Celebrating The Carpenters (2009)

[aaflyer98]

I'm happy that I got to hear Karen sing live. And I love it when she plays with the song "I Need To Be In Love" in her live versions. Hehe! Sometimes we DONT want to hear an artist "exactly as on record" as the Carpenters were once proclaimed on a live concert review. Karen was Karen and thank God we saw a playful side of her at times when she wasn't constrained and could play with even the big hits. Go listen to LIVE AT THE PALLADIUM. Same goes for other artists, including Donna Summer. Grateful to have heard her sing many different times, many different ways.

 

[Mark-T]

I agree, aaflyer98! I loved the alternate styles of studio recordings. The revealed another side of their personalities. I had always wished "Hush" started out slowly on the recorded version after hearing Karen sing it live in 1977.

 

[Nikifor Blavatsky]

I'm very amused as well when artists increase their live acts with the delightful joys of freedom, see what Dionne herself did singing Close to you at this piece of TV, even if she did it not to have a hard time doing the song as it originally is asked for, however that does not apply to Karen regarding this particular song because she sang it all the way through exactly as we hear it on recording and altered the one and only note for the second "blue", obviously because it is the highest note in the whole song and she didn't want to work her way up there, not because she was an outsandingly playful performer when it came to Close to you. It's not like this ruins her body of work or damage her greatness as an artist, it just shows she was not perfect and had her lazy moments as we all do, so it makes criticizing Dionne's singing at this show less important.

 

[GaryAlan]

Here is the (interesting) review of this program (Celebrating the Carpenters) taken from UK "theguardian" by Lucy Mangan (18 Nov 2009):

"I love television, I really do. It has given me so much over the years – company, laughter, guidance, a smattering of education and a wide variety of unrequited loves, from David Attenborough to Wentworth Miller. So I will forgive it almost anything.
But not Celebrating the Carpenters (ITV1). Not a programme that chooses to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the release of the duo's debut LP by inviting the Saturdays to come on and cover Please, Mr Postman. Not a programme that allows Jamie Cullum to duet with Kimberley Walsh on Rainy Days and Mondays. Not a programme that is not only presented by Amanda Holden and Ronan Keating, but permits the latter – a human cheese string – to perform I Won't Last a Day Without You. Next week, will the Smurfs present a Rolling Stones retrospective and the Moomins unveil their five-point plan for Syrian invasion?
Stepping gracefully over the murdered corpses of the Carpenters' greatest hits was Dionne Warwick, who sang (as she did on her 1964 debut album, before Karen and Richard had a hit with it in 1970) Close to You, with professional showmanship as the show stumbled to an end. But by then it was too late. Among the programmes many, many, mistakes was the decision to include archive clips of the Carpenters singing the original versions, along with links from Richard Carpenter today, introducing the next acts. The former, as Karen opened her mouth and that beautiful, unadulterated sound poured out, only served to throw the mediocrity, the almost criminal lack of musicality we have learned to accept in the average contemporary singer, into such sharp relief that you almost cut yourself on it. And the sight of Richard pretending to look forward to the Noisettes giving Goodbye to Love "their own unique twist" almost gave my brain – already fibrillating under the pressure of trying to calculate the number and magnitude of the lies that must have been told to inveigle him into taking part – a stress fracture. How much does he need the money? Can we not start a collection? Can one self-cauterise one's own aural passages with only domestic implements if Ronan embarks on a final tribute? It was as if ITV had hoicked up a giant oyster of phlegm and coughed it straight into our ears. I am scrubbing them still."

And, some readers comments pertaining to same:
"The irony is that when Karen Carpenter was alive people like you queued up to call her mediocre."
"Very snobbish review with equally snobbish comments from some people. I remember a few years back when
the Carpenters were not in fashion, similar snobbish comments about them."
"Surely seeing as the Carpenters were the cheesiest duo ever this was perfect?"
"Lucy, you can hardly be critical of The Carpenters hits being murdered when they, mostly based their career on this"

 

[ullalume]

The Guardian is a paper filled with "journalists" like Lucy Mangan. They think they're writing little pearls of insight into the human condition, little slices of powerful prose. They're not. They're reviewing light entertainment television. . .their article could be in the Guardian or TV QUICK magazine, and it'd be of equal import. I'm guessing she's simply ghastly in person, too

 

[Jamesj75]

Gary, thanks for posting this review. After reading it, I have to say that I enjoy Lucy Mangan's humorous, cutting style. She tells it like it is! In addition, she clearly likes the Carpenters. So you have to give her props for that!

 

[A&M Retro]

Yeah, it was mean-spirited for sure, but at least she's on the Carpenters' side! Something we don't see often enough. But I have to disagree with her on Jamie Cullum. He's a major talent.