Carole King

The Sky Arts TV channel leaves some things to be desired but can also provide some great things when it tries.
On Saturday night I thought I could watch two programmes at once, switching between BBC2's Artsnight shows on Lear and the Booker Prize Winner, Marlon James, and Sky for Carole King's performance of Tapestry recorded in the summer in Hyde Park. However, once I'd shifted from Anthony Sher, Timothy West et al discussing their various Lears, I stayed with Carole almost uninterrupted.
Not all of these retro shows are a good idea and for many they look suspiciously like one last big pay day, and it also could be said that Hyde Park in front of 65000 paying guests is not the optimum setting for the intimate songs of Tapestry. But I was convinced, impressed and even a bit moved by Carole King in such good form.
It is an album of classics and few others could have a song like So Far Away so far away from being a stand-out track. I dread to think what the audience, of a certain age, paid for the privilege of standing in nearly the same postcode as Carole and I wouldn't have wanted to be one of them but it was a sublime performance to the readily-pleased who had only gone to worship and adore but apparently knew all the words. And you'll find that you do, too, if you try.
You Tube doesn't have the proper footage yet but there's a few bootleg recordings, some marred more by nearby people singing along than others. I spent Sunday morning with the album again, in place of the usual choice of concertos, choral music or something baroque.
I know we all tend to regard our own period as better than any other but, 1971, come on. Just the singer-songwriters- Joni Mitchell, Neil Young, James Taylor, Cat Stevens and I think Bob Dylan was around then, too.