Thursday Inspiration #232 It’s Too Late

Respond to this challenge, by either using the prompt word morning, or going with the above picture, or by means of the song ‘It’s Too Late’, or by going with another song by Carole King, or any other breakup song that you like, or you can go with anything else that you think fits.  In April 1971, Carole King released ‘It’s Too Late’ and that became the Grammy Record of the Year on her second solo album Tapestry, which became the Grammy Album of the Year.  Toni Stern wrote the lyrics for this song while Carole King composed the music.  Stern said that she wrote the lyrics in a single day, after her relationship with James Taylor ended.  Toni Stern said she wrote the lyric in 20 minutes, after the first line came to her and the rest of the song just flowed.  James Taylor left Stern midway through the recording of the album, eventually developing a relationship with Joni Mitchell.  Stern never admitted that this song was about Taylor, but it seems like she was writing about her relationship as a way to get over her feelings after going through a major separation, reminiscing about the time they had spent together and wondering if there was anything else they could have done to change things.  She didn’t want to air her dirty laundry out in public, as she was not the type of person that would kiss and tell.

James Taylor convinced Carole King to move to Laurel Canyon and play her new songs at the Troubadour, so she moved from New York City to Los Angeles and started looking for a new writing partner after her divorce from lyricist Gerry Goffin.  Toni had recently written some lyrics and sent them to her friend and producer, Bert Schneider, who was dating Candice Bergen and was the co-creator of the Monkees.  Toni was twenty-three years old at the time and a complete unknown when Schneider showed her lyrics over to Carole.  The first song they wrote together was ’As We Go Along’, which was recorded by the Monkees and included in the group’s surreal 1968 film Head and featured Carol King, Ry Cooder, Neil Young, Danny “Kootch” Kortchmar all playing guitars and King taught Micky Dolenz how to sing in 5/4 time.  Head was a failure at the box office, becoming the beginning of the end for the TV-bred supergroup’s big-screen career.

The lyrics for ‘It’s Too Late’ describe the blameless end of a loving relationship, where something went wrong, and it is nobody’s fault.  This couple stopped trying to make it work and moved on hoping for something better.  They each recognize and lament the impending end of this hopeless relationship and once they realize that there’s no fixing this, it’s time to go their separate ways.  There is nothing wrong with admitting failure when a connection between two people dissolves.  Toni Stern was an actress, a lyricist and a poet that was born on November 4, 1944, and she died on January 17, 2024, at the age of 79.

Stayed in bed all morning just to pass the time
There’s something wrong here, there can be no denying
One of us is changing, or maybe we just stopped trying