Sue
Well-Known Member
Would have been a smash!
I can so hear her singing Guilty!
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I can so hear her singing Guilty!
I’ve often wondered what Karen’s versions of Rock With You and Off The Wall would have sounded like if she’d recorded them for the solo album. From “Little Girl Blue”:
“Temperton offered Karen several of his own compositions, including “Off the Wall” and “Rock with You,” but at that point the songs were just grooves at the piano, still in their most raw form. She declined both charts, saying they were too funky”.
I swear in my head I can hear those trademark solo album backing vocals on the line:
“I wanna rock with you (all night)/
Dance you into day (sunlight)”.
And again, on Off The Wall, where Jackson sings the line “live your life off the wall”, I hear Karen doing that in the high pitched voice we hear on If I Had You (“you are my night/you are my day/you are my dreams/my everything”).
In an interview when asked whether she’d ever written a song, Karen’s reply was, “I’ve tried, but nothing’s come out”. In another life, different experiences might have inspired her somewhere along the way.She might've even enjoyed writing some of her own material and being the sole producer of her own albums. This would've all depended on her health, of course.
In an interview when asked whether she’d ever written a song, Karen’s reply was, “I’ve tried, but nothing’s come out”. In another life, different experiences might have inspired her somewhere along the way.
I wonder if the Carpenters instead of sticking with soft pop music in 81 instead decided to record a jazz flavored album would the fans who had followed their career up to that point be open to a jazz album? Maybe they were afraid to change so they wouldn't lose their fan base? I still think they needed some change especially back then artists had to keep on top of their game and not be afraid to try new material.
Olivia did that with Grease and then Totally Hot which was so unlike her earlier music career and then her Physical album was a huge success...change was good for her...she was always in control of her career. She was hesitant about what would happen once her single Physical went out to radio but making a fun video to counteract what she felt might have been too much worked out perfectly to her benefit. I commend her for taking risks.
We know it infuriates Richard to this day that he didn't record more with her with her short time here. He had no way of knowing but like the fans he's aware that it's the studio recordings that will live on forever, not the live touring shows which are only in the memories of those who saw them years ago. We fantasize over that lost 1974 album, perhaps doing more than one album a year and cutting back on touring, etc.
Interestingly enough, it took three -to- four years for the album
Christmas Portrait to get certified Gold--for 500,000 units sold.
Now, that is a great album (that is, the 1978 LP incarnation).
My point is this:
If an album that is that great fails to ignite their fan base and the general public
--AT THAT TIME--then, there is more to this story than merely a lack of strong material.
In other words, I am not sure that ANY album released would have been good enough creatively,
even had it been an album comprised of great material !
I wish Kiss Me The Way You Did Last Night
had gotten a 1981 release. I love that song !
Uninvited Guest is another (although, not uptempo)......
In fairness, they were pretty prolific at recording during Karen's lifetime - 10 studio albums, plus enough outtakes to fill up a couple more and Karen's unreleased solo album is quite a tally of work. I suspect the bigger issue is that perhaps feels that they should have recorded specific songs that they didn't or in a wider range of genres, as I think it's fair to say that, some of Passage aside, they were starting to tread water creatively for the last few albums released when Karen was alive - albums like A Kind of Hush and Made in America didn't add anything to their legacy really.