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1[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ab92a687bf87e8336acafa86f63b1ced.jpg]]
2[[caption-width-right:350:''"An everlasting vision of the ever-changing view..."'']]
3
4->''"Travelling around sure gets me down and lonely\
5Nothing else to do but close my mind\
6I sure hope the road don't come to own me\
7There's so many dreams I've yet to find"''
8-->--'''"So Far Away"'''
9
10''Tapestry'' is the second studio album by Music/CaroleKing, released in 1971. At the start of that year, King was best known as a writer of songs for others, particularly in partnership with her husband Gerry Goffin. In 1962 her own recording of a song she wrote for Bobby Vee, "It Might As Well Rain Until September", was a one-off hit; modestly in her own country but top 5 in Britain. Her debut album ''Writer'' from 1970 made the lower reaches of the Billboard 200 and had little impact abroad. So when this album came out, there wasn't much anticipation for it. As it turned out, its sudden success was and remains a phenomenon. It was the biggest-selling album by any solo artist until overtaken by Music/MichaelJackson's ''Music/{{Thriller}}'' from 1983. With 25 million copies sold worldwide, it remains the biggest-selling album by a female solo artist, and in the age of free downloads that record seems likely to stand indefinitely. It won the 1972 UsefulNotes/GrammyAward for ''Album of the Year''. In 2003 it was added to the US Library of Congress's UsefulNotes/NationalRecordingRegistry. ''Tapestry'' remained in the Billboard 200 for a total of 513 weeks, a record surpassed only by Music/PinkFloyd's ''Music/TheDarkSideOfTheMoon''. The album combines original songs with King's own interpretation of songs written for others.
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12What makes ''Tapestry'' so special? Firstly, it's a collection of songs written and simply performed by a master of the craft. None of them are blockbusters but all of them are memorable. Secondly, the theme that runs through them is of emotions that are grounded in the everyday. There is no love-at-first-sight, no raging lust, just the warmth of people who have been through a lot together and are comfortable in each other's company, or the longing for a partner who is away, the sweet sadness of an affair that has run its course, reflection on a life nearing its end. The artist herself is packaged here as Everywoman, unmade-up, dressed for comfort with her craft-work and her cat, in a domestic setting that may in truth be Laurel Canyon but made to look like the house next door. The singer and her songs might be your neighbour, touching your own life.
13
14----
15!! Tracklist:
16
17[[AC:Side One]]
18# "I Feel the Earth Move" (3:00)
19# "So Far Away" (3:55)
20# "It's Too Late" (3:54)
21# "Home Again" (2:29)
22# "Beautiful" (3:08)
23# "Way Over Yonder" (4:49)
24
25[[AC:Side Two]]
26# "You've Got a Friend" (5:09)
27# "Where You Lead" (3:20)
28# "Will You Love Me Tomorrow?" (4:13)
29# "Smackwater Jack" (3:42)
30# "Tapestry" (3:15)
31# "(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman" (3:59)
32
33----
34!! Will You Trope Me Tomorrow?:
35* AgeProgressionSong: "Tapestry".
36* AmIJustAToyToYou: "Will You Love Me Tomorrow?"
37--> ''Tonight with words unspoken''
38--> ''You say that I'm the only one''
39--> ''But will my heart be broken''
40--> ''When the night meets the morning sun''
41* {{Animorphism}}: The "man of fortune" in "Tapestry".
42--> ''Soon within my tapestry along the rutted road''
43--> ''He sat down on a river rock and turned into a toad''
44--> ''It seemed that he had fallen into someone's wicked spell''
45--> ''And I wept to see him suffer, though I didn't know him well''
46* BreakupSong: "It's Too Late". An unusually mature break-up by popular music standards.
47--> ''There'll be good times again for me and you''
48--> ''But we just can't stay together, don't you feel it too''
49--> ''Still I'm glad for what we had, and how I once loved you''
50* BrokenRecord: "(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman".
51--> ''You make me feel''
52--> ''You make me feel''
53--> ''You make me feel like''
54--> ''A natural woman''
55* CaptainObvious: "Home Again".
56--> ''Snow is cold, rain is wet"
57* CharacterTitle: "Smackwater Jack".
58* CoverVersion: Carole King wrote or co-wrote all tracks on the album but some were recorded earlier by other artists.
59** "Will You Love Me Tomorrow?" was originally a 1960 hit for Music/TheShirelles and was covered many times before being included on this album.
60** "(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman" was a hit for Music/ArethaFranklin in 1967 and became one of her signature songs.
61* CatsAreSuperior: Carole's cat Telemachus appears to think he's the subject of the cover portrait.
62* DidTheEarthMoveForYouToo: "I Feel The Earth Move". It certainly does for the singer.
63--> ''I feel the earth move under my feet''
64--> ''I feel the sky tumbling down, tumbling down''
65--> ''I feel my heart start to trembling''
66--> ''Whenever you're around''
67* DontFearTheReaper: "Tapestry", a song in which the singer reflects on their life in old age.
68--> ''As I watched in sorrow there suddenly appeared''
69--> ''A figure grey and ghostly beneath a flowing beard''
70--> ''In times of deepest darkness I've seen him dressed in black''
71--> ''Now my tapestry's unraveling, he's come to take me back''
72* FaceOnTheCover: Full-length, sitting on a window seat in half shadow, barefoot and casually dressed in sweater and jeans, clutching a piece of her own tapestry work and upstaged by a large tabby cat. Very domestic and far from glamorous.
73* AFriendInNeed: "You've Got A Friend"
74--> ''You just call out my name''
75--> ''And you know wherever I am''
76--> ''I'll come running to see you again''
77* FriendshipSong: "You've Got A Friend".
78* HomeSweetHome: "Home Again".
79--> ''I won't be happy till I see you alone again''
80--> ''Till I'm home again and feeling right''
81* IWantMyBelovedToBeHappy:
82** "It's Too Late", with a side of ItsNotYouItsMe.
83** "Where You Lead" is about following your love's desires at the expense of your own.
84* LyricalDissonance: "Smackwater Jack" is a bouncy song about an outlaw who commits a mass shooting, then gets captured and hanged for it.
85* OneManSong: "Smackwater Jack"
86* OneWordTitle: "Beautiful", "Tapestry".
87* PepTalkSong: "Beautiful".
88--> ''You've got to get up every morning with a smile on your face''
89--> ''And show the world all the love in your heart''
90--> ''Then people gonna treat you better''
91* RoaringRampageOfRevenge: "Smackwater Jack"
92--> ''Now Smackwater Jack, he bought a shotgun''
93--> '''Cause he was in the mood for a little confrontation''
94--> ''He just let it all hang loose''
95--> ''He didn't think about the noose''
96--> ''He couldn't take no more abuse''
97--> ''So he shot down the congregation''
98* TheSheriff: "Smackwater Jack"
99--> ''Now Big Jim the chief stood for law and order''
100* TitleTrack: "Tapestry"
101--> ''My life has been a tapestry of rich and royal hue''
102--> ''An everlasting vision of the ever-changing view''
103--> ''A wondrous, woven magic in bits of blue and gold''
104--> ''A tapestry to feel and see, impossible to hold''
105

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