[APPLAUSE] MIKE BARNICLE: All these
people are here for you. CAROLE KING: Thank you. Oh, my gosh. Thank you so much. Oh, thank you. And please, thank you. Mike, they love you. MIKE BARNICLE: Yeah. [LAUGHTER] Thanks for coming. TOM MCNAUGHT: So good
evening and welcome everyone. I'm Tom McNaught, Executive
Director of the Kennedy Library Foundation. And on behalf of Tom Putnam,
the Director of the Kennedy Presidential Library
and Museum and all of our colleagues at the
library and foundation, we thank you all for coming. This is a very special
night, as we could see by that standing ovation. Let me begin by acknowledging
the generous underwriters of the Kennedy Library Forums. Our lead sponsor is bank
of America, Raytheon, Boston Capital, the Lowell
Institute, the Boston Foundation, and
our media partner is the Boston Globe and WBUR. Tonight, we celebrate
one of the country's most talented, gifted, and
totally awesome singers and songwriters of our. Time [APPLAUSE AND CHEERS] Carole King is the recipient
of four Grammy awards and has been inducted into both
the Songwriters Hall of Fame AND the Rock and
Roll Hall of Fame. She has recorded 25 solo
albums, the second of which, Tapestry, released
in 1971, would go on to stay at number one
on the Billboard charts for a record-breaking 15 weeks. It stayed on the charts in some
form for a stunning six years. Not only that, Tapestry remained
the longest-tenured album in the top spot
until it was finally beaten out by Michael
Jackson's Thriller in 1982. On a personal note,
I would like to add that it was Carole King's
Tapestry that saved my sanity and got me through
college in 1971. It was better than
therapy, and I thank you. [LAUGHTER] In her memoir, A Natural
Woman, which was just released this week,
Carole takes us from her early
beginnings in Brooklyn to her remarkable success
on one of the world's most acclaimed songwriters
and performing artists for all time. Now, A Natural Woman who is now
on sale in our museum store, and Carole will be signing
her book following the forum. So I urge those of you who
haven't gotten it, go get it. There is a great line
in the book jacket, and it reads, "She created
the soundtrack of our lives." Which is so true, especially
after you read this book. I like to think of
President and Mrs. Kennedy tooling around in
their convertible on Cape Cod or sitting back in the private
quarters of the White House, listening to "Will You Love Me
Tomorrow?" by the Shirelles, or "Take Good Care of
My Baby" by Bobby Vee, or the "Loco-motion" by Lil
Eva, or "Crying in the Rain" by the Everly Brothers, or
"One Fine Day" by the Chiffons. And if they had, they
would've been enjoying the work of Carole King. [APPLAUSE] CAROLE KING: I never
thought of that. TOM MCNAUGHT: See, everyone
loves you, you know? CAROLE KING: I think somebody
should bring some tissues up here. [APPLAUSE] TOM MCNAUGHT: Carole King
has written or co-written over 400 songs that
have been recorded by more than 1,000 artists. I'll just give you a
few names, but I'm sure, from this audience, you
probably know most of them. But Aretha Franklin, Amy
Winehouse, Dusty Springfield, The Byrds, Neil Diamond,
James Taylor, Linda Ronstadt, Roberta Flack, Cher, Tom
Petty and the Heartbreakers, Diana Ross, Mariah
Carey, Barbra Streisand, and of course The Beatles. But thank God by
the end of 1970, Carole King began
to devote herself exclusively to
singing her own songs, and 25 solo albums later
we are all richer for it. Not content with
being one of the most accomplished
songwriters of all time, Carole is also a
respected environmentalist who has been working for
the passage of legislation to protect the Northern
Rockies in her home. And she is accompanied tonight
by her daughter, Sherry Kondor, who-- where's Sherry? Sherry, would you stand
and accept the audience? Delighted to have you here. [APPLAUSE] So you really need
to read the book. But you're in for
a treat tonight, because we have somebody
who will probably get more information out of
Carole than is in the book, and that's our own
chronicler Mike Barnicle. [APPLAUSE] I think it's probably clear
for most of the audience who knows Mike, but let
me tell you anyway that he's an award-winning print
and broadcast journalist, as well as a social and
political commentator, who's a frequent contributor
and occasional guest host on MSNBC'S Morning Joe and
Hardball with Chris Matthews. And Mike can also be seen
regularly on NBC'S Today Show. Bostonians, we all know that
Mike is a regular contributor to the country's
longest-running, award-winning local news magazine Chronicle,
and he's hosted several award winning documentaries for WCVB. Mike has been a columnist
for more than 30 years, having written more than
4,000 columns collectively for the Boston Herald, New
York Daily News, and the Boston Globe. At the Boston Globe,
which we all know, he rose to prominence for
his biting, satirical, and at times heart-wrenching
columns that closely follow the triumphs and travails and
ambitions of Boston's working and middle class. He's won local and
national awards, both for his print and
broadcast work, and his more than a quarter
century of journalism. He has a is a of the cloth
of both Jimmy Breslin, Studs Terkel, and Brendan Behan. And we are honored to have
him as tonight's moderator. Ladies and gentlemen,
please join me in welcoming Mike Barnicle
and the legendary Carole King. [APPLAUSE] CAROLE KING: Thank you so much. That was beautiful. Look at that. MIKE BARNICLE: The first thing
I have to do is update the bio. [LAUGHTER] CAROLE KING: And the
first thing I have to do is acknowledge the
Red Sox on April 20th. MIKE BARNICLE: April 20th, yeah. CAROLE KING: What
is the anniversary? MIKE BARNICLE: 100th
anniversary of the ballpark. CAROLE KING: Unbelievable. MIKE BARNICLE: I was
there at the first game. [LAUGHTER] That's how I feel. CAROLE KING: Well, we'll get
you into the mid-century. MIKE BARNICLE: Yeah. As a matter of fact,
before we begin, I should tell you that once
this event was publicized, I received a call
from the Red Sox asking if I would ask
Carole if she would want to sing "God Bless America"
tomorrow during Opening Day at the 7th inning. Which she did, but she
can't, because she's on to other things. But that's a standing invitation
for you at any point in time. CAROLE KING: You bet. [APPLAUSE] Thank you. MIKE BARNICLE: As you
heard in the introduction, Carole obviously has had a
very successful life that has touched thousands
and thousands of lives through what she
has done musically and what she has done
actually politically, too. We'll get into all of that. But as most of you
are probably aware, many long and successful
trips are never as smooth as they might appear
to be at the near conclusion of the trip. That life is a sometimes
rocky, turbulent road. And Carole King, perhaps
many of you don't know, is here the daughter of a
New York City firefighter. [APPLAUSE] And she literally took
the A train to success. So why don't we start talking
about that ambitious little girl in Brooklyn, who
would get on the trolley and cross the river
and walk along in the corridors of
Manhattan, looking for a shot, looking for chance. What kind of a
nerve did you have to think at the age of
however young you were that you could write songs? CAROLE KING: Well,
writing songs, it wasn't the question of
whether I could write songs, it was the question of
whether anyone would care. [LAUGHTER] And so, when I was
younger, I think the age that I set forth on
the journey to have people listen to my songs,
I was probably 14, 15. And my dad, being a firefighter,
had that wonderful thing that comes along
with all the problems that come along with
being a firefighter, he had a badge that would
get him in anywhere. And so one of the places
I wanted him to get me in was to Alan Freed, to meet
Alan Freed, the legendary disk jockey who, at my age-- when I first heard him I was
13, and it was just an amazing thing to hear the
music he played, because it wasn't you know
the sort of white-bread pop-- it was rhythm and blues and very
different and very visceral. So my dad gets me up
to meet Alan Freed, and Alan Freed gave
this girl some advice. He said, well, if you want
to get your songs heard, just go pick up the phone
book, and go look up record companies,
and start calling and see if you can get in
to see some of the people. And that's what I did. Now, when you said
what made me think-- I had no fear. I don't know why. I was never brought up
to be fearful or think I couldn't do anything
for any reason, but certainly not
because I was a girl. That just was not part
of my parents' framework. It was like, sure
you can do anything, and we will support you. We're going to
help you get there. So then I look in the phone
book, and the first one-- I'm in the A's-- Atlantic Records. Jerry Wexler. Well, it was very new then. It was newly founded-- it
was only in one room then. And I walked in off the street. I couldn't get an appointment. I just walked in off the street. And my whole attitude was,
someone's going to get heard. Why not me? And they listened. MIKE BARNICLE: So you do that. That's amazing
spunk right there. But this is an age-- and I see
there are some people out there with the same color here as
mine, what hair I have left-- and it's an age of
12-inch Bendix TV sets with rabbit ears in the
top, and The Ed Sullivan Show, and things like that. How do you get from
climbing those steps up to see Alan Freed on to
Ted Mack's Amateur Hour or The Children's Hour on TV? How does that happen? CAROLE KING: That, I don't know. I mean, we went. I guess, that the answer is-- MIKE BARNICLE: You just show up? CAROLE KING: I showed up. Exactly. MIKE BARNICLE: That's what
life was all about, showing up. CAROLE KING: I showed up. And evident-- [APPLAUSE] And evidently, whatever talent
I seemed to have finally come to recognize I must have--
thanks to all of you-- is they heard something. And I also was shy
about performing. So the idea of performing
was not in my head-- I wanted my songs
to be recorded. But when I went to the Amateur
Hour, it was something, yeah, why not. I have a friend I sing
with, a girlfriend from school, Loretta Stone. So suddenly it wasn't
about, oh, I'm up here and there's an
audience out there. It was me my friend having
a good time singing. And they must have caught that,
so we were on the Amateur Hour. And for that appearance only,
I believe I took the name-- my birth name is Carole without
an E, I added the E later, and then Klein, K-L-E-I-N.
But it wasn't the thing to do to have ethnic
names at that time. So for that appearance
only, I changed it to Carole Kane,
thereby the same name as the comedic actress who
I didn't know about then. MIKE BARNICLE: So as
you're doing this, whether it's in the Brill
Building in Manhattan or wherever, you
encounter all sorts of people whose names would be
familiar to most of the people here. But you bump into, say,
someone like Paul Anka, who is not that much older
than you, I would imagine, at that time. CAROLE KING: No. MIKE BARNICLE: So what does
bumping into Paul Anka, who has a huge hit at
the time, a huge hit-- CAROLE KING: Yeah MIKE BARNICLE: What does that
do to your sense of ambition, your sense of
confidence, if had it? I imagine you had
some confidence then. CAROLE KING: In my
work, absolutely. MIKE BARNICLE: What
does it do to you? CAROLE KING: Well, I actually
never did meet Paul Anka. I met other people. I met Steve Lawrence. Atlantic couldn't
use me right then, so it went in reverse
order, but then ABC Paramount-- that's who
Paul Anka recorded for. And I was inspired to
go to them because I loved his single "Diana." It had this kind of hooky
thing that was this-- [SINGING NOTES] And I couldn't tell what
instrument was playing that. So I was motivated to go
see his producer, which was Don Costa, who
also did a lot of work with Frank Sinatra
in his later years, and many, many famous artists. So not having run into Paul
Anka, but I placed myself in, well, he's only seven
months older than I am. If he can do it, I can do it. And Don Costa did
see me, and I did get to ask him what that
instrumentation was. And he leaned over and he
said very conspiratorially, like we were equals
or something, it's a guitar and a
sax playing in unison. Who would have ever known that? But what a moment. MIKE BARNICLE: You have
a line in the book, when you were in high school
and everybody's dating, or many of your
friends are dating, and you're sitting
at home thinking you are the girl who the guys
call to talk about other girls. CAROLE KING: I'm the friend. [LAUGHTER] MIKE BARNICLE: How does
that play out in your life? CAROLE KING: Well,
obviously-- first of all, I skipped a grade, which
they did back then. So I was good at
reading and math. They skipped me from
kindergarten to 2nd grade. And then I was put
in early enough so that I was like the youngest
one in the class anyway. So here I am, two years
younger than everybody, and my genetics are I'm
smaller than everybody else. It was all going against me. But they liked me. I was cute. But when you want to
be dating the guys and they think you're cute-- not in the
hot-and-attractive sense-- I was kind of looking
for a way to be popular, and I just couldn't seem to
find that way until I realized that there was a niche-- the James Madison
High School Sing, where every class
put on their songs. I could play piano. I could teach my friends songs. It was wonderful. It was comfortable. I found my nice and I became
popular, but still not in that dating way. I wanted to be the tall
blonde with the, you know-- [LAUGHTER] And it wasn't going to happen. But I did I did find that
place through my music, where I was like,
accepted, comfortable, and I stopped worrying about
whether I was going to date. I was really happy
doing what I was doing. MIKE BARNICLE:
And at some point, you meet a young man
named Gerry Goffin. CAROLE KING: Yes. MIKE BARNICLE: And life
intersects with Jared Goffin-- life, music, and marriage
at a very young age. CAROLE KING: Yes. MIKE BARNICLE: Tell
us about Gerry Goffin. CAROLE KING: Well, I met him-- by this point, I went
through high school, and I didn't have any
kind of serious boyfriend. And by the way, neither did
I have very good lyrics. The lyrics that, when Don
Costa eventually recorded me, (SINGING) Baby, baby, baby,
baby sittin' on the, baby, baby, baby, baby sittin'
on the, baby, baby-- [LAUGHTER] There is a punch line,
(SINGING) you know the baby, I mean, he's 17. [LAUGHTER] But there were deeper
things to go for. So I'm looking for a lyricist. And by the way, on my way to
Gerry Goffin, I go to Queens. My parents moved to Queens,
and I go to Queens College. And the first
person I met before met Gerry Goffin was Paul Simon. I met Artie as well-- Artie Garfunkel-- but
Paul and I sort of started hanging out together. We were never romantically
involved at all, but we started making
demos together. He played bass and guitar and
sang, I played piano and sang, and we made demos
for other people. And we had some
of our own songs, but we never collaborated. And I actually asked
Paul about that-- because we've stayed
friends all these years-- why do you think we
never collaborated? And this is in the
book, and I'm still stunned when he says this. He said, I was never really
good at collaborating, and I didn't really think
I was a very good lyricist until "Sounds of Silence"
went to number one. So opportunity missed, I guess. But opportunity found,
because I did meet Gerry Goffin at Queens College. MIKE BARNICLE: Whatever
happened to Paul Simon? [LAUGHTER] CAROLE KING: I believe he was
here recently, was he not? MIKE BARNICLE: Yeah,
I think he was. CAROLE KING: This is
where we wound up. So that's where I met Gerry. MIKE BARNICLE: But
today, I don't know-- Facebook, and text messaging,
and googling everything and everyone, and there's such
a lack of institutional memory today. And the idea that
someone your age and Gerry Goffin,
who you have not yet married but you're
about to be married, sit down and managed to write
these songs that we still whistle and hum and sing in cars
today, all these years later. It's kind of amazing
to think back. How old were you when you
started doing this with Gerry? CAROLE KING: When I
met Gerry I was 16-- I was probably about to turn 17. Yeah. But now, bear in mind, I had
already graduated high school. I was appropriately in
the right place mentally. But I look at these
pictures that you'll see in the book or the
e-book, and this is a child! MIKE BARNICLE: Yeah. CAROLE KING: It's a
child you're looking at! Really? So yeah, it is remarkable. And Facebook, I want to sort
of pose a question here, just talking about that. I have a Facebook page. Most people know that I am not
the one running the Facebook page. Once in a while
I'll have a comment and they'll put it on,
same thing with Twitter. And again, most people know that
and accept that it's not me. How many people in
this room are really ambivalent about Facebook? MIKE BARNICLE: There you go. CAROLE KING: And yet how
do we live without it in today's world? I don't know the answer. You probably don't
because you're all still on it, because that's
how people communicate. That's something I think about. It's can't we talk? MIKE BARNICLE: How many
people tweeted today what they had for lunch or what
they were doing at 3 o'clock. It's bizarre. CAROLE KING: Yeah. MIKE BARNICLE: It is bizarre. I call it-- that we're
all part of, we're all living through now--
the cubicle generation, that there's a cubicle in
between where you're sitting and I'm sitting, and
I think you're a jerk or you did something
that offended me, so I'm going to text you. Instead of getting up, looking
you in the eye, and saying, hey, Carole, I think you did
something that bothered me. I'll text it to you, even
though you're two feet away. There's something really
weird going on out there. But again, don't
duck the question. CAROLE KING: No, no,
I didn't mean to. MIKE BARNICLE: You and Gerry-- I mean, "Loco-motion,"
"Will you Love Me Tomorrow?" You can sing that song tonight. What are you, 17 or 18
when you write that? CAROLE KING: We were-- let me think a minute. Yes, we were 17. MIKE BARNICLE: Amazing. CAROLE KING: I was 17. Gerry was 20. MIKE BARNICLE: Tell him about
"Loco-motion," and who sang it, and what happened. CAROLE KING: Well,
it's Little Eva. Her name was Eva
Boyd at the time. She is sadly gone
now, but she had-- I think she has five children
and 15 grandchildren. We were kind of in touch. But Eva did come to
work for Gerry and me. I was a mother of two
by then, and I really needed some help around the
house, and I was a working mom. So Eva came to work
for Gerry and me, and the legend is
that she was pushing the broom around the
house, and we said, we must record that voice. But we knew she could
sing, and we used her on some of our demos. And then Don Kirshner,
my publisher-- who, by the way, I'm going
to Cleveland tomorrow, which is why-- MIKE BARNICLE: I'm sorry. CAROLE KING: --I can't
pay at the Red Sox. But I'm going there to induct
Don Kirshner into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. MIKE BARNICLE: All right. [APPLAUSE] CAROLE KING: Sadly
posthumously-- and by the way, that applies to him, not me. [APPLAUSE] But so Donny decided
that he was going to start a record company. So we have Little
Eva record this song that we had written
for Dee Dee Sharp, who had had "The Mashed Potatoes." [VOCALIZING] (SINGING) Mashed potatoes. So we recorded this demo
and Dee Dee Sharp's people didn't want or need our song. And so Donny said,
well, you know what? I'm going to start
a record label. And so he just took that
demo and put it out, and that was "Loco-motion." And it was just fun. I wrote the music. And most of those early songs,
that great lyric of Will You Love Me Tomorrow?"
which is so often credited to me because I'm a girl, "Will
you Still Love Me Tomorrow," Gerry wrote it, a straight
man with such an understanding of how women think. [LAUGHTER] Totally so keyed in
to how women thought. Wrote the lyrics to
"Natural Woman" too. "Saving All My Love for
You," which I did not write. Back to the "Loco-motion." He wrote this fun dance thing. We didn't even know
what it looked like-- he just made up the
words, and off it went. And number one in three
different decades. [APPLAUSE] MIKE BARNICLE: When you're
writing a song then, in the '50s, early
'60s, "Loco-motion," "Will You Love Me Tomorrow?" you were at the edge of the
beginning of just a huge music revolution in this country. Elvis has been on Ed
Sullivan from the hips up. CAROLE KING: Not the first time. MIKE BARNICLE: Bill
Haley and the Comets have been banned from
every CYO dance in America. [LAUGHTER] What does this
music, the popularity of this music and performers
like Elvis Presley, do to you in terms of
writing, you and Gery writing? I mean, do you stop and
think how can you mimic it? CAROLE KING: Absolutely. MIKE BARNICLE:
CAROLE KING: Yeah? CAROLE KING: Absolutely. That was our MO in those days. And just for the record, take
"Will You Love Me Tomorrow?" Their big hit was "Tonight's
the Night." (SINGING) You say you're gonna love
me, tonight's the night. Right? (SINGING) Tonight
you're mine completely." [LAUGHTER] MIKE BARNICLE: What a great
song that is, isn't it? That's a great song. CAROLE KING: It wasn't a
calculated thing in the sense that we really had
to pick it apart. It just was in our brain,
and we let it percolate, and we knew that what came out
would be probably upside down and sideways the same song. And it was. MIKE BARNICLE: So
when you would hear-- let's pick a group-- let's
say Dion and the Belmonts, you hear them. Did you want to rush home, and
sit down at the piano and riff something up? CAROLE KING: Every time. MIKE BARNICLE: Really? CAROLE KING: Yes. That was what drove me. I would hear something
that I would admire. And that's true for
all artists, I think. All artists are
informed by other art. And you take it in. The word and inform
is such a great word. I don't think that
came into common use when I was growing
up, but so perfect. Because you intake
it, and it forms you. And that's what we did. MIKE BARNICLE: So this is
all East Coast doo-wop stuff. Bill Parcells, the former
Patriots and Jets coach and coach of so many other
teams, Hall of Fame football coach, loves doo-wop music. And at the end of
each football season, whether he was coaching the New
York Giants or the New England, Patriots he'd get
in his big Cadillac, and he had like
$6,000 worth of CDs. And he'd drive down to his
place in Jupiter, Florida, playing at rock and roll
music, all down the East Coast. But it is, a sense of
it, East Coast music. At least, it is to me. Although it was
huge national hits. But when you're still, young you
Gerry, the lure of California-- you're drawn to California,
you move to California. What changes, if anything, in
you when you move to California CAROLE KING: Well, there
were external changes. Gerry and I split up when
we moved to California. Our marriage was-- MIKE BARNICLE:
Doesn't everybody? CAROLE KING: Split up when
they move to California? Well, we split up on
our way to California. We moved there,
literally, separately. And I do want to talk
about that in the sense that one of the things that
I tried to do in this book was to set my experiences in
a larger historical context. That's really important to
me, because I see myself as an observer, as you do. I mean, we have that in
common to just sort of see the bigger picture. And, obviously,
it's easier to do that when you're writing about
it you know 40, 50 years later. But as our marriage was sort of
developing into not a good one, for lots of reasons, a
lot of it had to do with-- and if any of you here
with this color hair, you will recognize
the phenomenon. You get married, you're very,
very young at that time, and the world is changing. It's the '60s. Things are starting to happen. You said the lure of California,
it was centered in California, but it was happening here too. One member of the
couples sort of got into that before the
other a member of the couple. And it wasn't always
the man first-- Kramer vs. Kramer. But one member went
first, and the other one's going, but, but-- what? And I was that person. And Gerry was drawn-- he was so drawn to
that, and the culture, and the LSD, and the
whole more open attitude. So I'm sort of using
that to explain how we got to the
point of eventually we were going to separate. And we both went to
California separately. MIKE BARNICLE: So you
moved to California, I believe, in the
spring of 1968. CAROLE KING: Right. MIKE BARNICLE: Which is a
dreadful year for America, just a dreadful year. CAROLE KING: Yes. MIKE BARNICLE: You move out
there shortly before Martin Luther King is
killed in Memphis, and Robert Kennedy is
killed in the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles
shortly after you get there. CAROLE KING: And then the
convention after that. MIKE BARNICLE: In Chicago. CAROLE KING: Yeah. MIKE BARNICLE: Yeah. So we'll get to you know this
psychology, your feelings about it politically,
but I wanted to ask you, as you were just talking
about, the breakup with Gerry and everything. Did you find it difficult
to write about it? CAROLE KING: You mean
now, in this book? MIKE BARNICLE: Yeah. CAROLE KING: No, not that. There's one thing in
the book that we'll get to that I did find it
difficult to write about, and we explain that later. But I didn't find it difficult
to write about, because in fact writing about it gave
me that opportunity to put it in perspective
and to remember not only my personal feelings
as a woman feeling this, but we were going
to last forever! We were going to live
happily ever after! And I was so young when we
got married and so was he. But MIKE BARNICLE: How old were
you when you got married? CAROLE KING: When we
got married, 17 and 20. And then we had our
first child-- not Sherry, her sister-- when I was 18. And again, I have
three daughters, and when I saw each of them
passed through 18, none of them was ready to have a child. [LAUGHTER] Nor was I, but we did. I did, and it was a
blessing of my life. Every one of my children
are just blessings. And we cope and
we do what we do, and we have kept
a sense of family through all the
breakups, through all the different things-- we're a close family. MIKE BARNICLE: So you get
out there in California. First of all, it's interesting,
when your children turned 18, and you realized,
looking at them, that they were
still children, did you have flashbacks
about yourself, thinking, oh, my
God, I can't believe? CAROLE KING: I was a child with
children, and they know that. There were advantages to it,
because I was a very cool mom, and I was easier on
them in some ways. But there were disadvantages
because children need boundaries, and I didn't
know where the boundaries were. There was no blueprint-- that's what was very confusing. Because now I'm living in
California, in the famed Laurel Canyon, which in
most cases has not been represented correctly-- and I hope I did a
good job in doing it. But none of us had a blueprint. The world was changing. What does a single mother do? Well, also, there
aren't a whole lot of single mothers at that age. All of my contemporaries were,
A, five years younger than me-- so not really contemporary-- and b, they didn't have
children and they were just doing whatever. I couldn't do whatever. And I was glad,
even at the time, that I couldn't do
whatever, because I liked that my children
kept me grounded. They kept me-- I knew who I was because of
my children and my music. So whatever happened around
me, I always had that. I think I may need
those tissues. MIKE BARNICLE: So
one of the things that's happening around
you, as you get out there-- there were a lot of things
happening around you-- the war in Vietnam is raging,
Lyndon Johnson has withdrawn and he's not going
to run for president, we have the horrific
Chicago convention, we have the election
of Richard Nixon. Does this trigger anything
in you politically? And if so, does whatever
was triggered in you, does it affect your songwriting
or your view of the world, or The words that
you put onto paper? CAROLE KING: Absolutely. Although, to be fair,
it was Gerry's words. At that time, he
always wrote the words and I wrote the music. But I was totally plugged
into all those things. We marched-- we
marched for peace. We marched together,
and then you know even after we
separated, there were times when
we sort of became working together again and
friends again, though never together. And I remember taking the kids
on a march in San Francisco, and Gerry's got one of
them, probably Sherry-- she's remembering too. And yes, it absolutely
affected us. And it was almost impossible
not to be, because-- and this is a social
observation I want to make, and I don't remember if
I make it in the book. In those days, the
music on the radio, there was kind of
a mainstream radio. There were side channels of
rhythm and blues or whatever. And I don't mean to say
side in terms of importance, but in terms of size. But there was the
mainstream pop radio, and it became all about that. People were writing
songs of protest, and Gerry got right
on that bandwagon, and I was right there with them. MIKE BARNICLE: Out
in Los Angeles, I don't know how many of
you people are familiar with the Los Angeles of the late '60s
and early '70s, but it seemed almost everything-- other than
poverty in places like South Central LA-- like everything else revolved
around the entertainment industry, whether it was the
music business or obviously the movie business. But you could drive down the
Sunset Strip and there was a huge state-of-the-art
building then, Tower Records, which is now out of business,
and many of the billboards would feature not movies but
LPs, as they were called then-- long playing albums, albums
that were about to come out-- Carole King's album, and all
sorts of different albums. So the idea that
you're out there in this mecca of
entertainment, at one point you meet a young man
from Martha's Vineyard, and this young man
is still today one of your closest friends. CAROLE KING: Yes. MIKE BARNICLE: And his
name is James Taylor. CAROLE KING: Please. [APPLAUSE] MIKE BARNICLE: Tell
us about meeting him. CAROLE KING: Well,
there were two meetings. The first meeting was
in New York in 1967 at the Night Owl Cafe. He was playing with the
band that had originally been called the King Bees, but
they became the flying machine. Danny Kortchmar was in it,
Zach Wiesner, and Joel Bishop O'Brien. And some friends of mine
brought me there to see him-- well, them, it was them,
because he was performing as a member of a band. And I met him briefly. When I walked in, Danny
was just like, James, come over here and meet Carole. I had never met Danny, but
we were all getting together. And James comes, ambling, lanky,
long, (MUTTERS) how are you? And then he walks away. And I'm like-- it was a
very weird experience. But then I'm like, I should go. And my friends say,
no, you got to see him. And blown away. What you see today was
there then, all of it. There's a video-- it's part of
Troubadours, the documentary, The rise and fall
of the singer-- not the fall. I think it's called Rise
of the Singer-Songwriter. [LAUGHTER] We never fell. But I got to see in that-- Morgan Neville, the
filmmaker, there's a "Fire and Rain"
video of James, one of his first performances. Sorry. Oi, I'm verklempt. Clamp He was magnificent
and just stunning. And I didn't stay
with him then, I just left to go home because I
had small children at home. The next time I met him was-- let's see, that was '67. I met him in 1969 at
Peter Asher's house. Peter was his friend
and producer by then. Now, James, it's no secret that
James had issues with heroin. He was addicted to heroin
when I first met him. By the time I met him the
second time, he had cleaned up and he was going to work
with Peter and make an album. And I walk into Peter's
house and I see James, and he's sort of sitting in
the crook of the piano, just kind of on a stool, bent
over, absorbed in his music. And he looks up
and he sees Danny. Danny's his old friend,
and they embrace. And then they
introduce him to me, and that time he
was fully present. And we sat down to play. Peter just said, well, why
don't you guys just play. We began to play. . And I'll never forget it,
because it hasn't changed! It was like we were
puppies rolling around-- the music was just rolling
in and around each other. His guitar and my piano
just rolled around. And we just felt like
we knew each other and had played together forever. MIKE BARNICLE: So
off of that chord-- no pun intended-- tell them-- again, no pun intended--
how instrumental-- CAROLE KING: We could
do this all night. MIKE BARNICLE:
"Sweet Baby James" was in who Carole King became? Because you were
playing in his band-- CAROLE KING: Yes. I'm shy, remember. MIKE BARNICLE: You have
written a marvelous song that I think most people
here in the audience tonight could probably whistle
or hum walking out of the hall on the way
home, "Up on the Roof." CAROLE KING: Yes. MIKE BARNICLE: So the
band is assembled, and there's a concert going
on, and James Taylor's singing. And there comes a
point in the concert when the group is going
to sing "Up on the Roof," except James Taylor says
you're going to sing. CAROLE KING: He tells
me I'm going to sing it, and I'm like-- would not let me-- I could not talk
him out of this. So when he introduces me-- normally he introduces his band. He's very gracious and
generous that way-- he always acknowledges his band. So he did that night just
before "Up on the Roof." And I knew he was going to
ask me to sing it by then. It wasn't like--
(GASPS) on stage. Although I felt that way anyway. Introduces everybody,
saved me for last, and then says to
everybody, this woman has written blah, blah, blah-- and he ticks off all
the songs that I've written that you all knew. And then he says,
and I'm going to ask her to sing this tonight. Ladies and gentlemen,
Carole King. Here's the light. Here's me. I'm terrified. I'm terrified! Plus, I've been
watching this man who is so at home on a stage,
so comfortable on a stage. He just knows what to do. I don't know what to do. And I start singing the song. And as I worked my
way through the song-- and people aren't
sure what to expect. They know that I wrote
the song, but suddenly I feel this infinitesimal,
yet huge shift. Suddenly I'm not sure,
and then you're with me. I'm taking it in, and you're
with me, and I go through it. And from that time forward
I was a lot more comfortable on stage. But there was one
other transition, and if you want to
lead into it or I can. MIKE BARNICLE: Go ahead. CAROLE KING: So I got
to perform with James, and I got a little more
comfortable about it. Now we get off
this college tour. It was a college,
sort of weekend tour. We were at Queens
College, my Alma matter, so I'm really scared. But by now I'm good. So then Peter Asher is going
to have James Taylor open at the Troubadour. He's a big star by now-- people
have really caught on to him. And they asked me to
be his opening act. Again, I'm like, I
don't know about this. No, no, no, go ahead. And Lou Adler, who was
my producer and manager, talks me into it. He says, Charlie
can play bass with. You'll be really comfortable. I do it, but I'm really scared. I'm not now scared
about playing. When I was doing "Up on the
Roof," I was scared about that. Now, I know that if I play the
music, I'm there, I'm into it. But I'm thinking, what am I
going to say to these people in between the songs? So I have my glass of water
down to the left of the piano, and I went-- thank you very much. And I'm sitting this way, right? No, I'm sorry, I'm
sitting this way. Piano, this way, because that's
where the curve is, and you're all out here. Thank you very
much, and my drink. And then a song goes by,
another song goes by. Once I'm playing, I'm fine. Third song is coming up. I don't know what to say, and I
know I've got to say something. Over the loudspeaker
comes the sound of this stoned guy saying-- California guy-- Carole,
I hate to do this, but we're going to have
to ask everybody to leave the club in an orderly fashion. It's probably nothing,
but there's been a report that there's a bomb in here. [LAUGHTER] And I'm saying, as
long as it's not me! [LAUGHTER] And everybody laughed, and
the tension was broken. And what I learned
that night, that was the thing that put me
over into being the person you see on stage now. Because I knew that what the
audience wanted and expected of me was, a, to play the
hit songs that they liked or even the songs that
weren't hits yet-- tolerate one or two-- and then you want
me to be myself. And this is what
you're getting tonight, and that's what you get
whenever I'm onstage. So thank you for that. [APPLAUSE] MIKE BARNICLE: You
know, I've heard James Taylor sing many times. It's always a treat to hear him
sing songs that you've written. "You've Got a friend,"
and things like that. How do you feel-- do you have different
feelings when different people sing your songs? CAROLE KING: Almost always good. The one time I remember a
horrible, horrible version of a song-- I will not mention the
name of the artist, it would be disrespectful. But most almost every time-- are we running out of time? CREW: No, no, no. CAROLE KING: Oh, OK. Oh, questions. MIKE BARNICLE: My wife
wants me to go home. [LAUGHTER] CAROLE KING: You can't leave. Tell her you're
at a Red Sox game. [LAUGHTER] MIKE BARNICLE: No,
she knows my schedule. [APPLAUSE] Does it ever sound weird
to you, strange to you, hearing your songs? CAROLE KING: No,
it's only better. It's the next level. And I am always, even
now, I'm first, last, and always a songwriter. It is my greatest joy to hear
someone else sing my song. And don't forget, here's the
thing about me being a singer-- how I became a singer, well,
OK, James pushed me forward. I was a singer of sorts, because
we have this album that we just put out-- or it's going to
be out in a couple of weeks-- called-- the 24th-- the Legendary Demos. These are the demos
that I made with Gerry, but I'm the singer and
then the executor of it. Executer? However you say. And it's all there-- the ideas are all there. And I listen to
it-- now, really? How did you do that? But I was a singer then. I have to present the song
if it's coming from me, and then the artist takes
it to the next level. So what Tapestry and the
albums around that time were, they eliminated
the later step. MIKE BARNICLE: So
how can you tell? You record Tapestry--
or you record any song, you record a song today, you
record with James Taylor, whatever, for CD or
whatever, how can you tell that what you're
listening to yourself is good? What's your ear like? Tell me about the
other-room-listen, as you talk about
that in the book. How do you tell? CAROLE KING: Well,
that doesn't go to how good the song
is, that sort of goes to how good a mix is. The other-room-listen
is when you mix it, and you hear it through
the big speakers, and then you put it
through the tinny speakers, because that's how
people will hear it in their cars, or
the monaural speaker. And then there's still
a way that works for me. I go in the other room. I'll talk to somebody,
I'll have a conversation, the thing is playing. I have a thing in my brain
that absolutely catches that one wrong note, or that
place where the students need to come up, or that place
where the vocals aren't blended right. And so that's that. But as far as how do
you know a song is good? We like to think we do. We don't always, but
we like to think we do. We never know. We never know. It's a fickle, crazy thing. MIKE BARNICLE:
Now, at this time, we're now in the early
'70s or so, are you married to Charlie at this time? CAROLE KING: No. No. Oh, you mean in the early '70s. I thought you were asking now. MIKE BARNICLE: Yeah. CAROLE KING: Nope! MIKE BARNICLE: No, I know
you're not married now. CAROLE KING: Happily single! [LAUGHTER] MIKE BARNICLE: Tell
them about Charlie. CAROLE KING: Charlie was
the bass player in a band that Gerry and I sort
of found in New Jersey. He was one of the guys actually,
the two guys that brought me to here the Flying Machine. And after Jerry and I split
up, Charlie and I get together. And he comes and
stays out and moves in with me in Los Angeles. And he's the one that says, why
don't we put together a band. And I'm like, I'm not
going out and performing. OK, we'll be a recording band. And then we became The City. That's my first album, but
it had a group name to it. And then Charlie
and I get married. We have our two children. It was Louise and
Sherry with Gerry, and then Molly and
Levi with Charlie. And we just had a great time. We loved playing music
together, we loved our family, and everything was cool. And our situation-- we
split up because Charlie was really into playing music. He loved playing music
and playing in bands, and that was not my scene. And he kind of got into
that scene and hanging out. And our hours-- truly,
it was our hours. We loved each other. There was no other
issue, except that he was living the
life of a musician and I was living the life
of a domestic housewife. And ultimately,
it wasn't working. MIKE BARNICLE: So
one last question, and then I'm going to hit you
with several names of people you've encountered
across the decades. CAROLE KING: Great. MIKE BARNICLE: And then we'll
take some questions that have been provided by the audience. But sort of the
last question is, and I talked to you
about this earlier, there comes a point
where you're living on Trancas Beach, which
is on the Pacific Coast Highway in California. There's Malibu and then Trancas. And it's beautiful--
it's a beautiful area. And you're living there,
and it's late one evening-- 10:30, 11 o'clock at night-- and a guy by the
name of Don Henley lives right up the
hill, the Eagles. And there's a party going
on, and they come down. And, you know, Carole,
come on up to the party, because it's like from here
to the end of this room. And your kids are
OK, they're sleeping. OK, you can leave
for a few minutes. And you walk up the hill,
and Don Henley's outside, and JD Souther is outside-- great musician. And you meet a guy-- well, tell us who you meet. CAROLE KING: I meet a
man named Rick Evers. And just some clarification--
my kids were sleep, but they had a babysitter there. [LAUGHTER] Just a clarification. MIKE BARNICLE: Jesus, I mean DSS
is not going to call, Carole. CAROLE KING: No, I just want
you to know, that who I am-- I would never do that. Also, setting the
time, November 1975. I am by now already well-known. I think Thoroughbred
was the album that was just out around that time. And I don't like the fast lane. I still have my house
in Laurel Canyon. I decided to go out
and live at the beach and get another house-- at
the time they were affordable. Well, to me, anyway. And Lou Adler has all
these famous friends-- Jack Nicholson,
back then, still. Lakers games back then. And I find myself that's the
people I'm hanging out with, and Charlie is doing
his music thing. And I'm completely untethered,
except for my family, except for my kids. So I have in my mind this dream,
this thought, that I really want to get away from LA. The trite phrase is
"back to the land." But it was. I want to get someplace
closer to nature, away from so many people, away
from the LA ethic of like when people get together
they talk about who had what plastic surgery
and which places to e go-- MIKE BARNICLE: Who did? CAROLE KING: I don't remember. MIKE BARNICLE: I
want to know that. CAROLE KING: I don't remember. And you know what places
to go to see and be seen and all that conversation. That's not true
of everyone in LA. By the way, even then, Kareem
Abdul-Jabbar, very intelligent man, knows so much about
music and jazz history, and, of course, sports. And even then, we had a
wonderful conversation one night. But I want to get out. And I walk up the hill, and
I meet this man Rick Evers. His picture in the e-book and
probably in the print book. Well, first of all,
you can see them-- you could go Brad Pitt in
Legends of the Fall, right? But we start talking,
and he's from Idaho. And he's telling me about
all these places he knows-- Idaho, Colorado, Utah. I can take you around and
show you great places to live. And I was hooked. MIKE BARNICLE: And
you're still in Idaho. And I'm still in Idaho. CAROLE KING: Rick is gone. Rick actually left this planet. And I will touch on this. Remember I said there's
some not-so-good. In this book, I write about
what I experienced with Rick Evers, which is physical abuse. And there's a whole dynamic-- and this is a story. I'm not going to tell
here, because it was really difficult to write about. I wrote about it because my
wonderful first editor, Colleen Daly, said these words-- "just write." And I wrote. And I wasn't sure I was
going to include it. But the reason I
included it in the book is because I wanted if one
woman-- or some men I know are also victims of abuse,
forget about children that's, a whole other category-- but
if one woman read it and said, wow, she had all this
money, she was famous. How could that happen to her? And I describe in
the book the dynamic of how it happens, and, more
to the point, why you stay. I not only stayed,
but I married him after multiple times of
being physically abused. And when I look at that, I would
say, what were you thinking? But in the writing of
it, I came to understand what I was thinking,
what women who are victims of physical
or sexual abuse-- there was not sexual,
it's just physical-- but just "merely, only." So that was why I
put it in the book. And really, if
there is one woman, then my work here is done. And I'm glad to
have it out there. [APPLAUSE] MIKE BARNICLE: John Lennon. CAROLE KING: That's
all you have to say. So I'm with that Rick. And by the way,
there are two Ricks, because after this Rick-- the end of that story
is that I finally realized that at some point
he had begun to shoot cocaine. And when I realized
that he was doing that-- I didn't know-- the minute I
realized he was doing that, I took my remaining
kids that lived me-- Louise was already gone-- and left. But while I was
gone, he overdosed. He just overdosed-- so
he took himself out. But I'm still with
him at this point, and we're in New York City, and
I'm doing a business meeting. Rick came everywhere with
me-- everywhere, everywhere-- that kind of possessiveness. And I meet Yoko Ono in the
bathroom of a movie theater. [LAUGHTER] So I come out of the
stall, she's already washing her hands at the
sink, and there's a mirror. And I see her, and she sees me. And guess what? We didn't have to
introduce each. [LAUGHTER] And we talk. And they'd just had Sean, baby
Sean, and she tells me that. And she says, would you like
to come over to our house, our apartment, she says. And I said sure, can
I bring my boyfriend? She says, of course. And she tells me the plan. We're going to go watch her. When she and John get up-- there
two security guys with them-- we were to get up and leave too. They leave before
the end of the movie. In those days, I guess
they didn't have screenings or video or whatever. They never got to see
the end of a movie. [LAUGHTER] But while I'm thinking about
this, I'm watching, we get up, we go, and nobody's there, and
it's totally without incident. And we wind up at the Dakota. And we go into their
apartment, and everything is like white on
white, very minimalist. It looks like you would
expect their home to look. And we're sitting and talking,
and baby Sean is with a nanny-- I never got to see him. And we're sitting and
talking, and Rick is feeling very comfortable with Yoko. Because remember, Yoko is the
one who took "our John" away from us, and not a lot
of people like her. And Rick was in
the same position. So they're bonding. I have to go back to 1965. This was in 1976, I believe. 1965, when I was in New York
and the Beatles are here-- it's their second year here-- somebody gets me into a party at
the Warwick Hotel in New York. And it's a Beatles party. And I'm like great,
because it's my goal to meet every one
of the Beatles. Who, by the way,
I know that they know who I am,
because they've said they wanted to be the
Goffin and King of the UK. Which doesn't mean they
wanted to get married and live in New Jersey. [LAUGHTER] So I go up, and I make
my way around the room, and I meet each one in turn. And each one is
absolutely lovely. Ringo is Ringo, and then
somebody pulls them away. And then I meet George, and
he's very not a lot to say. And then someone sort
of pulls him away. And then I meet Paul, the
opposite of not a lot to say. And every word delicious
and every word wonderful. And he's saying, oh,
I love your music! You and Gerry. And he starts rattling
off all the songs we wrote that were an influence. And he was sweet. And then somebody
pulls them away, because that's how it goes. And now, I only
have John to meet. I go over to where John is. He's standing with two women,
neither of whom was Cynthia. And he looks high-- he looks like he's
totally stoned, whacked out of his mind. I go over to him and introduce-- Hi, John, I'm Carole King. I'm really glad to meet you. And honestly, I cannot
remember what he said, but he was so rude. It was like a smack. I was like, I'm
getting out of here. I left. And all those
months, or years, I had wondered, what
was up with that? So here I am in the house
with a very happy John. He tells us how happy he
is. he's so comfortable being a house husband. [LAUGHTER] And he's really happy. So there's this big
elephant in the room that nobody sees but me. So I broached the subject. John, do you remember meeting
me at the Warwick Hotel? And he goes, remind me. So I'm thinking, he must not-- he's met how many people? And I said, well, you
were very rude to me, and I was just wondering-- I just curious-- why? What was going on? And he says, do you
really want to know? So I'm thinking,
he does remember. He says, you and Gerry were
such great songwriters. I was intimidated [LAUGHTER] [APPLAUSE] So-- oh, don't worry about it! It's all right, it's all right! Then we go on to talk
about other things. He says, let's
hear from your man. And my man starts talking
to John about these-- he's a total survivalist. He wants to take us away from
society, where I make my income and where my
children live, and he wants to just do whatever
you can imagine when they retreat from the world. And I'm horrified hearing
this, because it's the first I've heard about this. And I'm getting like
chills listening to this. And John listens to
this and he says-- his comment after Rick
finished laying it all out-- well, I couldn't do that. He says, I'd have
me bag of rice, but what about everyone else? [LAUGHTER] That's our John. That's the John wrote "Imagine." And I was just wrapped
in this blanket. I don't remember what was
said after that-- just wrapped in this blanket of
warm, caring, wonderful person that John Lennon proved to be. And as we know in "Give Me Some
Truth" or "Run for Your Life," that wasn't the John. But we know the John
and who he really was. I'm so grateful that
I had that evening. MIKE BARNICLE: We have some
questions from the audience. CAROLE KING: All right! [APPLAUSE] MIKE BARNICLE: You wrote
many songs that others sang, but not until late '60s
and early '70s when Laura Nyro, Joni Mitchell,
and Carole King came along, women didn't get recording
contracts to sing and record their own music. We take it for granted now. Do you think about that, and
what do you think about that? CAROLE KING: I think
there is some truth to it. But I'd have to say that women-- songwriters didn't get to
record their own music, but there was always
the beautiful person in the front of the band,
the lovely woman who sang the songs. But this was a different
thing, this was ownership. So you're right, whoever wrote
that, you're absolutely right. It was an era where we
who created the songs were given the opportunity
to record them. MIKE BARNICLE:
Here's a question, if you choose to answer it,
which I'm sure you will-- I also have an answer to it-- why are there no anti-war
songs and protests now as in the '60s? CAROLE KING: I touched on
that a little bit earlier. I think there are. I don't remember the song, but
I remember a few years ago, Pink wrote a wonderful--
what's it called? A wonderful protest song-- AUDIENCE: "Dear President." CAROLE KING: "Dear President." So they're out there. But what is missing
and what is different is everything is so narrow cast. Everybody listens to their
little niche for the most part. I know y'all make playlists
from different genres. But there isn't
that central culture that we had in those days,
and that's what's different. They're still being
written, just not heard. MIKE BARNICLE: Well,
don't you, think, also, and don't you think
out there, also, that when you consider
the fact that we have been at war for over
a decade with less than 1% of us fighting that war,
that you can go days, weeks, and months putting gas in your
car, getting a cup of coffee, doing your grocery shopping,
going to mass or church, or whatever you do, going
to parents teachers nights, and never encounter a
single family with someone serving in the military. There is something deeply,
deeply wrong with that. [APPLAUSE] And thus, no songs. Not enough songs. CAROLE KING: Not enough songs. But also, Mike, no draft. MIKE BARNICLE: Right. CAROLE KING: That's a big thing. MIKE BARNICLE: The
Vietnam War ended when there was an
orange Volvo station wagon from Wellesley,
Massachusetts, that "Another mother for
peace" on the bumper sticker in 1968, when that casualty
count started coming up. And that's when that war
started winding down. Here's another one--
what was it that lured you to Idaho after so much
success, beyond any boyfriend? How did that affect your
songwriting, moving to Idaho? CAROLE KING: Well,
the boyfriend wasn't the reason I moved to Idaho. The boyfriend was
the vehicle I chose to sort of help me get out. I could have gotten
it myself, of course. But did I know that? No. I really always loved nature. Growing up, my dad
was a firefighter, but he and a bunch
of firefighters they bought they bought a top
of a mountain for like $500 and built a summer place
where the wives and the kids could kind of get away. And I spent a lot
of summers there, and I learned to
love the environment. And up here in New England-- oh, I love New England so much. So that's where I got my-- [APPLAUSE] Right on. And I got my love for
the environment there. So I was already going. I already wanted to go. And I've been living
there now for longer than I've lived anyplace else. I moved there in 1977. And what nourishes me is the
space, the sense of closeness to things we don't have
a lot of control over, like how the river flows, and
what the weather's going to be. Everybody has some of
that, but in the cities the government helps us deal
with what some of those things. There, you're kind
of on your own. Or neighbors. MIKE BARNICLE: I just
thought of another person I'd like to ask you about
before we end up with one more question from the audience. Tell me what you can
about Van Morrison. CAROLE KING: Very little
actually, because I met him-- MIKE BARNICLE: Make it up. [LAUGHTER] CAROLE KING: No. That's what you do. [APPLAUSE AND LAUGHTER] Can I tell you? I love New England, and
I love Mike Barnicle. That's why I have
to bust his chops. No, I actually was busting his
chops about writing a book. He's got to write a book, right? But he will. He will. MIKE BARNICLE: I can't
even finish reading one. [LAUGHTER] CAROLE KING: So Van
Morrison, very little that I can say is that
I performed with him-- that's the only time I remember
meeting him, was on stage as a fellow guest with
Bob Dylan in Dublin. And he's not very talkative. MIKE BARNICLE: No. CAROLE KING: But man, does
he put it all in his songs. What a great songwriter-- great songwriter. MIKE BARNICLE: And
the last question of the evening from the
audience, basically, who do you listen to? CAROLE KING: Well, let's see. I listen to Maroon 5. I listen to Adele. I listen to a lot of the old
stuff, because it's still good. But there are great
songwriters still out there. They really are great
songwriters and great singers. But again, they're
harder to find, because there's so much noise! There's so much noise. And it's not just in music. There's noise, sensory
overload everywhere we go. Marketing-- this room is
great, there's not marketing. There's just us, and the exit
signs-- and there is marketing. [LAUGHTER] I wasn't just looking at it. But you know what I mean? You go to the airport, and
you put your shoes in the bin, and it says Zappos. And then you can't
see your wallet, which you leave in there because
it's hidden by the Zappos logo. So there's a lot of noise. MIKE BARNICLE: I lied. I have one last
question for you, and it is off of that answer. You grew up in Brooklyn,
and you took the subway. And you write all
these great songs, and you write even more
when you move to California. Do you think, when you
listen to rap music-- if you do listen to rap music-- that obviously it sounds
different to the ear than a lot of the music
we've been used to hearing. But in its own way, is it not
a reflection of the environment that the rappers
are all a part of, the same way that Cole
Porter, what he wrote about, reflected the environment
that he was a part of? CAROLE KING: Absolutely. MIKE BARNICLE: That
perhaps some of the songs that you wrote, maybe all
of the songs that you wrote, were a reflection
of the environment that you were a part of. CAROLE KING: Absolutely. And that's one of
the things, when I talked about how I like to set
things in historical context. I remember when rap was
just starting to emerge. I want to say, was
it in the '80s. MIKE BARNICLE: Yeah. CAROLE KING: I mean there
was the other crazy, big hair and metal going on. And it did emerge out of
African-American communities. And I remember seeing in New
York, the guy on the street corner with the boombox, and
just standing there and just kind of being innocuous
and just dancing. And then suddenly, I
noticed that it was taking on this anger and the attitude. And today that's the
attitude that sells. Yeah, I'm tough,
I can do anything. And I can't rap, but I'm
trying to convey the attitude. Well, like do a
little bit, but-- I'm tough, and I'm pissed off. And they're talking--
and as teenagers will do, as anybody will
do when they want to reject the
establishment culture, they make up words for things. I have no idea what
they're talking about. And they want it that way. And I say they-- this isn't
an African-American thing, it's the people who
write that music. Which, at this point,
is like everybody. Kids in rural Idaho are, yo! And they wear the pants down,
and it's like, wait a minute, you don't know what
you're talking about. OK? But it has permeated
the culture. And I don't think
it's a bad thing I don't think it's a bad
thing, because it was a genuine outlet for people
that were angry and really did have a right to be pissed off. And so that I admire
that, I respect it. I could never do it,
but I don't diss it. [APPLAUSE] MIKE BARNICLE: I
think we're all glad that you got on that
subway all those years ago and open up those yellow pages. And thank you for coming. Thank you. CAROLE KING: Thank you. I could go on all night. You're the best. This was so much fun. Thank you. Thank you. [APPLAUSE] So much fun. Thank you so much! [MUSIC PLAYING]
