"Tryin' to Get the Feeling Again"

True. But I think there's some kind of "resolution" one can go through if you're sure you're right and can site the information. There are a lot of wackos out there who try to provide misinformation on Wiki for their own amusement.

It was actually one of the Wiki people doing it. He decided that a few Hall & Oates songs were Jazz (they aren't) and when I sited examples of how they aren't, they reverted each one and threatened to have my editing privileges revoked. I haven't bothered with it since. I have a life to lead...LOL!

Ed
 
Thanks, Ed for providing that perspective.

In any event, regarding the song
Trying To Get The Feeling Again....
It represents (imho) a fine example of where Karen's voice was at in January 1975.
Given the manner in which the song vacillates between the higher and lower notes,
I can understand where the decision was made to keep it off of Horizon,
as most of the vocals on that LP linger, and remain, "in the basement".....
still.....what a great Carpenters' song.....
It really should have been completed at that time, 1975.
 
It was actually one of the Wiki people doing it. He decided that a few Hall & Oates songs were Jazz (they aren't) and when I sited examples of how they aren't, they reverted each one and threatened to have my editing privileges revoked. I haven't bothered with it since. I have a life to lead...LOL!

Ed

seems crazy to allow the public to edit stuff, then call them liers afterwards :confused:
 
Gee, I believe a forum member (not I) did some good deeds on Wiki......
An update shows:
The Wiki page has been edited, and it now (1/20/2018) reads:
"The Carpenters' version of "Tryin' to Get the Feeling Again" was recorded during the Horizon sessions in 1975, but it had been shelved as being "one too many ballads". Years later, Richard was looking for the master backing track for "Only Yesterday" and discovered on that same tape the lost, earlier attempt at "Tryin' to Get the Feeling Again" with Karen's "work lead." (A work lead can easily be identified by such anomalies as Karen flipping a sheet of paper over at about 1:50 into the play time of the song as she sight reads and sings.) Richard felt that the vocal was good enough to finish production of the song and release it, as he did in 1994, almost 20 years after it was recorded."
 
Just goes to show you that Wikipedia is as good a source as your neighbor...
 
Just goes to show you that Wikipedia is as good a source as your neighbor...
Very True and In Relative context Some neighbors are Reliable and Some Aren't. Which is why i always take a "Wait and See" Approach to Everything..
 
You’re right Chris and that Wikipedia entry is wrong. Richard documented in the liner notes for Interpretations that he found the track on the master tape of Only Yesterday when he was preparing tracks for the karaoke album. There’s never been any confirmation that there was ever a final recorded vocal for the song either.

Tryin' To Get The Feeling Again (recorded January 27, 1975) was actually cut three days before Only Yesterday, which means that it would have been the first track on the master. Sounds like it never got written on the legend and makes sense as to why it was located accidentally all those years later, since they would have heard it while scrubbing the tape in order to find to Only Yesterday.
 
^^ "scrubbing the tape"
What does that signify ?

By the way, isn't there an official Music Video for the song ?
That is, a video put together by Richard Carpenter for promotion
at the time of Interpretations release ?

Fantastic Carpenters' interpretation...Tryin' To Get The Feeling Again.....
 
^^ "scrubbing the tape"
What does that signify?

That’s a recording term for fast forwarding at high speed through a tape, usually done to find a specific song quickly.

Listen to the noise that the tape made during the live Japanese Telethon just before everything went wrong if you want to know what it sounds like :laugh:

By the way, isn't there an official Music Video for the song ? That is, a video put together by Richard Carpenter for promotion at the time of Interpretations release?

Yes there was an official video compiled in 1994 and shown at least twice on the UK music show TOTP2. They took slow-mo clips of Karen from other videos and it was particularly effective as in certain points, Karen’s phrasing “matched” the vocals of this song.
 
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Richard's talents really shine... In simple terms, he could find some scrap, rusty metal and turn it into a luxurious sports car !

The way he salvaged a lead vocal and made it into a song that sounds like it could have been recorded fully just like the rest of the songs is incredible. If he can do it once... He can do it again ! Here's hoping he gets us something new for the 50th ! Maybe "Something's Missing In My Life"
 
Richard's talents really shine... In simple terms, he could find some scrap, rusty metal and turn it into a luxurious sports car !

The way he salvaged a lead vocal and made it into a song that sounds like it could have been recorded fully just like the rest of the songs is incredible.

Karen’s work leads were so impeccable, they sounded like the finished article already in many cases. So for Richard, there wasn’t very much at all that actually needed to be salvaged.
 
Karen’s work leads were so impeccable, they sounded like the finished article already in many cases. So for Richard, there wasn’t very much at all that actually needed to be salvaged.

That's correct. The work leads were recorded the same way as the master lead in terms of mics and tracking. Only difference was the master leads were often more meticulously edited (often times individual phrases and even words), and took a bit more time to nail down just the way they wanted them. The work-leads were often a one-take sing-thru.
 
I think that Karen and Richard should have just sat down with tape rolling, Richard at the piano, and gone through every song they knew. What they performed would have been good enough for release every time. Then we'd have a whole library of amazing performances to enjoy. Karen's work leads that have been released demonstrate that she didn't need lots of editing, punch-ins and re-records. Some of the videos on YouTube that show Richard at piano with Karen singing straight to the track are amongst the nicest-sounding things they recorded, even though most of their big studio bonanzas are brilliant. Live versions of 'Sometimes' and 'From This Moment On' show how good they sounded with just the two of them performing first take. It's not surprising that 'Trying to Get the Feeling' is so good.
 
Many of those " one-take, work-leads," are among my favorites......
Tryin' To Get The Feeling Again
is such a terrific lead vocal.
If I had assumed it had been "discarded" (Richard's: " it was never catalogued.")
I would have re-cut the song !
Why wasn't the song revisited, in any event, for Hush album ?
 
Many of those " one-take, work-leads," are among my favorites......
Tryin' To Get The Feeling Again
is such a terrific lead vocal.
If I had assumed it had been "discarded" (Richard's: " it was never catalogued.")
I would have re-cut the song !
Why wasn't the song revisited, in any event, for Hush album ?

I like the tune well enough but I think they were right to let it go during their initial run. I like the tune well enough but Barry Manilow had a beat on it - albeit with different lyrics.

Ed
 
I like the tune well enough but Barry Manilow had a beat on it - albeit with different lyrics.

Manilow’s version was - as usual - overblown and overproduced. The “Doctor my woman” line is cringeworthy.

The Carpenters’ version outstrips the ballad (Caught Between) Goodbye And I Love You in its sheer beauty and I’d happily have traded one for the other. Had Goodbye And I Love You been the song that was discovered as the outtake all those years later, I wouldn’t have the same soft spot for it as I do for this song.
 
I love both. Caught Between Goodbye and I Love You is one of my favorites and I often wonder how Richard would arrange it today. I think a today’s sound alternative rock arrangement would be ‘nifty’ as a 50th Anniveesary release, similar to Tryin To Get The Feeling Again. I enjoy Carpenters’ originals as much as the Bacharach and the William’s tunes!
 
Manilow’s version was - as usual - overblown and overproduced. The “Doctor my woman” line is cringeworthy.

Gotta blame Pomeranz for that one, not Manilow. I don’t hate it but I see how someone would. I’m not a huge fan of “re-be his lover” as it doesn’t sing well.

The Carpenters’ version outstrips the ballad (Caught Between) Goodbye And I Love You in its sheer beauty and I’d happily have traded one for the other. Had Goodbye And I Love You been the song that was discovered as the outtake all those years later, I wouldn’t have the same soft spot for it as I do for this song.

Different strokes and all that. Karen sounds great on it but it was pretty superfluous to me. Course, against the MIA material, this is a stone classic.

Ed
 
I’m not a huge fan of “re-be his lover” as it doesn’t sing well.

Yes. And not only does it not sing well, the "re" is completely unnecessary. "Can you help me rediscover the way to re-be his lover once again?" The "once again" fully covers the "we've been down this road before" part of the sentiment. I never understood what the "RE-be" was doing in there. Echoes "RE-discover", I guess, but like you said, it doesn't sound right any more than it means anything. (But otherwise, I do like their version a lot, and Manilow's as well, although I find his more saccharine while the Cs' is more dramatic and edgy.)
 
Pomeranz Interview, FEBRUARY 19,2013:
Q:
"And, tell us about the other song, ‘Trying To Get The Feeling Again,’
that’s a song that a lot of people have connected to."
DP:
"Ohhh yeah, well, I wrote that in San Francisco also, interestingly, and it was an assignment for the Carpenters years ago, my Publisher said the Carpenters were looking for a song, and, so I went home and worked for months writing that song, honestly it was months, I couldn’t be satisfied with what I was doing, and I wrote version after version, finally did a demo of it, sent it to the Carpenters, they liked it I heard later, but I never heard back from them. and then the next thing I knew, the demo found its way to Bette Midler, and Barry Manilow at the time was Bette Midler’s producer you may remember,he produced some of her early albums, and he heard it at her house, the report goes, and said ‘gosh this is a great song and if you don’t cut it, can I?’ And she said ‘yeah,’ so that’s how it happened, but I was having a rocky time with my first wife back then and feelings weren’t always there, that’s what the song is about."
-----
Q:Tell us about some of the ones that stand out in your mind the most.
DP:
Well, gosh, I got to tour extensively with the Carpenters in the seventies, interestingly, and that was my first sort of… big step and as you can imagine, with a full blown, pro, you know, rock circus tour, you know, with airplanes not buses and that level you know, so that was pretty great..."

Source:
David Pomeranz: Singer-Songwriter, Recording Artist
 
This is interesting: I did not like Barry Manilow's version (at all) when I heard it in the 70s.
I listened to his rendition of the song this morning, I still do not like it (not one bit).
In fact, the lyrics Manilow sings are no better than the Carpenters' version.
The arrangement Richard Carpenter gave the song is much better (imho) than Manilow's version.
(Now, I ask: is Richard's arrangement what we would have gotten had the song been completed in 1975 ?)
Topped off with Karen's already outstanding Lead Vocal....had the true Carpenters' background vocals
been placed on the song--in 1975--this song would have soared.......
 
Pomeranz Interview, FEBRUARY 19,2013:
DP:
Well, gosh, I got to tour extensively with the Carpenters in the seventies, interestingly, and that was my first sort of… big step and as you can imagine, with a full blown, pro, you know, rock circus tour, you know, with airplanes not buses and that level you know, so that was pretty great..."

Source:
David Pomeranz: Singer-Songwriter, Recording Artist

And then he explains that once he was flying with them and Karen was piloting the plane...
 
First, Karen in her prime voice, the song in it's original lyric, and Richard bringing life to this work lead!
I think he really nailed it and had fun turning this into a really viable part of the Carpenters legacy.
He structured this into a real pop gem with commercial potential had it been released (in another decade.)
One of my favorite Carpenters "interpretations," period.
 
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