On to part VII of my mini-series celebrating the 50th anniversary of Carole King’s iconic Tapestry album that’s coming up in just a few days on February 10. So far, the previous parts have highlighted all six tunes of the record’s A-side, I Feel the Earth Move, So Far Away, It’s Too Late, Home Again, Beautiful and Way Over Yonder, as well as the first track on side B, You’ve Got a Friend. Next up: Where You Lead.
Where You Lead is a nice mid-tempo soft rocker. Carole composed the music; her collaborator Toni Stern provided the lyrics, the second such tune on Tapestry. According to Songfacts, While it is a love song rather than an inspirational song, the lyrics are inspired by the Biblical Book of Ruth.
Songfacts also notes Carole subsequently decided to drop the tune from her set list, feeling uncomfortable singing about following a man around. “After I recorded it for the ‘Tapestry’ album, we women decided that we didn’t actually need to follow our men anymore,” King said in a 2004 interview.
In the early 2000s, Where You Lead became the theme song to the U.S. TV series Gilmore Girls, for which Carole re-recorded the tune with adapted lyrics, sharing vocals with her daughter Louise Goffin, who also is a singer-songwriter with 10 published solo albums to date.
Sources: Wikipedia; Songfacts; YouTube
I never knew that about the book of Ruth (also my wife’s name).
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