Quotes about the Carpenters

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Since we talked about the Corrs here briefly....I'm not sure if you knew but Andrea Corr does a duet on Englebert Humperdinck's CD Calling, her duet is called, Ain't That Peculiar, you can hear a brief snipet here. It appears this is an import CD and hard to get. Olivia also does a duet called Never, Never, Never, that is also on the tube and it's really nice. I wish I could just buy that song but it's not even on iTunes or Amazon to buy. argh!!

 
A quote from Adio Marchant, singer and songwriter, who is better known as Bipolar Sunshine (From The Liverpool Echo 4/15/2014):
“For instance, my mum used to play a lot of reggae, but she also loved the Carpenters. You listen to a Carpenters song
and the moment her voice comes in, it stuns you. That’s what it’s about. Not this genre or that genre.”
 
Harry said:
Regarding the Sharon Corr interview posted above, she was asked how long it had been since she'd performed in Boston, and it was ten years ago. I know - I was there then!

I got to attend the group's pre-show sound setup and afterward we got to take some pictures with them. This was the full shot with a group of about eight fans and three Corrs:

The Corrs! 003sm.jpg
Corrs pre-show, Boston 2004

That's me and my wife on the left of the picture, so I put Photoshop to work to eliminate the rest of the group:

USandCORRS.jpg
Corrs pre-show, Boston 2004, cropped

You can kind-of tell how hot it was by Andrea's stray hairs falling in front of her face. It was a boiling August day up there in something like 97° heat.

At the concert that evening, members of The Corrs' crew took some photos backstage and later posted them on their website. In this shot, if you look carefully, you can see the two of us in the front row:

MeBostonJimAndreaLargerArrow.jpg
Corrs concert, Boston 2004

That's me in the black shirt (dumb choice for a hot day!).

Caroline wasn't present at this show. She was home with her first pregnancy, sort of the beginning of the end of the group.

Anyway - just some personal tidbits.

Harry
Click to expand...
Harry, your photos got me wondering if you ever saw K & R in concert.

I'm watching The Corrs at Solidays today.
 
Last edited:
song4u said:
Harry, your photos got me wondering if you ever saw K & R in concert.
Click to expand...

Yes, I attended five different Carpenters concerts when they came through Philadelphia. Twice at the Academy Of Music, around 70-71 and again in 1972. Twice at the Valley Forge Music Fair in 73 and 75, and then the last one at the Mann Music Center in either 76 or possibly 77. I also attended one of their softball games during the time of the Valley Forge concert run. The Carpenters team played a team made up of local radio DJs.

You'd think that I would be a fountain of information about these shows and events, but I believe I must have been so star-struck that it all just washed over me and the details are largely lost to time. I and a buddy did make cassette tapes of the 1972 and 1973 shows and I still have those recordings. I know I also took snapshots at the 1972 show, but darned if I can find them. They weren't very good but I recall Karen wearing a light-blue granny dress.

I recall the last show having the Richard Warsaw Concerto bit and Karen on the drums like in the Palladium show.

That's about as detailed as I can get. Like I said - probably star-struck. I never got to actually meet them - unless I did at the softball game? - Total memory loss on that one...

Harry
 
Drummer Cubby O'Brien:
There was no (sheet) music,” he recalled. “I had to learn everything by listening.”
“Karen was a very sweet girl,” O’Brien said.
Karen Carpenter was an accomplished drummer,
but band management wanted her out front singing where the audience could see her, so O’Brien was invited to go on tour with them.

Source:
http://www.columbian.com/news/2010/apr/19/cubby-obrien/
 
GaryAlan said:
February 7, 1983 The Times News
John Bettis:
"My feeling is that everything came so naturally to Karen, the singing, the dancing--that she felt she was earning her stardom
by denying herself food."
Click to expand...
Wow, I don't remember reading that one. It would be interesting to hear if John still feels that way.
 
CNN Interview March 23,1998:
Richard Carpenter-
"That's something you're born with. Granted, environment can play some part, but I'm a firm believer in genetics."
"A person can learn technically to orchestrate. But the stuff it takes to make a really terrific arrangement, that can't be taught,
just as you can't teach someone to write a memorable song. Karen's gift was natural too, as it was with Sinatra, Crosby and all the great singers."
---
"I did want a certain amount of recognition for what I did, even though, being a student of the industry, I knew I wasn't going to get that much of it."

Complete Interview Here:
http://www.cnn.com/SHOWBIZ/9803/23/richard.carpenter.lat/
 
Ludington Daily News, April 26,1979:
Lynne Anderson:"..Working with the Carpenters in Los Angeles, she asked Richard Carpenter if his song
Top of the World was going to be released as a single. He said 'No' , so she cut that.
My record became #1 on the country charts, and the Carpenters re-recorded it and released it as a single.
They got #1 on the pop chart."

Source:
http://news.google.com/newspapers?n...9NOAAAAIBAJ&sjid=HkoDAAAAIBAJ&pg=6903,9738259
 
November 30,1976,The Dispatch--Drumming Puts Her at the Top--:
Karen Carpenter:
"..I love to play, I really do. And when I started there were very few female drummers, but I didn't start
playing just as a gimmick. It was different,and I realized it was something new, but at the same time I took
a lot of pride in knowing how to play my instrument. So, singing was an accident, serious singing came long after the drums."

Source:
http://news.google.com/newspapers?n..._seAAAAIBAJ&sjid=jFEEAAAAIBAJ&pg=5404,3442296
 
Nov 22,2014,
Jim Brickman:
"The Carpenters did a great job with Christmas songs. I want their spirit to live on in what I do. "
 
GaryAlan said:
November 30,1976,The Dispatch--Drumming Puts Her at the Top--:
Karen Carpenter:
"..I love to play, I really do. And when I started there were very few female drummers, but I didn't start
playing just as a gimmick. It was different,and I realized it was something new, but at the same time I took
a lot of pride in knowing how to play my instrument. So, singing was an accident, serious singing came long after the drums."

Source:
http://news.google.com/newspapers?n..._seAAAAIBAJ&sjid=jFEEAAAAIBAJ&pg=5404,3442296
Click to expand...


Very cool! I'd always wondered if Karen had a drum set in her condo. Looks like she had FIVE! :)
 
Billboard Magazine, July 4, 1981,
Richard Carpenter (on Passage):
"...I still like that album a great deal. I didn't see it as all that different. We were comfortable doing every one of those songs."
 
Olivia Newton-John: They are all women whom I’ve admired and songs I’ve sung during my career and while growing up. I just wanted to honor those ladies.

The album includes a gorgeous cover of the Carpenters’ “Rainy Days and Mondays.” You and Karen were close friends, and it’s been nearly 30 years since she passed away. What’s something about her most people don’t know?
Olivia Newton-John
"She was a very good friend. She was a lovely girl and a lot of fun. I think most people don’t know how much she loved Mickey Mouse and Disneyland. She lived [nearby] and loved to go there. She had Mickey Mouses and photos of the Disney characters in her house. She wore T-shirts with Mickey’s face on it. She loved all of that. She was a kid, a big kid. She was a lot of fun and had the most amazing voice. I was such a fan of hers. She was a great girl and I do miss her."
 
Billboard Magazine, February 5,1983 (page 9 Full Page Ad):
"...Musical Artists , among them..The Carpenters...are
thanked for participating in the 10th Annual American Music Awards, which aired January 17th,1983"

Billboard, March 23, 1983:
The Singles 1969-1973 re-enters the charts at position #134.

Billboard July 4, 1981:
Richard Carpenter:"...Acknowledges the he likes Made In America a lot more than Passage." (Paul Grein Interview)
 
Bob Seger recently on his love of Karen Carpenter: “Karen Carpenter was a fabulous singer. Some of the Carpenters' stuff made your teeth ache, but she could sing. And there's a darkness that you hear now that you didn't know was there. There's a soulfulness in their music, because she was really suffering. I remember one time — it was hilarious — I got a taxi ride to a show I was doing in Birmingham, Alabama, and they run me to this hall, and I walk inside, and it's the Carpenters, and it's Karen Carpenter's drum kit on stage. Oops. I said, 'This is the wrong place!' But I didn't leave right away. I wanted to stay and watch sound check. I wanted to hear her sing.”

Full article here: http://my.chicagotribune.com/#section/-1/article/p2p-82182436/
 
Paul Williams:
"...And then an angel sang it.
Richard heard the commercial, recognized my voice and called asking if there was a full version.
Karen's vocal is stunning.
I have never once sung the song without dedicating it to her memory..."
 
From Mike Curb:
Reached by phone last week, Curb said his sister, who is still president of the Curb company, introduced him to Karen.
"She was so talented, so close to her brother. It seemed like every time I dated her, I dropped her off at the recording company — they recorded very late. ...
When she would sing in the car, her voice was so soft you couldn't hear it, but with a microphone, she was magical."
"I get the shivers when I talk about her. She should still be alive, she should still be singing.
My sister and I talk about her all the time, can't get her out of our minds. She was so gifted.
It's so hard to understand how we've lost her."

Source:
http://www.commercialappeal.com/entertainment/author-karen-carpenter-bio-little-girl-blue-memphi
 
That's a great article I missed the first time around. I'd never heard the story of Karen spending Christmas Eve of '82 with the Curbs. I wish she'd married him instead. He's a good man.
 
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