There are all other songwriters, and then there isCarole King.
With her 1971 solo classicTapestry, she set the standards that all young singer-songwriters still aspire to reach.
Shes always gone her own way as a performer, a composer, an environmental activist.
Jim McCrary/Redferns
King was still a teenager when she started writing hits, with her lyricist and husband Gerry Goffin.
But Its Too Late was King on her own, after the marriage fell apart.
It was a tough-minded divorce song, co-written with Toni Stern, a Number One hit in 1971.
But that was just the beginning for Carole King.
But she got pulled into it.
She brought down the house.
Its Too Late was incredibly blunt and unsentimental about divorce, by 1971 standards.
Toni Stern wrote the lyric to Its Too Lateshe handed it to me, King says.
The music just came out of me.
Stayed in bed all morning just to pass the time/Theres something wrong here, there can be no denying.
King has always lived up to that independent spirit, but not just in her music.
She has spent yearsadvocatingfor the Northern Rockies Ecosystem Protection Act.
The toughness you hear in her voice carries over into everything she does.
In 2004,Rolling Stonelaunched its 500 Greatest Songs of All Time list.
Its one of the most popular, influential, and argued-over features the magazine has ever done.
Its our celebration of the greatest songs ever made and a breakdown of what makes them so great.
