The early 1970s were a pretty lonely time for me. I had arrived from my hometown of Louisville in the fall of 1969 to take a reporting job at The Kansas City Star.
After a few months of apartment dwelling, I moved into a house in the 5800 block of McGee, where four other guys were already living. Our rent was $250 a month — $50 each.
My social life revolved around the newly opened New Stanley Bar in Westport. Dates and girlfriends didn’t come very easily, and for the most part I didn’t date the girls long enough for them to qualify as “girlfriends.” But that, to some extent, was the nature of the 70s.
One thing that soothed me and ushered me through those years was the beautiful, soul-touching music of Carole King and Gerry Goffin.
I bought the album “Tapestry” shortly after it came out in 1971. Three of the best songs on that great, timeless album were by King and Goffin — she writing the music, he the lyrics. They had been married, divorcing in 1968, but they had continued their musical collaboration.
Tonight, while reading The New York Times online, I got a jolt: Gerry Goffin died earlier today in Los Angeles.
How can that be, I thought? Wasn’t he my age?
Well, no, as a matter of fact he was 75 — eight years older than I. It just seemed like we were contemporaries because we were all thrashing through the 70s together; Carole King and Gerry Goffin were right there with the rest of us who were stumbling around Westport.
Over and over, I played “Tapestry” on a cheap stereo that I bought at Penney’s at the Indian Springs Shopping Center. That’s how long ago that was, when Indian Springs was actually thriving.
I played “Tapestry” on that stereo until, one day or night, a burglar went through the unlocked front window of that house on McGee, waltzed in and stole the stereo.
Boy, was I pissed off! I couldn’t play my records! Plus, I’d been violated!
Of course, I got a new stereo — this time at a record store at The Landing Shopping Center on Troost…Again, that’s how long ago that was, when The Landing was also thriving.
But back to Carole King and Gerry Goffin…
The three “Tapestry” songs they collaborated on were “Will You Love Me Tomorrow?” (which The Shirelles took to No. 1); “Smackwater Jack,” (“You can’t talk to a man with a shotgun in his hand”); and “(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman,” which Aretha Franklin rode into the Top 10.
Gerry Goffin and Carole King at the RCA recording studio in New York around 1959. (Photo from the Michael Ochs Archives, via Getty Images. Published Thursday, 6/19/14, on The New York Times website.)
Of course, before their marriage broke up, King and Goffin collaborated on several great songs in the 1960s, including “Up on the Roof,” “One Fine Day,” “The Loco-Motion” and “Go Away Little Girl.”
I didn’t realize this until I read The Times’ story, but the singer on “The Loco-Motion” was their babysitter, who performed under the name Little Eva.
That song, released in 1962, also rose to No. 1.
**
I still have a turntable — much better quality than the ones I got at Penney’s and The Landing — and I still play some of my old albums on it. I like it partly because of nostalgia and partly because I just like pulling the records out of the jackets, placing them on the turntable and trying to place the needle at the start of the record without scratching the vinyl surface…And then there’s always that mystery of how the record, needle, turntable and electricity combine to bring forth those amazing, wonderful sounds.
“Tapestry” has not been among the dozen or so records that I keep upstairs, adjacent to the turntable. But tonight, after reading about Goffin’s death, I ran down to the basement — as fast as my 68-year-old, surgically repaired knees would allow — and went to the milk-carton carriers where I keep the bulk of my record collection.
And there it was — “Tapestry” — right at the front of one of the three plastic carriers.
…At least I had that thing close at hand, ready to bring it upstairs when needed. And I need it bad now.
Aww.
You’ve still got it, Fitz!
Mais oui!
Nice post.
Carole was certainly the more famous of the duo (certainly because of Tapestry), but he collaborated so many songs with other people. You can’t write the history of pop / rock ‘n roll without Goffin.
And you didn’t mention the penny you had to put on needle in order to keep the songs from skipping. Or maybe that was just the quality of my turntable.
Great column, Jim. Wish I’d seen Carole King in “Beautiful” on Broadway when I was in New York recently. I regret not getting there. Love her singing. She and James Taylor are great together, too.
All best,
Laura
Wonderful music. He will be missed.