The Pop Zeal Project (Track 83): Carole King: “I Feel The Earth Move”

A determined pounding of the piano keys starts Carole King’s “I Feel the Earth Move.” The singer-songwriter-musician had already co-written tracks made famous by The Shirelles (1960’s “Will You Love Me Tomorrow”) and Aretha Franklin (1967’s “[You Make Me Feel Like] A Natural Woman”), but with her second solo release, 1971’s Tapestry, King continued to make her voice—and her piano-playing—heard.

With the Women’s Liberation Movement already in full force in the early ‘70s, King’s material weaved its way into the hearts, minds and spirits of young women in particular, allowing Tapestry to stay on the charts for an astounding six-plus years. On “I Feel,” she freely described, through expert lyrical and musical constructions, the emotional and physical experiences of new love, from a female point of view. The most provocative lyric is toward the end when King describes the ecstatic fever that comes over her when she’s near the person who rocks her world, going vocally high at “I get a hot and cold” then quickly dropping to quietly repeat “all over” four times, like a vocal gyration, until the track ramps up to the chorus once again.

Whether it was The Shirelles’ song, conveying hesitancy—or Aretha’s, expressing certainty—in a relationship, or this smartly crafted track, best believe that when King felt something, you didn’t just hear it, it was damn near palpable.

Album photography: Jim McCrary

Random Acts

I’ve always found the shuffle-play system of listening to music appealing, never knowing what song will be next. Ironically, I love routine and predictability, yet it’s the shuffle that allows me sometimes to embrace the unexpected, smile at a surprise. Don’t get me wrong, there are days when Fast Forward is used when listening to music on my phone: “No, not that one… skip… skip.”

When I first started blogging on Tumblr six years ago, I created a recurring series called The Poptimum Project, in which I wrote a post about every song that was Autofilled onto my iPod shuffle®. (Wow, remember that device?) The project was inspired by the film, Julie & Julia, where government employee by day and writer by night, Julie Powell cooks every recipe from Julia Child’s “Mastering the Art of French Cooking,” and chronicles her experience on a blog. Instead of a cookbook, I kept a document with the track list.

Now that this website has launched, you’ll from time to time see a continuation of this project, now renamed The Pop Zeal Project. One post might feature Carole King’s “I Feel the Earth Move,” followed by Gwen Stefani’s “The Real Thing,” then LL Cool J’s “Around the Way Girl” and so on. Come what may. Keep in mind: Not every music post will be part of this list, but if the headline includes, The Pop Zeal Project, then it falls under this continuing endeavor.

Ready to embrace the random? I am… I think.