Anyone read this?

Chicago Tribune is Running this article again, 2015 !
Entire article here:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/enter...en-carpenter-article-2006-20151224-story.html
Excerpt:
Stuff of dreams: Karen Carpenter's voice
------
".....Frankly, the impact of the song all depends on one's mood of the moment -- and at what point the listener is in their life.
That was Carpenter's brilliance -- that coupling of certitude and pliability, that unique combination of eroticism and maternal comfort.
This is a song that revolves around a promise. And Carpenter's voice had the unmistakable sound of one who always kept her promises.
When I was single and lonely, this singer and this Christmas song evoked the home I wanted and the person I wanted in it with me.
Now she -- and it -- make me think about the nature of my home and its place in my priorities. The world of the song is both a confirmation of what we have, and yet, given the frantic way life goes at this time of year, also an elusive dream.
-----
Copyright © 2015, Chicago Tribune
 
Excerpts from(a longish analytical 'portrait'):
http://hyperallergic.com/263778/the-portrait-of-karen-carpenter/

The Portrait of Karen Carpenter by Lucas Fagen on December 26, 2015
  • "The Carpenters’ Christmas Portrait is, far and away, without a doubt, quite simply the greatest Christmas album ever recorded."
  • "Christmas Portrait, by contrast, just does what the Carpenters always do, at a greater level of specificity. Karen’s voice, a voice so honeyed and polished the tiniest crack can send cataclysmic fissures splintering off in every direction, utterly transforms what’s usually an innocent, celebratory tradition. In her hands, with Richard’s studio expertise adding crucial antithesis, Christmas becomes a metaphor for total happiness ...."
  • "Christmas Portrait presents a vision of the holidays that’s simultaneously rosy and dystopic, in which pleasure (courtesy of Richard’s music) and pain (courtesy of Karen’s singing) coexist and neither wins out. Just because the fantasy lets us down hardly means we should condemn it outright — it can still be wonderful, and that’s why the Carpenters made a Christmas album in the first place. But ultimately it is deceptive, and the distance in her voice conveys that. Christmas Portrait is a major statement by major artists who did more than anyone to plumb the depths of the American popular romantic heart, portraying a struggle with the seductive promises of kitsch far more universal than the content of the kitsch itself. It reveals the nightmare within the holiday and celebrates it anyway.
    So enjoy the holiday season, even if enjoying it is hard sometimes. Karen Carpenter would want you to."
 
My post above (#650) references a Poll on the AVClub Site between
Nancy Wilson and Carpenters versions of Christmas Waltz:
The Winner : Carpenters

Source--AVClub Twitter--
twitter.com/TheAVClub?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor
 
Carpenters coming in at number four!

Code:
http://www.advocate.com/music/2015/12/21/7-great-music-moments-vintage-christmas-tv-specials
 
http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/ed-green/the-carpenters-and-me_b_8984308.html
The Carpenters and Me
Ed Green, Huffington Post UK
Posted: 15/01/2016

"This week marks a strange milestone. Born 2 March 1950, Karen Carpenter (who died aged 32)
has now been dead longer than she'd lived.
Strange too, my relationship with the Carpenters' music."

"In the 1970s you never seemed to be more than a couple of hours away from hearing one of their tracks.
Yet despite the ubiquitous air play, their singles never did make it to number one in the UK. Not that they didn't come close. In August 1973, Yesterday Once More was kept at number two by - ironically - Gary Glitter's Leader of the Gangand then, Donny Osmond's Young Love.
Less than two years later, Please Mr Postman was kept off the top slot by Pilot's January.
By then end of the decade, it all seemed to have fizzled out. "
"I vaguely remember the news about Karen Carpenter's death in 1983, and the turntable hit Make Believe It's Your First Time that followed.

Fast-forward a little, to the summer of '87, and that anxious time waiting for my 'A' level results. In a rush to find a cassette to tape something - in those days when we all taped stuff from the radio - I checked one of my sister's tapes and randomly came across a fragment of an interview.
The interviewer was saying, in his Scouse accent, that his favourite song was the one that went 'Long ago, and oh so far away'.
'That's Superstar!', an American voice jumped in."
"It meant nothing to me. 'That's that', I thought. 'It's fine for me to tape over this rubbish.'
I started rewinding to the beginning of the tape, then on second thought, decided to listen to a bit more in case I was deleting something important.
This time it was part way through a song:
Some can even make my cry,
just like before - it's yesterday once more...

Suddenly, I was back at infants' school. One of the boys in the year above had brought in a tape recorder - this was a good old spool-to-spool model and that song was being played. Despite liking the familiar sound I was probably the only one in class who couldn't put my hand up when the teacher asked us to name the singers.
The recording of the radio interview escaped execution."

The nostalgia, the mixture of silly sentiment and real pathos, and of course - that voice.
I went out and bought the Singles 1969-73 cassette album. And so began a time as closet Carpenters fan. It was a bit of a guilty pleasure, a secret to savour.
Like the school dinner tapioca puddings you're supposed to hate - 'Urrrgggh, frogspawn!' but secretly savour.
By the early '90s I knew I wasn't alone. Plenty of people were rediscovering Richard and Karen.
There was even an album - If I were a Carpenter - featuring rock bands doing cover versions.
And out went the need for pretence. Music to unwind to. Music to strip wallpaper to. Music to write Christmas cards to. Maybe it's a remnant from those days when they were on the radio all the time, but they really did seem to provide a soundtrack for daily life, and seemed so comfortingly familiar.
The music never captured the dramatic moments in my life, nor do I think of it accompanying any big historic events.
The beauty lies in its soundtrack for the mundane."

"And there was something else - the attitude they exuded. In retrospect, they were so young, but they somehow sounded wise - as if they'd really lived.
Of course, they had their difficulties, troubles, the illness that eventually ended it.
Yet you'd imagine none of this from the lyrics and Karen's soothing voice.
They sounded hopeful, even when wistful, of love that would work out, a life with possibilities.
Actually, I suppose that's what the dawn of the '70s was about to many people - new lifestyles, freedoms and possibilities opening up.
If previous norms were seen as naïve, it was still too early for the cynicism that followed.
No wonder it still appeals."
 
Words to remember from Karen Carpenter:
"Some people center their whole lives around us," Karen continued.
"They only live to see us, to hear us. That's getting awfully heavy.
------
"It's weird to think you could have a meaning like that for someone, to make someone go on living.
That's a hell of a responsibility. Someone loving something that much,
to keep them alive . . . It's a very strange feeling, to think you could have that much . . . power . . . "
------
"I mean . . . we only wanted to . . . make a little music . . . "

Read more: The Carpenters: Up From Downey (http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/the-carpenters-up-from-downey-19740704#ixzz3yXT4lwp3)
 
I looked through this interview with Cubby O'Brien tonight. I couldn't find any reference to it on the forum so I decided to post the link.

Meeksa Mooska Mouseketeer: A Conversation with Cubby O'Brien | Confessions of a Pop Culture Addict »

After reading Cubby's comments about Richard, I was somewhat surprised to learn that Richard doesn't have any contact with many of the old roadies. It makes me wonder if and how he acknowledged the deaths of Tony Peluso and Doug Strawn in the last few years.
 
Thanks for the link to the 2011 (?) article NowhereMan.
Well worth reading, and certainly opened my eyes to a few things,
if not securing a partial answer to other things.
Unfortunately, it does reinforce certain modes of thinking.

Here is another from August 10, 1971:
Carpenters Top Bill But Mac Davis Warms Audience
"....they were outdone by....Mac Davis..."
Entire Article Here:
Schenectady Gazette - Google News Archive Search »
 
Rare Gerard Way recording released—listen
February 10 2016
"Former My Chemical Romance frontman Gerard Way has stumbled upon a rare relic from recording
the band's monumental album The Black Parade: a clip of him covering the
Carpenters’ “Superstar” during vocal warm-ups.
It was apparently just too good for him to keep all for himself, so Way has—thankfully—posted it for our enjoyment.
The decade-old cover was recorded before Way sang My Chemical Romance's beautiful ballad "Cancer."
When he released this clip, Way tweeted extensively about The Black Parade's recording process—
how he would do vocal warm-ups by singing the Carpenters,
how they almost put a cover on the album and how it's crazy to think about what happened to the band afterwards.
The cover is a compelling snapshot in an intense creative moment for My Chemical Romance. "

Source:
Rare Gerard Way recording released—listen - News - Alternative Press »
 
Portions from an article in,
Spin Magazine, February 1986, Page 74, Rich Stim:
The Industry calls it Adult Contemporary, but we know it as "only love songs".
------
"Misunderstood, misplaced in her generation, and maybe even miscast in her own TV movie,
Karen Carpenter remains a foreboding reminder of the true pathos of middle age. Her
religious search for vocal perfection, her minimal drum stylings and most importantly, her
lamenting undertones set the standards for Adult Contemporary before the term even existed."
----
"...the big problem with all this was marketing. So the industry used its marketing noodle.
They re-labeled Easy Listening, calling it first Adult Contemporary, and then by 1984, "Hot"
Adult Contemporary. All reference to the term Middle-Of-The-Road disappeared from Billboard's
AC Charts....the industry initiated a three pronged money-making plan..."
 
Portions from an article in,
Spin Magazine, February 1986, Page 74, Rich Stim:
The Industry calls it Adult Contemporary, but we know it as "only love songs".
------
"Misunderstood, misplaced in her generation, and maybe even miscast in her own TV movie,
Karen Carpenter remains a foreboding reminder of the true pathos of middle age. Her
religious search for vocal perfection, her minimal drum stylings and most importantly, her
lamenting undertones set the standards for Adult Contemporary before the term even existed."
----
"...the big problem with all this was marketing. So the industry used its marketing noodle.
They re-labeled Easy Listening, calling it first Adult Contemporary, and then by 1984, "Hot"
Adult Contemporary. All reference to the term Middle-Of-The-Road disappeared from Billboard's
AC Charts....the industry initiated a three pronged money-making plan..."

"...misplaced in her generation" maybe one of the best lines about Karen I've ever read. We think of her so quintessentially 70s because that was the core of her career, and yet I think she would have thrived (personally) better and received more (professional) recognition (i.e. non of the goody two shoes sneers) in almost any other decade.

And I never understood was what wrong with the term "easy listening", unlike MOR (middle of the road) its not really an insult and many FM channels today bill themselves as "easy listening" or "light pop".
 
From a recent review of headphones !
Blue Lola headphone review »

"Only lately have I learned to appreciate The Carpenters—particularly Karen Carpenter’s unique voice.
Her brother Richard was a perfectionist in the studio and it shows on songs such as “(They Long to be) Close to You.”
With the amount of detail the Lola headphones reveal, her voice exhibits just the right amount of angst as it feels like
she is singing right next to the listener. It’s a bit eerie."
 
Dami Im to release Classic Carpenters album
Michael Outerson / 6th March 2016 at 18:32 / Releases / Australia, USA
The album will feature eleven classic hits from The Carpenters catalogue,
from originals penned by Richard Carpenter, like Yesterday Once More and I Need To Be In Love,
to cover versions that ended up being more associated with The Carpenters than the original artists, like Superstar and This Masquerade.

Dami continues “My intention wasn’t to copy Karen Carpenter’s voice or her tone“.

The album, simply called, Classic Carpenters, will be released on Friday, the 22nd of April.

Track list for Dami Im – Classic Carpenters
  1. (They Long To Be) Close To You
  2. There’s A Kind Of Hush (All Over The World)
  3. Yesterday Once More
  4. Superstar
  5. Rainy Days And Mondays
  6. This Masquerade
  7. A Song For You
  8. I Won’t Last A Day Without You
  9. I Need To Be In Love
  10. Hurting Each Other
  11. We’ve Only Just Begun
Source:
Dami Im to release Classic Carpenters album »
 
Vinyl Sales Made More Than YouTube, Spotify and Soundcloud Ads Combined: Report
"Vinyl sales in the U.S. generated more revenue in 2015
than the advertising on YouTube, Spotify combined,
according to a report released Wed. (March 23) by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).
he RIAA's figures revealed that vinyl sales made $416 million, while the combined total ad revenue from
streaming sites Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube accounted for only $385 million. The report also detailed that vinyl LP
sales rose 32 percent last year and hit their highest total since 1988 at $416 million.
Vinyl enthusiasts should curb their enthusiasm, however, as paid digital streaming subscriptions
still dwarfed both figures by accounting for $1.22 billion last year.
While the report brings positive news for some, the RIAA makes clear that the music industry still faces significant issues."
The consumption of music is skyrocketing, but revenues for creators have not kept pace," said RIAA CEO Cary Sherman in a statement.
"While today's data is encouraging, the challenges facing us are significant."

Source:
Vinyl Sales Made More Than YouTube, Spotify and Soundcloud Ads Combined: Report »
 
Excerpted from:
Clive James: Lady Gaga’s Star-Spangled Banner had oomph – then she added a woo-hoo-hoo »

"....It was a bitter pill, but luckily BBC4 had the antidote.
They ran their archive show about the Carpenters again and, once more, watching the doomed Karen
unspooling her lovely voice, I was able to remind myself that there is such a thing as perfect tact.
Bending a note, she knew just where to put the emphasis , and never once was there a woo-hoo-hoo.
Back in the day, when their first great albums were coming out, a pash on the Carpenters was sometimes t
hought of as uncool, but that idea soon faded when it became clear that the magic young lady was not long for this world."
"Karen Carpenter’s gift was from heaven, but anorexia is from hell, and hell is hard to beat in a straight fight.
For anyone who has been granted a long life, and some leisure to think about it before the end,
one of the hardest things to deal with is the knowledge that there are younger people full of promise
whose lives are cut short by chance. But it would be in bad taste not to enjoy the extra time.
As I write, an early spring is coming back to my garden, and already it looks more splendid than any palace."
 
Excerpted from:
Clive James: Lady Gaga’s Star-Spangled Banner had oomph – then she added a woo-hoo-hoo »

"....It was a bitter pill, but luckily BBC4 had the antidote.
They ran their archive show about the Carpenters again and, once more, watching the doomed Karen
unspooling her lovely voice, I was able to remind myself that there is such a thing as perfect tact.
Bending a note, she knew just where to put the emphasis , and never once was there a woo-hoo-hoo.
Back in the day, when their first great albums were coming out, a pash on the Carpenters was sometimes t
hought of as uncool, but that idea soon faded when it became clear that the magic young lady was not long for this world."
"Karen Carpenter’s gift was from heaven, but anorexia is from hell, and hell is hard to beat in a straight fight.
For anyone who has been granted a long life, and some leisure to think about it before the end,
one of the hardest things to deal with is the knowledge that there are younger people full of promise
whose lives are cut short by chance. But it would be in bad taste not to enjoy the extra time.
As I write, an early spring is coming back to my garden, and already it looks more splendid than any palace."

Not really a fair comparison as Lady Gaga has talents besides creating pop music, but I do agree that Karen knew exactly where to put that punch in to a note when needed.
 
Best-Selling Books Week Ended Aug. 16 »
Best-Selling Books Week Ended Aug. 16 (2015)
Nonfiction E-Books
TITLE /AUTHOR / PUBLISHER THIS WEEK
The Devil in the White City #1 --Erik Larson
The Boys in the Boat 2 /Daniel James Brown
Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up #3
Dead Wake #4 --Erik Larson
Little Girl Blue 5 --Randy L. Schmidt/Chicago Review Press
 
Music therapy brightens memory loss patients’ lives
St. Andrews patients once non-communicative become social through Music & Memory program
By
BILL PEARSON
Posted:
Monday, March 28, 2016 - 8:00am
Excerpt:
Nancy, a 77-year-old Saint Andrews Village Gregory Wing patient,
has a hospital attendant places her headphones over her ears and presses play on her iPod shuffle.
She listens as Karen Carpenter sings a lyric from one of Nancy’s favorite songs:
“On the day that you were born the angels got together and decided to create a dream come true. So they sprinkled moon dust in your hair of gold, and starlight in your eyes of blue.”
Nancy’s smile beams and her eyes brighten as she listens to “Close to You.”

More:
Music therapy brightens memory loss patients’ lives »
 
University of Kansas lists
Top Of The World and Yesterday Once More
on their Official List of Music Therapy Songs.
Also, this:
"The American Music Therapy Association defines music therapy as “the clinical and evidence-based use of music interventions
to accomplish individualized goals within a therapeutic relationship by a credentialed professional who has completed an approved
music therapy program.” In short, there are a number of purposes for which music therapy may be used, but it is generally
only considered to be true music therapy if it is conducted by a qualified individual."

Interesting, too, that those two Richard Carpenter compositions--Top of the World and Yesterday Once More
appear on more than one research article related to Music Therapy.

Yet, one more positive affirmation of the timelessness and timeliness--and, boundlessness-- of Carpenters' music.
 
University of Kansas lists
Top Of The World and Yesterday Once More
on their Official List of Music Therapy Songs.
Also, this:
"The American Music Therapy Association defines music therapy as “the clinical and evidence-based use of music interventions
to accomplish individualized goals within a therapeutic relationship by a credentialed professional who has completed an approved
music therapy program.” In short, there are a number of purposes for which music therapy may be used, but it is generally
only considered to be true music therapy if it is conducted by a qualified individual."

Interesting, too, that those two Richard Carpenter compositions--Top of the World and Yesterday Once More
appear on more than one research article related to Music Therapy.

Yet, one more positive affirmation of the timelessness and timeliness--and, boundlessness-- of Carpenters' music.

GaryAlan, thank you for bringing these articles about music therapy to our attention.

I'm not that familiar with "music therapy" as a movement. However, I think music lovers know full well that music enjoyment is intrinsically rewarding (aka therapeutic). For Carpenters' aficionados, here and elsewhere, part of our motivation is that the music makes us feel good. Who among us has never tried to rebound from sadness by playing Carpenters' music? The irony is that so many observers have stated that Karen's voice had a distinct sadness to it. So, when we listen to Karen, are we truly being uplifted or are we wallowing in our depression? (in part, rhetorical)

The mood of the 77-year-old music therapy patient, documented in post #669, visibly improved upon hearing "(They Long to Be) Close to You." I can surmise, however, that another 77-year-old patient might perk up upon hearing a song by Jimmy Hendrix or Led Zeppelin on his or her iPod. Or a younger patient might smile upon hearing Madonna or Prince. I believe that the individual's musical tastes as well as the nostalgic factor are also in play here.

I do know that Karen's voice alone is therapeutic for me --- always has been. "Top of the World" and "Yesterday Once More" are indeed sound choices for therapeutic benefit. Yet Carpenters' music is filled with songs that pander to the "happiness wave," such as "Happy," "Sailing on the Tide," and "Leave Yesterday Behind." Several others are upbeat in tempo (e.g., "There's a Kind of Hush (All Over the World Tonight)," "All You Get From Love Is a Love Song," "(Want You) Back in My Life Again") and can effect a positive change in demeanor. "Happy" covers both bases (lyric and tempo) quite effectively.

My own feelings of nostalgia are such a comfort. I will close here as I am in the mood for a little music therapy...
 
Karen Carpenter ,
whether it be 'music therapy' or awareness of (and funding for) Anorexia,
continues to live on......

Rather Long, Insightful, Article:
The Challenge of Treating Anorexia in Adults »

The Challenge of Treating Anorexia in Adults
A new program aims to help the most long-suffering patients by addressing the neurobiology of the eating disorder.
(Excerpt):
"Even as recently as the 1970s, anorexia remained something of a clinical oddity—a disease that doctors rarely saw,
let alone had a clue how to treat. When psychologist Laura Hill saw her first anorexia patient at a university counseling
center back in 1979, she had never even heard of the disorder:
“Her father was in the science department there and I had to ask him what anorexia was,” recalls Hill.
“He told me she was unable to gain weight, afraid of food.”
Rates of anorexia had been steadily climbing since the 1950s, but it wasn’t until
the death of singer Karen Carpenter in 1983 that the disorder became a household word. "
 
I confess I am a crossword puzzle nut. In this morning’s Cleveland Plain Dealer puzzle, which syndicates the The LA Times the clue was this: 5-down-five letter word, second letter defiantly “r” Clue? “Karen Carpenter’s instrument”. I got it!
 
Oh, I know the answer!
Drums!
:goodie:
Sorry to anybody else solving it, I gave it away already :wink:

[edit: placed answer in a spoiler tag]
 
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