Mark-T
Well-Known Member
Can't wait!I have an exciting Passage something coming soon.
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Can't wait!I have an exciting Passage something coming soon.
He might be willing to print and sell more. Not sure. He and I messaged not too long ago.I really like that Passage framed print and it's signed by the artist very cool. It's too bad he is not selling them any longer. I always thought that album cover was brilliant.
My only disappointment about this album is the inside gatefold, they really should have included some pics of Karen and Richard, maybe even one with the orchestra performing. We know there were some behind the scenes photos taken and could have been used as inserts like something similar to this one.
Terrific photo of Karen, Wes and Richard. Karen is in the same outfit that matches the photo I posted a while back of her in the studio, so this must have been taken on the same day.
Check out the write up on this event here.
24th May 1977 - on this day
The Carpenters record "Don't Cry For Me Argentina"
It was such a momentous recording that it was picked up by news outlets hailing it as the largest recording session ever in the history of popular music. With around 160 musicians, Richard had this to say about the song: "This song was submitted to us by the publisher, and I immediately felt it was perfect for Karen, though now I feel differently, as I believe the song doesn't linger long enough in a lower register, a great area for Karen's voice. We contacted England's late, great Peter Knight to orchestrate the song, and two others on "Passage". Peter flew to Los Angeles to conduct the L.A. Philharmonic for the recording. Between the 100 plus member "phil" and the 50 voice Gregg Smith Singers, the recording session had to take place on the A&M Sound Stage, and was wired into Studio D. It was an experience I'll never forget."
Richard says regarding this photo "With Wes Jacobs on the A&M Chaplain Stage. Wes, who was the tuba chair with the Detroit Symphony, was visiting us and sat in with the Los Angeles Philharmonic for the recording of "Don’t Cry For Me Argentina" "
Karen in same outfit
Hi, Cuyler. I agree with your words up to a point, but I actually think that K & R WERE going for big hits and a big seller with this album. This was a crucial time in their career, with their previous album, 'A Kind of Hush', being their first since 1969 to not produce at least one huge hit single and the album itself selling less than all of their previous releases since '69. If they were on a different label and didn't have the strong relationship that they had with Herb, this may have been make-or-break time.this album was not a "Top 10" string of hits--I don't think Passage was intended to be that, though. To me, Passage was more about self-exploration than it was about dominating the Hot 100 or AC charts, and that's something to be recognized and even celebrated, in retrospect.
Totally. Like you mentioned, some 1977 albums that come to mind range from Aja to Rumours to Never Mind the Bollocks to All N All... yacht rack was big, but so was punk, and so was disco... it must have been a bit unpredictable for Richard and Karen to know what their fan base wanted. That being said, I do think that Passage was strong in a few ways: 1) the recording technology/mastering is clearly great (probably 30 ips tape), and 2) like an Aja, the Carpenters didn't shy away from fewer songs but longer songs. It's definitely for me the most dynamic Carpenters album, from country to ballads to musicals to maybe more experimental topics. I really appreciate Passage and was so stoked to find a used copy from the 1990s at my local music store last year.Hi, Cuyler. I agree with your words up to a point, but I actually think that K & R WERE going for big hits and a big seller with this album. This was a crucial time in their career, with their previous album, 'A Kind of Hush', being their first since 1969 to not produce at least one huge hit single and the album itself selling less than all of their previous releases since '69. If they were on a different label and didn't have the strong relationship that they had with Herb, this may have been make-or-break time.
Karen said somewhere in an interview that the one song that she thought would be a smash that didn't live up to their expectations was "All You Get from Love Is a Love Song". Around this time, she also said in an interview something like, "If the public would only tell us what they want, we'd give it to them", (not her exact words), meaning that they were trying to meet, but floundering in reading, public and market-place tastes and trends.
This was also a time when the public was crazy about anything sci-fi to do with outer-space, with blockbuster movies on the theme, so "Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft" may also have been engineered by Karen and Richard as a possible smash, and it was, in a couple of parts of the globe.
Actually, "Passage" did scrape the Top 10 in some regions - if only in isolated states, rather than country-wide.
The other thing was that there were so many fascinating styles of music exploding at the time that "Passage" was released. Punk was in its early days, disco was a couple of years in and still gathering momentum, reggae had been around for a long time and was having another surge in popularity in certain countries, SKA was there and there were the beginnings of new-wave, to name just a few explosive styles. Yes, "Passage" was different from what Karen and Richard had produced in the past, but it wasn't ear-catching enough to attract wide-scale notice, in terms of the more ground-breaking music that was being released at the time and dominating DJ's, listeners' and buyers' attention.
You’ve also have to wonder if “Calling Occupants” was a bigger hit in the states bordering Canada than on a US national level, since it hit #9 on the RPM Top Singles Chart and #10 on the RPM Adult Contemporary chart, so anyone in border states like Washington, Alaska, Maine, Michigan, New York, North Dakota, & Montana, especially the northern parts of the state (or eastern & southern for Alaska) could’ve picked up a Canadian radio station.Hi, Cuyler. I agree with your words up to a point, but I actually think that K & R WERE going for big hits and a big seller with this album. This was a crucial time in their career, with their previous album, 'A Kind of Hush', being their first since 1969 to not produce at least one huge hit single and the album itself selling less than all of their previous releases since '69. If they were on a different label and didn't have the strong relationship that they had with Herb, this may have been make-or-break time.
Karen said somewhere in an interview that the one song that she thought would be a smash that didn't live up to their expectations was "All You Get from Love Is a Love Song". Around this time, she also said in an interview something like, "If the public would only tell us what they want, we'd give it to them", (not her exact words), meaning that they were trying to meet, but floundering in reading, public and market-place tastes and trends.
This was also a time when the public was crazy about anything sci-fi to do with outer-space, with blockbuster movies on the theme, so "Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft" may also have been engineered by Karen and Richard as a possible smash, and it was, in a couple of parts of the globe.
Actually, "Passage" did scrape the Top 10 in some regions - if only in isolated states, rather than country-wide.
The other thing was that there were so many fascinating styles of music exploding at the time that "Passage" was released. Punk was in its early days, disco was a couple of years in and still gathering momentum, reggae had been around for a long time and was having another surge in popularity in certain countries, SKA was there and there were the beginnings of new-wave, to name just a few explosive styles. Yes, "Passage" was different from what Karen and Richard had produced in the past, but it wasn't ear-catching enough to attract wide-scale notice, in terms of the more ground-breaking music that was being released at the time and dominating DJ's, listeners' and buyers' attention.
That's a great question! To be honest, I like both (and am passionate about both). As a career, I'm more interested in the archives just because the Archive serves as institutional memory, and is meant to preserve records/artifacts (including the Carpenters' records/artifacts, if there ever was a Carpenters Archive). Archives to me are also living institutions that gather and preserve contextual information, similar to what Chris and Mike did with their book. At least, the archives are supposed to have that information, preserved, so that historians can access that information quickly in a way that can be treated as a primary source rather than a secondary source. (For example, if a fan or researcher were to ask: "why is 'Don't Cry for Me, Argentina' sped up by half a semitone?" or "why is '(I'm Caught Between) Goodbye and I Love You' sped up, and by how much?" they could go to a Carpenters Archive that would preserve that contextual information before it's lost forever. I'm of the belief that musical artists, especially the Carpenters, who did so much in both the audio and visual worlds, deserve that kind of space, whether it be virtual or physical.)Hey Cuyler. I'm curious, and perhaps others are as well. Why you aren't pursuing sound engineering or something else along that line instead of library archiving? You seem to have a good ear and skills.
Interesting they don't name check Passage. I guess the album had yet to be named in June.Nice full page A&M promo featuring Carpenters single, "All You Get From Love Is A Love Song"
Radio & Records June 17, 1977
Interesting they don't name check Passage. I guess the album had yet to be named in June.