From: "Dik de Heer" Date: Mon Feb 10, 2003 8:38 pm Subject: Born To Be With You : Gerry Goffin GERRY GOFFIN (By Colin Kilgour) Born 11 February 1939, Queens, New York City Gerry Goffin began writing lyrics as a boy in Queens, New York. For the earlier part of his songwriting career it is obligatory to bracket Gerry together with Carole King. Goffin met and married composer Carole King in 1958, while attending Queens College. Also there, were fellow budding songwriters Paul Simon and Neil Sedaka. The two teenagers (G/K) began working on songs and would soon be among the most important and influential songwriters of the era. For their part, both were greatly influenced by the work of Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, the songwriting team responsible for some of the Coasters, Ben E. King, and Elvis Presley's early hits and this write-up will give a certain focus to Carole as well. In the ten years G/K were together, they wrote an amazing string of hit songs, four of which reached number one: "Will You Love Me Tomorrow", "Take Good Care of My Baby", "Go Away Little Girl *" and "The Loco-Motion" performed by their babysitter Little Eva (Boyd). * I'd forgotten that Steve Lawrence ('Pretty Blue Eyes' / 'Footsteps') had had a US #1 ....... The first in fact of Invasion Year 1963 ....... if only they knew what was comin'! Re 'Take Good Care ......' producer Snuffy Garrett insisted on a brief introductory verse and overcame his aversion to his artists doing songs which had been recorded by someone else, in this case by Dion - although it remained unreleased (howler!!). The arrival of The Beatles in the U.S. in 1964 led to a trend toward singers writing their own songs, one that King took advantage of into the 1970s. This young married couple, starting out as professionals still just about in their teens, shared an instinct for classic pop song construction but it was Carole's lifelong desire for a career in music that convinced Gerry to give it a try. High school friend Neil Sedaka got them an audition with Don Kirshner and the rest was history. The couple were soon working under the tutelage of music publishers Kirshner and Al Nevins in Broadway's legendary Brill Building, the era's equivalent of Tin Pan Alley. The company's cubicle-like set-up was the unlikely origin of some of the greatest songs of the time: Brill songwriters included Doc Pomus, Mort Shuman, Jeff Barry, Ellie Greenwich, Cynthia Weil, Barry Mann, Neil Sedaka, Howard Greenfield, Neil Diamond, Bobby Darin, Tommy Boyce, Bobby Hart, and many others best recognised as the names in brackets under countless hit songs. Goffin/King hit pay dirt in January 1961, with "Will You Love Me Tomorrow," performed by the Shirelles, which went to # 1 in America and # 3 in England. With its morning-after theme, the song subtly addressed a real-life sexual issue during a very straight-laced time, setting the tone for many future Goffin/King compositions. Over the next six years, the couple wrote literally dozens of hit singles. Goffin also produced while Carole did session arrangements. A list of their classics would fill several pages but some of the most important include "(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman" (Aretha Franklin), "Chains" (The Cookies and The Beatles), "Keep Your Hands Off My Baby" (Little Eva and done the Beatles at The Beeb), "One Fine Day" (Chiffons), "Up On The Roof" (Drifters), "Halfway To Paradise" (Billy Fury), "He Hit Me (And It Felt Like A Kiss)" (the controversial Crystals song recently covered by Hole), "Every Breath I Take" (Gene Pitney, featuring a monumental Phil Spector production), "Don't Bring Me Down" (Animals), "Pleasant Valley Sunday" (Monkees), "I'm Into Something Good" (Hermans Hermits), "Going Back" (Dusty Springfield, The Byrds), and many, many others. Their songs were always impeccably structured. Their music was for teens and dealt with themes of love, rejection and jealously and teenagers dealing with them on their own terms. Carole's heart tugging melodies and Gerry's lyrics captured the tone and the vernacular of their audience's inner experiences with uncanny accuracy. Carole had a gift for arrangement, knowing how to build a song to the hook through subtle chord manipulation and instrumental counterpoint. To help sell her songs, she began low cost demos to demonstrate her ideas to the producers. These demos were so good the producer didn't have to add much to them to have his hit record. Don Kirshner, head of Aldon Music, rewarded King with the release of "It Might as Well Rain Until September" as the artist instead of it being given to Bobby Vee as planned. Kirshner decided that Goffin & King were capable of running a record label and set up Dimension Records as a vehicle for G/K's multi-activities. So the pair moved deeper into production and arranging as well and kept abreast of stylistic changes on the vibrant Sixties scene, writing with vividness and versatility for British Invasion groups and R&B artists alike. For over a year Dimension had a more consistent track record than any of its competition, including Spector's Philles Records but it was sold in mid-63 as part of Kirshner's deal with Screen Gems and continued for another few years. Goffin & King were assigned to bolster the careers of Screen Gems mediocre rooster while taking care of Kirshner's clients. By 1964 they had come up with another twenty-odd hits but their best work was behind them and the British Invasion had begun. However Goffin & King were heroes to these English groups, The Beatles included. On their first U.S. tour, meeting them was a priority and The Mop Tops were not the only British band that felt that way. By 1965 their talents were becoming less important as groups like the Beatles and the Beach Boys set the tone for other upcoming artists who wrote their own material. That said, Byrds' fans surely wouldn't wish to contemplate their songbook devoid of 'Going Back'. Kirshner responding to the changing times with a renewed faith in simpler music, now targeted the new generation too young to be smoking pot and protesting on campus. The Monkees were an instant sensation and Goffin/King provided "Pleasant Valley Sunday." The pair worked with legendary producer Phil Spector, with whom they co-wrote "Just Once In My Life" and "Hung On You" for the Righteous Brothers, among many other collaborations. By 1967 the marriage was crumbling due to creative disenchantment, internal pressures and the times. They were divorced with King moving to California where she started a group called The City and came into her own as a performer on Lou Adler's Ode label. Though they since had written together, when King found her solo niche, the Goffin & King team ended. Goffin continued to write for and with others, while King evolved into a masterful interpreter of her own increasingly mature songs. She became one of the most popular singer/songwriters of the Seventies with the release of Tapestry, which contained such mellow classics as "It's Too Late" and "You've Got a Friend." A tour de force of confessional songwriting and understated performances, Tapestry held down the top spot on the album charts for 15 weeks, earning King a Grammy for Album of the Year in 1971. She followed it with a dozen more high-charting albums that kept her star in the ascendant during a charmed decade whose moods she helped capture in words and music. In 1975, she reunited with Goffin to write the "Thoroughbred" album (which also featured contributions from James Taylor, David Crosby, and Graham Nash). 1980's "Pearls" features her versions of some of Goffin/King's best-known songs, including "One Fine Day" and "Hey Girl". Louise and Sherry, Goffin and King's daughters, have both released solo albums. In 1987, Goffin and King were inducted into the Songwriters Hall Of Fame, and the following year, received the National Academy of Songwriters Lifetime Achievement award. In 1990, they were inducted (along with fellow Queens College alums Simon & Garfunkel and others) as a songwriting team into the Rock N' Roll Hall Of Fame. Goffin belatedly turned to performing with the release of the album It Ain't Exactly Entertainment in 1973 but more often, he continued to work as a lyricist. In 1976, he and Michael Masser earned an Academy Award nomination for "Theme From Mahogany (Do You Know Where You're Going To?)," a number one hit for Diana Ross. In 1985 with Masser, GG wrote Whitney Houston's first chart-topping hit, "Saving All My Love for You". Gerry released a second album, Back Room Blood in 1996 which <<< gives evidence of a welcome rejuvenation. Goffin has returned with an album of his own material that roils with the kind of astringent emotionalism ordinarily reserved for brash and brutal youth. The opening track sums up Goffin's comeback. Set to a implacably ragged Stonesian riff, "Never Too Late to Rock and Roll" cuts straight to the heart of things: "Some people may die of too much sex/Some people may die of a voodoo hex/Some people may die 'cause they're too damn fat/But I'm gonna live much longer than that". Goffin spits out the defiant verse with so much conviction that you wonder where the man's stashed that fountain-of-youth elixir. On track after track, Goffin proves he's got staying power. Although Back Room Blood bristles with the passion of a gonna-be 21-year-old, its maturity could only come from an individual who's been around a while. Listeners of any age would have to concede that Back Room Blood packs a sonic wallop, which is quite an nifty feat considering Goffin surrounds himself with old-and-in-the-way types like Bob Dylan, who co-wrote a pair of tunes. In graphic contrast to Goffin's classic pop tracks with King--think "Will You Love Me Tomorrow?" "One Fine Day", little passion is spent on romance. "A Woman Can Be Like a Gangster," the sole song on the new album that does concern itself with a relationship is reputedly a scathing look back at Goffin's marital and artistic split with King some 25 years ago. If this is true, Goffin, like the rest of us unforgiving bastards, sure knows how to nurse a grudge. From the spiteful sound and fury of this item you'd think Carole ditched Gerry last weekend. The question of class animates several tracks and "Masquerade," a Goffin/Dylan number, is a blast at both the former Reagan regime and its tacit approval of white-nationalist tendencies. Without diminishing Goffin's sincerity, some of the sentiments expressed have been done better by countless others and years before Goffin stepped to the plate. But it's noteworthy that Goffin is writing about race matters. And to think, 30 years ago, he was penning innocuous urban romance classics like "Up on the Roof." Now, those were the days, eh? >>>> Going Back ......... with the Kingster he also penned 'When My Little Girl is Smiling', 'At The Club' 'Another Night With The Boys' etc. Happy Birthday Ger, well done with hangin' in and the newer stuff but if I'm gonna tip a glass in your honour tonight, I'm slippin' them there Drifters and 'Some Kind Of Wonderful' on my machine Recommended listening - just make your way through the sixties material described herein Colin Kilgour