A Natural Woman: A Memoir

Even leaving out her entertainment career, Carole King has led a fascinating, full life. In her personable and engaging new book she references the many current events, societal shifts and pervasive memes that have had an effect on her, so besides being the memoir of someone at the heart of the music business, A Natural Woman is an absorbing cultural history of the last 60-some years. I couldn’t put it down.

Carole King has a lot to recount about her long love of music. She began making up songs when she was three and had her first public performance on the Horn and Hardart Children’s Hour television show at eight. As a young adolescent, her ability to compose and sing helped her begin to make the move from nerdy toward cool. Barely show more out of high school, she and her young husband got jobs writing popular, highly acclaimed songs, many of which are still covered, including Loco-motion and the at the time risqué Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow. By the early 1970s her album Tapestry added multiple Grammy winning recording star to her list of accomplishments, and she’s still creating and performing today.

But Carole King’s career in music is only part of what makes her wide ranging story so interesting. She married and had her first children while not much more than a child herself, just before the free-love era of the later 1960s, and there were three other marriages, two more children, and several long term relationships, all of which she writes about in a reasonably candid manner. One husband became a drug addict, another was physically abusive, and she explores the reasons why she stayed with them as long as she did, and offers advice to women in similar situations. Carole grew up in the New York City area, moved with her children to the hip Laurel Canyon section of Los Angeles when her first marriage ended, where she jammed with other famous and soon-to-be-famous musicians, and then lived a rugged, off-the-grid, back-to-the-land life in Idaho where she fought a multi-year legal battle to retain property rights to a road through her homestead. Because she had children while she was still young, all her musical and peripatetic adventures had to not compromise what she thought would be best for her offspring, though she admits to making mistakes. Carole’s life and her capacities for engagement and reinvention are remarkable enough to make for captivating reading, but she’s ordinary and everywoman enough to make it feel like she’s one of us. show less

I really enjoyed this. Carole writes easy prose, with an appealing sense of humour (Jewish). Her life is a combination of undoubted songwriting talent, a little luck with planets, places and people aligning, and more than enough troubles, doubts, and wrong directions to make it accessible. For people like me who have enjoyed the music of Carole and her companions for most of our lives, this is a joyous reconnection that fleshes out the person behind the notes.

This is a fascinating memoir letting me into times and places and ways of being different from anything in my own experience. The writing style and pace made this easy to read.

A Natural Woman, a memoir by Carole King, noted singer/songwriter/musician, was a “must-read” for me as her iconic album, Tapestry, was one that I almost wore the grooves out of in the early 1970’s. This prolific songwriter chronicles her life from her upbringing in Brooklyn during the 1950’s, right up to today. She has been a mainstay of pop music and has worked with the likes of James Taylor, Bob Dylan, Brian Wilson and rubbed shoulders with pretty much anyone who has been part of the music scene. Artists such as The Beatles, The Byrds, The Monkees and Rod Stewart have recorded her songs. Throughout all of her ups and downs, romances, divorces, dropping in and dropping out, she never comes across as anything but a nice Jewish show more girl.

She and her first husband, Gerry Goffin were the songwriters behind many of the 1960 hits such as Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow, Loco-motion, and of course, she is the author of Aretha Franklin’s hit, Natural Woman. She has dabbled in television, movies and plays as an actor, but is best known for her music. Her song, “Where You Lead” was chosen as the theme for the popular television show The Gilmore Girls and she and her daughter were the ones to do the singing on that track as well.

The book felt much like I was reading a letter from a good friend who was catching me up with what was going on in her life. She went through 4 divorces, was abused by one of her husbands, yet remained upbeat and positive, she always saw herself as a wife and mother first, but thankfully the music was also important to her as well. The book is interesting and descriptive, but she is very careful not to spread any dirt or gossip so this is certainly not a tell-all. Natural Woman, like Carole King herself, is a cheerful, optimistic read with a strong emphasis on the music. show less

I got this book for free when I attended PLA 2012 in Philadelphia.

LOVED this book! I don't know if Ms. King had a ghostwriter or not, but I felt it was incredibly well written. (I'm a stickler for good grammar and spelling, etc.)

I knew Carole King had written many of the songs we hear every day, but a) I didn't realize HOW many it was, and b) I guess I hadn't realized she didn't write the lyrics to all her songs.... I also didn't realize she'd been married four times--wowza!

I am impressed, not only with all she's been through and has kept an upbeat attitude throughout, but also with what a good mother she is!

I heard Carole King give an interview on NPR and was reminded of how much I have enjoyed her music over the decades. She doesn't get the recognition of Lennon-McCartney or Dylan, but really, her songs, written with collaborators like her first husband Gerry Goffin or alone, stand up with the work of those artists. Similarly, this book seems to me as fine a musical memoir as Keith Richards' book. King is fearlessly honest about her life and her relationships, and like Richards, she is also willing to share some of her expertise about writing and producing music. Reading her book has inspired me to listen more to her music and given me a new framework for doing so.

Excellent memoir. Life in the music biz in the 60's and 70's from growing up Jewish in NYC, meeting songwriting partner and later, husband, Gerry Goffin, writing hits for the Shirelles and the Drifters, raising kids while the husband drifts off to acidland and moves to LA, eventually following, and writing for the Monkees and the Byrds, to huge singer-songwriter success in the 70's, and beyond. Through the whole trip, it's impossible not to like her. And the writing is quality. Highly recommended.