 Carole King This album has been on my CD-reissue wish list for about as long as CDs have existed, so you can imagine my great excitement when Legacy reissued it, of course, in a brilliant-box with "restored artwork" and "digitally remastered sound from the original master tapes." It looks great and sounds great, but moreover, it just is great, start to finish. If it's a children's album, it's easily the hippest one ever (besides Raffi's harrowing unreleased masterpiece Peace Music, produced by Moby and featuring musical collaborations with Al Green and a young Don Cheadle – oops, there goes another so-called "joke"). I would actually go so far as to say it's a better album than Tapestry, though that judgment may well be colored by pleasant childhood memories of watching the cartoon movie that featured the songs. King made the album as a soundtrack to an animated TV movie featuring Maurice Sendak's artwork (he's the "Where the Wild Things Are" guy). Perhaps there is something very special about Sendak's illustrations that inspires good music, because "Where the Wild Things Are" was actually turned into a classical work by Oliver Knussen a few years back. Perhaps I should undertake "Higglety Pigglety Pop" as a ballet, what do you think? Rosie chronicles the title character, an ebullient street kid who would be considered deluded if she weren't ten, and her colorful group of friends. The framework of the kids hanging out on the front stoop of the Avenue P apartment building provides opportunity for several Sendak stories to be interwoven into one, um, tapestry. The movie itself is wonderful, but the soundtrack album stands on its own extremely well. You don't have to have seen it to appreciate the wit and charm of the album, which features some of King's most memorable melodies and most disarming performance. Part of her greatness as a performer is that she is primarily a great songwriter, and her less polished approached to her songs allows her performances to achieve an honesty that, say, Celine Dion never gets to. (Except in her harrowing unreleased masterpiece Killing the Devil Inside, produced by Leonard Cohen and … oh, never mind.) Sonically, the album doesn't stray from the simple arrangements of Tapestry, primarily featuring King on piano and vocals, accompanied by only bass and drums (and occasional background vocals from her and Gerry Goffin's two daughters). The songs, setting Sendak's words to King's music, are priceless, featuring what I consider to be King's all-time best song, "Chicken Soup With Rice," as well as other favorites like "Pierre," "Alligators All Around," "One Was Johnny," "My Simple Humble Neighborhood," and "Avenue P." There are really no missteps, although a couple of the later songs ("The Awful Truth" and "Such Sufferin'") will test the patience of many listeners depending on their cynicism and/or affinity for rhymes like "Dracula/spectacula" and "sufferin'/Bufferin." For my part, I appreciate Sendak's absurdism, which remains warm and meaningful, not like that prick Dr. Seuss. Oh, calm down, I was just kidding, all you "Green Eggs & Ham" freaks. But my god, at least Sendak uses real words. Anyway, this album is a pure delight and one of my favorites even beyond the nostalgia factor. For years I searched for any available copy of the album, finding one at a public library at one point and finally locating a cassette version in a record store. It's nice to see this neglected album come back into print, so that the next generation can experience the warmth and catchy music. Come to think about it, my memories of the cartoon movie are of being corralled into the gym of my elementary school (actually, they called it the "MPR" or "Multi-Purpose Room" – I use the same phrase to explain my S&M dungeon in the basement of my supposedly upscale suburban home) and having to watch the movie every year, along with a "Pippi Longstocking" movie. I hated the damn Pippi Longstocking movie but I always looked very forward to "Really Rosie," mainly for the songs. But what is interesting now is that both of these movies deal with strong female role models – I am surprised to see in retrospect that Wescott Elementary was, intentionally or not, kind of progressive. But then there was the janitor who got busted for cocaine possession and the hall monitor who got fired for calling a kid "an asshole." *Sigh* Sometimes the progressive path leads only to a nasty downfall, I suppose.
Review by Ian Pampon |