Book review: Carole King, A Natural Woman

CAROLE King  delivers a breezy memoir. She admits the volume is no historical treatise: it's her recollections, with the story occasionally using the social and political upheaval that framed those times.

CAROLE King built her reputation as one of the great American songwriters of the 1960s Brill Building era.

Alongside her husband Gerry Goffin, King's tunes were recorded by everyone from Little Eva (Locomotion) to Aretha Franklin (You Make Me Feel Like A Natural Woman).

By the early 1970s, King was a superstar in her own right. The multi-platinum Tapestry album sealed her place as the most successful female singer-songwriter of that era.

Here King delivers a breezy memoir. She admits the volume is no historical treatise: it's her recollections, with the story occasionally using the social and political upheaval that framed those times as a narrative trigger.

Early in life King became besotted with the piano, radio and television.

Living in Brooklyn in the late 1940s, King paints an all-too-brief account of her childhood. Married at 17, her often troubled relationships with men underscore much of her story.

The book comes alive when King discusses rock 'n' roll, New York City or her place in the scheme of it all as a jobbing songwriter.

Talent and a little luck were on her side as she morphs from a teenager besotted with the top 40 to a full-blown hit-maker.

Underneath all of the commercial success, King lets you inside her private world, her family and her role as an advocate for wilderness preservation.

Music nuts would have enjoyed more titbits on her song-writing craft, but that's a minor quibble.

A Natural Woman
Carole King
Virago, $39.99