🎵 AotW AOTW: Carpenters - PASSAGE (SP-4703)

[A&M Retro]

"All You Get From Love Is A Love Song" was 3:35 in length, which isn't a long running time. In fact, it's shorter than "Superstar", "Rainy Days and Mondays" and "Goodbye to Love".
I'm pretty sure the tune they were concerned about length-wise was "I Just Fall In Love Again", which clocked in at 4:00. Richard has always stated that song was 'too long', and that's why he didn't release it as a single. But that theory holds little water because the EDITED version of "Occupants" is 3:59! LOL>>
Tony Peluso said Richard REALLY wanted to put that song out, no matter what happened chart-wise. And it was quite different at the time. In retrospect, "I Just Fall In Love Again" should have been the single.

 

[Michael Hagerty]

I have often heard that '"All you get..." was considered two long for pop radio at that time....

Nah...I checked the charts for the summer of 1977...3:45 was pretty standard for the biggest records....with Fleetwood Mac and The Eagles routinely going 4 or 5 minutes on their singles.

 

[richard_sloat]

I also love "Two Lives" and have heard the Bonnnie Raitt version and really like both.

Two lives is not on that album, it's Two sides.

 

[Rudy]

I heard "B'wana" for the first time just a couple of years ago and loving it. What a great lyric and a great rendering by Karen. I love the way she handles (I don't care if you drive my 350, honey)."

Great song by Michael Franks! I prefer his version (especially since the wording is supposed to be "220, honey" and not "350, honey" which doesn't rhyme), but this is a fine version nonetheless, and the first one I heard.

"Man Smart..." is just plain ridiculous. It's probably my least favorite Carpenters track and Karen sounds just awful on it. It sounds like she has no idea what to do with it and her performance is wretched. Check please...

It's a clone of Palmer's version, which is just as wretched IMHO. Noisy, and the original melody and lyrics are nowhere to be found. I heard Palmer's version on XM Radio a few years ago and did a double-take, actually, as that was the first time I'd heard it, having known the Passage version since the album was first released. (In fact, I thought it was Carpenters but the vocals sounded slightly different. They're close!) Two wrongs don't make a right.

 

[mr J.]

I guess most K&R fans are aware that "Passage" is the bonafide worst-selling Carpenters album,and with good reason.K&R"s attempt at being "hip" turned out to be a weird,directionless mess.This album lacks the focus and cohesiveness that's generally found on their other albums.Obviously,"All you get from Love..." is the best track(and the hit single)-but it's notable only for it's jazz embellishments(including Tom Scott's killer sax solo and a full horn section).The production on that track was very well-done,also."Bwana" has a nice Brazilian Jazz type of arrangement,and Karen's vocals are incredible,but it gets a little weird towards the end."I Just Fall In Love Again" is a solid ballad,but a bit overdone with the orchestration."Argentina" features one of Karen's best vocal performances ever,but it has that horrible "casa Rosada" intro(that you can't skip over,even on the CD)-what was Richard thinking??? Side 2 of Passage goes from bad to worse with country bubblegum("Sweet Sweet Smile"),cheesy("two Sides"),weird(Man Smart...),and more weird(Calling Occupants)-and I'm sure many people wonder why "Occupants" gets included on almost every compilation.To sum it up,"All You get from love.." is on all the comps,and "Argentina" is available minus the "Casa Rosada" intro on the Readers Digest boxed set.Otherwise,you can pass on "Passage"!

 

[Rumbahbah]

Is Passage really their lowest selling album? I'd have thought that either Ticket to Ride or Made in America would have that dubious honour.

Although it's too short at just 8 songs (one of which, Man Smart, Woman Smarter, is an outright stinker) and it's very uneven, I have to admire Passage for at least trying to do something different - in that respect it's artistically much more satisfying than the unambitious A Kind of Hush.

If you're going to experiment with new styles, not everything is going to work, but the great thing is that some of it does. Bwana She No Home is brilliant - you can't imagine Karen and Richard ever tackling a song like this but it works really well. Likewise, although Calling Occupants does perhaps sound more "dated" than many of their other singles, it's a thoroughly enjoyable oddity. All You Get From Love Is A Love Song is a solid track and if it had, say, been the lead single for A Kind of Hush rather than Passage, I suspect it would have performed much better on the charts. I Just Fall in Love Again is what I would call a "lost" single - it's a shame it fell victim to Richard perhaps trying too hard to satisfy what he thought radio formats would play - which, as it turned out, was largely fruitless anyway. The fact that it's started cropping up on some compilations as one of the favoured album cuts suggests Richard too now recognises its strengths. Two Sides is nice but a little too laidback to be anything more than a nice album cut. Argentina is again a nice performance but is weighed down by the lengthy prologue. I hate Sweet Sweet Smile but then I never much liked Jambalaya either, so it would seem I'm no fan of their more country style tracks. And I haven't listened to Man Smart, Woman Smarter in years - after only a couple of listens it developed into an instant "skip" when playing the album. It vies with Goofus in my mind as their worst ever song. God knows what they were thinking it would achieve by releasing it.

The fair criticism that you could level at Passage is that it tries to do too much in too short an album - just over half works, but some of the other half is barely tolerable. I recall reading that there had been some discussion at the time of a new producer being used, although that didn't amount to anything, and I think that might in hindsight have benefitted this album - by this time I feel that Richard's production style was getting more hit and miss, and it would have provided a fresher approach to accompany the new types of songs tackled on there. That said, I think you have to admire the attempts to try new things made on Passage, even if they didn't always work, which is better than the "treading water" approach taken with A Kind of Hush.

 

[Michael Hagerty]

Is Passage really their lowest selling album? I'd have thought that either Ticket to Ride or Made in America would have that dubious honour.

According to the RIAA website, Passage, Ticket To Ride/Offering and Made In America are the only three Carpenters LPs not to go Gold (sales of 500,000+ copies). Numbers aren't broken down beyond that, so it's impossible to say which of those three sold less than the other two.

It's worth noting, too, that the RIAA information was last updated in 2004. Still, given that the past six years are the worst in recorded music sales history, it's likely that those are still the three weakest Carpenters LPs in terms of sales....and, depending on how far below 500,000 copies each of those albums were, they still may not have gone Gold.

 

[A&M Retro]

I would be surprised to learn that "Offering"/"Ticket to Ride" is far below meeting the required 500,000 to meet GOLD status today. The album sold 300,000 when re-released with the boat cover in 1970, so it can't be too far away.

"Passage" reached #49 and "Made In America" reached #52 in Billboard, so I'm sure the sales figures of these two albums are close. "Made In America" had a hit single on it ('Touch Me When We're Dancinng" at #16), and "Pasaage" had two Top 40 singles ("All You Get...." and "Occupants").

 

[Song4uman]

I grew up in a small, rural Kansas town with a small radio station. I remember hearing the ending of "Calling ...." when it was released....and I waited for several days for it to be played again. I ended up calling and requesting it to be played (I didn't even know the name of the song...) and I think I heard it one or two more times in total....I was in 7th grade. I didn't buy the album until early 80's.

I have often heard that '"All you get..." was considered two long for pop radio at that time....my question would be: There were several times when they cut "knew" versions of album cuts for the singles versions....why did they cut a knew shorter version.....or re-edit to get the song shorter???

I think it would have done well.

I also love "Two Lives" and have heard the Bonnnie Raitt version and really like both.

Jonathan

hmmmm just reread this and realized that I spelled "new", "knew".....what on earth...I must have been typing fast ...eeekkkk I am a somewhat educated person...sorry..

 

[Song4uman]

I have often heard that '"All you get..." was considered two long for pop radio at that time....

Nah...I checked the charts for the summer of 1977...3:45 was pretty standard for the biggest records....with Fleetwood Mac and The Eagles routinely going 4 or 5 minutes on their singles.

oopsss again...I meant "I just fall in love..."

my brain is not working well....

 

[Song4uman]

I also love "Two Lives" and have heard the Bonnnie Raitt version and really like both.

Two lives is not on that album, it's Two sides.

oh my I knew that.....sorry folks....

 

[Rudy]

Jonathan...it just WASN'T your day.

 

[mr J.]

Rumbahbah/Mike Hagerty-"Passage" was definitely the worst-selling album.As of 1992,sales figures for "Passage" were appr. 400,000."Made In America"(as of 1992) sold 500,000+. "Made In America" technically qualifies for gold status."Ticket To Ride" sold Appr.400,000-500,000(in a 30+year span).
I talked about this issue on K&R's forum recently-Record Labels don't always keep accurate records of sales figures,especially when an album is 20 or 30 years old.(although,thanks to soundscan,sales figures are much more accurate today).And,chart positions have no bearing on how well an album sold,they only reflect how well an album is selling at the time of it's release.(they don't represent cumulative sales figures).
Basically,"Passage" sold 400,000 within 15 years.MIA sold 500,000+ within 11 years,but A&M probably didn't keep all the sales reciepts to get it certified."Ticket To Ride" was in-print for 35 years,and A&M probably lost track of the exact sales figures decades ago.It was always a slow seller,but there's every possibility it could have sold well over 500,000 copies,also.
And,for the record,RIAA certifications don't represent actually sales figures-they represent the minimum sales required for that certification(Gold,Platinum,Double-Platinum,etc).Basically,an album that was certified Gold(500,000 minimum)could have actually sold maybe 950,000(almost a million).This is the case with "A Kind Of Hush" and "Voice Of The Heart"-they were certified Gold,but actual cumulative sales figures are close to 1 million.

 

[Michael Hagerty]

Rumbahbah/Mike Hagerty-"Passage" was definitely the worst-selling album.As of 1992,sales figures for "Passage" were appr. 400,000."Made In America"(as of 1992) sold 500,000+. "Made In America" technically qualifies for gold status."Ticket To Ride" sold Appr.400,000-500,000(in a 30+year span).
I talked about this issue on K&R's forum recently-Record Labels don't always keep accurate records of sales figures,especially when an album is 20 or 30 years old.(although,thanks to soundscan,sales figures are much more accurate today).And,chart positions have no bearing on how well an album sold,they only reflect how well an album is selling at the time of it's release.(they don't represent cumulative sales figures).
Basically,"Passage" sold 400,000 within 15 years.MIA sold 500,000+ within 11 years,but A&M probably didn't keep all the sales reciepts to get it certified."Ticket To Ride" was in-print for 35 years,and A&M probably lost track of the exact sales figures decades ago.It was always a slow seller,but there's every possibility it could have sold well over 500,000 copies,also.
And,for the record,RIAA certifications don't represent actually sales figures-they represent the minimum sales required for that certification(Gold,Platinum,Double-Platinum,etc).Basically,an album that was certified Gold(500,000 minimum)could have actually sold maybe 950,000(almost a million).This is the case with "A Kind Of Hush" and "Voice Of The Heart"-they were certified Gold,but actual cumulative sales figures are close to 1 million.

There's also the reverse...where a record is certified Platinum based on store orders, but when the returns are finally calculated months or years later, it was actually only Gold.

 

[Harry]

I And I haven't listened to Man Smart, Woman Smarter in years - after only a couple of listens it developed into an instant "skip" when playing the album. It vies with Goofus in my mind as their worst ever song.

I think the reason why many fans dislike the recording is that while it clocks in at 4:21, the vocal portion is really only a small fraction of it.

Vocals don't begin until :12 into the song, and are basically done a minute later. Then after a :30 instrumental, the short chorus repeats once for :15 or so, and then it's all jazzy instrumental music to finish off the recording.

Add to that the "noisy" environment of the song with all of the whistles and weird percussion (à la Spike Jones), plus the heavy processing on Karen's lead, effectively burying her in the mix, and you see that it's not an easy record to love.

Harry

 

[richard_sloat]

I don't mind the instrumental portion of Another song, it's just that Man smart, woman smarter is not funny at all. I totally dislike things that were meant to be funny and are not, like bad jokes, they are embarassing for those who tell them and for those who listen to them. And that song is a bad joke.

 

[AM Matt]

Is the song "Man Smart, Woman Smarter" also done by a Canadian rock trio The Stampeders ("Sweet City Woman" from 1971) back in 1979?? Matt Clark Sanford, MI

 

[A&Mguyfromwayback]

After all this back and forth, I listened to this album yesterday.....I like that they were trying new things, but it's so scattershot that it kind of feels like a soundtrack from some strange movie. My two cents - the 'typical' Carpenters songs are over-orchestrated, all of them. "I Just Fall In Love Again" obviously had the hit potential, since Anne Murray turned around and made it a hit with a very standard late-70s a/c pop arrangement - this is just too ornate, too frilly, too distracting. I think "...Love Song" might possibly have done better (like I know anything) with a more stripped-down arrangement as well.....She sings the tar out of "Argentina", but did they really have to do half of Act I of "Evita" as a prelude?....I actually like "Calling Occupants" because it's so unapologetically weird. If you're going to do that song, well, do it like this....Love the Michael Franks, like some of the other songs - "Man Smart" didn't offend me, it's just pointless, boring, and not fun. And it made four minutes feel like forty. Why wouldn't you at least but some fun vocal backups in there or something? And yet - I enjoy this album. Don't ask me why, but I do.

 

[Vinylalbumcovers]

I heard "B'wana" for the first time just a couple of years ago and loving it. What a great lyric and a great rendering by Karen. I love the way she handles (I don't care if you drive my 350, honey)."

Great song by Michael Franks! I prefer his version (especially since the wording is supposed to be "220, honey" and not "350, honey" which doesn't rhyme), but this is a fine version nonetheless, and the first one I heard.

Yeah, that and "B'wana He No Home" makes more linguistic sense. Still, I love the way Karen puts across that line. Her vocal is oddly detached and it works.

"Man Smart..." is just plain ridiculous. It's probably my least favorite Carpenters track and Karen sounds just awful on it. It sounds like she has no idea what to do with it and her performance is wretched. Check please...

It's a clone of Palmer's version, which is just as wretched IMHO. Noisy, and the original melody and lyrics are nowhere to be found. I heard Palmer's version on XM Radio a few years ago and did a double-take, actually, as that was the first time I'd heard it, having known the Passage version since the album was first released. (In fact, I thought it was Carpenters but the vocals sounded slightly different. They're close!) Two wrongs don't make a right.

I haven't heard Palmer's version. I need to investigate.

Ed

 

[richard_sloat]

Yeah, that and "B'wana He No Home" makes more linguistic sense. Still, I love the way Karen puts across that line. Her vocal is oddly detached and it works.

I also like very much the "350, honey" line and the next ones but why would it make more linguistic sense for the character of the song to be a man???