You will be glad to know, however, that even in 1962 those were controversial, protest-engendering lyrics. The song tanked—one of the few outright duds in King’s catalogue. But anyway, I came here to praise Carole King! I love Carole King! Like everyone my age, and maybe everyone period, I grew up listening to all the great songs from Tapestry on the radio and when I got older and started fancying myself a music nerd, I was startled to learn that before she was a singer-songwriter and iconic album-cover presence, King had been a Brill Building songwriter (a misnomer; she and Goffin worked out of a different Broadway building) knocking out hits for people such as Aretha Franklin, the Monkees, the Byrds, the Everly Brothers, the Shirelles, Little Eva. And if it is possible for someone as successful, honored, and beloved as King to be under-rated, I think that’s true. You rarely see her on the short-list of the greatest 60s-generation songwriters, where she should be, with John Lennon and Paul McCartney, Bob Dylan, Stevie Wonder, Joni Mitchell, Paul Simon, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, and Brian Wilson. Is that sexism, or a rockist snub of a career that began, when King was still a teenager, just down the block from Tin Pan Alley?

So when I begin, I usually improvise a melody and sing words—and often those words are just clichés. If it is an old songwriting cliché, most of the time I throw it away, but sometimes I keep it, because they’re nice to have. They’re familiar. They’re like a breather for the listener. You can stop wondering or thinking for a little while and just float along with the music.