Conversation – 36

Peace Out Peeps and have a safe evening. 😎

See you soon. 😎

@sheba2011

I did not see hubs today nor did I drive to the Farmer’s Market. I was on sinus meds most of the day and just a few minutes ago I started feeling better. Tomorrow the pollen count is expected to be twice as bad, but I will try to perservere. Hoping to see hubs who enjoys being outdoors. I may need to be on the lanai. We shall see. If it would rain, probably would be better. I just read where some of the fires have been contained in Georgia and Florida.We have friends in the Southern part of Georgia and I will be contacting them tonight since they are near Savannah.

I almost purchased the TS today and then talked myself out of it.I have two air fryers and do not think I need a third. Instead will be checking the vitamins to see if there is anything I need. Here’s to a great weekend. Enjoy and stay safe.

@sheba2011

Chilly, overcast day with a little rain here and there.🌧️ I’ll be sad to see all the activity leave the city. It was something new and different. On to next month and whatever we may be celebrating. We always have a regatta on the rivers and the arts festival in June. I’m sure there will be tons going on for the 4th and 250th anniversary.🎆🧨🎇

Ran out for a few things this morning and was held hostage with phone calls this afternoon. Still unsure if we’re doing anything for mom’s birthday Monday.🎈 Probably later in the week once she decides.

That’s about it, ready to cook something for dinner and watch what might be our last hockey game of the season. Happy hugs to you and Mr. Poppy.🤗💖

They locked her in a closet with a piano. They told her she had no voice for radio.
She sold 25 million records without changing a single note.
The entire music industry was built to keep her anonymous.
She burned it down with a cat, a sweater she stitched herself, and a barefoot photo.
Her name is Carole King.
And this is how a 29-year-old mother of two from New Jersey ended the most powerful factory in American music.
The factory was at 1650 Broadway. Manhattan. 1960.
It didn’t make cars. It made hits.
The building had 12 floors of windowless cubicles. Each cubicle was the size of a closet. Each cubicle had an upright piano, a chair, and an ashtray.
At 9:00 AM, songwriters clocked in. At 5:00 PM, they clocked out.
Their job was simple: write the sounds other people would become famous for.
The singers were just the faces on the cardboard sleeves. The kids in the cubicles were the architecture underneath.
Nobody knew their names. That was the point.
The publishing houses owned the copyright. The publishing houses got the money. The publishing houses kept the leverage.
If you became famous, you could demand royalties. If you stayed anonymous, you stayed cheap.
Carole Klein was 18 when she got her cubicle.
She took the subway in from Queens every morning. She was married to Gerry Goffin. He wrote lyrics. She wrote melodies.
They were good. Scary good.
In 1960, they wrote “Will You Love Me Tomorrow” for The Shirelles. Number 1. First song by a Black all-girl group to hit number 1.
They wrote “Up on the Roof” for The Drifters. “One Fine Day” for The Chiffons. “Pleasant Valley Sunday” for The Monkees.
One afternoon in 1962, they needed a demo for a new dance song. It was called “The Loco-Motion.”
The singer they hired didn’t show up.
Their babysitter was there. 17 years old. Her name was Eva Boyd.
Carole said: “Eva, can you sing this real quick so we can send it to the label?”
Eva sang it. The label heard the demo and said: “Don’t re-record it. Release that.”
They changed Eva’s name to Little Eva. “The Loco-Motion” hit number 1.
Carole was 20. She had written a number 1 hit sung by her babysitter.
For 10 years, Carole’s melodies were everywhere. London. Detroit. Memphis. Tokyo.
Her sheet music was typed on a typewriter, put in manila envelopes, and shipped to studios worldwide.
Nobody knew what she looked like.
She was living in West Orange, New Jersey. Two daughters. Station wagon. Grocery runs. PTA meetings.
At night she wrote hits. In the morning she made school lunches.
The system worked because people like Carole never asked for credit.
Then 1968 happened.
Two things collapsed at once.
First: The factory model died. Radio started playing Bob Dylan. The Beatles. Joni Mitchell. Artists who wrote their own songs. Suddenly, the singers in the cubicles looked old. Fake.
Second: Carole’s marriage to Gerry dissolved. Ten years, dozens of hits, two kids. Over.
She was 26. Divorced. Two daughters. A catalog of hits with someone else’s name next to hers.
She could have stayed. The publishing house offered her a new contract. More money. New cubicle. New lyricist.
She packed the car instead.
She drove 2,800 miles to Laurel Canyon, California.
She left the contracts. She left the system. She left the name “Goffin and King.”
She tried to start over as just “Carole King.”
It went badly.
She recorded an album in 1970 called Writer. It peaked at number 84. Gone in three weeks.
A&R executives at Atlantic Records sat her down. They said: “Carole, you’re one of the best writers alive. But you don’t have the voice for radio. You’re not Diana Ross. You’re not Aretha. Go back to writing for other people.”
She believed them.
She was terrified of singing live.
At The Troubadour in Los Angeles in 1970, she played her first solo shows. The reviews said she shook so hard the piano bench rattled. She stared at her hands the entire set. She rushed the tempos to get off stage faster.
Her friend James Taylor had to walk her to the stage. He told her: “Just play like you’re in your living room. Pretend we’re not here.”
In January 1971, she took his advice.
She booked Studio B at A&M Studios in Los Angeles. She was 29.
She didn’t hire an orchestra. She didn’t hire arrangers. She didn’t hire background singers.
She hired Russ Kunkel on drums. Charles Larkey on bass. Danny Kortchmar on guitar. James Taylor played on one track. Joni Mitchell sang backup on two.
That was it.
She played the piano the way she played it at home. Heavy. Percussive. Like a drum.
She sang the vocals in one or two takes. She left the breathing in. She left the timing slips in. She left the cracks in.
Engineers asked: “Do you want to punch in and fix that note?”
She said: “No. That’s how I sing it.”
The album cover cost $200.
Her friend Jim McCrary came to her house in Laurel Canyon. She sat barefoot in her window frame. Jeans. Simple top. Holding a sweater she had stitched herself. Her cat Telemachus sat in front of her.
Click. Done.
The album was called Tapestry.
It came out February 10, 1971.
No one expected anything. The label pressed 15,000 copies.
Then “It’s Too Late” hit radio. Then “I Feel the Earth Move.” Then “You’ve Got a Friend.” Then “So Far Away.”
It sold 25 million copies.
It stayed on the Billboard 200 chart for 318 weeks. That’s over 6 years.
It won 4 Grammys including Album of the Year. In 1972, Carole King became the first woman to win Song of the Year for a song she wrote and performed herself: “You’ve Got a Friend.”
The factory at 1650 Broadway didn’t survive.
The publishing company that owned her cubicle was bought by a conglomerate in 1969. The building was sold in 1985. Gutted. The cubicles were torn down and turned into office space.
The original sheet music Carole typed by hand now sits in glass cases at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland.
Kids from Ohio take school trips and stare at it.
The woman they told “you don’t have the voice for radio” put 4 songs from one album on the radio at the same time.
She didn’t change her voice. She changed the definition of what a voice was supposed to sound like.
Carole King is 83 now.
Tapestry is still selling. Over 10,000 copies a week. 54 years later.
She never went back to the cubicle.
She never stopped writing. She just started signing her own name.
The factory wanted her anonymous.
She went barefoot in a window and became immortal.
What’s louder – a voice that’s perfect, or a voice that’s real?

@shoelady60,

Good day in the ‘burgh. 🎈😎i am sure your City is having a Ball. 😎🎈

Enjoy this time.

I am doing a bit of this and that today with hubby. Just taking some time to do this
thread. 💕🎈

Oz is beautiful today perfect in every way and then we have rain late tonight. All good. 🎈💕

The GA Fires are dying down my family is alright. I saw on the national news where one man
lost everything including his house. He filed a claim and his insurance company told him
his claim was not covered due to an act of mother nature. I was shocked so this is how they
are going to play it with insurance claims. Sheesh!

Sending calm and peaceful hugs to you and Jake. 💕🎈😎

@taci,

🎈🎈

@oodiebom,

Enjoy your day. 🎈

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Good Morning Peeps and welcome to the HSN Community. 😎🎈

Sometimes you have to balance your empathy for others with your own self care.
It’s ok to set boundaries and to say “no”. It isn’t selfish to protect your peace, energy and well being.
You’re allowed to be important in your own life!