卡洛爾·金：音樂才女依然寶刀未老
滋味人生
Carole King是美國最成功的“創作歌手”之一，她的作品再現了上世紀60年代早期的風範。在1971年發布的專輯《織錦畫》（Tapestry）位居曆史上最暢銷的專輯行列中。她與第一任丈夫Gerry Goffin共贏得了4個格萊美獎，並入選歌曲名人堂（Songwriters Hall of Fame）和搖滾名人堂（Rock and Roll Hall of Fame）。她擁有女歌手音樂專輯和流行榜No.1上榜時間最長的紀錄。時至今日，70歲高齡的Carole King不但沒有被喜愛音樂的人們遺忘，而且更是音樂才女的不朽代表。
Interviewer： She’s had 100 hit singles and written songs for The Beatles， Aretha Franklin， Kylie Minogue and Adele. Carole King is quite simply the most successful and 1）prolific female songwriter of all time. In fact， over the last 50 years， her music has been recorded by 1000 singers. For those too young or too 2）befuddled to recall the 1960s and early 70s， the songs of Carole King provide a perfect 3）snapshot of the time. It was an age when love and optimism reigned supreme and the Earth moved in quite wonderful ways.
I’ve never have said this at the beginning of an interview， but your achievements are so 4）prodigious I really don’t know where to start.
Carol： （Laughs）
Interviewer： Let me name some songs： “Will You Love Me Tomorrow？”， “5）Locomotion”， “One Fine Day”， “Pleasant Valley Sunday”， “You’ve Got a Friend”， “I Feel the Earth Move”， and that’s just the tip， just the tip of the Carole King iceberg.
Carol： Well， I’ve lived， I’m now…this year I turned 70， and in all that time I’ve been writing songs for a very long time， and the lucky thing for me is that people like them， but that’s why there’s so many of them.
Interviewer： Carole King’s amazing musical “Dream run”began way back in 1960， when， at only 17 years of age， she wrote “Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow？”， recorded by The Shirelles， the first black girl band to top the American charts. It was co-written with her first husband Gerry Goffin. “Will You Still Love Me…” was the first of an astonishing 100 number ones for Carol King， a 6）feat that’s unlikely ever to be beat.
Carol： When a person is creative， you must write， you must have some of that. When you’re writing and the words just flow out of your pen or your computer or whatever， that’s what happens. When I’m truly present， I get out of the way and all this stuff comes through.
Interviewer： And that is the question， isn’t it？ If we knew where it came from， we would know how to do it and there would be no great mystery to writing a great song.
Carol： But even if I…I am someone who knows how to do it and is lucky enough…
Interviewer： You know how to build it.
Carol： …to have it come through， and I can still feel that sense of “Oh my god， this is so beautiful”， it’s coming through me and I’m watching it at the same time， and I’m so moved that I can’t sing it. This happens sometimes when I’m performing. “You’ve Got a Friend” is one of the…the songs.
Interviewer： Well， there’s never a dry eye in the house.
Carol： Never a dry eye in the house， and including my own—but I have to， you know， think about something else so that I can stay focused on being the channel for it to get to the people instead of being one of the people affected by it.
Interviewer： In the 1960s， Carole King was part of the “great American hit-making machine”. Song after song written by King and Guffin became signature pieces for the decade’s biggest names； from Herman’s Hermits to Dusty Springfield， and even The Monkees. She was writing the soundtrack for the lives of a whole generation. When we think of Aretha Franklin， we think of “Natural Woman”.