There’s Room For More Than One Genius

Carole King, a songwriter and singer who has 4 Grammy Awards, was interviewed last spring by Terry Gross on the nightly NPR program, Fresh Air.

For me, the highlight of the interview was King’s description of the process of making a demo tape so that she can communicate her vision for a song to the artist who will perform it. She described her joy when a talented singer understands her vision and then interprets the song in her or his own style.

The program, which you can listen to below, includes 2 marvelous illustrations of King’s genius juxtaposed with the genius of talented singers. In the first example (at 18:17 minutes), the demo of King singing “Take Good Care of My Baby” is followed by Bobby Vee’s hit version of the song. Then, 2 versions of “A Natural Woman” are played (at 22:38 minutes). Listen to Carole King communicate her vision in the demo, and then listen to Aretha Franklin add her embellishments. Gives me goose bumps . . .

To read about excellence in drug development today, go to the Pharma of the Future? blog entry, Excellence is a team sport. If you want to peruse all of the previous sock-knocking blog entries, visit the Knocked My Socks Off archive (links to another blog site).