• The new Carpenters recording with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra is now available. Use this link to order, and help us out at the same time. Thank you!

Anyone read this?

R

Rumbahbah

Well-Known Member
The paperback edition of the Ray Coleman book, which came out in early 1995, had a short extra chapter covering the 'If I Were a Carpenter' and 'Interpretations' projects, and the discovery of Tryin' to Get The Feeling Again. It didn't really contain anything that isn't covered elsewhere on these. I don't think there were any new photos (in fact, it had fewer than the hardback edition) and I don't recall there being any significant amendments to the rest of the book, although it's been a while since I read it.
 
GaryAlan

GaryAlan

Well-Known Member
No telling how much money Karen and Richard have made for other artists:
From a blog:
http://www.honolulumagazine.com/core/pagetools.php?pageid=4999&url=/Honolulu-Magazine/June-2004/Hawaiai-Music-Pupu-Platter/&mode=print

When Honolulu City Lights came out, producer Tom Moffatt gave a copy to his friend, Karen Carpenter. He told her, "Listen to 'Honolulu City Lights'-you'll love it," Moffatt was right. Carpenter died not long after that exchange, says Moffatt. "But several years ago, I got a royalty check from A&M Records for the publishing on 'Honolulu City Lights,' and I was like, 'What the hell is this?' Come to find out, Karen had recorded the song and released it in Japan. It became quite popular there."
 
Jamesj75

Jamesj75

Well-Known Member
I would like to give a Thumbs Up to the Rick Henry book: Carpenters --- Album by Album: Song by Song. I purchased it at Amazon, just received it, and have only skimmed through it so far. The book is comprised of information on each song from Carpenters' albums, including the solo ventures. Albums are listed chronologically, and each album is discussed with the same format: information, among other things, on release date, musicians, producers, chart positions, and other anecdotes, followed by trivia and origins of each song, as well as Mr. Henry's editorial comments on songs and albums and his ratings of each album.

I have been a long-time fan who thought I knew "everything" about the Carpenters and their songs. Yet I have learned so many things during several years viewing (and sometimes posting) comments at this terrific A&M Corner website, and I can see that Mr. Henry is a font of further information in his interesting paperback. I tend to agree with Mr. Henry's editorial musings (for instance, with his album ratings in comparison with each other). My only gripe is that, as well organized as this book indeed is, a table of contents and page numbers would provide further organization and clarity.

All in all, Mr. Henry's book is filled with interesting and fun facts. Some here may quibble with the occasional minor error, but overall I would consider this a great and invaluable resource on the recordings of our beloved Karen and Richard. :)
 
GaryAlan

GaryAlan

Well-Known Member
From an (Jay) Osmond:
Do you have any memories of Richard or Karen Carpenter, musical or otherwise, that you could share with us?

"They were two of the nicest people you could ever meet. At the Anaheim Convention Center in California, Karen told me backstage that one of her, and Richard’s, desires was to do a Christmas album with us. She and I were both sponsors for Ludwig Drums. "
 
GaryAlan

GaryAlan

Well-Known Member
Carpenters mention Germany:
373 THE CARPENTERS - "YESTERDAY ONCE MORE"
For the generation of artists whose coming of age took place directly after the Second World War, the radio is playing an almost mythic role: Chuck Berry, The Beatles and Carpenters sang DJs and radio as an essential bringer of light and projection for nostalgia.
http://www.musikexpress.de/700/article553020/die-700-besten-songs-aller-zeiten-plaetze-400-bis-351.html

Carpenters mention in China:
1.Yesterday Once More, The Carpenters English beginners will listen to the track! Just understand English, do not understand it! Its influence in China is too great! Men and women-take-all! Champion is it!
http://edu.sina.com.cn/en/2014-03-23/163979591.shtml

In Norway:
Sunday takes Stavern-Agnes wave band with great musical friends.Where will perform the concert "Yesterday once more".

The title does not indicate even more Beatles though some believe it, but refer to Carpenter's immortal hit by the same name, and the first line of text in it: "When I was young I'd listen to the radio Waitin 'for my favorite songs, When they played I'd sing along, It made me smile. "
http://www.op.no/puls/article7244253.ece
 
GaryAlan

GaryAlan

Well-Known Member
Last edited:
GaryAlan

GaryAlan

Well-Known Member
The Albuquerque Journal (abqjournal--online) has a very nice article today (4 April)
spotlighting The Jim Brickman Tribute Show to Carpenters.
Top of the world: A traveling tribute to The Carpenters comes to Popejoy Hall
Here is a portion, for those with an interest:
"With such a big presence in music history it was only a matter of time that a traveling show with their hits would appear."
“I wanted the show to be about the music,” he says.
“Being able to be a part of this is amazing. I have favorites from the duo, but then I realize how many great songs they put out. Some of them were cover songs that they made their own.”
 
GaryAlan

GaryAlan

Well-Known Member
One of the news articles today contains the following quote:

The East Peoria couple has been to China 10 times over the years and recently wrote a book called “Two Cracked Pots in China.”
"... said the Chinese love to sing. She has been asked more than once to sing American songs while in China,
and for some reason, The Carpenters are popular there."

To my mind, there is no "some reason", if you love to sing then it is quite understandable that Carpenters' music
would be popular. Those (from Illinois) interviewed for the news article expressed puzzlement as to why? the popularity!
 
GaryAlan

GaryAlan

Well-Known Member
This quote originates from an article referencing the Carpenters ranking of #175 for Close To You album in Rolling Stones Survey :

"Steven Van Zandt, like any music lover, finds a lot to be surprised or even offended by in the rankings, and Rolling Stone
was good enough to just let him run with it.
The point he seemed most genuinely troubled by was how The Carpenters managed to slip into the top 200.
I can appreciate his confusion. He’s a rock n’ roller, and in their time, The Carpenters were effectively the enemies of the rock ‘n roll ethos–a wholesome, soothing antidote to the cultural upheaval of the times. Although they covered a few Beatles songs (as everyone did), they were essentially music for people who wished the 60s had never happened. In their squeaky clean smiles was an implicit rejection of the sound and the spirit that guys like Van Zandt grew up loving and promulgating. It must seem a cruel twist of fate that the group would fare so well in a survey administered by Rolling Stone,
once the paper of record for the counter-cultural ethos The Carpenters were so obviously hostile toward."


I for one, find the assertion "...obviously hostile toward" without merit.
Richard, more than once, emphasized his many musical tastes and his appreciation for rock music (Zappa, for instance).
 
GaryAlan

GaryAlan

Well-Known Member
This is a transcript from an Oklahoma newspaper:
Through Vinyl and Video, Carpenters' Music Thrives
Chuck Davis • Published: September 15, 1985
Someone with a voice as perfect as Karen Carpenter is only born once every 100 years or so.
The tone, the carry, the pitch. The ability to reach just the right note at the right time.
A voice such as that is a rare jewel indeed.
"I believe Karen will be remembered for many, many generations as one of the finest female pop singers who ever lived," says her brother, Richard, who is carrying on the Carpenters legacy.
Richard Carpenter has overseen the completion of three Carpenters albums and a 55-minute music video since Karen's untimely death in December, 1982. Through vinyl and video, we never will forget this gifted singer.
"The past two years, I've worked on various Carpenters projects. I completed (the album) "Voice of the Heart' which was released in the fall of '83. That was under way at the time Karen passed away," Carpenter said, during an interview with The Oklahoman. "In (November) '84, we put out "An Old-Fashioned Christmas,' our second Christmas album. That had seven songs featuring Karen's lead (vocals). The songs were recorded when we were recording "Christmas Portrait' that came out in '78. So we had about 50 percent or more done on it. We added some piano/orchestral things."
In February of this year, A&M Records released a two-record set of Carpenters' greatest hits, called "Yesterday Once More." The release of that successful album led to another hit the "Yesterday Once More" videocassette.
"Video is a great invention," Carpenter said. "It's not a necessity of life but I enjoy having it in mine.
"The "Yesterday Once More' video was taken from the different promotional pieces we had done. We had to find the negatives, clean them up, put them in a nice order and drop in the digital remix."
From inception to post-production, the "Yesterday Once More" video took about six weeks to complete. Fifteen of the group's top hits spanning the late '60s through the early '80s are included, including "We've Only Just Begun," "Superstar" and "Close to You."
"The music video is relatively new, as far as consumer purchase," Carpenter says. "I'd thought about something like that briefly, but not really paying a great deal of attention to it.
"One of the members of the A&M staff in England was over here on business and happened to see the television edit for the "Yesterday Once More' TV package. In that ad are some brief sections of different promotional clips we had done through the years.
"He was curious as to whether they existed in toto and he got ahold of me and they do. I have them all on 3/4-inch video here at home (in California). The masters are at A&M (studios). He stopped by and we looked at what I had, and he thought it would be a nice idea to produce a compilation video. That's how it came to be.
"With the advent of MTV, the music video single clip is very big business now," Carpenter said. "But they used to be called promotional films years ago. They were made by certain record companies or certain artists for overseas promotions. There was no outlet for them in the United States. They would run things like that on their daily programming, they would run them on certain television shows, music shows, things like that.
"When you see a clip, say, of the Beach Boys, the Carpenters, the Doors, whatever, lip-synching their greatest hits, you're watching a promotional clip."
Carpenter was executive producer of the video. He hired the director. He hired the engineer. He hired the errand boys. He looked over thousands and thousands of feet of file film footage and viewed countless slides and photos of the Carpenters. He had the final say-so over just about every aspect of the video.
"We had years of material to choose from," he recalls. "Film, through the years, can start to disintegrate a bit and a couple of the actual negs (negatives) were not in the vault. We had to track them down. Sometimes we just had dupes (duplicates) and we had to track them (the originals) down.
"Then the music. ... Since this is digitally recorded, I wanted to remix some of the songs and then we re-mastered. There are a lot more little things that really aren't all that interesting to talk about."
Except the final product.
"It's doing relatively well," Carpenter said. "A&M and I are quite happy with it.
"For years, we had watched these clips in mono. With the remix, to be able to sit back and watch some fine clips and hear the excellent (stereo) audio on the video was a real treat."
For more than a decade, the Carpenters provided the treats.
They had 12 singles break into the Billboard Top 10 in the U.S. Those hits included "Close to You" at No. 1, "We've Only Just Begun" (2), "For All We Know" (3), "Rainy Days and Mondays" (2), "Superstar" (2), "Hurting Each Other" (2), "Goodbye to Love" (7), "Sing" (3), "Yesterday Once More" (2), "Top of the World" (1), "Please Mr. Postman" (1) and "Only Yesterday" (4).
The music business always has been enjoyable for Richard Carpenter.
And that was true for his sister, Karen, he said.
"Karen was the star of the duo," he said. "I performed on stage (keyboards) but my primary role was to work behind the scenes arrangement and production and all that."
"Karen was the star and that's fine with me. We considered it to be an equal partnership. One talent complemented the other.
"Looking back... pleasing, satisfying, challenging, frustrating, rewarding all of those. I'd do it again in a New York second. And I can say the same for Karen. She loved the business."
Carpenter, who turns 40 in October, has been married just over a year (no children yet). He is having a home built in Downey, Calif. where he has lived for the past 22 years since moving from New Haven, Conn. In addition to the various Carpenters' projects, Carpenter continues to perform in public, and he's working on a solo album.
"I just got back from Florida," he says. "I performed at Epcot Center at the Disney complex in Orlando in a little different capacity something I enjoyed very much. I played piano with an orchestra stuff all in the pops vein.
"We did the some pops things, the "Warsaw Concerto' and a 15-minute medley of Carpenters' tunes.
"I started on the solo album in June. Six track are completed and I'm working on the background vocals now. The music will be in the same genre (as the Carpenters) but not exactly the same... there will be a few turns in it."
The years may come, and the years may go, but Richard Carpenter never will forget his music... the Carpenters... his sister...
"As a duo, we introduced some very nice music and always did the best that we... performed to the best of their abilities," he says.

"I don't believe people will forget us."

 
GaryAlan

GaryAlan

Well-Known Member
Sorry that I was unable to scan the previous newspaper posting,
hopefully it is readable and informative to the forum.
 
newvillefan

newvillefan

I Know My First Name Is Stephen
That's a great read, thanks for posting! It's always interesting to read interviews with him from different time periods, especially in the years after Karen's passing. He was in quite a few different places mentally during those years, at times wistful, sometimes angry and frustrated and other times reflective.
 
Rick-An Ordinary Fool

Rick-An Ordinary Fool

Let Go...Let God (ONJ)
Wow, thanks Gary....really enjoyed reading that article. I wonder what Richard meant when he said I have 3/4 inch video at his home?

Speaking of the video masters at A&M, so would all the video have been lost in the fire too??
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom