Carole King wrote this with Toni Stern, a free-spirited painter and lyricist from Los Angeles who complemented King very well. Said Stern: “I’m sure there was a California quality in me that appealed to Carole. She was moving from a familial, middle class lifestyle to Laurel Canyon, where she started to let her hair down, literally and figuratively. We worked off our contrasts.” Stern would usually agonize over lyrics, but she wrote these very quickly.
This song was rumored to be about James Taylor, who was good friends with King and played on her iconic album “Tapestry“. In early 1971, Taylor and King toured together with King the opening act. Many people tended to think that this song was about a short romance between the two. King never confirmed these rumors, and Taylor later dated and married Carly Simon. Toni Stern, however, did have a relationship with Taylor and wrote the lyrics after they broke up and he moved on to Joni Mitchell, but she won’t confirm it’s about the troubadour. “I won’t say who ‘It’s Too Late’ is about,” she told Sheila Weller, author of Girls Like Us. “I don’t kiss and tell.”
The lyrics describe the end of a loving relationship without assigning blame. Music critic Robert Christgau claimed that “if there’s a truer song about breaking up than ‘It’s Too Late’, the world (or at least AM radio) isn’t ready for it.” Rolling Stone stated that King’s “warm, earnest singing” on the song brought out the song’s sadness. According to author James Perone, the feeling of the song is enhanced by the instrumental work of Danny Kortchmar on guitar, Curtis Amy on saxophone and King on piano. Kortchmar and Amy each have an instrumental solo.
Curtis Amy was married to Merry Clayton, who sang backup on some songs for the album. Amy played the sax solo on The Doors’ “Touch Me.”
Merry Clayton sang background vocals on the Rolling Stones “Gimme Shelter”, which has its own much storied history to it. Her vocals were recorded at a last-minute late-night recording session during the mixing phase. Summoned – pregnant – from bed around midnight by producer Jack Nitzsche, Clayton made her recording with just a few takes then returned home to bed. It remains the most prominent contribution to a Rolling Stones track by a female vocalist. Sadly, upon returning home Clayton suffered a miscarriage, attributed by some sources to her exertions during the recording. Here’s a short clip of Merry talking about the experience:
“It’s Too Late” won a Grammy Award for Record of the Year in 1972, and the song ranks at #469 on Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.
And we’ll end with a live version of Carole signing this song.
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