so much of what's good about tapestry is that it's an album populated only by people. people as feelings, jobs, homes, ideas. all powerful & sometimes all-consuming. the piano line that runs through "so far away" seems to tell a story--it comes close then is pulled back to the beginning. a loop of almost getting what you want. it's a little ache-y but we get used to it. that's life.
this is a breakup song but it's not awful like "yesterday"--it doesn't think time is an answer or feel bad for itself. the way we move in & out of each other's lives, we're all a little responsible for what doesn't work. there's this line "doesn't help to know you're just time away"--something about how distance is really just the time we won't or can't give.
it's another song that starts with the chorus. sometimes it seems like a chorus is the lie we tell ourselves--the narrative we create; the verses & bridge hold what's true, discreetly hidden somewhere less intoxicating. the drums kick in & we finally get a little more insight with the softly aggressive--"one more song about moving along the highway / can't say much of anything that's new." coming off of "i feel the earth move" we are a bit skeptical of the mature detachment present in the rest of the song--the ho-hum melody & beautiful resignation to the vocals. we don't trust this woman to be somebody who just lets things go. the frustration of being away from a lover is funneled through the dissatisfaction with not being able to create an original song--of the reason for distance (to be a perennially road-weary musician?) not having any kind of reward. or at least that's my two-cents. i'm still a little shaken up from the earthquake 2 min ago.
what does it mean that the roads might come to own you? you're addicted to the chase? you can't stop for what's good? letting yourself follow the ebb & flow of life too long will run you down? aren't the roads already in control--the only paths we have to one another whether they're the few feet between us or long enough to get tangled in. i like that this song doesn't have to be about romance, in its open-ended & deftly melancholic form. so many of our relationships seem to have this same capacity to slow us in their absence.
it used to be the case that absence made the heart grow fonder but now absence seems kind of impossible. & anyway, none of us have enough experience with it to know how to use it for good. i wonder if we burn through relationships a lot quicker in the present, letting resentments fester in our infinite connectedness. or maybe this fixes as many problems as it would have caused. if only i could stick carole king in the hot seat. she seems to have so many answers.
be prepared for the flute solo at the end of this track--a woodwind hug to make up for the loss of your lover and offer comfort as you float back off onto the lonely roads ahead.
p.s. i'm not done talking about this song. i simply must mention the weird choir of caroles that happens around "traveling around sure gets me down & lonely." a representation of the delirium of being whisked from one place to another? & to be lonely, too, stuck in the company of yourself. i'm not sure fully what i think of this addition but it does momentarily remove you from the flow of the song. a weird mixing choice but there's no going back.
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