Karen Carpenter Solo Sessions - Continued
- Thread starter leadmister
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Search Paul Grein in titles only. It's in PART THREE OF THREE. Post #3 of 13
Although this particular article was for Goldmine the original one might have been in Billboard as he was a regular writer for them too. It's probably somewhere in the "Have You Read This? thread
The interview he refers to is with him in 1981. That's the one! Whew! It was drivin' me crazy.
Randy M
Well-Known Member
I was at a music store that was trying to unload orphaned CDs. Me, the bargain hunter, found it there. No other Carpenters CDs, just Karen's solo CD. All of the mom & pop CD/LP music stores were selling down & closing stores and going online. The mall box stores were the last hurrah and their names kept changing. Miles and miles of cut up CD/LP covers. There was period in the '90s where LPs & CDs were clashing and brick & mortars were in the crosshairs of the box stores and online shopping. Same with book stores.
newvillefan
I Know My First Name Is Stephen
It's that original 1981 interview with Paul Green I'd love to read. Here's the link to the 1991 article he wrote that lifts quotes from it. Fascinating read. Great detective work!
Paul Grein "Goldmine" article, 1991
Rick-An Ordinary Fool
Well-Known Member
Wow that was posted over 20 yrs ago and I’m still here lol I don’t know if “I Should Laugh or Cry” (ABBA)It's that original 1981 interview with Paul Green I'd love to read. Here's the link to the 1991 article he wrote that lifts quotes from it. Fascinating read. Great detective work!
Paul Grein "Goldmine" article, 1991
Fascinating read, love to have this magazine can it still be bought back issue?
So it was published in 1991 but the interview was from 1981. So Paul must have wrote about this prior to it being published in Goldmine in 1991 somewhere else? Or did he hold this info back until 1991? I’m a bit confused.
Why didn’t anyone ask Paul about this at the 50th anniversary when he was on the panel?
The quote from John Farrar was funny. The Slut Monkeys? Lol was that a real group? Lol
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Rick-An Ordinary Fool
Well-Known Member
Yeah I have most all the billboard articles that Paul wrote and I went back to look but can’t find where he interviewed them in 1981 and asked Karen about her solo album and she answered with these replies.Search Paul Grein in titles only. It's in PART THREE OF THREE. Post #3 of 13
Although this particular article was for Goldmine the original one might have been in Billboard as he was a regular writer for them too. It's probably somewhere in the "Have You Read This? thread
The interview he refers to is with him in 1981. That's the one! Whew! It was drivin' me crazy.
Rick-An Ordinary Fool
Well-Known Member
Nemily
"I'm goin' way down south to Baton Rouge, tonight"
It was summer of 1981, if that helps
Rick-An Ordinary Fool
Well-Known Member
GDBY2LV
Well-Known Member
You can also check the Los Angeles Times where he also was working in the 80’s. I called him there to see if he had a copy of Karen’s album, as I had it too, in 1988, and he said yes, he did. He was disappointed it wasn’t released, and really nice to talk to. I didn’t attend the 50th. Larry Flick at Billboard wrote about the disco cuts when the album was finally released, begging for someone to do a remix for Lovelines, and or My Body Keeps Changing My Mind, for club use. I believe it was near the club hits/ charts section of Billboard. I think he said something like “her honey dripped vocals….” in his review. I remember that Goldmine interview as well, with David Cassidy on the cover. I had forgotten about that. Thank you.
goodjeans
Well-Known Member
He was referring to "My Body..." called Karen KC-said that her voice was as if to the genre born ( disco/dance) and said something to the effect of...come one guys/how about a remix. I'm doing this from memory. It was in the Dance Trax area of the magazine.
motownboy
Well-Known Member
I absolutely love Karen singing "My Body Keeps Changing My Mind." This was disco for the masses and she sang it beautifully. I have said many times on this topic on various threads, despite Richard saying to her "...don't do Disco...", this was one of the first songs that he remixed and released on the "For The Top" box set. If he didn't like it, he wouldn't have remixed it for release. He remixed and released many tracks from the solo album, but not all of them. He remixed the ones that he liked and saw potential in.
I see it differently. The label first wanted a 20th anniversary album to be made up of leftovers (LOVELINES). Well, what was left over? Her solo album, for one thing. Meanwhile, still In the "vault" were a few leftover tracks that didn't make their later 70s albums. So he cobbled together the leftover tracks and still needed a few more, so he probably looked at the solo tracks and picked those that were the best of the lot. And to "help" those along, he did some remixing - rather successfully, I believe, as the solo tracks on LOVELINES sound generally better than they do on the Ramone mix.
The label then wanted a big all-encompassing box set for Carpenters (FROM THE TOP) and Richard again looked at what was still around to fill; that out. The early tracks from Karens early singles, Spectrum days, demos, and Trio days mostly filled out the first disc. Discs 2 and 3 were the meat of the catalog with a few oddities thrown in. And the last disc took care of the latter days, TV medleys, and a few more solo tracks.
I don't see it that he "liked" the tracks included, more that he didn't dislike them as much as some others - and that if they had to be included, maybe remixing would help a bit.
When you're working with all that's left, you use what can and do your best.
Rick-An Ordinary Fool
Well-Known Member
Do you think reaction from the fans or the press would have been any different had we not heard some songs prior to when it was released in 1996. Could fans and press have already formed opinions of her album after only hearing a few songs from Lovelines. Then changed those opinions once the album was heard in its entirety?
Those opinions in 1990 could have been yeah it sounds disco not good, to later changing those opinions after hearing the whole album and realizing it wasn’t all disco.
I personally liked the tracks I heard on Lovelines and loved it even more once I heard all of the album from beginning to end years later.
Those opinions in 1990 could have been yeah it sounds disco not good, to later changing those opinions after hearing the whole album and realizing it wasn’t all disco.
I personally liked the tracks I heard on Lovelines and loved it even more once I heard all of the album from beginning to end years later.
CarpentersToYou
Somehow you brought the gambler out in me...
goodjeans
Well-Known Member
I love it too.
newvillefan
I Know My First Name Is Stephen
That's a really good question. Ironically, the only two disco songs on the album are 'Lovelines' and 'My Body Keeps Changing My Mind', two of the five tracks released before the full album. I do think some people assumed the rest of it was full of similar material, when actually nothing was further from the truth.
Here's how I'd categorise the album generically, track by track:
Lovelines - pop/disco crossover
All Because Of You - country
If I Had You - jazz/pop crossover
Making Love In The Afternoon - pop
If We Try - jazz/pop crossover ballad
Remember When Lovin' Took All Night - pop/soul crossover
Still In Love With You - lite rock/funk crossover
My Body Keeps Changing My Mind - disco
Make Believe It's Your First Time - pop ballad
Guess I Just Lost My Head - jazz/pop crossover
Still Crazy After All These Years - pop ballad
It's really hard to pigeon hole many of these tracks into one category. Many of them are neither one thing nor another, but a unique blend of two styles.
This is exactly why I enjoy it so much.
Rick-An Ordinary Fool
Well-Known Member
I like this breakdown.
We missed out from what could have been. Remember when Karen did that radio program for Christmas Portrait and she gave a run down of all the songs on the album?
If her album had been released she could have done a similar type thing telling her story about what each track meant to her and why she decided to record it. For me, It would have made the album so much more personal hearing in her own words what was going through her mind and how she enjoyed recording certain tracks and why they were so special to her.
That would have been incredible.
Rick-An Ordinary Fool
Well-Known Member
You can’t tell me that after radio stations heard singles from this album they would have said, wait, this is Karen of the Carpenters? We need to get her into the studio to talk about this album over the air. Can someone get her agent on the phone? Especially radio stations in CA and NY.
newvillefan
I Know My First Name Is Stephen
^^^ This 100 percent! It would have caught so many people off guard. Maybe that's what sealed its fate. It wasn't the usual, contrite, bread and butter stuff they were renowned for.
Karen Carpenter never had any trouble getting interviews before, I don't see why this would have been any different. She had done plenty of radio interviews with and without Richard. There's no reason to think Jerry Weintraub would have had any trouble at all getting an interview booked. It's a fairly normal part of the promotional process.
The main point is that it would have been wonderful to hear Karen's own words about these songs that meant so very much to her and to many of the rest of us. It is something that is missing from the record. We have all chimed in over many years about what we think of them individually and as a whole. It would have been great to have heard her own words about them.
The main point is that it would have been wonderful to hear Karen's own words about these songs that meant so very much to her and to many of the rest of us. It is something that is missing from the record. We have all chimed in over many years about what we think of them individually and as a whole. It would have been great to have heard her own words about them.
