2005年NPR美国国家公共电台七月-Carole King Invites Fans into the 'Living

Welcome to my living room.
It's not a womb, it's not a tomb,
not a June bright over December gloom.

Carole King is about to embark 1 on a Living Room tour. Miss King intends to try to make large concert venues 2 like Radio City Music Hall, Cape 3 Cod's Melody Tent,the Colosseum - Caesar's Palace, and the Santa Barbara Bowl, all seem like small in term of spaces, to sing the songs that have made her and so many others famous. At times it seems Carole King has written and/or recorded every other popular song since the early 1960s. "Will you still love me tomorrow?", "So far away","It's too late baby","Locomotion","You make me feel like a natural woman"....

I'm gonna play some songs for you.
There are so many I like to do.
If I don't get to them all,
I hope you'll forgive me.
'Cause I'm 62,
and there are so many I'd like to do, old and new,
But I'll try to do all I can,
in the time they give me.
Let's set aside all the fussing and fighting,
and make this night about song writing,
sing and play some favorite tunes 4.

Carole King joins us now from our studios at NPR West set(name of the place. Thanks so much for being with us.

Well it's my pleasure and I should note that I'm actually now 63, that was last year.

I bet you're getting even bigger hand, when you left that one out.

Well I had actually come up with a new rhyme because that says "I'm 62, and there are so many old and new", so you all have to come to the concert to hear what the new rhyme is.

Oh, my Gosh. Clever, cleverly tipped forward. But thank, thanks very much for being with us. Where, where does this idea come from? That's what you want to do?

Eh, I had been doing actually for many years concerts for various causes whether political or my environmental work, and I would perform in people's living rooms. People would be generous enough to donate their homes and collect friends to come over and give some money. And I liked it. I enjoyed the feeling of just telling stories and, you know, playing the songs, just really simply suggesting what a band would play without actually having to have a band there. And I enjoy doing that and people seem to enjoy that so much, I thought, "Um! Let's see if this translates."

So far away
Doesn't anybody stay in one place any more
It would be so fine to see your face at my door
It doesn't help to know you are just time away
Long ago, I reach for you and there you stood
Holding you again could only do me good
How I would wish I could
But you are so far away

Do I have this right you are from Queens?

No, I'm originally, I was born in Manhattan, I lived in Queens briefly 5, but I grew up in Brooklyn. And I've lived in Idaho for 28 years, which, I think, almost makes me a native. So, round, round, get round, I get round.
I get, I get, cause you know you are identified obviously with Neil Sedaka（音乐经纪人） and with people in the Brill Building(曼哈顿的歌曲创作学校）that whole period.

Right, my formative years were spent in New York, and song writing and growing up. And actually I'm working on a book, an autobiography 6, and I'm right in the middle of Sting's autobiography, which is wonderful, I'm really enjoying it. But all these years I've been very private and I'm gonna let loose some of that and share some of my life experiences, my musical experiences with people and you know, we can look for that in a couple of years. But right now I'm doing the Living Room Tour, and we have an album coming out. I say an album, because a CD is still an album , a collection.

Yeah, well, of cause I want to ask about that, in fact let's listen to it a bit. We have a cute album.

Stayed in bed all morning just to pass the time
There's something wrong here
There can be no denying
One of us is changing
Or maybe we've just stopped trying
But it's too late baby, now it's too late
Though we really did try to make it
Something inside has died and I can't hide
And I just can't fake it

Now what a great song and people hear this and "my gosh, the anecdotes 8 start tumbling now". I mean, I mean we heard the audience'sreaction. Do you ever feel as if, I mean have you ever said, "excuse me, I just don't want to sing 'It's too late, baby one more time. I could have burst if I do.

Sometimes I do feel like that about different songs but, really, when I get to do it, that feeling goes away instantly, because each audience is new and different, and people just seem to get so much pleasure out of it, and that gives this song new life every single time.

Do you have a favorite song that you think has been overlooked? Relatively 9 overlooked?

Actually on the new CD one of the songs from The Color of Your Dreams album was a song called "Wishful thinking", and I don't know, it is sort of putout in that album, and I went back to it for the live concert, and people love it, and I love singing it. It's got this very Diana Krall kind of a feeling to it and I would love it if she record it, because you know when I write songs I normally hear me singing and I might often hear someone else. She is always who I heard.
I think, I think we can, I think we cue this up, let's listen to it a little bit.
Awesome 10.

I reach for you
But I can't touch you
I feel you just beyond a star
Do you know how much you are all I ever wanted
Is it too much too soon
Am I foolishly dreaming
Just baying at the moon
Playing....

I have a lot of admiration 11 for Diana Krall, I'm just wondering when you hear her voice, when you wrote the song or when you sing it?

Eh, because she is so, eh I don't know, there is something so evocative when she sings, and I realize you know I feel like I did my own interpretation 12 of it and I'm happy with it, but she is someone I'd love to hear sing that, and I often feel that way about songs. It all just goes around and for me the more interpretations 13 by great singers the better, cause first,last,and always, I am a song writer, and that is what I bring to people when I do this Living Room Concerts like "OK, here is how this song got written and I share that with people, and I will tell some anecdote 7 on stage, and sometimes it's when I didn't remember and it comes out brand new and "Oh I didn't know I was gonna say that" you know. And it's truly like a collection of friends in the room.

Well, Miss King, it's been awfully 14 good to talk to you, thank you very much.

Thank you, I appreciate you having me and I look forward to seeing folks and, you know, in the concert and the audience.

Carole King's new CD is called the Living Room Tour and she is on tour now. To find out if she's bringing cultures and throw billows to your town, you can go to our website: npr.org. You are listening to the Weekend Edition from NPR, I'm Scott Simon.

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