Here's a question, getting back to Richard and his career after Karen's passing.....why in the world did he not pursue things like film soundtracks, Broadway musicals, producing established MOR artists....he's a brilliant musician, a great keyboardist and songwriter, and I think we'd all agree, a man of strong musical sensibilities with a very recognizable style. When I listen to his orchestrations on the last few C's albums, they already sound more suited to Broadway and movies than pop radio. It would have been a great fit; does anybody know why he didn't go after those avenues?
My own take on this is that he has been operating more as a museum keeper than a musician/arranger/producer since his sister's passing. She's been gone about 30 years and what do we have? A solo album, re-recorded parts and remixes on original albums that IMHO never should have been tampered with, some occasional guest appearances, a stalled Xmas album project, occasional work on other artists' albums, and that's it. I just don't get it. And I agree completely. There are some other artists who had rather unusual musical backgrounds who went on to score film music, just as one example (I'm speaking of former Oingo Boingo frontman Danny Elfman who has gone on to score many well-known films). Richard's background is more traditional and he would have been a natural scoring films. He was a great producer and arranger; think of his talents applied to so many other singers. Or returning to his roots and performing jazz, even "lite" jazz, in his own style.
I hardly call myself a musician or any other type of "artist," but I know if I were doing it for a living, I'd go absolutely bat-sheet crazy if I weren't creating.