Rob Mounsey Discusses Working with Karen Carpenter
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Sabar
Well-Known Member
Here's a transcript.
Jazz trombonist Michael Davis interviews Rob Mounsey in October 2016 on his YouTube show, Bone2Pick. The topic is: What was it like to work with Karen Carpenter? [The discussion of Karen begins at 1:07:08.]
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MD: And the last name…This one I didn’t know that you had worked with her; maybe you could talk a little bit about working with Karen Carpenter.
RM: Oh, yeah. Well, I worked a lot with Phil Ramone on that last record that she made right before she died. She was a great person; everybody loved her. She was funny. We were talking about this before. She’s funny because she was kind of “the good girl” from Downey, California. When the musicians cursed, she sort of blanched a little bit: “Oh please. Those words bother me.”
But, great, great person. Extremely smart. Great musician. Very good drummer, which not everyone knows. She didn’t really know she could sing. I mean, she was a drummer, and she discovered that she could sing, and she had that great, really low, buttery voice, and people just realized that they loved it. Nate King Cole, you know, he was a piano player, and he found out: “Oh, I guess I can sing.” I think Diana Krall has a little bit of that. I really like her playing a lot, and I love her singing too.
MD: Another person [Diana Krall] that you’ve done a lot of work with.
RM: A little bit; not a lot, a little—a little. She’s great too; and she came at the singing-part sideways, and so did Karen.
Richard [Carpenter] did not like that record, and the record went on the shelf for twenty years—over twenty years. Nobody heard it for twenty years. When it was finally released, decades after she died, it was stylistically—I think—dated. But she recorded a song of mine. I haven’t been a song writer that much. There’s a song called, Guess I Just Lost My Head, which is an early song. I was about twenty-four, and she recorded my song; she liked it.
MD: Very cool.
Jazz trombonist Michael Davis interviews Rob Mounsey in October 2016 on his YouTube show, Bone2Pick. The topic is: What was it like to work with Karen Carpenter? [The discussion of Karen begins at 1:07:08.]
________________________________
MD: And the last name…This one I didn’t know that you had worked with her; maybe you could talk a little bit about working with Karen Carpenter.
RM: Oh, yeah. Well, I worked a lot with Phil Ramone on that last record that she made right before she died. She was a great person; everybody loved her. She was funny. We were talking about this before. She’s funny because she was kind of “the good girl” from Downey, California. When the musicians cursed, she sort of blanched a little bit: “Oh please. Those words bother me.”
But, great, great person. Extremely smart. Great musician. Very good drummer, which not everyone knows. She didn’t really know she could sing. I mean, she was a drummer, and she discovered that she could sing, and she had that great, really low, buttery voice, and people just realized that they loved it. Nate King Cole, you know, he was a piano player, and he found out: “Oh, I guess I can sing.” I think Diana Krall has a little bit of that. I really like her playing a lot, and I love her singing too.
MD: Another person [Diana Krall] that you’ve done a lot of work with.
RM: A little bit; not a lot, a little—a little. She’s great too; and she came at the singing-part sideways, and so did Karen.
Richard [Carpenter] did not like that record, and the record went on the shelf for twenty years—over twenty years. Nobody heard it for twenty years. When it was finally released, decades after she died, it was stylistically—I think—dated. But she recorded a song of mine. I haven’t been a song writer that much. There’s a song called, Guess I Just Lost My Head, which is an early song. I was about twenty-four, and she recorded my song; she liked it.
MD: Very cool.
newvillefan
I Know My First Name Is Stephen
Great interview, thanks for posting!
Always great to hear from people who worked with her and especially anyone associated with the little-known solo episode.
Always great to hear from people who worked with her and especially anyone associated with the little-known solo episode.
CraigGA
Well-Known Member
From what we have read, she is remembered for the very thing she hoped people would remember her for: valued as a strong musician. It is highly complimentary and he was just stating it as a matter of fact with succinct verbiage. I always liked Guess I Just Lost My Head as being one of my favorites and now I have another reason for liking it.
Carpenters Apprentice
Well-Known Member
Interesting that he mentions Nat King Cole, my favorite male voice, having similarly stumbled onto his singing talent as did Karen, my favorite female voice. Ah, what I would give to have heard those two perform a duet together!
Jamesj75
Well-Known Member
Now THAT would have been "unforgettable!"
