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Just finished listening to this interview, really enjoyed it, a great idea to post it. Really liked the choice of photos, especially the ones from the album signing session at the record store in London. Thanks again.
The interviewer asks about HER and she answers in length about RICHARD ............deflection. I know she liked to give him credit, but geez. Richard breaks her & says "TO ANSWER THE QUESTION.....".
On page 240 of 'Little Girl Blue' it does state that the Carpenters prepared to leave for Europe and South America and Itchie went along to keep Karen company. So I guess that lady is most definitely Itchie.Thanks for the comments Chris, you're welcome!
One thing I've just noticed about one of the pictures from the London Harrod's album signing session - I'm 99% sure that's Itchie Ramone to the right, behind the podium area. I didn't know she'd accompanied them on the European part of their trip as well.
The dynamics of the interview would probably give a good psychiatrist a lot of material, especially when he asks about whether or not they would consider some kind of solo career - you could almost hear the change in atmosphere
When asked about solo ventures, Karen replies that the opportunity "comes and goes". In that one statement she hugely underplays the relevance of the solo album to herself both professionally and personally. Why didn't she just come out and say she'd recorded and completed a solo album and that it had been shelved? It's like that record was the bastard child of the Carpenters' canon...never to be spoken about, never to be referred to. At this point its cancellation was a year and a half ago and the album's existence was not a secret, as Billboard ran an article when it was shelved. I wish this point had been picked up on a bit more in the interviews late on in their career - it would have been nice just to hear Karen say "yeah I recorded it and yeah, I loved it. You might hear it someday".
Thanks for this complete Interview, Newvillefan !
By the way, at 11:10, did I hear the interviewer say to Karen,
"nice to see you fully fit again, anyway ",
and, this remark being made in late 1981 !
And I learn....
At 26:53, they cut
Because We Are In Love
three days before the wedding.
Fascinating interview.
The dynamics of the interview would probably give a good psychiatrist a lot of material, especially when he asks about whether or not they would consider some kind of solo career - you could almost hear the change in atmosphere..
I heard it too and thought the same thing.You talk about psychiatrists analysing this interview. Here's one more thing I noticed when Ray Moore brought up the question of solo ventures...and kept on asking...
Karen: "It’s been offered like you said and sometimes it seems interesting, but the more…it doesn’t make any sense, you know, because uh..."
...and then at 44m18s there's an audible exhalation of breath which can only have come from Richard or Ray Moore, as Karen is talking at the time. Either way, it sounds like someone who's exasperated or impatient with the line of questioning.
An audio treat for you all, recorded for BBC Radio 2 in late 1981. Richard and Karen talk to interviewer Ray Moore about their latest album Made In America, how they developed as musicians and their career to date.
Do you know where this interview was recorded? Several statements made indicate that they were not in the UK at the time.
I believe it was recorded at the A&M lot in LA not long before they set off for Europe and Brazil. If I'm not mistaken the first two photos in the video are from the meeting and the guy on the right in the first photo is Ray Moore.
So that photo above on the you tube video of Karen crossing her leg that was during this radio interview on the A&M studio lot? I've seen the photo but didn't know it was taken during this interview.
Karen's reaction to that question was very telling and the existence of the solo project was the elephant in the room at that moment.
I'm sure the rejection she felt personally and professionally about the solo album must have been magnified during such times. Richard had the chance during that interview to boost her confidence by saying something about having guts to give it a try. If he'd have said that recording the album must have been a great experience regardless of its outcome, that would have helped. Not acknowledging its existence cannot have done her fragile state much good at all.
He did say that and I did think that there is no way that the interviewer could have actually thought it.