RICHARD : VILLAIN TO ANTI CHRIST ......

[Mike Blakesley]

He could maybe produce ONE song, put it on iTunes and see how it does. I guess his biggest problem is, he's not well-known enough to use anything but the Carpenters name to attract attention, and his music probably wouldn't be "today-sounding" enough to attract attention under his own name (or some new group name).

On top of that, at his age, he's probably not keen to be "starting over" when he still has the Carpenters legacy to oversee. If he did leave that behind, it'd only be a matter of a few years before there would just be a small group of super-dedicated fans and everyone else would have moved on.

Not that it's impossible to start over....look to Herb Alpert for an example. He's putting out new music now and gaining new jazz fans, some of whom may have never even heard the Tijuana Brass music.

 

[Mark-T]

^^ So true- but to this man, Karen's voice trumps Richard's skills. Not a knock on him, rather a statement of how much I love her voice.

 

[manofsteel1979]

^^ So true- but to this man, Karen's voice trumps Richard's skills. Not a knock on him, rather a statement of how much I love her voice.

Which is probably how 90% of fans of the Carpenters feel. However,it's important to remember that the reason we have Karen's voice to enjoy in the first place is that he saw her talent and cultivated it. He encouraged and pushed her to sing. He believed in her when she probably didn't see how good she was. I get annoyed when I see people say that Richard didn't respect her talents when in fact , I think he put her on an even higher pedestal than even some of us fans. Even with the drama that unfolded in Karen's final years and the tension between them, I doubt that ever changed.

Maybe that's why he puts all his energy into the remixes. Being the perfectionist he is ,all he can see is all that is 'wrong' with what was done then and he wants to match the 'perfection' of Karen's vocals, perhaps? Could he feel that doing anything but Carpenters stuff is a "betrayal" of Karen ? Or, most likely ,without his muse, he has lost some of his creative motivation ? :|

 

[richard_sloat]

With all due respect, I find the idea of Richard gathering other singers to do an album of Carpenters tunes positively odious. The songs have been done...and done well.

I think it would make for a fun listening. He could try new approaches to the songs we've heard millions of times. The singers could interpretate them in their own personal styles and the tracks could be co-produced by Richard and fellows producers. They could try things like Superstar on acoustic guitar, Close to you in a big band hazz arrangement, etc. Like they did in the If I were a Carpenter album, which is not GREAT but it's DIFFERENT.

 

[cam89]

I am sure he loved her voice...but it must be mentionned that there were a lot of well known artists that wanted to do duets with her...and she wouldn't. She could have been known to do some solo songs (and I am not talking about her solo songs of 1979 et al), in the 1970's, and gotten some much needed recognition, she so desired!

Even singers like Anne Murray would never mention Karen's name in names of her contemporaries, her name was always left out (just one example)...she was always coupled with The Carpenters...which was kinda sad...as she wanted to do much more...

 

[Mike Blakesley]

I've always thought that a "Carpenters Unplugged" album could be good. Something where all the orchestration and etc. is stripped out and we just have a basic (acoustic) band and Karen's voice. But, I'm sure Richard would never do that because his real claim-to-fame is arranging/orchestrating, so it'd be like throwing his own work away.

Or a remix project a la Herb Alpert's WHIPPED CREAM RE-WHIPPED could be fun. But again, I'm sure he would never allow that either.

 

[richard_sloat]

Someone could do it despite of him... people remix Madonna's songs all over the internet, so...

 

[Dave]

Someone could do it despite of him... people remix Madonna's songs all over the internet, so...

A lot of Madonna's songs were mixed waaaayyyyy long ago...! She was the 12"-Remix Queen!!!!


Dave

--Who had Madonna's early catalog up to Like A Prayer & nearly 80% was re-mixed stuff...!

 

[richard_sloat]

I'm not talking about that, I'm talking about fan-made remixes. There are tons of them out there. Someone with talent could make the Carpenters remixes.

 

[newvillefan]

I've always thought that a "Carpenters Unplugged" album could be good. Something where all the orchestration and etc. is stripped out and we just have a basic (acoustic) band and Karen's voice. But, I'm sure Richard would never do that because his real claim-to-fame is arranging/orchestrating, so it'd be like throwing his own work away..

It's a lovely idea but I don't think the public would accept something which was just the studio recordings stripped back. Acoustic albums are all about the ambiance, the rapport with the audience, the chatter and interaction (I'm thinking of The Corrs MTV album or the Bee Gees Unplugged for example)....we won't ever get that with Karen

 

[manofsteel1979]

I've always thought that a "Carpenters Unplugged" album could be good. Something where all the orchestration and etc. is stripped out and we just have a basic (acoustic) band and Karen's voice. But, I'm sure Richard would never do that because his real claim-to-fame is arranging/orchestrating, so it'd be like throwing his own work away..

It's a lovely idea but I don't think the public would accept something which was just the studio recordings stripped back. Acoustic albums are all about the ambiance, the rapport with the audience, the chatter and interaction (I'm thinking of The Corrs MTV album or the Bee Gees Unplugged for example)....we won't ever get that with Karen

How true. What a shame. It could have been just Rich and his piano and Karen and her voice. Just the two of them,stripped back to the basics,showing off both of their raw talents. Also,I could have imagined them doing solo shows similar to the ones Elton John does from time to time,touring without their band. Just them and the piano.

 

[Mike Blakesley]

Well there IS a (former?) Corner member Roland Chayer, he was pretty good at Carpenters mashups.

 

[richard_sloat]

Is it the same Roland who was banned from Lead Sister forum?? I've always been curious about him but Pamela would not tell me anything...

 

[Mike Blakesley]

I don't know. He would post links to his homemade mixes (which are actually pretty good) but perhaps because we don't allow links to copyrighted material*, he stopped posting.

* We tend to make exceptions for Youtube links because most of the material linked isn't available any other way. His mixes were made from generally available, copyrighted material without the permission of the copyright holders.

 

[newvillefan]

Is it the same Roland who was banned from Lead Sister forum?? I've always been curious about him but Pamela would not tell me anything...

Yes it is the same Roland. He was banned from leadsister.com for inappropriate comments and behaviour, which caused many members to complain about him.

 

[Harry]

One of Roland's mixes:

http://rolandchayer.com/TheVanKarenLife/modulez/RolandChayer-CarpentersMix01.mp3

It's somewhat less inspiring than the 'GHP Productions" Oasis/Carpenters mashup of "Wonderwall" and "We've Only Just Begun" which is a minor masterpiece:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8nH9cO6rQY0

Harry

 

[richard_sloat]

Yes it is the same Roland. He was banned from leadsister.com for inappropriate comments and behaviour, which caused many members to complain about him.

That sounds familiar, LOL!!!!!

 

[manofsteel1979]

I visited Rolands' site,and I must say I was impressed. I'm not a big Van Halen fan, but his mixes and mash ups are very good. I particularly like his Classic Rock mixes. Very fun and original! The Carpenters mix was impressive, although I would like to hear him do a few more of those. Over all, it's worth checking out.