King proves she still rules the stage
NIAGARA FALLS, Ont. — Carole King’s concert on Sunday in Niagara Fallsview Casino was a reminder of why she is one of the great songwriters and performers of her generation.
King, even at 66, displayed a powerful voice that, with her familiar rasp, tore into songs that spanned her years as a premier pop songsmith with former husband Gerry Goffin, and a later phase that placed her alongside Joni Mitchell and Laura Nyro as the most significant female singer-songwriters of the era.
On piano, King still pours everything into her songs about love, loss and possibility. Nine of the songs she performed were from “Tapestry,” the 1971 mega-album that was the top-selling album in history until Michael Jackson’s “Thriller.” She began with “Beautiful,” and included “So Far Away,” “(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman” and “It’s Too Late.”
King saved possibly her best-loved song and crowd favorite, “You’ve Got a Friend,” for the encore. It was followed by the only dramatically reworked song of the evening, “The Loco-Motion,” which King dedicated to the late Little Eva Boyd, her former baby sitter, who recorded the number one hit in 1962.
That was one year after King and Goffin had their first chart-topper, “Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow,” first recorded by the Shirelles, and nine years before it appeared on “Tapestry.” King squeezed every anguished, uncertain note from the song.
Some in the audience were unaware before King’s introductions that she and Goffin cowrote numerous pop hits from their days working in the famed Brill Building in New York. These included “Up on the Roof,” first recorded by the Drifters, and a surprise selection, “Pleasant Valley Sunday,” by the Monkees. King certainly had no trouble reclaiming the songs for her own.
King was backed by two guitar players and her daughter, the musician Louise Goffin, who performed a couple of songs of her own, including the witty ragtime number, “Pink Champagne.”
King calls her tour “In My Living Room,” and the warmth and intimacy she was able to bring to a casino concert hall was testament to the bond she’s maintained all these years with her audience.
Her fans, she showed them, still have a friend.
Concert Review
Carole King
Sunday night in Avalon Theatre of Niagara Fallsview Casino Resort, Niagara Falls, Ont.
