Song of the Day 6/1: The City w/ Carole King, “Snow Queen”

Guest post by Nathan Arizona

After the pop hits Carole King wrote at the Brill Building that made stars of other people, and before the singer-songwriter fare on “Tapestry” that made her a star in her own right, King recorded an album that most people have never heard of. But many who have rank it among her best work.

King had moved from New York to L.A. in 1968 after her split from husband Gerry Goffin, her co-writer on Brill Building hits “Up on the Roof,” “The Loco-Motion” and many others. She was looking for a change and Laurel Canyon with its folk-flavored hippie-rock scene felt like just the ticket.

She and two other refugees from New York started a band they named The City that fit right in. They released a moody album called “What Are We Waiting For?” that included a song later featured in “Easy Rider,” a movie few people would associate with Carole King.

Most of the songs had already been written by Goffin and King and were developed in the studio. King co-wrote other songs with lyricists Toni Stern, also a Brill Building vet, and David Palmer, who would later sing lead on Steely Dan’s “Dirty Work” and share vocals with Donald Fagan on the band’s “Reelin’ in the Years.”

You could already hear some of the softer singer-songwriter style King would develop, but the record was very much in tune with the times. It kicks off with a dreamy evocation of hippie woo-woo called “Snow Queen.” “High on her snow-covered mountain/From her throne she looks down at the clowns/Who think youth can be found in a fountain/High on the wings of her rhythms.”

The Byrds put The City’s “Wasn’t Born to Follow” on their 1968 album “The Notorious Byrd Brothers” and it was on the “Easy Rider” soundtrack the following year. The wind-in-my hair Goffin-King country-rock hymn to freedom practically defined the movie’s theme. Blood, Sweat and Tears scored with The City’s “Hi-De-Ho” in 1970.

But album itself went nowhere, which surprised the band. “We expected it to zip right to the top of the charts within, at most, two weeks,” King said. “Individually and together, we optimistically imagined the album’s success as if it had already happened.”

It failed partly because of record label fumbles and partly because King, a creature of the studio, was reluctant to tour. Then “Tapestry” came along and The City became a trivia answer, but one with a devoted coterie of fans.

The City’s album kicked off with a song for its time, “Snow Queen.” The bass player (and King’s future husband) was Charles Larkey (on the left). He had been in the Myddle Class,” a band Goffin and King signed to a small label they started. The guitarist is Danny Kortchmar. He had been part of Flying Machine, which included a young James Taylor. Kortchner became a go-to session guitarist who played on “Tapestry.” Both were also former members of the Fugs.

Here’s The City’s “Wasn’t Born to Follow.”

The Byrds speeded up “Wasn’t Born to Follow” a little and put an “I” at the beginning of the title. This is how it sounded in “Easy Rider.”