The City (Feat. Carole King)

The City (Feat. Carole King) - Now That Everything's Been Said - 1968 - Ode

Gerry Goffin and Carole King, even in 1968 were already established songwriters, but it wasn't until Carole's 1971 classic "Tapestry" release that she came to be fully recognised as one of the great American singer/songwriters. In 1968, Carole King and her then husband Charles Larkey, formed the short lived The City, with Danny Kortchmar on guitar and vocals, and Jim Gordon on drums. "Now That Everything's Been Said" was originally issued as a limited edition album in 1968 by Ode records. It's an excellent album with some terrific songs. "Snow Queen" is a beautifully written track. "That Old Sweet Roll (Hi De Ho)", was covered, by the Byrds and Blood, Sweat And Tears, and is also a great song. Danny Kortchmar sings "A Man Without a Dream" and "Sweet Home" on this album, which really hasn't a dud track. "Now That Everything's Been Said" is now available on a remastered CD, and is well worth buying. The post here is a vinyl rip, and sound quality is only average.

TRACKS / COMPOSERS

SIDE 1

1.) Snow Queen (Gerry Goffin - Carole King) - 4:11
2.) I Was Not Born to Follow (Gerry Goffin - Carole King) - 3:45
3.) Now That Everything's Been Said (Carole King - Stern) - 2:20
4.) Paradise Alley (Carole King - Palmer) - 3:04
5.) A Man Without a Dream (Gerry Goffin - Carole King) - 3:50
6.) Victim of Circumstance (Carole King - Palmer) - 2:35

SIDE 2

1.) Why Are You Leaving (Carole King - Stern) - 3:37
2.) Lady (Gerry Goffin - Carole King) - 2:59
3.) My Sweet Home (Allison) - 3:12
4.) I Don't Believe It (Carole King) - 2:42
5.) Hi-De-Ho (That Old Sweet Roll) (Gerry Goffin - Carole King) - 3:22
6.) All My Time (Gerry Goffin - Carole King) - 3:17

MUSICIANS

Carole King - Synthesizer, Guitar, Piano, Keyboards, Vocals
Danny Kortchmar - Guitar, Vocals
Charles Larkey - Bass
Jim Gordon - Drums

REVIEW

The 1999 Ode/Epic/Legacy CD reissue of this album marks its first appearance in the American catalog since 1969, when a switch of distributors by Ode, from Columbia to A&M, ended up getting it deleted prematurely. The original LP became a collector's item with a triple-digit price and was even bootlegged with a bad black-and-white reproduction of the original jacket. It was briefly in print on CD in Japan during the early 1990s, but this reissue is an improvement — King lacked some confidence, and this remastering captures the subtle, deep, expressive aspect of King's singing, which was easy to lose, especially because King sometimes sounds a little outnumbered, trying to work within a "group" context. The City has more of an integrated ensemble sound, and less prominence to King, than her subsequent records, even though she used bigger backing groups on most of her solo sides. The new CD squeezes the best out of her voice (and piano, which sounds gloriously resonant) as it existed then. The soft but clear, gently tapped percussion in the opening seconds of "Snow Queen," and the close-up twang and crunch of Danny Kortchmar's guitar on "Wasn't Born to Follow," also enhance the listening. King wasn't yet filling her albums wall-to-wall with memorable songs, and there's some material here that might better have been held back at the time, but this release is the best way to hear this record. © Bruce Eder, allmusic.com

SHORT BIO (CAROLE KING)

While the landmark album Tapestry earned her superstar status, singer/songwriter Carole King had already firmly established herself as one of pop music's most gifted and successful composers, with work recorded by everyone from the Beatles to Aretha Franklin. Born Carole Klein on February 9, 1942, in Brooklyn, New York, she began playing piano at the age of four, and formed her first band, the vocal quartet the Co-Sines, while in high school. A devotee of the composing team of Jerry Lieber and Mike Stoller (the duo behind numerous hits for Elvis Presley, the Coasters, and Ben E. King), she became a fixture at influential DJ Alan Freed's local Rock 'n' Roll shows; while attending Queens College, she fell in with budding songwriters Paul Simon and Neil Sedaka as well as Gerry Goffin, with whom she forged a writing partnership. In 1959, Sedaka scored a hit with "Oh! Carol," written in her honor; King cut an answer record, "Oh! Neil," but it stiffed. She and Goffin, who eventually married, began writing under publishers Don Kirshner and Al Nevins in the famed pop songwriting house the Brill Building, where they worked alongside the likes of Doc Pomus, Mort Shuman, Jeff Barry, Ellie Greenwich, and countless others. In 1961, Goffin and King scored their first hit with the Shirelles' chart-topping "Will You Love Me Tomorrow"; their next effort, Bobby Vee's "Take Good Care of My Baby," also hit number one, as did "The Locomotion," recorded by their baby-sitter, Little Eva. Together, the couple wrote over 100 chart hits in a vast range of styles, including the Chiffons' "One Fine Day," the Monkees' "Pleasant Valley Sunday," the Drifters' "Up on the Roof," the Cookies' "Chains" (later covered by the Beatles), Aretha Franklin's "(You Make Me Feel) Like a Natural Woman," and the Crystals' controversial "He Hit Me King also continued her attempts to mount a solo career, but scored only one hit, 1962's "It Might as Well Rain Until September." In the mid-'60s she, Goffin, and columnist Al Aronowitz founded their own short-lived label, Tomorrow Records; Charles Larkey, the bassist for the Tomorrow group the Myddle Class, eventually became King's second husband after her marriage to Goffin dissolved. She and Larkey later moved to the West Coast, where in 1968 they founded the City, a trio rounded out by New York musician Danny Kortchmar. The City recorded one LP, Now That Everything's Been Said, but did not tour due to King's stage fright; as a result, the album was a commercial failure, although it did feature songs later popularized by the Byrds ("Wasn't Born to Follow"), Blood, Sweat & Tears ("Hi-De-Ho"), and James Taylor ("You've Got a Friend"). Taylor and King ultimately became close friends, and he encouraged her to pursue a solo career. 1970's Writer proved a false start, but in 1971, she released Tapestry, which stayed on the charts for over six years and was the best-selling album of the era. A quiet, reflective work which proved seminal in the development of the singer/songwriter genre, Tapestry also scored a pair of hit singles, "So Far Away" and the chart-topping "It's Too Late," whose flip side, "I Feel the Earth Move," garnered major airplay as well. 1971's Music also hit number one, and generated the hit "Sweet Seasons"; 1972's Rhymes & Reasons reached number two on the charts, and 1974's Wrap Around Joy, which featured the hit "Jazzman," hit the number one spot.In 1975, King and Goffin reunited to write Thoroughbred, which also featured contributions from James Taylor, David Crosby, and Graham Nash. After 1977's Simple Things, she mounted a tour with the backing group Navarro and married her frequent songwriting partner Rick Evers, who died a year later after a heroin overdose. 1980's Pearls, a collection of performances of songs written during her partnership with Goffin, was her last significant hit, and King soon moved to a tiny mountain village in Idaho, where she became active in the environmental movement. After 1983's Speeding Time, she took a six-year hiatus from recording before releasing City Streets, which featured guest Eric Clapton. In 2001, she returned with Love Makes the World, a self-released disc on her own Rockingale label. Four years passed before her next record, The Living Room Tour, a double disc set documenting her intimate 2004-05 tour that found her revisting songs from throughout her career with only her piano and acoustic guitars as accompaniment. © Jason Ankeny, allmusic.com