Singles 45's and Under: Carole King - "Jazzman"

Carole King’s Tapestry was one of those albums that got a lot of airplay in our home during the early 70’s. It was one of those records that I wasn’t allowed to monkey around with like some others that I have documented on these pages.

To make up for this, my parents bought me a copy of the single “It’s Too Late,” which I’d play (the flip was “I Feel The Earth Move”) incessantly. Sometimes, I’d bring the copy of Tapestry up to my room- adhering to the request to not take the record out of the sleeve-and just stare at the cover art.

It was strange that my parents even had the record. They had addressed the problem of my destructive hands by switching to the 8-Track format, placing the player and tape cartridges up beyond my reach. I think back at all of the awesome albums they had on 8-Track and feel bad that they were presented on such a shitty format.

I’d play “It’s Too Late” and look at the cover of Tapestry, studying the shot of a barefoot Carole sitting by the window with her cat. She looked so exotic to me, a result of my Wonder bread community where Jewish may as well be Chinese. So to me, Carole King looked like some unattainable young woman from the city who had no qualms telling an old boyfriend “Something inside has died, and I can’t hide it, I just can’t fake it.”

I began to develop a crush on Carole King.

She also did Really Rosie around the same time, which secured another bond-but I was ready for the proper follow-up to Tapestry, not some greasy kid stuff.

Then, she came out with “Jazzman.”

I bought the copy you see in the picture, mainly because that was all I could afford on my measly allowance, and wished I had a bigger picture of Carole to gaze upon. I was taken by her eyes-a vibrant set of blue-but wished I could see more of her features below the neck. There was absolutely nothing sexual about my infatuation-I was much too young to grasp that kind of desire-but instead it centered around an ideal of what I thought a “cool” woman should be like.

It’s something that I still fight with today as my collection of Kate Bush and Cat Power records will attest to. Remember the scene in High Fidelity where they talk about dating an artist, longing for the day that their blurry image can be seen In the back cover shot. That’s me with Kate, Chan, and at one point, Carole King.

I told the story of my crush to one other person, and was immediately met with a look of “Are you serious? Carole King?!” Beauty does indeed lie in the eyes, and I’ll admit that my taste in women has changed since my pre-pubescent years.

My parents bought me a portable cassette player that same year-another entry in their long line of obsolete music machines. The first cassette? A copy of Carole King’s Wrap Around Joy, the album that “Jazzman” is featured on.

The cassette player would later eat the recorded music, but the bigger complaint was how the cover art to that tape was even smaller than the sleeve to my single.

No worries: another Jewish girl from New York would soon take Carole’s place and it is almost as embarrassing. This time it was my Mom’s copy of a Bette Midler album, featuring the buxom redhead with cleavage revealed-and it came at a time when things like that mattered more than the casual cool pose that Carole offered a few years prior.