CAROLE KING: REALLY ROSIE (1975)
1) Really Rosie; 2) One Was
Johnny; 3) Alligators All Around; 4) Pierre; 5) Screaming And Yelling; 6) The
Ballad Of Chicken Soup; 7) Chicken Soup With Rice; 8) Avenue P; 9) My Simple
Humble Neighborhood; 10) The Awful Truth; 11) Such Sufferin'; 12) Really Rosie
(reprise).
Not having had the honor of growing up as a kid
(or growing kids as a parent) in mid-Sixties America, I have missed the
opportunity to become closely acquainted with the work of Maurice Sendak —
however, as far as I can see, at least the verse
part of his picture books (The Nutshell
Library series) was fairly faithfully adapted by Carole King, and the
lyrics are pretty cool: at the expense of being perhaps a bit too complicated
for the average toddler, they have «family entertainment» value in that they
may engage both kids and adults, and, of course, they have that «unsettling»,
«dark» angle that is so much all the rage today, as long as a particular author
of children's literature wants to get a pat on the back from sophisticated critics
and readers.
But truth be told, there's really no denying
the talent of the writer, and it's twice as awesome that a melody writer as
talented as Carole King agreed to put some of those lyrics to music. It may
have been quite natural, too, seeing as how she had kids of her own who
probably were growing up on that
stuff (in fact, daughters Louise and Sherry are here in person, providing
backup vocals throughout), and, as a progressive mother who is not afraid of a
little bit of scary imagery, she herself is totally getting into the spirit of
the thing. More importantly, it provides her with a great opportunity to get
away from the too overtly mellow, wishy-washy structure of her emotional
balladry and concentrate almost exclusively on those pop hooks that had pretty
much died out after Tapestry
(although Wrap Around Joy wasn't too
bad in that respect).
The proper way to do this, actually, is (a)
keep the tunes as snappy and upbeat as possible and (b) keep the arrangements
to a minimum — most of the time, it's just a piano-bass-drums trio, with husband
Charles Larkey and Andy Newmark keeping up the beat. In a few cases, there's
also some guitar, usually in the appropriate contexts — for instance, ʽThe
Awful Truthʼ, where the protagonist discusses her chances at "playing Mrs.
Dracula", is accompanied by some histrionic distorted electric soloing;
and, curiously, Carole herself is credited as the only guitar player on the
album, so it's somewhat hilarious to think that her first experience playing
distorted electric guitar may have taken place on an album for kiddies.
Anyway, if your toddler likes the books, he or
she would probably be happy to recite the alphabet in the ʽAlligators All
Aroundʼ order, empathizing with the I-don't-caring Pierre and the lion who had
to eat him in order to cure him from an annoying attitude, crying at the
terrible fate of Chicken Soup (Carole gets into this one with a particularly
theatrical flavor, with probably her wildest bit of screaming ever captured on
record), or learning the differences between the twelve months of the year, all
of which have only one thing in common — ʽChicken Soup With Riceʼ. And if you
are the parent of that toddler, you might (brushes
sentimental tear off face) be happy yourself to provide him or her with
that entertainment. Besides, if you just stick to the books, you'll never be
able to recite them as effectively as Carole, so, you know, better leave it to
the professionals.
No, honestly, it's not one of those rare records
that «masquerades» as a children-oriented piece of entertainment, while at the
same time containing hidden depth — Really
Rosie is purely shallow
fun-oriented stuff. But it is infested with Carole King charisma from top to
bottom, and when the charisma is combined with a clever mix of cuddliness,
sentimentality, humor, and macabre spookiness... well, the overall result is
far more enjoyable on a gut level, even for an adult, than quite a few «dead
serious» albums in my memory. So, thumbs up: my only complaint is that it will now
take at least a couple of weeks for my brain to clear out that "chicken
soup, chicken soup, chicken soup with RIIIICE!" bit. Particularly painful,
that one, given how much I hate the very idea of chicken soup with rice. (For a
change, try humming "chicken soup with mice"
or "chicken soup with lice"
instead — I assure you that it won't spoil the spirit of the book or of the
musical one little bit).
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