Carole King Klein (born Carol Joan Klein; February 9, 1942) is an American … Read Full Bio ↴Carole King Klein (born Carol Joan Klein; February 9, 1942) is an American singer, songwriter, and musician who has been active since 1958, initially as one of the staff songwriters at 1650 Broadway and later as a solo artist. Regarded as one of the most significant and influential musicians of all time, King is the most successful female songwriter of the latter half of the 20th century in the US, having written or co-written 118 pop hits on the Billboard Hot 100. King also wrote 61 hits that charted in the UK, making her the most successful female songwriter on the UK singles charts between 1962 and 2005.

King's major success began in the 1960s when she and her first husband, Gerry Goffin, wrote more than two dozen chart hits, many of which have become standards, for numerous artists. She has continued writing for other artists since then. King's success as a performer in her own right did not come until the 1970s, when she sang her own songs, accompanying herself on the piano, in a series of albums and concerts. After experiencing commercial disappointment with her debut album Writer, King scored her breakthrough with the album Tapestry, which topped the U.S. album chart for 15 weeks in 1971 and remained on the charts for more than six years.

King has made 25 solo albums, the most successful being Tapestry, which held the record for most weeks at No. 1 by a female artist for more than 20 years. Her record sales were estimated at more than 75 million copies worldwide. She has won four Grammy Awards and was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. She has been inducted twice into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, as a performer and songwriter. She is the recipient of the 2013 Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song, the first woman to be so honored. She is also a 2015 Kennedy Center Honoree.

Full Wikipedia article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carole_King

Studio albums
Writer (1970)
Tapestry (1971)
Music (1971)
Rhymes & Reasons (1972)
Fantasy (1973)
Wrap Around Joy (1974)
Thoroughbred (1976)
Simple Things (1977)
Welcome Home (1978)
Touch the Sky (1979)
Pearls: Songs of Goffin and King (1980)
One to One (1982)
Speeding Time (1983)
City Streets (1989)
Colour of Your Dreams (1993)
Love Makes the World (2001)
A Holiday Carole (2011)

Ferguson Road
Carole King Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

I'm gonna head on up to the old Ferguson Road
Stand beneath the trees and see how tall I am
Yes, I'm gonna wade in a cold rocky stream
So I will be sure not to give a damn

No one ever loses anybody
But sometime it's so hard to get along
I don't want to hang on to anybody

So before you say you're leaving, I'll be gone

I'm gonna head on up to the old Ferguson Road
Find myself a spot where the sun shines through
I'll throw some old mattress in the back of my bus
And get a good head start on forgetting you

You know I've never known anybody
Who could ever make me feel this way
But no one gets to own anybody
You see, I have good reason when I say

I'm gonna head on up to the old Ferguson Road
Stand beneath the trees and see how tall I am

Yes, I'm gonna wade in a cold rocky stream
So I will be sure not to give a damn

Overall Meaning

Carole King's "Ferguson Road" is a song about the desire to escape the pressures of a failing relationship, a longing for freedom, and a quest for self-discovery. Ferguson Road represents a physical escape from the city, a place where the singer can stand beneath the trees and see how tall she is, and wade in a cold stream to clear her mind. The fact that the singer wants to go to Ferguson road to be alone suggests that she is trying to escape a certain someone or something in her life. She does not want to hang on to anyone, but before someone leaves her, she chooses to leave them first. This tells us that the relationship in question is not a healthy one.

The lyric "No one ever loses anybody, but sometime it's so hard to get along" suggests that the singer believes that people are never truly owned by someone else, and that we all have our own paths to follow. However, sometimes these paths collide and we can find ourselves in challenging situations. The song's message is to embrace our individual paths and to be independent, as this is the only way we can truly discover who we are. The song could be seen as a commentary on the societal pressure to be in a relationship or to conform to social norms. Rather than succumbing to these pressures, the singer chooses to break free and find herself by taking a trip to Ferguson road.

Line by Line Meaning

I'm gonna head on up to the old Ferguson Road
I'm going to go to Ferguson Road.

Stand beneath the trees and see how tall I am
I'll stand under the trees and see how tall they make me feel.

Yes, I'm gonna wade in a cold rocky stream
I'm going to walk in a cold stream with rocks.

So I will be sure not to give a damn
I want to forget about everything for a while.

No one ever loses anybody
People don't lose each other physically.

But sometime it's so hard to get along
But sometimes it's hard to get along with someone.

I don't want to hang on to anybody
I don't want to hold on to anyone.

So before you say you're leaving, I'll be gone
So before you say you're leaving me, I'll be gone.

Find myself a spot where the sun shines through
I will find a place where sunlight comes through.

I'll throw some old mattress in the back of my bus
I'll put an old mattress in the back of my bus.

And get a good head start on forgetting you
So I can start forgetting about you as soon as possible.