LIVE IN JAPAN - not in the USA

[KevCav333]

The CARPENTERS "Live In Japan" LP could have been released in the USA with a "LIVE" single of this one with this extended ending ~ remastered in mono:

 

[CraigGA]

The male backup voices are a little pitchy. If some female vocals were blended in it may have helped. Karen's backup is spot on, just as it is in Daddy's Home and Sha Boom from this album. Maybe if those three songs were blended into one, but then it would have been too much like Now and Then. At anytime, it is a treasure live, but as a single, it would have needed more IMHO and an earlier release date. They really had a lot of gems jammed in those first four years!

 

[newvillefan]

The male backup voices are a little pitchy. If some female vocals were blended in it may have helped.

To this day, I don't understand why the live group didn't include one or more female backup singers. The whole Carpenters sound depended heavily on Karen's multitracked vocals so to have it reproduced by guys singing in falsetto never quite sounded right to me. I think it did a disservice to their sound when reproduced live. That's actually one of the major reasons why I don't listen to their live albums often...if ever.

 

[K.C. Jr]

Maybe Karen didn't want another girl to "compete with" or be compared to...or maybe they couldn't find any that came close enough to her ability. Who knows?

 

[Harry]

Stephen's correct. Whenever I saw Carpenters live, I always regretted the fact that there were no female backup singers. The sound of the guys doing the backing harmonies in falsetto - and straining a bit at times - just brought the live sound down a notch, IMHO. So while many here clamors for more live recordings, I really am rather neutral about it. I'm so much more fond of the way their studio work sounded, that the live stuff usually just leaves me mostly flat.

 

[Mark-T]

I agree with Harry on Live in Japan- but I absolutely love the live Palladium recording. Karen sounds incredible on it.

 

[CraigGA]

Strangely enough, the backup voices in Live From Austrialia sound better. I once thought they were trying to achieve the Spectrum sound live but didn't they have another female too? I think the backup lack of pitch came from being too tired on the road. After all, Karen had a one of a kind voice that could stand the test of anything and still sound perfect, and that is rare.