous.

Which is terrific,
I mean, that's great.

When she finally stepped up
to the plate herself

it was like hitting a major vein,

you know, like a seam of water

flowing underground or something.

It just welled up.

She hates to travel, she hates the
hotels, she hates the dressing room,

but as soon as she gets on stage
with the fellas

and we start playing, she lights up
and nobody can light up like Carole.

Carole is like a Christmas tree. She
lights up and the whole room glows.

Oh!

JAZZY PIANO INTRO

Now, big Jim the Chief
stood for law and order,

Yes, he did, yes, he did.

He called for the guard to come

And surround the border...

James and I were standing
on the balcony at sound check

and she played You've Got A Friend
for the very first time.

I can't remember anything for
one year either side of
hearing this song

but I remember standing there
and hearing Carole play this song.

And that's where James
fell in love with the song.

He thought it was one of the most
perfect pop songs ever written,
which remains true to this day.

In an amazing act of generosity

she let me cut this tune first,
release it first,

and I was amazed because she
was cutting Tapestry at the time.

APPLAUSE AND CHEERING

I didn't realise at the time that
I would be singing that song

every single night
for the rest of my life.

LAUGHTER

If the sky above you

Should grow dark and full of clouds

And that old North wind

Should begin to blow

Keep your head together

And call my name out loud now,
baby,

Soon I'll be knocking
upon your door...

I love him so much it's that real...

Everybody says, "were you a couple?"

No.

"Do you ever think about it?" No.

The first connection was musical.

It turned out
we spoke the same language.

We sat down and we slipped
back into the mother tongue, really.

It was great.

We played on each other's records,
we just had a common mind, you know.

All I want

Is a quiet place to live...

Leaving California was something
that didn't come easy.

It had been my home for ten years.

In 1977 I left and went to Idaho.

Charlie was the first
new dad that I had.

And, er...

He walked into a situation, there
was no winning in that situation.

Rick Evers was a whole
different situation.

My mom,

she was just hypnotised by him.

I moved to Hot Springs community
and it had hot running water

and cold running water outside of the
house. It had no indoor plumbing.

We used outhouses,
it had no electricity, no phones.

I'm pretty sure I was 14 when Rick
met my mum and quickly took us

to Idaho. It wasn't like she was
moving for work or necessity.

She was moving cos he said so,
and so I resented it that much more.

I knew he was a terrible guy.
I lived with him

and he had a really scary temper.

When he'd get angry,
I would feel scared,

I would, like, run in a room
and lock the door.

Even though he'd never hit you,
I felt like he was going to.

It doesn't surprise me that
he did actually hit her

and it's horrifying.

He was obviously a troubled,
deeply, deeply troubled

screwed up individual and was making
Carole's life miserable

and also making
the rest of our lives miserable.

They hated him and they had every
right to and as a person,

they didn't like him and they didn't
like the way he treated Carole

and they didn't like the way
he treated the band and...

You probably know, at one point,

he hit Danny Kortchmar coming
offstage and hit him hard.

She's a brilliant, intelligent,

insightful woman who married
a creepy guy. This happens.

And then one day,
she snapped out of it. It was...

We were back in LA, we lived
in Idaho, but we'd come back to LA

because Carole wanted to
make an album.

It turns out that prior to meeting
Carole, he was a junkie.

My mum just said, "I've had enough,
I'm leaving, Sherry, come on."

We flew to Hawaii and when we
got to Hawaii,

we got a message that Rick died.
He killed himself.

He actually shot up too much drugs.
In my own head I went, "Good."

It's terrible to say
about another human being,

but he's the guy that caused
so much pain in our family,

so much chaos
and he did it to himself.

It's not like, you know,
some tragic thing happened to him.

He just was stupid.

What kind of fool
do you think I am?

To believe you really give a damn

You're looking out for number one

What kind of chance
are you willing to take?

Are you willing to give just
a little bit for your own sake?

That's really looking
out for number one...

I guess it was in 1978,
after Rick Evers died,

I decided I was definitely going
to go back to Idaho with my two

younger children, Molly and Levi.

She fell in love with Idaho.

She fell harder for Idaho
than she fell for Rick, ultimately.

She's still in love with Idaho.

She loves the mountains,
she loves the winters there,

she loves the air. If she could,
she'd be there all the time.

Living in Idaho, which is part
of the Northern Rockies ecosystem,

and 20 years ago, most people
hadn't heard the word, ecosystem.

What it means in my area
of the country is that a bear doesn't

get to a state line and say,
"Oh, that law in this state

"means I'm protected here so I'd
better not go into the next state,

"where I'm not protected."

I think the wide open spaces
were calling to her.

This is where she wanted to, I
think, have her, sort of, her life.

We treat the Northern Rockies
as an ecosystem

and there's
a piece of legislation that

I work on called the Northern Rockies
Ecosystem Protection Act.

She's come to Capitol Hill,
just not to get the door open,

she understands the landscape,
she understands the politics,

she's telling them
about the science,

she's talking about what
the habitat destruction is doing.

She understands the economics of it.

Of the forest that once
covered America,

only 5% remain intact
but we can still save some.

We can save some cover,
some food supply

and endangered species
in the Northern Rockies,

because it is the largest viable
ecosystem in the lower 48.

Her manager on the show
would say to folks,

"On the road with Carole,

"Carole talks about the tour, about
this much. NREPA, this much."

This is Carole's passion
for the environment,

protecting these places.

I know this world needs changing

I know the shape we're in

But with all the confusion

I've reached the conclusion

There's only one place
to begin and that's

One to one...

She's happiest with
the quiet life in Idaho.

She will still tour and play shows
and she records from time to time,

but she loves Idaho with a passion

and she wants to preserve a great
area of incredible natural beauty.

She just loves the environment there
and she's an environmentalist,

so, if you're going to meet
an environmentalist, you're going

to live in the environment.

In January 2014, Beautiful,
the musical based on my mom's life,

opened on Broadway.

The idea started of making a musical
based on all four of us, based on

our friendship and our competition
with each other in the early '60s.

That's how it basically started.

I thought these are four
interesting people.

I'd met Carole, Gerry,
Barry and Cynthia.

They were really interesting,
charming, funny and smart.

I'd like to know that your love

Is love I can be sure of...

If she was told it's going to be
called Beautiful,

the Carole King musical,
what do you think?

She'd have gone, no,
that's not happening.

After the first reading,
the feedback that they got was,

were you stopping before
Tapestry? You can't do that.

The most interesting art,
the one that people are going to

want to see is Carole's art.

So, we need to focus on her
a little more

and step back on everyone else and
Barry and Cynthia agreed with that.

We became supporting players.

We've used to joke that they
were Lucy and Desi

and we were Fred and Ethel.

I knew going into it
I couldn't do a mimicry,

I just knew it wouldn't work.

For many reasons, some of
the logistical reasons being that

her voice is so unique, there is
no way I could copy her voice.

And it's too late baby
now it's too late

Though we really did
try to make it

Something inside has died
and I can't hide...

Too late is one of the ones that
always hits me every night

when you sing it.
I can feel it in the audience.

Oh, my gosh, we get to hear the song
because we love it.

Then the audience realising what
that song means to them.

You've got to get up every morning
with a smile on your face

And show the world all
the love in your heart...

One of the things I always
loved about her was her honesty

and her authenticity.

When she performs, she has such joy
and it's so honest and it's

like there's nothing between her
and the music she's making.

She likes to be the centre
of attention and at the same time,

she's like, "Don't make me
the centre of attention."

She's like, no, I want my life,
I want to be a normal person,

so I think she's been kind of smart
about drying those boundaries.

A lot of people watching,
musicians and artists,

what advice would you give to
songwriters

and musicians starting writing songs
today? What would you say?

Write from the heart, write what you
feel and just, yes, we can.

There you are.

You heard it from one of the master
songwriters of all time.

For a lot of people, things are
discouraging out there right now.

Things seem hopeless
and all I can say is persevere.

I've had hopeless times in my life
about different things

and you just have to persevere
because one day, that door does

open and if you don't persevere,
you won't be there

when it does, so persevere, don't
give up hope

and don't be discouraged.

Her legacy will be enormous.

Her legacy may be like
a Gershwin legacy

or a Rodgers and Hammerstein
legacy because

there is a generation now that
just adores her stuff

and it keeps it alive.

Soon I will be there

To brighten up even your
darkest night...

There's no pretence to anything
Carole does and that's

so true of her writing
and performing.

I just always admired the way
she goes out on stage

and just sits down and does it.

You go, oh, my God, I totally know
what that song is about.

That's happened to me, or that's how
I feel right now,

or that's how I felt then

and no-one's ever been able to say
it that way before.

They make it their own.

I would think honesty is
the prevailing

emotion of Carole as a writer
and a performer.

She said exactly what
I was going to say.

Yeah, but I'm the lyricist,
so I said it.

I'll be there, yes, I will

Hey now.

Now ain't it good to
know that you've got a friend...

Her singing, it doesn't have a
lot of artifice in it

or ornamentation.

It's pure, it's like,
here's who I am.

I think people... I think that's
what they love about her.

And take your soul if you let them

Oh but don't you let them...

If Tapestry never existed,

Carole King would still
be among the handful of most

important song writers in pop music
history, so let's just say that.

I'll come running

Oh, yes I will

To see you again

See you again and again

Winter, spring, summer or fall

All you've got to do is call

And I'll be there, yes, I will

You've got a friend.