Songwriting style...stevie or carol king???

[mike_nh]

Does one have a better style or are the 2 legends on the same page?

[HejiraNYC]

Does one have a better style or are the 2 legends on the same page?

Okay... I'll bite...

I tend to think that Carole King is more of a by-the-numbers, textbook kind of songwriter. She comes from the old Brill Building school of writing hit songs, for other people, so I would imagine that she employs a variety of different formulas for crafting that memorable hook or phrase that gets ingrained into the music listening public's minds. So she is very conservative in her approach, and she sticks to the tried-and-true verse-verse-chorus-verse-chorus-bridge-chorus-chorus formula. Another thing about Carole King is that she is actually an instrumentalist, so she has a fairly broad musical vocabulary to work with. Accordingly, she will pull out the occasional "jazzy" chord.

Stevie is the complete opposite of Carole King in every way. I tend to think that Stevie doesn't give a hoot about song structure at all, and that she writes whatever comes from her soul. Sure, she will write the occasional conventional verse-verse-chorus-verse-chorus-bridge type of song. But most of her songs don't fit that mould at all- "Edge of Seventeen" starts right out with the chorus, then the verse, and then goes on to include two bridges. Songs like "Bella Donna," "Sara" and "Gypsy" are pretty much all verses with a couple of refrains and a bridge or two thrown in for good measure. And musically, unlike Carole King, Stevie is pretty much a straight-up major/minor chord gal- there is nothing in the least bit "jazzy" about her music. In a way, it's rather remarkable that she has been able to create so much with such a limited musical vocabulary.

[PenguinHead]

You really nailed that down! I totally appreciate and concur with your statements...especially the one about Stevie not having any jazz! So true, but I think that's a style she should explore...maybe. "At Last" sort of hints at the possibilities.
For me, in essence, Carol is a very traditional "classic style" songwriter and an accomplished pianist. Stevie is such a very untraditonal songwriter and entertainer...she goes by her own playbook. I must say, though, Carol King is brilliant, and sort of in a different league than Stevie.