If you found the Keys To The Vault

[aaflyer98]

If you found the infamous Keys To The Vault, that contain all previously unreleased material from the Carpenters, Karen's solo project, Richard's solo projects, alternate takes, outtakes, live unreleased performances, tv shows, guest appearances, commercials, what would we have?
Track listings? Odd things??

Would you share your treasures online? Or would you secretly arrange a sale late at night .... How would you go about it --- as you know the powers that lock them up will be looking for you!!!

Now I don't have the keys, but if I did, I'm sure I'd find many things. And I'd find a way to share with all true Carpenters fans!
Ok, we know the vault is in Pennsylvania.... start looking and share your findings!!!

 

[goodjeans]

I live in Pennsylvania Patrick. Could you be a little more specific in regard to the 'location' of the vault? I tend towards insomnia and sleep driving as it is.

 

[Harry]

Iron Mountain:

http://www.nppa.org/news_and_events/news/2005/01/corbis_cave.html

Harry

 

[SakuraSYayoi]

It may be easier to be a friend of Randy's friend....

.... "Close to You" ....

A friend of mine heard the other two versions at Richard's house some years back -- needless to say, I don't like them very much anymore!!! Haha! Nah, I do...

Randy

 

[Mike Blakesley]

I would do absolutely nothing with the "keys" except maybe call the owner and give'em back. I hate to rain on anyone's imaginary parade here, but Richard Carpenter has released (or will release) what he wants released and to schlep it out there without his blessing would be incredibly disrespectful not only to him but to Karen.

I know some people have this desire to hear every last note played or sung, no matter how off-key or how many flubs....that just ain't me, I guess.

 

[Mark-T]

Guess I am one of those people!

 

[aaflyer98]

Ah some people love a parade (imaginary) some don't.
No disrespect was intended to Richard or Karen.
I was just wondering what we would find and what we would do if we found the treasures!
And besides... I want to hear Karen sing "Thank You For The Music".

Parading on...

 

[aaflyer98]

guess we may even have to wear t-shirts

(note...I am not promoting these shirts, they are just funny and fitting for this thread!)

http://www.zazzle.com/i_raided_the_vault_shirt-235547120339714196

 

[Mark-T]

TYFTM is all over the web in both audio and video. Its a live performance from the Johnny Carson show. I think John Davidson was hosting that night, but I forget. Try YouTube.

 

[Dave]

This is a fairly strong subject to ponder... However, if I were to have those keys to that infamous vault, I would probably without a doubt find material Richard is cobbling together for his long-overdue Christmas album...



Dave

 

[aaflyer98]

Sorry---the "Thank You For The Music" I'm looking for is the studio version, which was never completed, allegedly has Karen's lead and not finished because Richard decided not to finish it.

 

[Harry]

Sadly, I don't think any of us are getting the keys to the "vault" anytime soon. If there are any 40th anniversary plans for next year, well then maybe Richard will find something worthwhile for us.

In the meantime, if you've not heard them, I highly recommend The Poppy Family, contemporary artists of Karen and Richard, hailing from Canada. Comprised of husband-wife duo Susan and Terry Jacks, The Poppy Family burst onto the scene around 1969-1970 with the huge hit of "Which Way You Goin' Billy?"

Two coincidental facts seemed to have doomed the duo to relative obscurity. One, their name "The Poppy Family" is often confused with the manufactured group of "The Partridge Family." They couldn't be more different.

Second, their big hit, "Which Way You Goin' Billy?" is often confused with another '70s pop hit "Billy Don't Be A Hero", a pure bubblegum concoction that again, couldn't be farther away from what The Poppy Family was doing.

Susan's voice is often compared with Karen Carpenter. She has an alto range that's similar, and an expressive sweet/sadness that can be heard in many of their songs.

The Poppy Family only released two full albums, WHICH WAY YOU GOIN' BILLY and POPPY SEEDS, and the great bulk of the songs from those albums, plus a few bonus tracks can be found on their only currently available compilation, A GOOD THING LOST: 1968-1973.

The Poppy Family's songs have a bit of a dark edge to them. Most of the songs have Susan's lead, with a few from Terry, usually with Susan doing harmony backups. Many times, Susan's lead vocals are doubled, using overdubbing techniques very similar to what Carpenters were doing at the same time.

Their songs also have a bit of '60s/'70s sensibilities to them. You'll hear sitars and tablas, two Indian instruments first brought to Western pop culture by The Beatles' George Harrison. And there are a few songs with a rather psychedelic bent to them.

My favorites are the pop hits, "Which Way You Goin' Billy?", "That's Where I Went Wrong", and "I'll See You There", along with the excellent "Where Evil Grows" and the weird and wonderful, way-out there, "There's No Blood In Bone".

I highly recommend this compilation to anyone looking for a little "Karen Carpenter fix". The amazon link above has samples of all of the tunes, and they're all available for downloads if you so choose.

Meanwhile, stop looking for those keys. You won't find them!

Harry

 

[goodjeans]

If 'Thank You For The Music" was never finished, why did a fanclub Newsletter state that the single release was a toss up between that and "I Believe You"? Maybe the same reason that they were never straight regarding health issues...

Off Topic...
Evelyn Wallace and I used to be penpals. We had Lhasas in common among other things.She left CA a long time ago and I lost touch. Is anyone currently communicating with her? If so, please let me know.

 

[aaflyer98]

If 'Thank You For The Music" was never finished, why did a fanclub Newsletter state that the single release was a toss up between that and "I Believe You"? Maybe the same reason that they were never straight regarding health issues...

Very good point.

 

[Harry]

Whether or not there's a finished studio version of "Thank You For The Music", Richard's been quoted as saying that the song is definitive in the hands of ABBA and that any Carpenters version could add nothing to it.

I personally believe that there's only a studio work lead finished, and that the selection of the song as a single simply meant that it was not picked over "I Believe You" to finish in the studio. If "I Believe You" was indeed finished at the time of the decision, then that gave that song a leg up in the decision process.

Harry

 

[Calvin R Murty]

Harry,

Thanks for introducing the Poppy Family to us - my interest is piqued and I am certainly going to check them out. I always loved the song "Which Way You Goin' Billy", but the only version I have heard is the one by Donny & Marie on their New Season album. Quite a nice version too, considering they were only 16 and 18 when they recorded it!

If I may sidetrack a bit - I just watched this old-ish documentary on the Bee Gees and apparently, they wrote "If I Can't Have You" (from the Sat Night Fever Soundtrack) for ABBA (but they did not say what transpired after that for obviously, ABBA did not record it). I was always curious as to whether they wrote any songs to pitch to Karen, since I know they were acquainted with each other, and Barry Gibb is known to team up with good female singers like Barbra, Dionne, Celine and ONJ.

Anyway, back to real life!

Have a good week, all!
Calvin

 

[Mike Blakesley]

Maybe the same reason that they were never straight regarding health issues...

Probably different reasons. The "health issues" thing was none of the public's business, and would have hurt K&R's reputation if not glossed over. Fan club newsletters back then had to be written long in advance of actual events due to printing lead time, plus we all know how often Richard changes his mind about things!

 

[Harry]

Harry,

Thanks for introducing the Poppy Family to us - my interest is piqued and I am certainly going to check them out. I always loved the song "Which Way You Goin' Billy", but the only version I have heard is the one by Donny & Marie on their New Season album. Quite a nice version too, considering they were only 16 and 18 when they recorded it!

My pleasure. The subject came up over at another forum and I've been meaning to bring it up here so perhaps a Carpenters fan or two will check them out.

I don't usually recommend stuff cavalierly - I really think most Carpenters fans would find The Poppy Family at least somewhat worthwhile.

There's even an A&M connection as I mentioned a long time ago. Back in the late '80s, Terry Jacks had signed with A&M Canada to release an album and a few compilations. One of the compilations was THE POPPY FAMILY'S GREATEST HITS - a shorter compilation than the one I linked to above, but it actually appeared on the A&M Canada label.

The Wikipedia entry on The Poppy Family has some details of their life and times:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Poppy_Family

Harry

 

[goodjeans]

If I Can't Have You/Take A Chance On Me...

 

[Jeff]

If I had the keys I would climb inside and have a Carpenterathon. Then when I reemerged I'd give y'all a heads up and make a spare set.

Jeff

 

[goodjeans]

I'd like to hear "You're No Good" and hope that it had the vocal urgency and grit of "Superstar".

 

[Dave]

In the meantime, if you've not heard them, I highly recommend The Poppy Family, contemporary artists of Karen and Richard, hailing from Canada.

Two coincidental facts seemed to have doomed the duo to relative obscurity:

One, their name "The Poppy Family" is often confused with the manufactured group of "The Partridge Family." They couldn't be more different.

It also didn't help that the record company both groups recorded on was Bell... Terry Jacks continued as a solo artist there and Partridge Family's David Cassidy did, too...

Second, their big hit, "Which Way You Goin' Billy?" is often confused with another '70s pop hit "Billy Don't Be A Hero", a pure bubblegum concoction that again, couldn't be farther away from what The Poppy Family was doing.

Harry

Hhhmmmmm... Two "Billy" songs? Were they both done in the same year? The two really aren't very similar-sounding enough that anything would'a confused me... Bo Donaldson & The Heywoods, who had the hit, "Billy Don't Be A Hero", recorded their album on ABC and seemed to be backed by enough studio musicians that you would wonder if any musical instrumentation was done by they, themselves, or just the singing... A second album on Capitol kind'a revealed a self-contained musical outfit which could lay claim to both their own singing and playing, alike... Produced by Mike Chapman and Nicky Chinn, it yielded a fairly good remake of Todd Rundgren's "Hello, It's Me", among other goodies...



Dave

 

[Harry]

In the meantime, if you've not heard them, I highly recommend The Poppy Family, contemporary artists of Karen and Richard, hailing from Canada.

Two coincidental facts seemed to have doomed the duo to relative obscurity:

One, their name "The Poppy Family" is often confused with the manufactured group of "The Partridge Family." They couldn't be more different.

It also didn't help that the record company both groups recorded on was Bell... Terry Jacks continued as a solo artist there and Partridge Family's David Cassidy did, too...

Dave

Well that's just not true. The Poppy Family recordings were released on London Records. Terry Jacks later solo career was on Bell.

Harry

 

[Dave]

It also didn't help that the record company both groups recorded on was Bell... Terry Jacks continued as a solo artist there and Partridge Family's David Cassidy did, too...

Dave

Well that's just not true. The Poppy Family recordings were released on London Records. Terry Jacks later solo career was on Bell.

Harry

Oh, that's right... --Sorry, I forgot that I also had a few Poppy Family '45's of their best known hits and they were London '45's...!



Dave

 

[SakuraSYayoi]

I loved Terry Jacks '"Season in the Sun" in 70s, but I had not known the name of Poppy Family until another group member told that the DJ mentioned them as Canada's version of the Carpenters when he/she played Poppy Family song this spring.

I hadn't watched "Top of the World" on 'Star Parade', at which program Karen and Richard saw ABBA perform "Thank You for the Music". Although I went to see ABBA in concert back then, I am not interested in ABBA so much, so I hadn't seen ABBA's "Thank You for the Music" on the same show.
http://jp.youtube.com/watch?v=rt66sFFIfQ0
http://jp.youtube.com/watch?v=PIdfr4lEDso

Sakura