Full Circle Magic

Last June I went to a concert -- it was a combo late birthday & anniversary gift.  It was an amazing night and I hardly know where to start!

So maybe I'll just start at the beginning.
With photos from last June.

In 1970 James Taylor and Carole King played The Troubador in Los Angeles.  And I was there.

Carole King was the opening act, and James Taylor's pianist.

She played a set, singing new songs from Tapestry

 (which had not been released yet), and Motown hits like

Up on The Roof and Natural Woman.  

 James Taylor played a set, which included songs from the

Apple album -- Something in the Way She Moves --

 and his second album, Sweet Baby James.  

 

Together they sang You've Got a Friend.   JT has said little did he know that when he sang that song at The Troubador, he would be singing it every concert for the next 40 years.

Good thing it's such a wonderful song!  

 When it came time for the encore, James looked up at the balcony, said, "Hey Joni, you want to join us for this?"  And Joni Mitchell came down to add harmonies on You Can Close Your Eyes.

I went with my sister and her boyfriend and between the two of us we have a pretty perfect recollection of the night.  We sat at a table front row center.  We bought our required 2 drinks/sodas each and we were in heaven.

Nancy and I have never had a best-friends relationship and it's been strained in recent years, so it was really nice to talk to her about this and remember a time when we were hanging out together.  She has a lovely voice and I am lucky if I sing on key.  But sometime during her freshman year at UCLA, we sang You've Got A Friend together in harmony and we sounded good!   

  Jump ahead to 2007.  The Troubador is celebrating 50 years and James Taylor and Carole King get together to play there again.   Apparently they liked it so much, they set up the Carole King & James Taylor Troubador Reunion tour for 2010.  I got tickets to see them in Boston.  My sister got tickets to see them at The Hollywood Bowl.  She took my brother, who was s'posed to go in '70 but missed it due to flu.  I took my husband, who I didn't know in 1970.

The concert I saw at the The Troubador was the beginning.  It is a very small club.  Carole King was known in song-writing circles, but not as a singer.  It was one of her first gigs.  She wasn't flamboyant, but boy what a voice!  James Taylor had only recorded two albums. He was amazing and I already loved all his songs.

 

40 years later they are icons and luckily the concert I saw at the Boston Garden is not the end.  She still has an amazing voice, and is much less shy on stage!  He has recorded 25 albums.  They are still two of my favorite performers.  I knew all the songs.  It felt wonderful to be there, and whole and like a part of me I haven't accessed in a very long time was singing in my head -- on key.