Tapestry-Legacy Edition (2-CD)

Carole King | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (April 22, 2008)
• Number of Discs: 2
• Label: Sony Legacy
• ASIN: B000VXLC3K
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (28 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,701 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. I Feel The Earth Move

2. So Far Away

3. It's Too Late

4. Home Again

5. Beautiful

6. Way Over Yonder

7. You've Got A Friend

8. Where You Lead

9. Will You Love Me Tomorrow?

10. Smackwater Jack

11. Tapestry

12. (You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman

Editorial Reviews

The striking cover photo says plenty about Carole King's wildly successful 1971 album Tapestry. Carole, barefoot in a bulky sweater and old jeans, was the obvious poster girl for a striking new singer/songwriter movement about to take the world by storm. A proven thoroughbred pop-song maven with a long track record of winners, King and songwriting partner Gerry Goffin had penned over 100 chart hits for the likes of the Shirelles, Drifters, Monkees, and Bobby Vee.

But belting out her own dazzling material from behind the piano, King charted new ground with Tapestry. A runaway-train success, its songs were heard everywhere in the 70's on a string of newly-minted FM radio stations featuring adult-oriented rock to a remastered version of this revered work, the Legacy edition adds a second disc with a thrilling live performance of Tapestry in its entirety.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

105 of 106 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Why, oh why can't the record companies do it right?, April 25, 2008

By 

DVD buff (Austin, TX USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Tapestry-Legacy Edition (2-CD) (Audio CD)

I'll admit -- I'm one of those people who feel that TAPESTRY is one of the greatest albums of all time. So my review of this new 2-CD edition is colored by that view.

TAPESTRY is one of only a handful of albums ever released that contains only total winners (in terms of songs). Many artists produce great albums, but there are always a couple of songs that I don't like as much as the others. Not so with TAPESTRY. Every song on the album deserves five stars.

This 2-CD set contains the complete original album, along with a second disc of previously-unreleased live recordings of (most of) the songs from the album. These live versions were chosen because they strip the songs down to their pure essence -- Carole at the keyboard and on vocals, with nothing else. This is a fantastic thing to have paired with the original album. Sound quality is excellent, performances are inspired and passionate.

The set loses a star, though, because it's just not as good as it COULD have been. TAPESTRY has already been issued in a remastered, expanded edition. (This version appears to be the same mastering as the previous one.) However, the first expanded edition included two bonus tracks (one a previously-unreleased studio track, the other a live recording), and neither of those bonus tracks were included in this new edition. So if you want to have a "complete" TAPESTRY, you have to own both versions of the album. To me, this smacks of record company greed -- let's see how many times we can get these suckers to buy the same album. Sony has done this same thing recently with Michael Jackson's THRILLER. And Elvis Costello fans know all about this sort of thing...

If you're a Carole King fan, you will definitely want this set. If you don't care about live versions of the songs, you can stick with the single-disc remastered version from a few years back. But if, like me, you're a die-hard aficionado, you'll have to have both. It's only shelf space!

43 of 43 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Tapestry Live --Disk #2 Justifies Owning Yet Another Copy of Classic, April 26, 2008

By 

Robert F. Dicorcia "rfd24" (North Carolina, NC) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Tapestry-Legacy Edition (2-CD) (Audio CD)

When I first read that Sony was releasing yet another version of my all-time favorite album, "Tapestry," I moaned and groaned. I knew I would HAVE TO buy it yet again. Afterall, I've purchased the album (at least 3 times), the cassette, the 8 track, the MasterSound album, the 1987 CD, the gold-bit CD, and the 1999 remaster CD-- 9 copies of the basically the same album.

With this new 2008 "Legacy Edition," a 2nd disk containing all of the songs performed live in 1973 and 1976 was the latest "hook" to rack up more sales. I snuck out of work to purchase it -- my heart racing-- as if I were headed to purchase a brand new CD, rather than something that I've listened to so many times, it's become part of my very core. Packaging was indeed befitting a "deluxe" reissue, but, the most surprising thing I would discover is just how great most of the live tracks are: Ms. King's voice is at its strongest and some of these versions, most notably, "Way Over Yonder," are not only better than any prior version, but, they take on all-new power. While the recorded version of this song was always my least favorite (if such a thing could really ever be said) of the 12 tracks on the original, it's as if you are listening to a freshly written song hearing this latest impassioned liveversion. The same can be said of the versions of "You've Got a Friend" and "Will You Love Me Tomorrow?" -- Carole's singing and piano playing is perfect.

Perhaps the secret lies in the fact that Hank Cicalo, the master engineer of the original studio version of the album, was chosen by Lou Adler to record these live versions.

I don't know why Lou Adler opted not to release these live tracks earlier --inferior live versions of some of these songs appeared on her Carnegie Hall live CD (1996), but, these versions are ther real thing.

So until the next version of this classic album is release --perhaps in 2021 -- it's 50 th anniversary -- these live tracks will keep me satisfied.

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars STILL A CLASSIC AFTER ALL THESE YEARS, April 28, 2008

By 

NYC Music Lover (New York, NY United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Tapestry-Legacy Edition (2-CD) (Audio CD)

Unlike the other two reviewers who have posted here so far, I do not own the 1999 remaster of "Tapestry", so I have no problems with this incarnation. I do own the "Natural Woman" 2-cd set, which contains the entire album, and the sound on this edition is far superior. There's a lot more depth and clarity. But the main reason for my buying this was to hear the second CD of live versions. It's really amazing to hear these songs accompanied by Carole's piano only. It makes you realize that when you have songs this strong melodically and lyrically, you don't need a lot of frills added. I have one minor complaint--they list four concerts that the songs were taken from, but they don't specify which songs are from which concerts. I was in attendance at the 1973 Central Park concert, so I'd be interested to know what songs were included from that classic show. But that's a minor quibble. This is a wonderful edition of a landmark moment in pop music, and at such a reasonable price, it's well worth the investment. Carole's soulful and heartfelt singing is always welcome to these ears. Hey Sony, how about releasing newly remastered versions of Carole's other albums? : )