American Masters (1985–…): Season 30, Episode 3 - Carole King: Natural Woman - full transcript

♪ 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
Gonna treat you better .>

♪ You're gonna find,
Yes, you will

♪ That you're beautiful
As you feel

I think I was kind of innocent.

And I had the notions
of the world

and what being a girl was
from the 1950s.

We were all brought up
to be cute and popular

and marry the nice boy
who was going to make
a lot of money.



And there wasn't an emphasis
on what we were going to do.

I was brought up to know
that I was probably
going to be a teacher.

I had teachers in my family.

♪ 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 became Carole King

and I was confident
about what I could do.

I liked the idea
of writing songs

so that I would be recognized
and respected

by the people who sang them.

And it...
That's really what drove it.

I can do that.



And I did.

♪ You just call out my name ♪

♪ And you know wherever I am ♪

♪ I'll come runnin'

♪ To see you again ♪

By the age four,

Carole was already
mastering the piano.

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

By seventeen,
she'd already written
her first number one hit.

To date, Carole has written
more than 400 compositions

that have been recorded
by over one thousand artists,

resulting in
over one hundred hits.

♪ You've got a friend

♪ 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? ♪

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.

She loved music
and conveyed that to me

and I was born...

with the receptive gene!

So she would be
the single most important
influence.

She had a great
record collection.

She loved show tunes,
so early on I got familiar

with, you know,
South Pacific, Oklahoma,

the great Rodgers
and Hammerstein musicals.

And I would
even sing commercials.

♪ Winston tastes good,
like a cigarette should. ♪

I had no idea
what I was singing about.

My dad was a good father.

He nurtured in me that sense
that I could do anything.

And I better do it
with excellence.

My parents,

they never made me think
I couldn't do anything
because I was a girl.

I played with the boys
on the street.

I was kind of tomboyish.

In high school, I was the girl
who the guys wanted
to be friends with.

I wasn't the one
that they wanted to date.

Every high school
in Brooklyn during the 1950s

had a rock and 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.

I think I was fifteen
when I formed my first group,

which was the Cosines.

It was, you know,
we had math books...

Ah, cosines!

So whatever year
I took trigonometry.

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 um, she...
She wanted this.

She wanted this as a career.

I was inspired
by the Alan Freed shows.

I saw these shows
and I'm like,
"I can do that."

And I didn't ever
want to be a singer.

I..
I didn't want to be famous.

Fame didn't appeal to me.

I liked the idea
of writing songs

so that I would
be recognized and respected

by the people who sang them.

In those days,
you could be a kid,

as Carole was,
sixteen years old
coming from Brooklyn,

and go info 1650 Broadway
or into the Brill Building.

One of the two buildings
that people think of

when they talk of
the Brill Building sound,

in Times Square,

that used to be

where the tin pan alley
songwriters came in the 1920s
to sell their songs.

You could walk in
and they had a piano
in the room

and you'd sit down
and you'd play

and they'd go,
"That's great kid.

I'll take that song,
here's twenty five dollars."

I was in the waiting room

and there was this kid there.

She looked like
she was about fifteen,

fifteen years old, in jeans.

And I started to talk with her.

And I thought
to myself,
"God, she's...

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.
‘Cause in those days...

there were very few
singer-songwriters.

That phenomenon
had not yet really
occurred.

It was made to order
songwriting.

You know, 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.

You know,
there was a breakdown
in those days

between who
wrote the song
and who sang it.

♪ I don't remember
Just exactly how it started ♪

I just saw him and I was like,

"Oh my God, he looks
like the picture of a boy

I've been carrying
around in my wallet

that I... was a drawing

in a magazine.

He was very handsome.

♪ It doesn't make
A bit of sense to me ♪

♪ Why should two people
In love have to be ♪

♪ Like little children? ♪

They were married very young,

very very young,
when they were teenagers,

because she got pregnant.

♪ Who just can't help
But fight ♪

♪ Why should
Two grown people ♪

He definitely came
at a time in my life

when I needed somebody

to write better lyrics
than ‘baby, baby.

All the music was
a music publishing company

that was started by two fellows

Don Kirshner and Al Nevins.

So the Aldon'
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 the company
became so powerful

that he would get
record companies

to promise...

promise him
the back side
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.
- Yes, they had two sides.

Right.

So it really became...

It became the publishing company

in New York City.

Donny Kirshner,
who was a great publisher,

who had a really good ear.

That group of writers,

Barry Mann, Cynthia Well,
Howie Greenfield, Neil Sedaka,

Carole, Gerry,

and some others in that group,

they had thirty-six
Top Ten records
in three years.

You know, it's historic.

♪ One fine day ♪

♪ You'll look at me ♪

♪ And you will know
Our love was meant to be ♪

♪ One fine day ♪

♪ You're gonna want me
For your girl

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

uh, in those little brackets
under some of our very
favorite songs.

Goffin and King
wrote songs to order.

It was like, okay,
somebody needs a hit,

you know, you write the song.

Now I hate
the word ‘factory'.
I really hate it.

It was a songwriting school.

You went in
in the morning
and you...

you went to your cubicle
or you know,
your little office.

There was a piano there.

And one of you sat there
and the other one,

you know, jotted down some words

and you both sang
or one of you sang.

And you tried
to come up with songs.

Like that, yeah, but harder,

when we write
the lyrics,
it'll be different.

You know what I mean?

♪ La-lalalala ♪

On the right side
of the main room,

there were about
four different cubicles

and the cubicles
would have, like,
an upright piano

and uh, a piano stool,

and on one chair,
an... an ashtray,

because everyone
smoked like crazy
back then.

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

There's still time.

Yeah, thank you!

Cynthia Weil and Barry Mann,
who was her husband,

and Gerry Goffin and I
were a pair of writing teams

that wrote for Don Kirshner.

“Up on the Roof” for them,

“On Broadway" for us,

"You've Lost
That Lovin’ Feelin"
for us.

“Walking in the Rain” for us,

“Blame It
on the Bossa Nova”
for us, what else?

“Natural Woman” for them.

Right.

“Hey Girl” for them.

Um, “Don't Say
Nothin Bad About My Baby”
was them.

They'd start and finish,

and uh, there was no like,
"Well, let's work on it
for a few days,

and see what we
come up with."
There was none of that.

It was like, they'd start,
they'd finish.

And some of the best songs
you ever heard,

done in twenty minutes.

Carole always said if...

If they didn't
write it,
we wrote it.

The thing that is incredible
and the thing that I love

about Carole King

uh, coming out
of this world of kinda
factory songwriting

is that she managed to both

create songs that
have this deeply
personal feeling

and that are so
idiosyncratic
and interesting,

but also were mass pop hits.

♪ 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. ♪

At that time, one child,
twas in 1961.

That was Louise.
Sherry wasn't born until 1962.

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,
you know, to try to make It,

to free ourselves
of the nine to five.

Except I was still
taking care of the child
and the house as well!

But that was...
That was fine.

It worked out fine.

On the day Carole wrote
"Will You Love Me Tomorrow",

Gerry was at work,
‘cause they didn't make
enough money yet

for them to live
off their writing.

He worked as a chemist.

She was at home.
She wrote the song.

He doesn't get home till later.

She leaves the song on the piano

and she goes out to play canasta

with her mother's friends.

That's how hip she was.

You know, she said to me,
"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."

And once you hear
the canasta story,

you can kind of believe it.

We would be trying to write

the follow-up
for a hit artist, right?

Barry and I are both
musical and receptive

to what it was that made
that first song a hit.

It would be very competitive,
like, with Carole and Gerry,

we ended up being
really good friends
but at the same time,

we'd be jealous of each other

if the other team
got the record.

Um, but...

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,

it was the follow up
to a hit by the Shirelles.

Their hit was
"Tonight's The Night.

And 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.

♪ I’d like to know
That your love ♪

♪ Is love
That 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, you know,
making your sexual passage.

♪ So tell me now ♪

♪ And I won't ask again ♪

♪ Will you still love me
Tomorrow? ♪

It went to number one
and we were delighted

because then we could
devote ourselves

to working on songs full time.

There's a reason why
that song has lasted

and why people keep
coming back to it.

You know, there's, um...

an extraordinary beauty in it,

and a kind of emotional texture

that you might not
ordinarily,
you know, hear.

And something that
you would think of
as a 'pop hit'.

There's a simplicity
to her melodies

not unlike
Richard Rodgers
in his time.

And...

And the words just belong
to those melodies.

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

The lyrics can
sometimes have
a lot of uh,

darkness in it that
she sets off with a
more optimistic melody.

♪ Ah, 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
A cloudy sky ♪

J, ♪ Once upon a time
That little girl was mine ♪

♪ Oh, 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 ever
Should discover ♪

♪ That you don't
Really love ‘er

♪ Just send my baby
Back home to me ♪

It 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 uh, you know,
it got to be kind of hard
to do both,

so Little Eva
came to stay with Louise.

And people had the impression
that she was pushing a broom
around the kitchen one day

and he heard her sing and said,

"Stop! We must
record that voice."

But the fact
of the matter is we knew
that 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 sing

on 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 me

♪ It's easier than learning
Your ABC's ♪

♪ 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.

This is pre-Beatles.

So uh, a lot of pop music
was bubble gum music,

and a lot of it was, uh...

I don't know. There was...
There wasn't a lot going on
in, uh, in pop music.

And they stood out completely.

When the Beatles
started to write songs,

I've no question
they looked to
Goffin & King.

And they overtly spoke
of Goffin & King as among
their inspirations.

♪ I want to tell you,
Pretty baby ♪

♪ I think you're fine ♪

♪ I’d like to love you ♪

♪ But darling I'm imprisoned
By these chains! ♪

♪ My baby's got me
Locked up in chains ♪

♪ And they ain't the kind

♪ That you can see ♪

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

because uh, they were
this big phenomenon
in this country

and everybody
was going, "Oh, wow."

And they're great songwriters.

And Gerry and I
had written ‘Chains'
for the Cookies

and had a record with it here.

The original image was,
you know, that old, uh...

Street corner music.
You know, three people
standing there

and just doing it in harmony,
which we do in concerts
sometimes.

♪ Chains, my baby's got me
Locked up in chains ♪

♪ And they ain't the kind

♪ That you can see ♪

♪ Whoa, these chains of love ♪

♪ Got a hold on me, yeah

I sort of feel like I'm
still learning things

about Carole King.

I mean, this woman
wrote so many amazing songs.

♪ I walked her 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 info something good .>

♪ Something tells me
I'm into something ♪

♪ Something tells me
I'm into something ♪

♪ Something tells me
I'm info something good .>

♪ Something tells me
I'm info something good .>

♪ Oh, yeah ♪

I remember, um,
making a suggestion

about writing something
about a secret place,

someplace somebody goes,
you know.
Where do you go?

And in New York
where we lived
at the time,

one of the few places
you could go at the time
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 ♪

LI climb way up
To the top of the stairs .>

♪ And all my cares
Just drift ♪

♪ Right into space

♪ On the roofs
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 .>

She wanted to live
in the suburbs.

And the reason
they lived in the suburbs

is she was always like,
"Let's move to the suburbs.
That's where it's happening."

We would never think
of moving to the suburbs

This wasn't a thought
in our mind.

We lived in Manhattan.

We were just so hip
and they weren't!

So she wanted a house
and the tree and the yard

and the, the, he kids
and the dog, the cat.

She 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.

Another pleasant valley
Sunday here in status
symbol land. You know?

Lyrics like that...

are a comment.
Goffin is trying
to say something.

He wanted
to be cool and live in the
Village or something, you know?

Um, so he hates it.

♪ 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 ♪

- Morning, Frank.
- Hiya, Marv.

♪ Another Pleasant Valley
Sunday ♪

♪ Here in status symbol land ♪

I remember being so impressed

when my mom and dad
had a song on
The Monkees album...

because The Monkees
were all that then.

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

which just floored me.

At six years old...

Davy Jones was,

you know, he was
the perfect height
for a six year old.

But he was all...
He was just the whole,
the whole world to me.

Those songs are,
I mean, to my mind
they're masterpieces.

You know, I think that...

without the
self-consciousness
of you know, like,

Dylan or something like that,

you know, you can go back
and revisit those songs

and uh, you know,
really enjoy them,

and find a lot
of meaning in them.

Carole was writing music

that, you know,
had a sophistication
that elevated it.

And you know,
Gerry Goffin also
was writing lyrics

with a sophistication
that elevated the songs.

At the same time as,
you know, these
were pop songs.

‘Natural Woman',
that's a Gerry Goffin lyric.

That's a man writing
about what a woman feels,

which is, you know, 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.

♪ When my soul ♪

♪ Was in the lost-and-found ♪

♪ You came along
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 ♪

♪ ‘Cause if I make you happy
Do I need to do more

♪ Because...
You make me feel ♪

♪ You make me feel ♪

♪ Woman... ♪

♪ Woman... ♪

Aretha Franklin's
version is peerless.

I mean, there's
an extraordinary
kind of passion

and uh, you know,

intelligence to her
delivery of what
that song was.

When Carole revisited it later,

you know, it was
in a sense more timely...

where it wasn't Just about,

you know, going off
and getting married
and having the kids.

I mean, it was about like,

I think women
wanting to find
somebody who got them.

♪ Looking out ♪

♪ On the morning rain ♪

♪ I used to feel uninspired .>

♪ And when I knew I'd have
To face another day ♪

♪ Lord,
ltd make me feel so tired ♪

♪ Before the day I met you ♪

♪ Life was so unkind ♪

♪ But your love was the key
to my peace of mind ♪

♪ ‘Cause you make you feel

♪ You make me feel ♪

♪ You make me feel ♪

♪ Like a natural woman ♪

Carole's voice is so personal.

It really seemed
as if you were reading,

you know, something
written in someone's soul.

♪ 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 ♪

♪ You make me feel ♪

♪ Like a natural ♪

♪ Natural woman ♪

♪ You make me feel ♪

♪ You know you make me feel .>

♪ You know you make me feel .>

♪ Like a natural woman ♪

♪ You make me feel ♪

♪ Like a natural woman ♪

♪ Natural woman ♪

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 breakup in her life.

Her... Her husband
has been unfaithful to her

more than once.

She loved him a lot.
He loved her too

but it...
It couldn't work.

And that infidelity
came out of
a real frustration

that they'd been
married for four years

and Gerry was still
only twenty three.

You know, 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.

There was a point where...

um, I just went,
"l... I deserve to have

a better...
Better treatment
than this."

I deserve to have
a husband who is faithful.

I remember the divorce happened

simultaneous
with the move to LA.

They were splitting up
and moving info
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."

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.

When a 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's
beautiful blondes
everywhere,

you kind of go,
"This is probably
an improvement."

You know?
I think this
is a good move.

It was a very exciting
scene at the time.

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

And before too long,
I found myself teamed up

professionally
and personally
with Charles Larkey.

Charles Larkey,
he moved in with us.

He was my step-dad, and...

he moved into
Wonderland with us.

Can we just go over
the first part again

so I can get some
continuity of how
it's going to feel?

How about if I come
in in the second half
of the intro there?

Oh, okay.
All right, that
would be better.

♪ So when the sun ♪

> Goes down on the city /

♪ Don't give in to feeling ♪

♪ Self-pity ♪

♪ Your lover may be knocking ♪

♪ On the door ♪

♪ And it may be like knowing ♪

♪ Someone
You never met before ♪

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

I was... She didn't know
a lot of people out here.

Or a lot of people
in the music industry,
for sure.

And she had gotten
together with
Danny Kortchmar

and Charley Larkey
as a group called
"The City

And that's the first thing
that I recorded with Carole
on the west coast.

Carole had just
divorced from
her husband...

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.

I would write the lyric 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, um...

treat as a group,

was a solo artist

that you always felt
she was sitting at the
piano and singing to you.

By then I had met James

and I was starting
to sing on his album.

I think he was recording
"Mudslide Slim" by then.

He had already
had 'Sweet Baby James'

I had played on that.

It was great.

And we played
on each other's
records.

We... We just had
a common mind,
you know?

He just...

made it look SO easy.

So I did "Tapestry"
in the same spirit.

The Carpenters were In studio A.

Joni Mitchell
doing "Blue" in studio C.

Carole was here.
We were making
a good record.

And that's all we knew then.

And it was a simple record.

Records like "Tapestry"
could be overproduced
In a minute.

You know, "So let's
add more guitars, let's
add more this, more that."

Lou and Carole
wanted that simplicity.

They wanted it to be
just 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 to stay that simple,

and always have
that feeling that Carole
was singing to you.

We turned all the
lights down in the room.

All the lights
that we're seeing,
we're seeing,

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

And after a while,
they got so comfortable
with that,

that they were like
they were playing
in their living room.

"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.

To Joni and James,
they were all real friendly.

And it was fun, you know.
They would come in and
Carole knew what she wanted.

We were doing two
or three tunes a day.

It's hard to imagine now.

It took us three weeks
to make "Tapestry".

Twenty two thousand dollars.

She got involved
in every single part.

I mean, she had
specific ideas of what
she wanted me to play.

Specific ideas
for the bass player to play.

Carole just said,
you play a solo here.

And I did.

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.

It would be like
the intermission in a play.

Sequencing at that time
was very very important.

You go through one side,
you turn it over.

And all of that was based on...

one person listening to it.

♪ As I watched in sorrow ♪

♪ There suddenly appeared

♪ A figure gray and ghostly ♪

♪ Beneath a flowing beard .>

♪ In times
Of deepest darkness ♪

♪ I've seen him
Dressed in black ♪

♪ Now my tapestry's
Unraveling ♪

♪ He's come to take me back ♪

♪ He's come to take me back ♪

"Tapestry" was one
of those albums

that it came out
and it was everywhere
immediately.

"Tapestry" hit a nerve
with people at that time.

This was...
This became their
soundtrack of their life.

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.

Here, you know...

the Vietnam war
was still raging.

You know, there were
five hundred fifty thousand
American troops

in Vietnam in 1969.

Vietnam's not
that big a country.

It's half a million troops.

There were still
the after-effects...

of the assassinations.
You know, Robert Kennedy

and Martin Luther King.

And there still was
still a lot of anger
in the atmosphere.

The great 1960s ambitions,

great utopian hopes,

clearly weren't going
to materialize.

So people began looking inward.

And that was the
singer-songwriter
movement.

It was the moment of
the singer-songwriter...

in America.

In its purest and
most, um, magical form.

♪ 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've just stopped trying ♪

♪ And it's too late
Baby, now it's too late ♪

♪ Though we really did try
To make it ♪

This is a song
about disappointment.

But the ever youthful
optimism of youth, and
I'm an optimistic person,

so the last verse,
um, addresses that.

That we both have a future,

though not with one another.

♪ 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 .>

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.

There was a lot
of luck involved.

Right place, right time.

I mean, picture
a nice, Jewish girl
from Brooklyn

coming out in today's
market without the,

you know, the body,
the costumes,
the whole thing.

She was reluctant to go
out on the road for months

and leave her daughters and...

to be gone.

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

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 you came in.

It was James and me
saying to Carole,

"Look, would you
sing some of them,

you know,
open the show."

And she agreed to do so.

She was very nervous.

She was scared.

She got over
her... Her...

stage fright.

Very quickly
because she had
an incident happen

when she was performing...

at the, uh, the Troubadour.

So she sits down
and plays one song,

one and a half song,

and then Doug Weston,
who owns the Troubadour,

says, "I'm sorry,
we have to empty
the building,

we've had
a bomb threat."

So we walked out
and then we came back in.

Carole sat down
at the piano.
They cleared it.

And she said, um...

about the bomb,
she says,
"As long as it's not me."

And that cracked
the audience up.

And she said
from then on,
she was not nervous.

Turned out we spoke
the same language.

We sat down and we...

Slipped back into
the mother-tongue, really.

It was great.

♪ So far away ♪

♪ Doesn't anybody stay
In one place anymore? ♪

♪ It would be so fine
To see your face at my door ♪

What's your take
on... on...

on how difficult
it is for a woman

to have a career in
the performing arts

and also have, um,
maintain a family,
I mean?

Very difficult.

Very difficult.

The only time
I guess, when I had
really young children,

that I ever
was on tour
was with you.

And we, I remember
we were, I think,

away for six weeks.
Home for two weeks.

And then away
for another six weeks.

And that six weeks,
it was very difficult.

I remember crying,

listening to 'So Far Away'
like she was singing it to me.

♪ But you're so far away ♪

♪ Doesn't anybody stay
In one place anymore? ♪

♪ It would be so fine
To see your face at my door ♪

> Doesn't help to know

♪ You're so far away... ♪

Leaving California
was something
that didn't come easy.

But I don't think
I was running away.
I was running to something.

I was running to a simpler life.

I was running to a place
where I could be on the land,

grow a garden.

I know you can do
that in LA too,
but it's not the same.

I'm pretty sure I was fourteen

when Rick Evers,
uh, met my mom and
quickly took us to Idaho.

Rick was from Idaho.

And I saw him as my interpreter.

The person who
would bring me to Idaho,

the person who would
show me what it's like...

to live out there.

And, you know,
I fell in love with him.

I fell in love
with the idea of him.

I fell in love with
what that meant to me.

And when he...

He just hit me one day
just out of the blue.

I'm like, what?

He had a really scary temper.

When he would get angry,
I would feel scared.

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

Even though he'd never hit me,

I felt like he was going to.

Sometimes he
actually fist,
hit me with his fist.

At one point...

he hit Danny Kortchmar,

coming off stage
and hit him hard.

He was obviously
a troubled... Deeply,
deeply troubled,

screwed up individual.

And was making
Carole's life 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.

I'd go down and be,

you know, crying or whatever.

He, "Oh, I'm sorry,
I'm sorry, I'm so sorry,
I'm so sorry."

Now I have the power.

That is a dynamic
that happens sometimes.

And then the making up.

My mom just said,
"I've had enough,

I'm leaving.
Sherry, come on."

And we flew to Hawaii.

And when we got to Hawaii,
we got a message
that Rick...

Rick died.

He killed himself.
He actually shot up
too much...

drugs and he did it to himself.

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

He just...
He just was stupid.

♪ Snow is cold ♪

♪ Rain is wet ♪

♪ Chills my soul
Right to the marrow ♪

She fell in love with Idaho.

♪ I won't be happy
Till I see you ♪

♪ Alone again ♪

♪ Till I'm home again
And feeling right ♪

She fell harder for Idaho
than she fell for Rick Evers.

In 1978, after Rick Evers died,

I decided that I was
definitely going to go
back...

to Idaho, with my
two younger children,
Molly and Levi.

She's still in love with Idaho.

She loves the mountains.
She loves the arr.

Living in Idaho,

which is part of
the northern Rockies
ecosystem,

and 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 they wide open
spaces was 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...
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.

This is my other life,
my other world.

So I don't know.

I could go on much
longer than anyone
wants me to.

But I'm going to keep
working on that,

until it is signed into law.

She's happiest with
a quiet life in Idaho.

She will still tour
and play shows,

and she records
from time to time.

But if she could,
she'd be there
all the time.

♪ 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 gonna
Treat you better ♪

♪ You're gonna find
Yes, you will

When I first
heard about the idea

of the show that is now

"Beautiful:
The Carole King Musical",

um, I was like,

I... I don't want
that to be made.

I don't want a
Broadway show about me.

But then to read
this great book...

by Doug McGrath,

in which he does
tell the story
so compellingly...

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 1960s

I thought these are
four interesting people.

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

And they were really
interesting. Charming
and funny and smart.

After the first reading,

um, the feedback
that they got was

"Well, you're
stopping before
"Tapestry".

Right.

You can't do that.

We feel cheated.

We want to hear
those "Tapestry"
songs.

So it switched.

So the focus
became more
on Carole

and we became
supporting players.

We used to joke
that they were
Lucy and Desi

and we were Fred and Ethel.

♪ You've got to get up
Every morning ♪

♪ With a smile on your face ♪

♪ And show the world
All the love in your heart ♪

♪ Show the world... ♪

♪ Then people gonna
Treat you better ♪

♪ You're gonna find
Yes, you will

♪ That you're beautiful ♪

♪ So beautiful... ♪

♪ So beautiful... ♪

♪ So beautiful... ♪

♪ So beautiful as you feel

I think 'Beautiful” is a hit

because the music
Is the soundtrack
of people's lives

and younger people.

It's been the soundtrack
of their lives, but they
didn't realize that,

you know, it was
attached to me, necessarily
or attached to the writers.

When I was told

that I was going to win
the Gershwin prize,

I was floored.

First of all...

I was the fifth recipient.

I was going to be
the first woman,

which in itself is amazing.

And I was going to be
presented with the award

by President Obama.

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.

So tonight it is
my great pleasure

to present America's
highest award for
popular music

to a living legend.

The coming together
of my two worlds

of the political world
and all the people
I knew in Washington,

that was a different kind
of amazing to me.

I would tell people,
not just in music,

I would just say to anybody,

if you want to do something,

go for it, try.

Don't tell yourself
you can't make it.

Don't let your parents
tell you you can't make it.

Let the world tell you
if you can't make it,

after having tried.

Or maybe let
the world discover you.

But don't fail to try.

Because if you don't try,
you can't succeed.

Her legacy may be,
like, a Gershwin legacy,

or Rodgers and Hammerstein
legacy.

Because there's a
generation now that
Just adores her stuff.

♪ When you're down ♪

♪ In troubles ♪

♪ And you need
Some love and care ♪

♪ And nothing ♪

> Oh nothing is going right .>

♪ Close your eyes
And think of me .>

♪ And soon I will be there ♪

Her songs will last,
which is really
the test of time.

Um, that's all we have,
really, is what songs remain

and which fall away.

And I think Carole's
songs will be here

for a long time.

♪ You just call out my name ♪

♪ And you know wherever I am ♪

Her singing is not...
It doesn't have a lot
of artifice in it,

or ornamentation.

It's pure. It's like,
"Here's who I am".

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

The emotion that's in "Tapestry

is not foreign to people now.

I mean, women are still
thinking about will
you love me tomorrow,

the next day, you know.

It's just such a universal
language for the human heart.

Okay, now.

♪ Ain't it good to know
That you've got a friend ♪

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.

If "Tapestry" never existed,

Carole King would still be among

the handful of most
important songwriters
in pop music history.

So let's just say that.

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.

♪ To see you again ♪

♪ See you again and again ♪

♪ Winter, spring,
Summer or fall

♪ All you've gotta do
Is call

♪ And I'll be there
Yes, I will ♪

♪ You've got a friend

♪ You've got a friend

♪ Aint it good to know
Yeah, yeah, yeah ♪

♪ You've got a friend

♪ One fine day ♪

♪ We'll meet once more ♪

♪ And then you'll want
The love you ♪

♪ Threw away before .>

♪ One fine day ♪

♪ You're gonna want me
For your girl

♪ One fine day ♪

♪ You're gonna want
me For your girl ♪

♪ One fine day ♪

♪ You're gonna want me
For your ♪

> Girl...