"River wind is icy," the album's opening words set the tone for the homage to heartbreak Carole King leads us through on her 1989 Capitol release City Streets. Although more subtle, City Streets is just as much of a concept album as is her 1973 Ode release, Fantasy. In her opening chorus, "City Streets, the stories that they tell. City Streets, they can be heaven, they can be hell," Carole sets the stage for the chronicles to follow in a collection of songs that mostly rock.
Winter colored morning /Gray and dirty brown
Reflecting the mood I'm in / Despair is all around.
You're my obsession, / I just can't get you out of my mind.
I look around and I see all the signs / They say danger
I close my eyes but your image is indelibly burned there.
Now as I walk alone cold in the morning after / Thoughts of you in someone else arm
In someone else's bed / Explode inside my head
In the wee hours of the morning I still believed the dream was real.
And sometimes in silent desperation, you realize, it's never gonna be the way it was..
I ache in a place so deep, I can't hide even in my sleep. Slow torture.
The telephone just sitting there brings your number to my mind.
Another piece of yesterday that I should be leaving behind
It has been six years since her last recording, Speeding Time. It's a new era in music. CD's are replacing vinyl records, the packaging is smaller, music is going digital and Carole has found herself a new record label.
City Streets is top notch! Carole's voice has never been better, the band is tight, (with Eric Clapton adding guitar on two tracks) and almost all of the ten songs, given the promotion they deserve, could be hit singles. Four songs solely written by Carole, two reunite her with Gerry Goffin.
Tides of life are ebbing out between the cobblestones. The streets are on fire. City Streets (Carole King)
The opening and title track places the listener right there with a lost Carole against a vibrant New York City back-. Through Eric Clapton's guitar and Michael Brecker's tenor saxophone, we hear the colors of the lonely and the loved.
Just let yourself go, get your body out of bed, you don't have to do it all alone.Sweet Life (Carole King, Rudy Guess)
The second track is a CK upbeat song about finding your power to fight the elements. There are some fun vocals. There is one vocal towards the end of the song where Carole sings the word, sweet," similarly to the way she sang the word "move" on the end of Touch The Sky's second track, Move Lightly. (The previous sentence was for the die hard CK aficionados.)
Even as the tongues of fire lick at me from below, No turning back, I just can't let go of the danger. Down To The Darkness (Carole King)
There are some songs that just hit me as the perfect Carole King song. This is one of them. There is something in Carole's voice as she sings, I know your gonna take down to the darkness. There is a certain aliveness that few other artists achieve. A perfect match of word and tone happens every time she sings danger.
You used to walk with me on the street of dreams, I remember you telling me, you said nothing is what it seems.Lovelight (Carole King)
Again, Carole juxtaposes an upbeat melody with lyrics that burn and yearn and morn for a love that is no longer. Great vocals! From the first time I heard this song, I have longed to hear Carole change the ending. In my ending, I replace the fade out with the instruments suddenly coming to s stop, leaving Carole's vocals continuing acapella, also coming to a sudden stop after a few repeats. |
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A candle's burning in my window and it's burning just for you. I Can't Stop Thinking About You (Carole King, Paul Hipp)
From the opening piano notes it is clear that if there were a list of great overlooked Carole King songs, this one would be high on that list. Desire, disappointment, great sax, some of the finest CK "ooohs" and a Van Morrison like ending with Carole and Paul Hipp singing a vocal tag which leads Carole to whisper an almost inaudible, "beautiful,' at song's finish. And, beautiful it is.
It isn't easy when you think your voice doesn't matter to anyone. Maybe you believe there's nothing you can do. But if you just do nothing you've made a choice. Legacy (Carole King, Rudy Guess)
This is the piano rocker of the album. Carole can get the message out and have fun at the same time. She continues her theme from earlier songs such as Eventually, Peace In The Valley, Believe In Humanity, One To One, Time Gone By and the liner note on Music, "18, Use the power and vote!"
And through our tribulations we reach out for each other and if we're lucky, someone cares enough to say. Ain't That The Way (Carole King)
Eric Clapton joins Carole King to make one great 'anthem" song. Here is another place where Carole's vocals reach perfection as she sings the words Ain't that the way," to Eric Clapton's calling guitar. This song should find its way into a movie.
That old street of dreams has got my head spinning.Midnight Flyer (Carole King, Gerry Goffin)
Midnight Flyer is a departure from the previously mentioned streets that traverse this collection of songs. Here is the resilience, the bounce back with a buoyant melody that throws in a hint of country to this city set song. You can practically hear the chorus going through Carole's head on the album cover as you see her strut through the New York City streets. Fun harmonica!
The icy roofs below me now shelter all the souls within. But, oh, what's gonna shelter me from the thought of what could have been.Homeless Heart (Carole King, John Bettis)
The opening lyric of this song has a Tapestry feel to them, "The lantern moon hung high and gold in the cold November sky. The locusts sang a midnight song and the starlight wind was a sigh." Homeless Heart is the pivotal climax of the album bringing the longing and desire to it's rawest emotion as Carole sings, If you walked in on me right now, I'd love you so hard, you'd wonder how you let me go. Why did you let me go? The song softens as it ends with Sherry Goffin Kondor's featured vocal bringing out the innocent and less complicated expression of desire.
And when your heart and soul are hurting just look and you'll see me there.Someone Who Believes In You (Carole King, Gerry Goffin) The album comes to a close with a simple Goffin/King song about what they write best ...love.
This leads me to the question, why didn't this album go beyond its City Streets single?
Maybe it was timing? City Streets was released by Capitol Records on the same day as it released its debut Bonnie Raitt album, Nick of Time. While Nick of Time was not an overnight hit and actually had a very slow build until it swept the Grammys, maybe Capitol felt that it could only promote one and not the other. Who knows?
City Streets shows Carole King has the talent to make an album of quality songs, and sing them to perfection.
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