Anyone read this?

Wow, even after all these years, Liberty Devitto still chooses words that reach the heart. Thanks for sharing this, GaryAlan. I would love to hear more of this type of memory recollection.
 
Excerpts:
Petula Clark on Elvis, John Lennon and how Downtown became an anthem
MARCH 31 2017 - 1:15PM
"Petula Clark on Elvis, John Lennon and how
Downtown became an anthem"
Steve Meacham
"The last time she saw Karen Carpenter,
Clark pleaded with the younger singer to seek professional help for anorexia."
---
"Yet you can understand Clark's reluctance to put down the definitive version of "my strange life"
in print given the global publicity she received after revealing the time she met Elvis Presley in Las Vegas."
"The story went viral: Elvis was itching to have a threesome with Clark and ... Carpenter.
But Clark, married with three children, coaxed her friend out of Elvis' clutches."
"Since that burst of attention, Clark has been guarded."
But when the subject is raised, she laughs.
"There's really not much more to say.
It was perfectly obvious Elvis was trying it on. How else can I put it politely?"
---
"Neither Karen nor I had met Elvis before.
We thought it would be fun to see his show.
Afterwards we were invited back to his huge dressing room.
"There were other people there, but when Elvis appeared, everyone disappeared.
So it was just Elvis, Karen and me."
"Elvis was the perfect 'Southern Gentleman'.
Really charming. Karen was younger, and naive.
But I knew where he was going.
I'd been round the block a bit."
---
"I got out of there as quickly as I could, dragging Karen with me.
Elvis was at the doorway, laughing with a look which said; 'I'll get you one day!' But he never did."
----End.
 
Excerpts:
Petula Clark on Elvis, John Lennon and how Downtown became an anthem
MARCH 31 2017 - 1:15PM
"Petula Clark on Elvis, John Lennon and how
Downtown became an anthem"
Steve Meacham
"The last time she saw Karen Carpenter,
Clark pleaded with the younger singer to seek professional help for anorexia."
---
"Yet you can understand Clark's reluctance to put down the definitive version of "my strange life"
in print given the global publicity she received after revealing the time she met Elvis Presley in Las Vegas."
"The story went viral: Elvis was itching to have a threesome with Clark and ... Carpenter.
But Clark, married with three children, coaxed her friend out of Elvis' clutches."
"Since that burst of attention, Clark has been guarded."
But when the subject is raised, she laughs.
"There's really not much more to say.
It was perfectly obvious Elvis was trying it on. How else can I put it politely?"
---
"Neither Karen nor I had met Elvis before.
It must have been those bacon, banana, and peanut butter sandwiches. He was Nothing but a Hound Dog.
We thought it would be fun to see his show.
Afterwards we were invited back to his huge dressing room.
"There were other people there, but when Elvis appeared, everyone disappeared.
So it was just Elvis, Karen and me."
"Elvis was the perfect 'Southern Gentleman'.
Really charming. Karen was younger, and naive.
But I knew where he was going.
I'd been round the block a bit."
---
"I got out of there as quickly as I could, dragging Karen with me.
Elvis was at the doorway, laughing with a look which said; 'I'll get you one day!' But he never did."
----End.
 
Amusingly, I've listened to Black Sabbath....
Black Sabbath's Tony Iommi goes from raising hell to holy music

Excerpt.....
"For half a century, Tony Iommi's ominous guitar riffs propelled the dark, apocalyptic sound of Black Sabbath."
Iommi said of late he's been tuning into the vintage rock and roll from the 1950's and 1960's that first
influenced him as a musician and confirmed a British newspaper's report
(which apparently shocked some self-respecting Sabbath fans)
that he is fond both of Doris Day, who had her heyday in the 1950s,
and the soft-rocking 70s duo, The Carpenters."
 
A Family Affair: 11 Musical Siblings Duos | uDiscover
"A Family Affair: 11 Musical Sibling Duos
Richard and Karen Carpenter (Carpenters)"

"Between the studio talents of Richard Carpenter and the beguiling voice of his sister Karen,
the Carpenters were one of the biggest-selling American musical acts of all time.
While their family originally nurtured Richard’s talents, it would be Karen who would first land
a recording contract at age 16. Richard would continue to be the driving musical force,
but it was Karen’s vocals that truly set the duo apart."
 
I wanted to write an update on my hearing loss.....
this morning I saw a specialist ENT, I am happy to report great improvement in hearing recovery,
I'd say I'm 70-80% of normal. (Still have to start some meds).
Now, with that out of the way...I can--as of today--finally hear Karen Carpenter's voice again !!
Thank heavens for the forum--and, its members--
you all kept me going (especially one in particular, thanks James).
Yesterday I could hear virtually nothing, now there is hope.
When I could not hear Chris May's last offering--Karen's California Dreaming--
I was mortified (more so than I have been).
Continued Life without hearing Carpenters' music,simply unbearable !
(After all, I can do without traffic noise !).

Thanks, all.
 
I wanted to write an update on my hearing loss.....
this morning I saw a specialist ENT, I am happy to report great improvement in hearing recovery,
I'd say I'm 70-80% of normal. (Still have to start some meds).
Now, with that out of the way...I can--as of today--finally hear Karen Carpenter's voice again !!
Thank heavens for the forum--and, its members--
you all kept me going (especially one in particular, thanks James).
Yesterday I could hear virtually nothing, now there is hope.
When I could not hear Chris May's last offering--Karen's California Dreaming--
I was mortified (more so than I have been).
Continued Life without hearing Carpenters' music,simply unbearable !
(After all, I can do without traffic noise !).

Thanks, all.

Amen to that! I'm so glad to hear your good news GaryAlan.
 
I wanted to write an update on my hearing loss.....
this morning I saw a specialist ENT, I am happy to report great improvement in hearing recovery,
I'd say I'm 70-80% of normal. (Still have to start some meds).
Now, with that out of the way...I can--as of today--finally hear Karen Carpenter's voice again !!
Thank heavens for the forum--and, its members--
you all kept me going (especially one in particular, thanks James).
Yesterday I could hear virtually nothing, now there is hope.
When I could not hear Chris May's last offering--Karen's California Dreaming--
I was mortified (more so than I have been).
Continued Life without hearing Carpenters' music,simply unbearable !
(After all, I can do without traffic noise !).

Thanks, all.
God bless, Gary.
 
A look at female artists and the Artists who inspired them (part 1)
Excerpt......
"Who was the first female led band or artist you remember?
Did seeing a female artist inspire you to become a musician?"

"Karen Mansfield:
The first female led band I remember was The Carpenters.
I saw them on my 7th birthday at the Garden State Arts Center in Holmdel and instantly knew what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. It hit my like a bolt of lightning. Wanted a drum set too. I took home a cool Karen Carpenter poster of her sitting behind her drum set and hung it on my bedroom wall."
'Amy Schindler (from ViRAGO): I can remember being a small child and completely fascinated by Karen Carpenter because I saw her on tv playing the drums and kickin' ass on them too!"

More:
A look at female artists and the Artists who inspired them (part 1)
 
http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/for-a-carpenter-its-still-yesterday-once-more-1233471.html

For A Carpenter, it's still Yesterday Once More.
Wednesday 1 October 1997


(Excerpts)

The waiter is becoming extremely stroppy. No, the American gentleman really can't sit and have photographs taken of him playing on the lounge piano.
Hotel policy. Anyhow who did we say he was again? Clearly it's time for the definitive vocal reminder. "Every sha-la-la, every whoa- oh-whoa..." does the trick.
The penny drops immediately. Oh, THAT Richard Carpenter. Ginger without Fred. Wise without Morecambe. Richard without Karen. Sad, sad, sad.
---
His "new" album - Richard Carpenter, Pianist, Arranger, Composer, Conductor - is (bar two new tracks) an instrumental reworking of all the old songs.
Why go over old ground? "If I just took the original arrangements that would be a travesty to Karen's memory, but this is a whole different animal from
the Carpenters records." You might say he's cashing in. "They're my songs you know" he retorts defensively in particularly Darren-like fashion.
"I have as much right as anybody to record them, I knew as I was making it that people would be popping at me. But if I tried to spend my life pleasing
everybody I'd be in a loony bin." Would Karen approve? "Absolutely - I can't stress strongly enough how much she would. She was my number one supporter. She would love some of the changes I've put on. She is in it in spirit without a doubt."
 
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A great career retrospective from the writer of this article. Look out for the stunning review of Passage in the full article.

Perfect Sound Forever: The Carpenters

Perfect Sound Forever
online music magazine presents...


Carpenters, Unironically
By Craig Kurtz
(June 2013)


(Excerpts)

Passage was one of those ultra-tracked audiophile albums record shops used to impress customers, the ones with the charge cards. Michael Franks' fusiony "B'wana She No Home," the album opener, is better yet, boasting Tom Scott charts and a sure, deft lilt. Karen Carpenter once again sounds like she's enjoying her work in the studio, and that's a reassuring lift to have back [...] In all, Passage is the artistic successor to Now & Then; perhaps it's a bit hipper. By '77, the prog dinosaurs couldn't pull this sort of indulgence off, but in the "easy listening" universe, this stuff was radical. A career high.
---
1981's Made In America is the final Carpenters album. It is a considerably calculated product, full of anticipated styles and sentiments, bookended by two Carpenter-Bettis originals, one a countryish shuffle, the other a Disneyesque ballad, neither eventful or memorable. The primary single, "Touch Me When We're Dancing," is generic adult contemporary, stuffed with modern Nashville flourishes, monolithic orchestration, and declining Scott saxophone work barely worthy of Letterman. "Beechwood 4-5789" is another callow oldie, dated by its 80s palm-muted "calypso" guitar, sounding like Blondie lite. Certainly, there are moments that are undeniably topnotch Carpenters--Karen Carpenter exercises a gorgeous lead on the otherwise unremarkable "I Believe You," for example, and there's Peter Knight's playful 50s arrangement of Bacharach and Bayer-Sager's "Somebody's Been Lyin'" to provide the album's standout--but an embarrassing synth-pop jingle like "(Want You) Back In My Life Again" suggests the Carpenters were attempting to trade their identities for a chart smash, which is regrettable (especially when the endeavor failed). Most other cuts are stock, professional, anonymous--everything Passage transcended; maybe when it's gone, it's just gone. Or who knows. The tragedy is that, in theory, the 80s rediscovery of the Great American Songbook, and its attendant freedom from the endless race for the next radio hit, should have been owned by these artists.
 
Last edited:
^^Interesting read !
Now....
I always enjoyed Tom Scott's Tenor Sax on
Touch Me When We're Dancing,
and,
while Peter Knight is credited with orchestration on
Somebody's Been Lying,
I do believe Richard Carpenter is responsible for the arrangement.
 
  • The Australian
  • April 28, 2017
  • Smooth operators ease their way to the top of the FM radio heap
  • "The stations’ success is due to their “timeless music”, he says, whether that be Fleetwood Mac or Elton John or Rod Stewart or Cyndi Lauper.
    “There is so much stuff going on in the world people want to hit that button that says Smooth FM and take the time to chill out and enjoy the music.
    “The music is the star of Smooth FM, it is not about us lot.”
    The stations have a share among 25 to 39 year olds in excess of 9 per cent, among a generation that wasn’t born when Karen Carpenter crooned Smooth FM favorite We’ve Only Just Begun back in 1970."
 
Karen immortalized her "350" in B'wana She No Home and I believe it was referenced in Little Girl Blue as having "KAC" personalized plates. I have a general question; Is there a photograph of this car that exists during the time Karen owned it? Hopefully showing the plates and possibly even the woman herself either sitting in or standing next to the car? And if anyone has access to such a photo, could you please share it with the forum...
 
Karen immortalized her "350" in B'wana She No Home and I believe it was referenced in Little Girl Blue as having "KAC" personalized plates. I have a general question; Is there a photograph of this car that exists during the time Karen owned it? Hopefully showing the plates and possibly even the woman herself either sitting in or standing next to the car? And if anyone has access to such a photo, could you please share it with the forum...
I remember reading somewhere back in the 90's, when planning a visit to the LA area, that there was a rental car company in LA that rented cars formerly owned by famous people. Karen Carpenter's Mercedes was, I believe, one of them.
 
"....in a new poll of British listeners of Smooth Radio, whose format is adult contemporary."
"The most popular artists in the survey were....
(1 and 2) George Michael and Elton John with 19 songs placed in the Top 500,
(3) Michael Jackson with 17, (4 and 5) ABBA and Elvis with 15 songs each,
(6) Stevie wonder with 14 songs, and
(7) The Carpenters and Rod Stewart with 11 songs each."

Source:
Steve Smith: Janet Jackson reschedules tour, Ozzy goes Wylde and the Rolling Stones pick up some awards
 
Excerpts from March 2011 Cubby O'Brien Interview:
Meeksa Mooska Mouseketeer: A Conversation with Cubby O'Brien | Confessions of a Pop Culture Addict

"...So it was on The Carol Burnett Show where I met Bernadette Peters and The Carpenters."
"...The Carol Burnett Show, we were about to go on hiatus.
Their manager came up to me and asked if I would be going on the road with them for the summer.
They were trying to get Karen away from the drums and get her out front singing.
They didn’t want her behind the drums with the microphone in her mouth.
But Karen didn’t want to and she liked being the drummer. I said yes and I learned the show.
They didn’t have any sheet music, so I walked around with the tapes for a couple of weeks and
Karen helped me learn the songs. For six months we played together and I played the whole show.
I did all the drum licks that she played. Richard wanted all the live stuff to sound exactly like it did on the tape.
Whatever the new single was, we had to learn it exactly like it was recorded. So Karen and I played the same drum riffs over and over, and eventually they got her away from the drums and I began doing the rest of it. We did this big thing for Strike Up the Band where Karen would play and I would play and we did a big drum solo together, but I was the drummer from 1973 on."
 
Karen immortalized her "350" in B'wana She No Home and I believe it was referenced in Little Girl Blue as having "KAC" personalized plates. I have a general question; Is there a photograph of this car that exists during the time Karen owned it? Hopefully showing the plates and possibly even the woman herself either sitting in or standing next to the car? And if anyone has access to such a photo, could you please share it with the forum...

back in the 90's, a fan from south America was given a tour of the house by the housekeeper. he filmed the event, of course, beginning with the plane landing. as part pf the tour, he was taken into the garage of the addition; there were two cars. he was allowed to sit in the Mercedes, it was fairly standard, black exterior with black interior. the other vintage car, I believe, was the one she drove onstage in one of the Christmas programs.
 
A lengthy Article:
Thanks to Randy Scmidt's Facebook Page for alerting me to this article:
How The Whitest Singer Of The ’70s Became An Icon In The Philippines
Singer Of The ’70s Became An Icon In The Philippines
Karen Carpenter always seemed to loom large in the Philippines. I never understood why until now.
Posted on May 9, 2017, at 11:18 a.m.
Excerpts:
"To be corny is to be “mawkishly old-fashioned: tiresomely simple and sentimental,”
and this definition describes my attachment to the Carpenters with searing precision...."

" I heard “Sing” on the radio at Baclaran Market, “We’ve Only Just Begun” performed by
a cover band in Malate, “Close to You” strummed on the guitar in the resort town of Boracay.
In each instance, almost everyone present sang or hummed along, some under their breath,
others with full-throated abandon."

"To this day, the Carpenters hold the distinction of being among the few American acts to boast
Philippines-only radio hits: album tracks largely unknown in other parts of the world but in heavy
rotation on Filipino radio, thus elevating these lesser cuts to the prime status of the artists’ more
recognizable global hits. As Glenn Tuazon explains in the Manila Review, “never released as a single
and apparently deemed a throwaway album cut from A Kind of Hush, [the Carpenters’ ‘You’]
reaped a different level of popularity in the Philippines, due to its heavy radio airplay… T
he song is often the lead track in locally-produced Carpenters compilations, which is strange,
considering the Carpenters and their label never considered ‘You’ among the band’s best or most important songs.”
 
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