BBC Radio 2 Documentary - Part 1

[newvillefan]

Hi guys

Well, for those of you who didn't get to hear the documentary yesterday, here's a little taster of what to expect. By the way, this was by far the best documentary I've heard about their lives and especially Karen. Mark Radcliffe is obviously a serious fan!!!

Off the top of my head the songs aired were:

Yesterday Once More
Iced Tea
Please Mr Postman
This Masquerade
Close To You
Occupants
Top Of The World
Superstar

But the BIG surprises were the interviews! Richard and Karen heard at length from a BBC interview in March 1982 (what on earth was Karen doing in England in 1982?). Itchy Ramone also talked about her a lot, but the biggest eye opener was Brian Southall, the A&M rep for the UK at the time. He referred to R&K as being like 'the odd couple'.

He said that Richard was the guy really into his music, but cool and relaxed; he said that when they went to see them at the Talk of the Town charity gig on the last night of their tour, he said that he finally realised that everything he thought was adlibbing all along, wasn't! In fact these were timed, rehearsed riffs and actions by all of the band, and that if any of them slipped up, it was embarassing to watch how Karen berated them in front of the whole audience.

I knew this incident had been referred to in the Ray Coleman book, but it was quite interesting just how much this was noticed by people at the time. He was saying words to the effect that if you valued your head you wouldn't do anything to cross her.

One very sad comment came from Phil Ramone: during the recording of her solo album, at the start of the sessions, she would hang around the drum booth, sit and kid around at the drums and then say "those days of singing from behind the kit are over, it doesn't do anything for my rear end".

Phil also said he and Karen were watching a video of her on TV once and he freeze framed the screen, DREW round the people on screen in crayon and then compared their rounder silhouettes to hers, but she still couldn't see it. He said she looked like a pencil compared to them. So sad.

The other interesting one was the interview with Theresa and Debbie Vaiuso, who STILL live on Hall Street in New Haven Conneticut! They said that Richard had the swing fixed to the rafters in the basement, and a rocking chair whose runners he wored out as a kid through rocking to the music that much!!!

Anyone who heard the 1 hour show, did I miss any juicy info?!!?

Stephen
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[PJ]

As I dash away from work -will add more thoughts tomorrow-felt this was an impressive well balanced doc with excellent contributors and archive material

Part 2 with more on Karen's solo sessions , personal issues should provide more interesting info.

Peter

 

[newvillefan]

The other very interesting insight from Phil Ramone I forgot to mention, was that at A&M Karen had two spaces reserved for her Jaguar, so that no one could park next to hers and risk it being scratched or bumped.

Phil said he was incredulous at this notion, and did she realise just how lucky she was to have one space, never mind two?! He commented that two spaces in New York would be like gold dust.

I think it just reinforced his opnion that they were spoiled by A&M.

Stephen

 

[DJS]

Hello everyone this is my first entry and its great to see so many like minded people still actively discussing the music of Karen and Richard.

I wanted to reply to the reference of Karen & Richard being in the UK in March 1982 and the BBC interview. This is in fact incorrect.

The interview was recorded in their office on the A&M lot in September 1981 after the release of Made In America. It was recorded by the late Ray Moore who for many years was the early morning DJ on BBC Radio Two. He sadly died some years later from cancer.

Ray was a huge fan of the Carpenters and he described in his autobiography that he wrote after discovering his illness how pleased he was to have met Karen & Richard and said that afternoon he spent with them was one of happiest of his life.

He described Karen as hauntingly beautiful and Richard as clean with his college boy look saying the Carpenters were everything he was expecting and more.

It is a wonderful interview that lasts for a good hour and is packed with interesting quotes and a lot of humour.

After Karens passing, the interview was broadcast again as a tribute in late February of 1983. Ray introduced it with the words

"Karen Carpenter, born March 2 1950 in New Haven, Conneticutt died Febuary 4 1983 in Los Angeles, 32 brief years in which that shimmering bell-like voice enriched the lives of us all, back in September 1981, Dennis O'Keefe (his producer) and I spent a magical afternoon with the Carpenters in Los Angeles recording tragically what was Karen's last major radio interview"

 

[Rick-An Ordinary Fool]

I don't know if I'm the only one that feels this way but after hearing this interview, I walked away that it placed Karen in sorta a negative light, apart from her voice they didn't really have very nice things to say about her. I'd hardly call these "juicy" tidbits that I want to collect or that I would want to hold in high regard. It's almost like the more I hear, the more I wish I had not heard. But for me, it doesn't change my love their music or Karen as a singer.

I'm torn about these kind of interviews, although I love to hear these interviews with Richard talking about the songs & how they came about & the overdubbing & tidbits of info that I may have not know, such as all the info from the recent booklet insert of anniv box set I have. But with these kind of interviews, like this BBC one, I get a little uneasy feeling about them, Sure there people who knew Karen & was around her then, It's just the things that they say, well...Karen is not here to defend herself to such statements as these & it makes me not want to take them for all there worth. It's almost like saying something about someone & that someone not being able to explain the situation. Sorta unfair in a way.

Maybe I'm the only one that feels this way. I just wonder what Richard would have to say about parts of this interview.

 

[SakuraSYayoi]

Chris, you are not the only one. I agree with you.
I love to hear interviews with Karen and Richard talking about music.

Sakura

 

[SakuraSYayoi]

Hi David,

Nice to meet you on the board.
Thank you for your information about Ray Moore. I love interview recorded by Ray Moore.

Sakura

 

[Murray]

Maybe I'm the only one that feels this way. I just wonder what Richard would have to say about parts of this interview.

I don't feel that the BBC program painted Karen in a bad light at all, nor that it was anyone's intention to do so. I find it interesting to hear the remembrances of people that knew her. In a way, it makes her seem more real, more human. I didn't hear anything that made me uncomfortable, or that diminished my respect for Karen either as a person or musician. She wasn't perfect, but so what. None of us is!

Just my 2 cents.

Murray
...who also parks in the middle of two spaces, whenever possible...

 

[PJ]

Do not forget :

Part 2 TONIGHT Tuesday 3 February 2004

BBC Radio 2 20:30 hrs

Pacific Time : 12:30

Eastern Time : 15:30

Will be available on BBC Radio 2 website until Monday 9 February

More Ramone on Solo Album , More on Karen's short marriage and last year fighting eating disorders plus plenty more Carpenters rarities / classics

Peter

 

[andywithaz]

Can't wait to see the 2nd part

 

[Geographer]

Gosh, I have to agree, the interview was not very positive. At times I thought it was especially harsh on Richard and Agnes, and sometimes downright unfair. I kept saying "gee, Itche Ramon, tell us what you REALLY think about Richard."

Great interview clips from 1980, however.

 

[Rick-An Ordinary Fool]

I found Part 2 much more interesting. I enjoyed hearing Phil Ramone talk about the solo project in much more detail that I have heard before. I never realized that this project was really thought out in great detail before Phil or Karen ever entered into agreement to do this.

I just thought that it happened very quickly but according to Phil, it was discussed for long long time about why they were doing it & why Karen wanted to do it, what kind of material (that she chose to do) and especially that they talked in detail about not making another Carpenters album but a album about Karen & exposing her soul to the listener audience. For me, it just emphasized how much "more" important this album means to me now than it ever has before. I loved how they played Karen's version of "Make Believe it's your First Time" Liked how Phil described that song & Karen's reading of it.

Well, since I am a Carpenters collector, I just finished making MP3's of these interviews & burned them to CD. (I'm so paranoid that my system will crash one day & them I will lose them. While I was at it, I went & burned another CD full of interviews I had on my PC stored as well. Interviews of I write the songs all parts (thanks Murray) and a Richard Carpenter Interview (about 18 mins) and the Brazil 1981 Interviews all parts. All now safetly stored to CD.

Thanks everyone, I really enjoyed this thread.

 

[Dee2ed]

Chris,

How did you make MP3s to burn to a CD. This is somthing I wanted to do
as well, but my husband isn't quite sure how to do it. It's hard for me to listen during the day, and I wanted to listen at my convenience.

Thanks so much.

 

[Rick-An Ordinary Fool]

Kristin, I probably did it the hard way but for me it worked. I used my mic cord (included with my Dell PC) and plugged that into the soundcard on back of pc, then I placed the mic right next to one of my pc speakers. Then I opened up my recording device (dell musicmatch, also included) and set up the recorded for mic under: options, recorder, source, mic. Then selected what quality recording I wanted to capture 128, 160 bit rate mp3 or I could have created a wav (but that takes up way too much harddisc space) then I hit record on the musicmatch & it will continue to record till you stop it. Then once the mp3's were made I used a program caused Roxio Easy CD Creator to make the cd's, I also have a program called Nero to burn cd's but I haven't loaded that software into my pc yet to try that.

Granted this is not the best quality recording but it's good enough for me with something like this (basic interviews). I played back the cdr's I made & they sound pretty decent.

Hope this helps.

 

[Dee2ed]

Thanks so much!

We will give it a try. I really appreciate your answer.

Take care.

 

[Rick-An Ordinary Fool]

I just realized that on my Dell Musicmatch that I can choose the option for "System Mixer" to capture this streaming audio & burn directly to my harddrive. The sound is excellent, so I re-did it & burned it again for Part 2 of this interview. Wish I could go back & re-do the Part 1, I wish they kept it in there archive.

Thanks Murry for the heads up on that, the sound quality using "system mixer" option is indeed much better than the mic route.

...just finishing up making another CDR, online...