Review of Carpenters' 1972 concert in Philadelphia

[Harry]

While cleaning files off of an old computer, I found this transcript of an article from the Philadelphia Evening Bulletin from 1972. It was the review of the Carpenters' concert the previous evening:

Review of 1972 Concert in The Philadelphia Evening Bulletin

THE CARPENTERS SING…AND THE GAP NARROWS

By JOE ADCOCK Of The Bulletin Staff

THE CARPENTERS pour oil on some of the troubled waters that slosh around in the generation gap.

Children from toddlers to teens went with their parents and grandparents to hear the brother-sister team’s ballads last night at the Academy Of Music. The audience was also full of young couples.

The Carpenters – beaming, in their twenties, good looking – are among the few inoffensive phenomena in today’s world. They sing sweetly about love. If the love is unhappy, no matter. They sing bright-eyed and perky anyway.

Their sound has been called variously “progressive pop,” “love rock” or “soft rock.” Whatever it is, it’s soothing and sentimental, with under-lying twangs from acoustical guitars and electric piano to keep it up-to-date.

. . .

LAST NIGHT KAREN on the drums and Richard at the piano appeared with about 40 backup musicians.

Karen is also lead singer. Her voice sometimes gets a Judy Garland throb and yearning that momentarily breaks free of somewhat sticky, violin-laden accompaniments.

It’s interesting to see her drum and sing at the same time – an impressive feat of breath control. She’s not a very spectacular drummer, however.

She abandoned the set to stand and sing “Close To You,” the Carpenters’ all-time great hit, and a few other songs. Drummer Jim Anthony took over the percussion for her and quickly established a catchier sound.

The hour-long flow of long songs was broken for a few novelties – a country number, a kind of Spike Jones parody and a contrapuntal instrumental piece called “Flat Baroque.”

. . .

THE CARPENTERS’ act was preceded by composer-performer Randy Edelman. Accompanying himself on the piano, Edelman sang laments about erosion, depression, Christmas, practicing the piano, treatment of the aging, unhappy acquaintances, hectic living and matelessness.

I thought it would be interesting to those who hadn't read it before. I'm pretty sure I posted it either here or at Ran's old place years ago.

Harry
...finding files, online...

 

[ullalume]

Cheers Harry,

Haven't seen that one. What annoys me is that many a critic, now and then, lambasted them for not having a social conscience (hence the subtle jibe by quietly championing Edelman) then turning around and next week reviewing a Fitzgerald, Sinatra or Nilsson and giving it the thumbs up.

It really was personal, with the Carpenters, wasn't it?

Neil

 

[GOODY4SHOES]

"It’s interesting to see her drum and sing at the same time – an impressive feat of breath control. She’s not a very spectacular drummer, however."

Uh... I think not.

Technically, Karen was a fantastic drummer! Just because she didn't pound the skins like drummers of the period (i.e. Moon, Baker, Pert), she got lambasted.

This is a combination of this guy not knowing what he's talking about and trying to stay hip. Back then it was not cool to like the Carpenters. 90% of all music critics slammed the the C's, especially their image. Shear ignorance.

 

[PJ]

Also the rarity of having a singing drummer fronting Carpenters as lead vocalist caused great surprise and many sexist comments / reviews in the 1970's ....sadly Karen was never given her dues / full credit as drummer ....which she loved ....during their most active period

Comparisons to Moon , Bonham , jazz drummers were quite common and equally invalid as Carpenters were pop artists / sound and the others quite separate musically ....still Richard understood this when asked if Carpenters would record a rock album -"Hell no ....We don't take critics seriously when compared to rock groups ....there is no way we could do justice to a rock album "

Still Carpenters could cover many different styles and types of music ....perhaps a 1980's rock set would have been a real shocker to their critics .....

Peter