Music: The Living Room Tour discussion

Two Tuesdays ago, Carole King released a double disc, live CD entitled The Living Room Tour. The New York Times reported Thursday, July 21st, "Farther down the chart, Carole King scored her highest position in 28 years with The Living Room Tour. . . It opened at no. 17 with sales of 44,000; the last time she reached that high on the Billboard Chart was in 1977, with her album Simple Things." The Tuesday prior, Kat's "Kat's Korner: Good God Carole! What crawled into the living room!" went up at The Common Ills (and is blog spotlighted this edition).

We decided to interview Kat, C.I. and Third Estate Sunday Reviewer Jess about the review and their feelings of it and the album. All three are fans of Carole King.

Let's start with the album. It's a double disc and Carole King's first album in many years.

Kat: Right. It's a live album. She's doing old material plus two new songs. It's supposed to be a more intimate setting.

You hated the album.

Kat: No, I hate it. I still hate it. It's the worst album of the year. A Disney Kid might make something that irritates the ear more later this year but a Disney Kid doesn't have Carole's talent. It is beyond disappointing.

How soon did you feel that way?

Kat: I wasn't crazy about most of it. It's pedistrian and unengaging in many ways. But it wasn't until the second disc that I just hated it.

Where the words to "Sweet Seasons" are changed?

Kat: Yes, because you don't win or win. You win or lose. That's life, that's reality and Carole wants to turn the song into a joke, and gets laughs, because politicians don't like to hear the word "lose." "Win" doesn't even sing so she also fucks up the melody.

But you didn't say that when the album came out. You pretty much ignored the album after it came out.

Kat: And felt guilty because I'd talked it up. But I love Carole's music so I was just going to keep my mouth shut. People were e-mailing asking my opinion and then e-mails started coming saying they didn't like the album and couldn't figure out why. One person was able to identify "Sweet Seasons" as the problem but others were writing that they couldn't figure out why the album angered them. I also wanted to get something up at The Common Ills becuase I didn't want C.I. to be stuck with all the entries this week.

Members enjoyed the review. Did they agree with it?

Kat: What was the split?

C.I.: I'd say 7 out of 10 agreed with it.

Kat: But I haven't posted my address at my site and it's not been given out at The Common Ills in some time. Still I ended up with all these e-mails saying "How dare you!"

How dare you?

Kat: Trash the album because "Carole King's a good Democrat." They'd write, "This is the first Carole King album I've bought since Tapestry!" A point I'd make now that I didn't then is that you've got eight songs from Tapesty on the album. That's another problem. If we love Tapestry, we already own it. There were songs before and after Tapestry. Plenty of them, not just hits.

Jess: And her previous live album, In Concert in 1994, was probably a little too electric for them. Slash playing guitar delighted me but if this is their first album since Tapestry, they probably saw the PBS special and thought, "Why is Carole playing with that guy from Guns n Roses!"

Were you concerned about how the review would be received?

Kat: I gave a heads up at my site warning people I was working on the review and that it wouldn't be positive. And I worked all night to get that review together. I finished what I finished at about three in the morning and e-mailed it to C.I.

You didn't post it yourself?

Kat: No, because I wasn't sure C.I. would want it posted. It was known that I hated the album.
But, and this isn't to share the blame, it's also because there were sentences that I didn't finish.
I would put in ". . ." and ["Can you figure out the word I'm searching for?"] and I also couldn't remember where "One Fine Day" landed, highest position, on the singles chart so I put two choices.

C.I., you posted it. Was there any question about posting it?

C.I.: No. It was strong writing. I think there were five sentences that had a space in them that Kat requested a word or phrase and there was the "One Fine Day" part, how high it made it up on the charts. If you read the review, you'll see that's probably not even 1/90 of the review. My point is, Kat wrote the review. And I don't see that as pushing the blame off on her but as giving her the credit she deserves. I think it's a great review.

Did you agree with it?

C.I.: Yeah, I did. It wasn't "I hate Carole King!" though a small percent saw it as that. Only someone who was a big fan of Carole King's work could have written that review. Only someone who loved the work would be so passionate about it or so knowledge about it. I agreed with the majority of the review. The points I differed on were minor.

Such as?

C.I.: Time Gone By has some strong songs on it but I'm not the fan of that album that Kat is. I would say One to One and Speeding Time had strong songs on them.

Kat: I agreed with you on Speeding Time but not on One to One. I'm actually surprised I didn't mention Speeding Time because that is a strong album.

C.I.: And the melody point that Kat raises is a good one, a very good one. "Win" doesn't sing. By changing "Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, and most times you choose between the two . . ." into "Sometimes you win, sometimes you win, and most times you choose betwen the two . . ." the melody was altered. There's no reason for that. As Kat pointed out, a better word could have been chosen. But the song wasn't altered to make a point, the song was altered for comfort -- the comfort of politicians, and I find that disgusting. But I know the point was to first stick to the review itself and it being posted so I'm off topic. Sorry.

Kat, you've praised albums in the past. We tried to think of a negative review of an album that you've done and couldn't think of one.

Kat: My approach is if the album doesn't speak to me, I'm not writing about it.

C.I.: Which is another thing I liked about the review. Interview and Cosmo tend to love everything. They lavish everything with praise. Or did. So I really liked that Kat wrote what she wrote.

Right, because if you're always writing reviews that sing praises, people don't put weight in your praise since you praise everything. Okay, we've noted the reaction and how it came to be, so let's open it up to the album itself. Jess, you're noted in the review:

Sure, the TV commerical got me excited. Jess and I learned of this album from C.I. and we both love Carole King's work so were were both thrilled at the thought of her doing a live album, double disc, revisiting some of her finest songs. I asked Jess what he thought and he said, "I'm still waiting for that album."

Jess: Which summed up my feelings. I love Carole King. I've quoted her songs here and sung her praises. When C.I. mentioned the new album, if you'll remember, it ended up turning into at least 20 minutes of Kat and I talking about Carole King. This is probalby an album that someone can play in their SUV but it's not anything that a real fan's going to enjoy. I know there's no more Tapestry. I know it was lightening in a bottle. So with each album, I know I'll have to find the bits of gold and embrace them. But this album is hugless. Kat praised Carole's piano playing and I'll go along with that but that's really all that's worth noting. "Where You Lead" is in too high of a key. Gilmore Girls has recast the song but it's not "Hold my hand, Mommy!" but that's how it comes off. And that guy she's singing with on two songs --

Kat: Gary Burr.

Jess: Lee Greenwood soundalike is right. He has no business on the album. What did you say, Kat? Their voices don't mix, they don't even mingle?

Kat: Yeah.

Jess: Carole's tonal qualities are that her voice is warm and she cuts through whatever else is in the song because it's not a traditionally sounding voice. So there she is with this traditional, booming, imposing voice. It doesn't just overwhelm "You've Got A Friend," it destroys the song. You need a reedy voice like King's or James Taylor's to make it mean something. Instead it's turned into this bombastic thing. It's no longer, "I'll get you through." Now it's, "I'll pull you through! Whether you want it or not!"

Kat: Great point.

Jess: Thanks. And I also agreed with the points on "Chains," I agree with the review pretty much 100%, because that song is such a trifle. And she does it too often. There's no reason for it to be sung when songs like "Don't Bring Me Down" are overlooked. "Chains" wasn't a huge hit. It was covered by the Beatles. That seems to be the only reason it's always included. The medley is a ripoff. Not just because in the TV ads they don't tell you those songs are in a medley but also because there's nothing connecting the songs together.

C.I.: I'm a Laura Nyro fan as well and when Nyro does a medley, there's a connection. She's going from one song to another and either there's a lyrical connection or a musical one. This was just goulash. If there was a pattern or theme behind the choices, they, like the nonexistant transitions, weren't discernable to the ear.

Jess: And to go from the pumping nature of "One Fine Day" to the slower tempo "Will You Love Me Tomorrow" just made no sense. The medley either opens with "One Fine Day" or closes with it due to the nature of the tempo and the traditional arrangement of the song. Instead she's getting everyone excited and then pulling back into a slower song. If it's not the first snippet or the last, "One Fine Day" doesn't belong in the medley. And where was "Up On The Roof?"

Kat: Exactly. You hear that pip-squeak medley and are left to wonder where are the songs that have stood the test of time? "Go Away Little Girl" may have hit number one twice, but it's not a song that screams to be included in a medley. In concert, I've seen her do the medley where it's "this was a hit and then we wrote this" and it comes off more like a workshop and less like a medley but okay, I can follow that. This time she doesn't place the songs into context with a running commentary and they don't work as a medley.

Jess: I was ready to take a nap after the first four songs on the album: "Welcome To My Living Room," "Peace in the Valley," "Love Makes The World" and "Now and Forever." And I felt Kat was being very generous to suggest that "Welcome To My Living Room" indicated Carole still had the writing chops. C.I. mentioned Laura Nyro, okay, Live at the Bottom Line, she does "Japanese Restaurant" and it's this amazing song that nearly drawfs everything else on the album. It's a new song and you're not left wondering why she's pushing that song because she makes that song so exciting. "Welcome To My Living Room" sounds like it's almost midnight, she's tired and she's just grabbed an afghan, propped up her feet and is waiting for you to go home.

C.I.: The difference, I think, is that Nyro's "Japanese Restaurant" is an actual song. She's trying to convey that. "WelcomeTo My Living Room" isn't a song. It's a concept, theme, something that would get a "special music written by" in a show. I agree with Jess that it droops along. It's like "Fantasy" on the album of the same name. It's not really a song proper and isn't meant to be, it's meant to introduce the concept.

Kat: And to go from that yawner into "Peace In The Valley" is really trying the patience of the listener. Most listeners aren't going to give a damn about a song until "Where You Lead." I'm not saying they'll like it, Jess doesn't, but I'm saying most listeners will grab the album and won't know anything on it until "Where You Lead" which is track number five on the first disc. You don't make people sit through four songs they don't give a damn about when you're doing a repackaged greatest hits as a live album.

Jess: I've never like "Now And Forever" as a song. The lyrics are fine but the music has always been too fussy and she's never found the right key for it. Even in the stripped down line up of this album, the song's too fussy and overly precious.

Kat: Too slick.

Jess: And "Loving You Forever," one of her new songs, starts out okay and then gets handed over to the Lee Greenwood wanna be and it never recovers. My parents asked if Carole was trying to branch out into country and they love the songs she did for the Byrds but can't stand "Loving You Forever."

What did your parents think? Obviously that's where you got your love of Carole King's music from?

Jess: They think it's the worst thing she ever recorded. They passed their copy on to a friend who was thinking about getting it. Then he listened and called them up to say he was taking back his "thank you" to them for giving him the album.

C.I.: As Kat and Jess have pointed out, if you're just a fan of Tapestry, you'll probably be fine with the album. It has eight of the songs from Tapestry on it. But the mood, honestly, reminds me of Music and Rhymes & Reason which didn't set the world on fire. Elton John had a famous put down of those two albums, of how they sounded like they were recorded with the same crew from Tapestry, at the same time as Tapestry, only everyone was tired and wanted to go home.
I always felt they sounded like the band was on heroin. "Wrap Around Joy," which isn't on the album, was one of the songs that restored faith in King. People were tired of the pointless musing to chord changes. So for her to try to bring back "Peace In The Valley" just made me shudder. It's a lousy song. It's always been a lousy song. There was never any concern with an arrangement or a hook. It was self indulgent when it was first recorded and it's self indulgent today. King, at her best, provides riffs and hooks when she composes music. There's no hook or riff to "Peace In The Valley," just a writer wanting us to grasp that they care, they really care.

Kat: And if someone had said that before The Living Room Tour, I would've ripped them a new one. But she's exposed all her weaknesses on this two disc set, she's practically daring you not to find them. It's a horrible album.

C.I.: And it's the type of crap that she had to dig herself out of. This sort of crap goes on and on until Fantasy, which I like, when she steps outside her own world and tries to compose songs for different characters. It freed her up to focus on the music. Take "Corazon." The lyrics, such as they are, are insipid but the song restored a lot of faith in her because musically she was doing more than chord changes.

Kat: And it and "Wrap Around Joy" and "Only Love Is Real" and other songs that are really songs aren't anywhere to be found. After her destruction of "Sweet Seasons," maybe that's a good thing.

Jess: We saw her, my sister and my parents, a few years back and she did "People Have The Power."

C.I.: The Patti Smith song.

Jess: Right. And she did a great job of it. She seemed to believe in it. Then you hear "Sweet Seasons" on this album and you think, "Well who is it, Carole? Who has the power?" Because if people have the power, you don't destroy one of your hit songs by alterning the lyrics to please politicians.

Kat: And that's so against rock anyway. I remember Paul McCartney would introduce a song bragging before the band played the first note, Wings not the Beatles, that it was banned from radio. The same thing with the Who. Then along comes Carole in 2005 playing to please the politicians.

Jess: It's disgusting. It's like she's spitting in the face of her audience. Saying, "I know you guys loved the song the way it was, but I do it for the politicians these days." And she is babbling. I'm sorry she waited so long to put out an album after 9-11 but, Carole, time does move on.

Kat: Oh my God! You heard her say that onstage?

Jess: No.

Kat: Oh. Well she's made that point onstage in the past, back in the eighties. "Time does move on."

Jess: It's a good point. One she should have thought of when figuring out what to put on this album.

Kat offered that if one of the discs had focused on gems from the sixties and one from the seventies, it would have probably been a great album or if she'd done two discs of the sixties gems.

Jess: I'd agree with that. And that's not trashing her later work. I don't think Kat was trying to do that?

Kat: No. But the majority of the songs come from that period. The majority on the album.

Jess: "Only Love Is Real" is a song. It's a real song. Where a composer has taken to the time to figure out something more than chord changes. Carole's weakest work is nothing but chord changes. If you listen to her albums in order, you can tell when she loses the audience because she's not interested in the music. And if she wanted to include songs that she felt were commenting on the day, "Brother, Brother" and "Been to Canaan" do that and were hit songs in the seventies. They're actual songs.

"The Locomotion?"

Jess: I'm with Kat. Unless she was doing two discs of songs she co-wrote in the sixties, there was no reason for that to be on it. I don't even care for the arrangement on The Living Tour.

C.I.: I'm going to harp on Laura Nyro again because we're talking about arrangements and, with "Sweet Seasons," changes made to known and loved songs. Nyro would double time a bridge, she'd change a verse. It worked because she was communicating with her audience. When King babbles on about politicians, she's not communicating with her audience. She's going for easy laughs and she's acting like "I play for the high rollers and I'm just singing in the lobby for you guys to work off some debts." I'm also a stickler on melody. You can change whatever you want if you keep the melody. Sting pissed me off by inserting "famous" in the "Don't Stand So Close To Me" remake. It screwed up the melody. King's done that here. And for no reason other than it might offend politicians and "let me tell you about how life is when I'm running with the big dogs." Thanks for coming down to earth for a moment to give us that breaking news. But next time, could you give us a song instead?

Jess: Songs, not even hits. She's got a body of work that she could have redone. Instead we get her slogans and not her songs. It doesn't work. I'm honestly disgusted by this album. I'm not surprised it sold. After C.I. mentioned it, I couldn't turn on TV late night without seeing an ad for the album. It was marketed like nothing she's done before. And people whose knowledge begins and ends with Tapestry will probably be thrilled. But knowing what she's done after and what she's capable of, this is really disappointing.

Kat: Agreed.

In your review, you mentioned that it had scared you off Carly Simon's latest album, an album of standards, is that still true?

Kat: Pretty much. I've heard good things on it, so I bought it. C.I., you have it?

C.I.: I really enjoy it.

Kat: Have you watched the DVD?

C.I.: I haven't watched a DVD with a CD since Tori Amos' Scarlet's Walk. Who has the time?

Kat: I'm told that while Carole's acting like it's two or three years ago and playing to the pols, Carly's aware of the world today on the DVD.

Jess: I know what you're talking about, my parents were saying the same thing. And how strange it is that Carole's babbling on but Carly's the one making a statement.

C.I.: I don't want to slag on Carole but realistically speaking, it's not surprising. Carole's not a lyricist, primarily, as Kat pointed out. Carly, in her lyrics, is confessional. Although she also writes music, she comes of a time when a writer had to have something to say. Carole already had a decade behind her of "Let's Do The Turkey Trot" and similar songs. And Carole's more apt to cite Paul Anka while Carly's more apt to cite Rogers & Hart or Odetta, someone communicating something to a larger audience. Which is why Carly can write a "Let The River Run" and get it across but Carole ends up with what some dub Hallmark Cards.

Kat: I'm feeling defensive about Carole.

C.I.: I'm sure. I should point out that Carly's always been one of my main favorites. I enjoy Carole King. I have many of her albums. I think I have something like sixteen CDs, most of which I never listen to. But if Carly's name is on an album, I purchase it. Carly's always a first day purchase. I make a point to get it the day it comes out.

If it had been Carly's album and Kat had written a similar review, would it have gone up?

C.I.: Yes, because that's her space, Kat's space. I wouldn't have been thrilled probably, but it would have gone up.

Any regrets, Kat?

Kat: No. It's what I felt then and what I feel now. I think people with no knowledge of what Carole King can do and other lowered expectations will be fine with The Living Room Tour. But anyone who's a fan will feel they've been ripped off.

Jess, final thoughts?

Jess: Kat wrote a strong review and one I agree with. People should avoid The Living Room Tour. If they want a solid CD from an artist associated with the same period, they should check out Moonlight Serenade by Carly Simon. You've got some amazing music, well played, on that album. And Carly's singing, not babbling.