Sunday, December 18, 2016

Carole King and Louise Goffin – "Where You Lead" (2000)


All you have to do is call my name
And I'll be there on the next train

When I board the subway for my morning commute, I will occasionally find an umbrella or a pair of gloves or something else that one of my fellow passengers has forgotten.  

The other day, I saw that a book had been left behind in the subway car I boarded:


It wasn’t just any book – it was Talking as Fast as I Can: From Gilmore Girls to Gilmore Girls (and Everything in Between), by Lauren Graham.

Graham is a 49-year-old actress who starred in the original Gilmore Girls TV series from 2000 to 2007, and who stars in the revival of that series, Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life, that debuted on Netflix last month.  

I’ve certainly heard of the Gilmore Girls, although I’ve never watched it.  I’ve read that it was known for clever, fast-paced dialogue full of pop culture references, which sounds like something I might enjoy.  But I have a strong impression that Gilmore Girls was not a show intended to appeal to the male of the species.  

It turns out that the book hadn’t been left behind by mistake, as you can tell by looking at the yellow sticky note on its cover:


In case you’re having trouble reading that note, here’s what it said:

Books on the Metro

Hey!  Over here!  Yeah, you!  This incredible book is now yours!

Get ready for a fantastic convo with Lauren Graham!

:-)  Happy Reading!

If you know me, you won't be surprised that I picked up the book and took it with me.  I’ll never read the damn thing, but I’m thinking that my daughters – who were 14 years old when the Gilmore Girls debuted on the WB – might be interested in reading it.

It’s that time of year, after all, and I’m happy to find a perfectly good Christmas present for my daughters that didn’t cost me a penny.  

I’ll give it to the two of them jointly – let them fight over who gets to read it first like they used to fight over who got to sit in the front seat of the minivan.

I wondered whether the book I found might have been put there by the publisher to publicize it.  But I’ve been unable to find anything about a publicity campaign for this tome.  

Last month, actress Emma Watson (best known for her role in the Harry Potter movies) left a number of copies of Maya Angelou’s seventh and final autobiography, Mom & Me & Mom, on the New York City and London subways.  (You may think I'm a narcissist, but I haven't written seven autobiographies.)

Emma Watson hides a book
on the New York City subway
If there’s an Emma Watson copycat disseminating free Lauren Graham books throughout the DC subway system like some latter-day Johnny Appleseed, I haven’t been able to find anything about him or her on the internet.  So maybe the book I found is just one person’s pay-it-forward kind of thing.

Speaking of paying it forward, I’m not just a taker – I’m a giver, too.

Case in point: I recently received a case of canned meats from a client who sells products to survivalists.  I had no use for the two-pound cans of pork, chicken, turkey, beef, and ground beef, so I put them in the kitchen at my office along with a note inviting anyone to take one or more cans home.

After a couple of days, all of the cans had been taken.  That surprised me, given the unsavory depictions of the products on the can labels and the alarming sloshing sound the cans made when you shook them.  (If I ever decided I wanted to be a vegetarian, I might open one of these cans – I’m sure that what I saw and smelled inside would turn me off to eating meat forever.)

I’m guessing that whoever took the cans of meat has a large dog with an underdeveloped palate.

*     *     *     *     *

Carole King’s original recording of “Where You Lead” was released in 1971 on her hugely popular Tapestry album, which sold over 10 million copies in the United States and over 25 million copies worldwide.

In 2000, King re-recorded “Where You Lead” as a duet with her daughter Louise Goffin.  That version of the song was the theme song for the original Gilmore Girls series.

Here’s the 2000 Carole King-Louise Goffin version of “Where You Lead”:



You can click below to buy the song from Amazon:

1 comment:

  1. Hey! I'm a guy and I watched Gilmore Girls along with my wife right up to the end. The show was fascinating, and Lauren Graham is a foxy lady. So many of the supporting characters were so cool, just for an example, Mrs. Kim, the mother of Rory's friend Lane was like a force of nature when it came to organizing a project. I can think of several subtle ways points were made on various subjects.

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