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)

Short Mort
Carole King Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

Well the district of the Rhine-Ruhr
Is diverse with tall and short
And should you visit there
You'll wanna be prepared
For a dwarf named Mighty Mort

Now Mortie's rather scrappy
You see he stands ‘bout two foot four

All the Altstadt ladies call him kneecap lover
All the mens just call him squirt

Well he's short, short Mighty Mort
The shortest dwarf in all Düsseldorf
Shorter than a young Dauchhound
And quicker than a prarie dog

Now Mortie he's a drinker
And he likes his Altbier cool
And he likes to pick a pocket clean
In back of drunken people's stools
He's got his tiny lederhosen
He's got his green felt hat on fine
He got a 1mil. Luger for a pocket shooter
He got a thimble for a stein

Well he's short, short Mighty Mort
The shortest dwarf in all Düsseldorf
Shorter than a young Dauchhound
And quicker than a prarie dog

Well Friday 'bout a week ago
Mortie's sucking suds
And on the ledge of the bar
Leaned a chap named Otis
Who wore some fancy duds
Well he snuck up right behind him
But a scuffle soon enued
And Mighty Mort got a whoopin
For touchin' the ass of an English dude

Well he's short, short Mighty Mort
The shortest dwarf in all Düsseldorf
Shorter than a young Dauchhound
And quicker than a prarie dog

Well the whole bar started laughin'
And when they pulled the two apart

Mortie looked like a wienerschnitzel
In a bowl full of sauerkraut

Overall Meaning

Carole King's song Short Mort is about a dwarf named Mighty Mort who lives in the Rhine-Ruhr district of Germany. The area is known for its diversity in height and Mortie is the shortest of them all. The song describes how Mortie is scrappy despite his short stature, standing only two-foot-four. The women in the Altstadt call him kneecap lover, while the men call him squirt. The lyrics describe Mortie's love for drink and how he likes to pickpocket people while they're drunk at the bar. He dresses in tiny lederhosen and a green felt hat and carries a 1mil. Luger as a pocket shooter and a thimble as a stein.

The lyrics recount a recent incident where Mortie was at the bar sucking suds, and he touched the butt of an Englishman named Otis. A scuffle ensued, and Mortie ended up getting beaten for his actions. The whole bar laughed at Mortie, who looked like a wienerschnitzel in a bowl full of sauerkraut.

The song is a lighthearted take on the life of a dwarf and the prejudices that exist against those who are different. It highlights the humor and humanity of Mighty Mort despite his physical limitations.

Short MortCarole King Lyrics

Benjamin Shulman

Ashley Bohnert

Joseph White

Peter Emmert

Short Mort
Carole King Lyrics