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Welcome to My Living Room
I've been most fortunate to catch Carole King twice in concert in radically different venues. The first time was in the early 70s, when I was still a kid, and I got to see her perform in the anteroom of some rococo palace in Frankfurt, Germany, before a small crowd (probably no more than 150 or so) of mostly American military personnel. Decades later, during one of her early 90s "comebacks" (though she's never really been gone), I saw her in a giant arena surrounded by literally thousands of King fanatics. The fascinating thing is the intimacy of both concerts was virtually identical. King has that indefinable magical quality that allows her to connect seemingly individually with everyone in her audience, a talent that is abundantly on display on this wonderful record of her 2005 Living Room Tour.
This concert could well be a primer for rock acts who feel they need massive amplification, light shows and other distractions to make their musical shortcomings somehow less obvious. Playing a lot of the concert solo at her piano, and then being joined by a whopping two other musicians, King simply lights up the room with her sunniness and sincerity, two things that shine through her music effortlessly.
The concert has its share of the expected hits (a lot of "Tapestry" is well represented, as is her collaboration with her ex-husband in a really great Goffin/King medley), but also ventures out into some newer material, as well as songs by her on-stage co-horts, notably Gary Burr, who brings the house down with his anecdote of having a song rejected by Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood only to have it become a hit for "those two well known country singers, Ricky Martin and Christina Aguilera."
Somewhere in the late 70s, after her phenomenal success as a Brill Building songwriter and later as a solo artist herself, Carole King became strangely and incomprehensibly passe to a lot of people. She never had the self-confessional lyrical brilliance and faux-jazz, ultracool hipster persona (by way of folkie roots) of Joni Mitchell, nor the Tin Pan Alley cum drug-addled dark allure of Laura Nyro, but her impact may well exceed those two contemporaries put together. This amazingly heartfelt concert is a testament to what fine songwriting and exceptional performance skills can do with a minimum of stagecraft and artificiality.
The DVD
Video:
A nice enhanced 1.78:1 image makes the proceedings fun to watch.
Sound:
Both a standard stereo and Dolby 5.1 option are offered, and they are both splendid. Care has been taken to properly separate the sound depending on camera placement, and Carole's smoky alto is always front and center in the mix.
Extras:
Some fun, though short, featurettes dot the landscape here: how the Living Room Tour came to be, some rehearsal footage of Carole with her "band" (such as it is on this tour), and, perhaps most enjoyably, a very funny segment called "Songwriting 101," where Carole and her co-horts write a song on the spot during the concert.
Final Thoughts:
Carole, in the title song of this DVD, sings that she's 63, but, in that well-worn cliche, like fine wine, she's not getting older, she's getting better. I've had a crush on her since I was 12 or so, and may I just say to her (since I'm sure she'll be reading this review), Carole, you're still a babe and you knock my socks off every time you play and sing. This DVD is a wonderful present to King fans young and old.
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"G-d made stars galore" & "Hey, what kind of a crappy fortune is this?" ZMK, modern prophet
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