Anyone read this?

I had forgotten about the music video by
Red Kross, Yesterday Once More (1994, IIWAC),
until I read this article:

" downey is named after the Southern California city where Nogueiras spent most of his childhood.
“It’s a good representation of where I come from, and it’s nostalgic for certain elements of the past
while still being sad about them,” Nogueiras explains in a statement.
The new album isn’t entirely about reflecting on days gone by, however, as it also features a healthy
dose of hope for the future and new life chapters."
----
"Red Kross performing The Carpenters! There are a bunch of very cool, very 1994 shots in this video
that play with gravity and an apparently endlessly rotating camera. "

If interested, watch the video Here:
NO WIN announce debut album, downey, detail Origins of new song “Vision”: Stream
 
Glenn Berger is referenced in this article and a forum member mentioned on another thread that he was an engineer on Karen’s solo album. His name didn’t ring a bell to me but he’s listed in the liner notes on her album and he’s also been a record producer. This comment stood out to me:

Berger agreed the disco tracks were terrible but said that Simon's 'insensitivity was stunning.'”

Paul Simon's former producer claimed he bullied anorexic Karen Carpenter | Daily Mail Online
 
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Glenn Berger is referenced in this article and a forum member mentioned on another thread that he was an engineer on Karen’s solo album. His name didn’t ring a bell to me but he’s listed in the liner notes on her album and he’s also been a record producer. This comment stood out to me:

Berger agreed the disco tracks were terrible but said that Simon's 'insensitivity was stunning.'”

Paul Simon's former producer claimed he bullied anorexic Karen Carpenter | Daily Mail Online

nehhh. Daily Mail innit. . .tory tosh.
 
I would like to think they are referencing more of the unrealesed like Truly You, Keep The Lovelight Burning, Don’t Try To Win Me Back Again, which I feel should never be heard and left off for good reason. The ones that have been released along with Love Making Love To You are quite good. From the solo work, the light Jazz, rhythm and blues numbers are actually very good and among the best: I Guess I Just Lost My Head, Still Crazy After All These Years, Last One Singing The Blues, I Have You, If We Try, and Make Believe It’s Your First Time. I feel if they focused more on these styles, it would have fit better into the Carpenters canon. With what they had, if they lowered the key to Jimmy Mack, and added only Love Makin Love To You and My Body Keeps Changing My Mind, and Love In the Afternoon that these ten songs are the strongest songs and would have made a better product. However, the last few were sexual for this period of music and could have hurt record sales, so I can see why A&M gave feedback to this direction. The album was ahead of its time in many ways. Today, these songs are very mild in sexual tone.
 
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Me, three! There’s a lot of very interesting things happening on that album both vocally and instrumentally. The arrangements were right on the money and several tracks were outstanding. It was ultimately shelved due to A&M’s loyalty to Carpenters as a unit. Karen’s efforts and feelings towards the project were unfairly glossed over, and off they went to ABC to dive into ‘Music, Music, Music’. And then another full YEAR of no new releases after the special aired. Truly unwise decision on A&M’s part.
 
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A heads up for UK fans that the dramatised documentary Karen Carpenter: Goodbye To Love is airing again this Friday on Channel 5 at 10pm.
Who knows about the dramatic presentation being accurate, but it’s nice to see the Carpenters in action. All of these documentaries keep us hoping for a possible alternate ending.
 
There was some entertainment value to the documentary and it's great to see the Carpenters getting attention again. Royalty fees/permission must have led to the very limited the amount of Carpenter recordings played throughout the feature. Karen's documented angry confrontation with Richard in the mall parking lot with their Jags was changed to the recording studio with Karen pounding on the glass to get Richard's attention. Agnes and Tom Burris were portrayed in a very poor light and the writers were not very kind to Richard either.
 
Karen's documented angry confrontation with Richard in the mall parking lot with their Jags was changed to the recording studio with Karen pounding on the glass to get Richard's attention.

Given that the producer knew their story well, I’m surprised they didn’t just go with a re-enactment of that actual scene. The banging on the window scene came across as false to me.
 
^ Agree, they also portrayed Herb Alpert in a non complimentary way in my opinion. Was also surprised to see no clips or interviews from their band members, Olivia Newton John or John Bettis. Would have been nice if the producers added some facts concerning their legacy such as the amount of records sold, their Grammy and American Music Awards, 20 Top 40 singles, 15 #1 AC hits and recognition as the top American born recording artists of the 70's to name just a few!
 
Do we have confirmation of that this event occurred--2012 ?

"Richard Carpenter, the multiple Grammy Award-winning composer, producer, arranger and half of the dynamic brother and sister duo, the Carpenters, is set to speak with students at UCLA as part of professor David Leaf’s Music Industry 105 course: “Songwriting: Killer Hooks, Essential Songs and Songwriters of the Rock Era.” Carpenter spoke with Daily Bruin’s Manjot Singh about the direction of music, his career and how to make it in the music industry."

Here is the conclusion to the interview:
Are you currently working on anything new ?
RC: "I finished around 10 new songs, Christmas pieces. I finally found someone who can actually do them justice, because it’s hard to find an honest-to-goodness singer nowadays who can actually sing traditional melodies. I’ll be going in the studio soon."
More:
http://dailybruin.com/2012/04/23/qampa_richard_carpenter_shares_notes_on_career_in_music_industry/
 
if it did happen and was 2012, he`s certainly taking his sweet time over that Christmas album :)

`honest-to-goodness singer nowadays who can actually sing traditional melodies."

I wonder who that could be and would it be male or female?
 
Watch credits roll at conclusion of clip...




Wendell Niles Jr., Producer for Film and Television, Dies at 88
"He worked on a show that featured The Carpenters in their first TV appearance."
"With his father and late brother, Denny, he also produced 1968's Your All-American College Show, which featured the first TV appearance of Karen Carpenter and her brother, Richard.
(Their act was then known as The Dick Carpenter Trio, and Karen played the drums and sang.)"
Source:
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/wendell-niles-jr-producer-film-television-dies-at-88-1184408
 
I do a lot of research in historic newspapers for genealogical purposes. Sometimes, I'll look for articles about Carpenters to see what kind of press they were receiving in the small towns in my area. I was quite entertained by the following excerpt from the Iron County Record in Cedar City, Utah, in May 1972. Apparently, a choral education conference was being held at Brian Head, a nearby ski resort. Frank Pooler was coordinating the event and Richard was invited to do a seminar focused on vocal arranging in popular music.

The excerpt reads:

"Richard Carpenter, who with his sister Susan [?!] has made "The Carpenters" one of the top popular recording groups in the nation, will also address symposium participants. A gifted composer and jazz pianist, Mr. Carpenter will conduct a seminar in arranging for the vocal styles of popular music."

And here I thought my favorite singer was Karen Carpenter. Eh, go figure. (sarcasm)



Full article: Iron County Record | 1972-05-04 | SUSC Choral Symposium Draws Top Performers for Summer Session
 
I do a lot of research in historic newspapers for genealogical purposes. Sometimes, I'll look for articles about Carpenters to see what kind of press they were receiving in the small towns in my area. I was quite entertained by the following excerpt from the Iron County Record in Cedar City, Utah, in May 1972. Apparently, a choral education conference was being held at Brian Head, a nearby ski resort. Frank Pooler was coordinating the event and Richard was invited to do a seminar focused on vocal arranging in popular music.

The excerpt reads:

"Richard Carpenter, who with his sister Susan [?!] has made "The Carpenters" one of the top popular recording groups in the nation, will also address symposium participants. A gifted composer and jazz pianist, Mr. Carpenter will conduct a seminar in arranging for the vocal styles of popular music."

And here I thought my favorite singer was Karen Carpenter. Eh, go figure. (sarcasm)



Full article: Iron County Record | 1972-05-04 | SUSC Choral Symposium Draws Top Performers for Summer Session


This made me smile :laugh: I really can’t imagine Karen as a Susan (Sue? Susie?). I’m just not feeling it :laugh:
 
Interesting article from 2010. I didn’t know there was a Carpenter Family Theatre in Westlake Village.

The $4 million theater renovation project had various funding sources, including a $1 million donation from Richard Carpenter of Carpenters fame and his wife, Mary.

Thursday night, Richard Carpenter took his post behind the piano as choral members including his daughter, Westlake High senior Mindi, and son, freshman Colin provided the audience with a singing extravaganza that included Carpenters' 1970s hits like "Top of the World," recently featured in the animated movie "Shrek Forever After."

"It's like a gift that keeps on giving," Carpenter joked about the 1973 upbeat ballad. "Some of the royalties paid for this theater."

Westlake High School's renovated theater opens
 
This 2 October 1997 article is worth a re-read:
---
"....Over 20 years on, he minds being called "square". Surprisingly he still minds.
"I'm not square" he counters in nervy fashion. "Anybody who can come up with, not only the song,
but the arrangement to `Goodbye to Love' isn't square."
---
His "new" album -
Richard Carpenter, Pianist, Arranger, Compose, Conductor - is (bar two new tracks) an instrumental reworking of all the old songs. Why go over old ground? "If I just took the original arrangements that would be a travesty to Karen's memory, but this is a whole different animal from the Carpenters records." You might say he's cashing in. "They're my songs you know" he retorts defensively in particularly Darren-like fashion. "I have as much right as anybody to record them, I knew as I was making it that people would be popping at me. But if I tried to spend my life pleasing everybody I'd be in a loony bin." Would Karen approve? "Absolutely - I can't stress strongly enough how much she would. She was my number one supporter. She would love some of the changes I've put on. She is in it, in spirit without a doubt."

More:
www.independent.co.uk/life-style/for-a-carpenter-its-still-yesterday-once-more-1233471.html
 
Is it just me or does Richard not seem to have been in a good place at the time this interview was done?

I thought that, bless him. Though interesting, I found the whole article to be very sad.

This bit in particular got me:

Their popularity had dipped but if Karen were alive they would still be recording today. Or that's how Richard sees it. "We'd be making more albums, spend more time in the studio and do an occasional tour. Summer tours, a week per venue, every other year a UK tour." It sounds so planned and present tense, it's as if Richard has never fully adjusted to what actually happened.

This bit riled me:

Much has been written and hinted at about the disturbing closeness of their brother-sister relationship.

Our press (British) can be notoriously vile and I’ve read a few comments of this nature in different articles. I personally think it’s great that K&R we’re so close and see nothing disturbing about it. They created magic together and doubtless the fact they got on so well was one of the reasons that could happen.

Back on topic though, an interesting read.
 
This bit riled me:

Much has been written and hinted at about the disturbing closeness of their brother-sister relationship.

Our press (British) can be notoriously vile and I’ve read a few comments of this nature in different articles. I personally think it’s great that K&R we’re so close and see nothing disturbing about it. They created magic together and doubtless the fact they got on so well was one of the reasons that could happen.

whenever I read something like this, I always find it says more about the people who think that kind of thing, than the people their actually talking about!!
I think it`s fantastic Richard & Karen were as close as they were, because had they not been, things might have been very different.
 
whenever I read something like this, I always find it says more about the people who think that kind of thing, than the people their actually talking about!!
I think it`s fantastic Richard & Karen were as close as they were, because had they not been, things might have been very different.

I completely agree, Mark.
 
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