Petroculture in Joni Mitchell and Carole King’s ‘Blue’ and ‘Tapestry’

“Way Over Yonder” contrasts the worldly suffering of “Beautiful” with a vision of the afterworld, reminiscent of a spiritual: “the land where the honey runs in rivers each day”. The narrator sings about poverty and depression, longing for “the sweet-tastin’ good life”. This song contrasts with the travel of “So Far Away” and “Home Again”, as some kind of travel enables this journey, but not by automobile, as it reads like a biblical place.A

Much of the album’s second half does not acknowledge oil. “You’ve Got a Friend”, perhaps King’s best-known song, just says that the speaker will “come running to see” the person in trouble, suggesting some kind of travel. “Will You Love Me Tomorrow”, a song King and Goffin had originally written as a hit for the Shirelles a decade earlier, is about asking for stability and stasis, not mobility, which is symbolized by oil, and could potentially function as a precursor to the reality setting in on “It’s Too Late” in terms of King’s songwriting over time. Also, “Smackwater Jack”, which is thematically out-of-place on the album but still compelling, has no references to travel, besides “the guard [coming to] surround the border.”