Anyone read this?

It’s simple, real, but painfully alive. It’s filled with hope and promise, yet totally aware of the dark.
It’s that mixture that grabs you, holds you and forces you to connect, to engage."

This is one of the most articulate descriptions of Karen's voice I have ever read. I also wonder in this current age of vocal gymnastic fatigue, where people have been assaulted with souless riffs, runs and trills from every possible pop direction, if the true appreciation for a voice as deep and complex as Karen's is only just beginning.

I remember a woman once saying to me that she had to stop her car if she heard Karen's voice on the radio as it felt like someone was punching her soul. A little dramatic maybe, but I understood what she meant.

I also have a dance teacher who plays George Bensons 'This Masquerade' religiously in class and rightly so, its a great version. But when a conversation broke out after class who had performed the greatest version, one woman said 'Karen Carpenter isnt singing heartbreak in her version, her voice is heartbreak.' I cant think of a higher compliment to a singer.
The very definition of art: Expressing pain and embodying it in a way that is beautiful and pierces through your soul.
 
The 8 Best Celebrity Holiday Specials Ever...
#5) The Perry Como Christmas Show (1974)
"While this particular special is from 1974, Perry Como did notable Christmas TV specials for decades.
His 1953 special aired in black-and-white on Christmas evening and is almost entirely one tight shot of him singing
and reading to children sitting at his feet. Over the years his specials evolved alongside television itself, and the
1974 special is colorful in more ways than one. He welcomes The Carpenters as musical guests and has Peggy Fleming do an ice skating routine. (This is a trend in holiday specials of a certain era: The host takes a break from the action to spotlight a famous figure skater on a rink that, we are left to assume, has always simply existed on the host’s property.)"

Source:
www.marieclaire.com/culture/a25347263/best-celebrity-holiday-specials/
 
The 8 Best Celebrity Holiday Specials Ever...
#5) The Perry Como Christmas Show (1974)
"While this particular special is from 1974, Perry Como did notable Christmas TV specials for decades.
His 1953 special aired in black-and-white on Christmas evening and is almost entirely one tight shot of him singing
and reading to children sitting at his feet. Over the years his specials evolved alongside television itself, and the
1974 special is colorful in more ways than one. He welcomes The Carpenters as musical guests and has Peggy Fleming do an ice skating routine. (This is a trend in holiday specials of a certain era: The host takes a break from the action to spotlight a famous figure skater on a rink that, we are left to assume, has always simply existed on the host’s property.)"

Source:
www.marieclaire.com/culture/a25347263/best-celebrity-holiday-specials/
The Carpenters hit that list twice with The Carpenters At Christmas (1977) at #7.
 
The 8 Best Celebrity Holiday Specials Ever...
#5) The Perry Como Christmas Show (1974)
"While this particular special is from 1974, Perry Como did notable Christmas TV specials for decades.
His 1953 special aired in black-and-white on Christmas evening and is almost entirely one tight shot of him singing
and reading to children sitting at his feet. Over the years his specials evolved alongside television itself, and the
1974 special is colorful in more ways than one. He welcomes The Carpenters as musical guests and has Peggy Fleming do an ice skating routine. (This is a trend in holiday specials of a certain era: The host takes a break from the action to spotlight a famous figure skater on a rink that, we are left to assume, has always simply existed on the host’s property.)"

Source:
www.marieclaire.com/culture/a25347263/best-celebrity-holiday-specials/

Such a great program; Karen singing It's Impossible, Santa Claus Is Coming To Town, and her reaction to Perry singing Yesterday Once More are "priceless". I don't think she ever looked more beautiful. You can't blame Perry for stealing a kiss from her at the end!
 
You could tell there was a great deal of admiration there, the way she looked at Perry the whole time they were doing their duets together.
 
I’ll always remember watching the Perry Como special for the first time on CBS. It was such a rare treat to see Carpenters on TV at the time, and it was aired about a week before Christmas. I had bought a BASF cassette audio tape to capture the sound with mic propped up to the TV speaker.

The tree and decorations in the family room were all lit up, and I was getting to see Karen on TV. I was 12 years old and in pure heaven.

You had one shot to see the show in those days and that was it! Still have the audio tape and it still sounds good. Anyway, I loved every second of it and still do today. Karen never looked or sounded better and they really stole the show.
 
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Not only did Karen look fantastic, I believe her voice,
from late 1974 to early 1975
was at an unparalleled richness.
Listening to Horizon, or Tryin' To Get The Feeling Again,
reveals such an unparalleled depth to her voice-- at that point in time.
I watched the Como Special a few nights ago and still loved the entire Special.
 
How that track lost out to some of the other ballads included on Horizon is beyond me.
I absolutely adore the little bit of strings that we get on this track. Every time I get to that part I immediately hit the backward button to start the song again because I wanna hear it over and over. It would have made a fantastic track for the RPO.
 
I"m in the minority, but I'm glad Tryin' didn't replace a different track on Horizon.

Agreed. It would be hard to imagine Horizon being anything different than what it is. I just wish there was some way to have released it as a single, if nothing else. I believe it would have gone over HUGE.
 
Buddy Holly to The Beach Boys: The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
bring hits with strings attached. "The RPO is the hottest chart act in the country,
outselling Stormzy and Rita Ora, with new orchestrations added to rock legend vocals..."
"Carpenters, next. This week The Carpenters get the Royal treatment with Richard Carpenter
creating fresh orchestral arrangements, recorded at Abbey Road, for sister Karen’s voice."
"Carpenters Close to You ‘improved,’ Richard Carpenter said the updated versions improved on the duo’s original recordings of their timeless songs. "Close to You" called for a sparse string arrangement," he said.
"In the second and third verses, it sounded a bit thin, because there are only 10 violins playing it.
Now, we’ve quadrupled that. It’s the same line, but it’s richer, because there are so many more players."


Source:
https://inews.co.uk/culture/buddy-h...c-orchestra-bring-hits-with-strings-attached/
 
Four New Books From the Longhorn Universe to Read in 2019
BY ALCALDE STAFF IN 40 ACRES, JAN | FEB 2019 ON JANUARY 2, 201

Why Karen Carpenter Matters

By Karen Tongson
"Why Karen Carpenter Matters is the next book in the “Music Matters” series recently acquired by University of Texas Press, following books on musical greats The Ramones and The Beach Boys. The work explores how the singer-slash-drummer of the sibling duo The Carpenters used music to transcend cultural differences and accrue a broad global fanbase for their soft rock sound. Tongson writes the book as part personal memoir, part biography, weaving a story that reveals the intent and effects of the late musician’s short life."

Source:
http://alcalde.texasexes.org/2019/01/four-new-books-from-the-longhorn-universe-to-read-in-2019/
 

Billboard
(by Andrew Unterberger, January 04, 2019)
has an interesting--lengthy--article regards "Love Will Keep Us Together."
A Carpenters' mention:
"The decade's soft-rock boom, largely shepherded in by massive early-'70s success of The Carpenters --
whose female-singer, male-musician/producer dynamic Captain & Tennille feared being accused of ripping off --
had met with a latent early-'60s pop revivalism, seen in the mid-decade comebacks of Sedaka, the Beach Boys and Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons, as well as the massive success of the 1962-set 1973 teen comedy American Graffiti."

Source:
www.billboard.com/articles/columns/chart-beat/8492168/captain-and-tennille-love-will-keep-us-together-forever-number-one
 
I've just come across this really bizarre, borderline shambolic AMA ceremony online. One question: why weren't Richard and Karen there to accept this award?

 
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Interesting that this video was filmed in January 1980. Compared to just two months later, (March 1980), Karen looks really well here. One of the Youtube comments goes even further: "Gosh she looks great here, I like the shorter hair. Fast forward one year to the clip "Back in my life again" 1981".

A few interesting timestamps from around this time:
  • Karen's solo album was still being recorded and had not yet been shelved by A&M
  • The solo album photo sessions had likely just taken place (or were about to)
  • Just a few weeks later on March 2, 1980, her 30th birthday, Karen recorded her selections in Studio D, A&M Studios for Music, Music, Music
  • Just five days later, the TV special Music, Music, Music was videotaped on March 7, 8, and 9 of 1980.
It sounds like the musical tracking, production and filming of the 1980 TV special was really, really frenetic: why??

 
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Interesting that this video was filmed in January 1980. Compared to just two months later, (March 1980), Karen looks really well here. One of the Youtube comments goes even further: "Gosh she looks great here, I like the shorter hair. Fast forward one year to the clip "Back in my life again" 1981".

A few interesting timestamps from around this time:
  • Karen's solo album was still being recorded and had not yet been shelved by A&M
  • The solo album photo sessions had likely just taken place (or were about to)
  • Just a few weeks later on March 2, 1980, her 30th birthday, Karen recorded her selections in Studio D, A&M Studios for Music, Music, Music
  • Just five days later, the TV special Music, Music, Music was videotaped on March 7, 8, and 9 of 1980.
It sounds like the musical tracking, production and filming of the 1980 TV special was really, really frenetic: why??



It's obvious Karen had a massive crush on Herb going all the way back from the beginning of their signing with A&M. She sings so sweetly to him and can't even look him in the eye. I think she was embarrassed a little bit when Herb interrupted the song with "baabyyeee!". I wish she would have continued to the end. Maybe he felt somewhat embarrassed himself? I mean, he's a married man with children. At this point in time Karen changed appearance like a chameleon, vacillating between healthy looking to emaciated.
 
Interesting that this video was filmed in January 1980. Compared to just two months later, (March 1980), Karen looks really well here. One of the Youtube comments goes even further: "Gosh she looks great here, I like the shorter hair. Fast forward one year to the clip "Back in my life again" 1981".

A few interesting timestamps from around this time:
  • Karen's solo album was still being recorded and had not yet been shelved by A&M
  • The solo album photo sessions had likely just taken place (or were about to)
  • Just a few weeks later on March 2, 1980, her 30th birthday, Karen recorded her selections in Studio D, A&M Studios for Music, Music, Music
  • Just five days later, the TV special Music, Music, Music was videotaped on March 7, 8, and 9 of 1980.
It sounds like the musical tracking, production and filming of the 1980 TV special was really, really frenetic: why??


And then between March and August her weight went up again to 105...she'd met Tom and was working with Richard again...I think for a few brief months before the truth of her fiance was revealed to her that August she convinced herself she was happy...maybe she was. Of course from Sept 80 onward it was a gradual decline physically to the Mia shoot in Feb 81 and then freefall to her late '81 appearance.

But she did get back to 108 at the end and stayed there. That should always be applauded.
 
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