A Natural Woman: The Ode Collection 1968-1976 [Box set, Original recording reissued, Original recording remastered]

Carole King | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (February 24, 1998)
• Original Release Date: 1994
• Number of Discs: 2
• Format: Box set, Original recording reissued, Original recording remastered
• Note on Boxed Sets: During shipping, discs in boxed sets occasionally become dislodged without damage. Please examine and play these discs. If you are not completely satisfied, we'll refund or replace your purchase.
• Label: Sony
• ASIN: B0000062FC
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #44,273 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com essential recording

It's astonishing how quickly Carole King slipped into relative obscurity. Tapestry has sold in excess of 22 million copies and was the biggest selling album of all time until Frampton Comes Alive surpassed it in 1977, yet while the latter remains at the very least an archetypal cultural kitsch, Tapestry has become a troublesome trivial question: "What's the bestselling album by a woman?" Part of the problem is that the singer-songwriter era she (and James Taylor and Carly Simon) came to represent hasn't aroused a whole lot of critical favor. Still, the restrained soul of King's best stuff (for instance, Tapestry, which is included here in its entirety) has it's own appeal, as do a few of the preblockbuster inclusions. --Steve Stolder

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

36 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A great box set...the complete Tapestry album and much more!, February 16, 1999

By 

Joseph Townsend "the rake" (Hattiesburg, Ms. USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: A Natural Woman: The Ode Collection 1968-1976 (Audio CD)

A few years back I started to notice how many great songs from the 60's and 70's were composed by Carole King. I owned Tapestry years ago, and this box set gives you this complete album that had the longest run in Billboard's listings prior to Dark Side of the Moon. I love her solo versions of "Up on the Roof", "Hi-De-Ho", "Only Love is Real", and "Back to Canaan", "You've Got a Friend" (with James Taylor) etc...A very affordable two CD box set. This is the way box sets were meant to be...give us the very best album that the artist ever produced complete and enough of the other good stuff with liner notes, album dates, pictures, etc. Carole King is one of America's treasures from this era.

20 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Thank Goodness there is something Wrong With Me!, December 6, 2001

By 

austin_Larry (Austin, TX USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: A Natural Woman: The Ode Collection 1968-1976 (Audio CD)

I love these 2 CDs. Not only is this a magical collection but it embodies everything wonderful about the potential of pop music to be uplifting, delightful, and meaningful.

The first CD has the full orginial Tapestry (minus the additional tracks on a recent re-relase) embeded in it around some very enjoyable extra tracks such as child of mine. Carole is a true poet. Yes the tracks are sentimental but they are also pure, honest, joyful, soulful, and sad. Unless you have gone completly over to the 'dark side' how could you not love that? And I truly feel sorry for people that confuse sentiment with shmultz. The lyrics are gorgeous without ever being over sentimental, just as the best of Rogers and Hammerstein's lyrics are. In fact, this collection shows why Carole is one of the premire songwriters of the 20th century.

Sure her voice is not perfect, but it is never annoying and I find it quite enjoyable to listen to. No way is she Bob Dylan, she has a fine, complex, enjoyable voice just not one of the best. Big deal, The Music as a whole, is still wondeful.

The second CD is every bit as enjoyable as the first CD. I was bouncing around my room with the first track, Sweet Seasons. Which I really needed to do as I was in the middle of writing a term paper. Corazin is funky. There are 2 live versions on the second CD, both with quite good audio. One is from a mid 1970s free concert in Central Park called 'Believe in Humanity'. It sums up Carole perfectly, 'maybe I am wrong but I want to believe in humanity'. Perhaps that is why the previous reviewer gave these CDs one star. If you have given up on humanity then don't buy these CDs. The joy and beauty of them will probably just annoy you. For the rest of you, buy them and prepare to enjoy some of the most honest and rewarding music recorded in the last 30 plus years. Go jazzman, go Carole!

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent remastered retrospective of her best work, August 3, 2001

By 

Hindburn (Church Stretton, Shropshire, England) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Natural Woman: The Ode Collection 1968-1976 (Audio CD)

Carole King already had a long track record of writing hits in the 1960s, but when she began to make albums in her own right in the early 1970s she came to be acknowledged as one of the most influential figures among the singer-songwriters of the time. Between 1969 and 1976, when she was with the Ode Records label, she recorded a series of memorable albums with regular collaborators such as James Taylor, Charles Larkey and producer Lou Adler. This collection covers that period, with selections from eight albums, as well as a number of interesting previously unreleased tracks.

Given its significance in pop music history, as one of the biggest selling singer-songwriter albums and a classic of the genre, it is probably only right that all of 'Tapestry' is included. However, it's unfortunate that as a result some excellent later albums of Carole's, notably 'Music' and 'Fantasy' are rather passed over. Perhaps 'Tapestry' was a little too successful, in that whilst it continued selling by the truck load the subsequent releases were in danger of being overlooked.

The songs and production are straightforward and down-to-earth, without pretensions. Perhaps these is why the original albums, particularly 'Tapestry', were so successful - the songs were from the heart and about real emotions, and reflected a time when in some respects life seemed simpler and one could be more optimistic about the future. Certainly for my part, Carole's music of the early 70s evokes many precious memories and I still very much enjoy listening to it.

With only a little over an hour's worth of music on each CD in this set, it would have been technically possible for several additional songs to have been included, thus giving a better representation from all of the original albums. When so much effort has obviously been put into the presentation of this package, it's a pity that the opportunity of providing an even more comprehensive collection has been missed.

This small gripe apart, however, this is a very good retrospective, accompanied by a detailed illustrated book, and would be an asset to any collection.