Mudcat is a folk and blues site, a special niche in a larger world of music. When I was very young I was exposed to mostly classical music and then folk as my father took up the guitar and started learning songs. In my early teens the old family FM radio from the kitchen was replaced with a newer model so got the old one in my room. I turned the dial to a rock 'n roll station and my musical world expanded. Rock and popular music was the soundscape from my teen and college years and beyond.

When I started this I was thinking the same thing that fat B****rd and Janie said - for those of us who grew up with Carole King on the radio, the songs these two wrote weren't just catchy or entertaining, they spoke to us and for us. Singer songwriters like King, James Taylor, Carly Simon, and many others have been topics of discussion here at Mudcat. There's room in our lives for many forms of music - and that's an excellent thing.

As a child and teen I remember my dad as a musical snob, though he may have mellowed in later years when I no longer lived nearby. Elvis, the Beatles, Bob Dylan, they didn't play in the house when dad was home, they were listened to in private. But when Carole King came along, her LPs were played in the house or tuned in on the radio without reference to parental preference. I think they offered a way of telling the parents who we were. Not a scientific observation, or one that is explained any more beyond this statement, but through hindsight it feels accurate.

SRS