"Beechwood 4-5789" - Yay or Nay?
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Chris
Well-Known Member
I give "Beechwood" a "Yay". It's a really fun song with a great melody. To me is has punch and they do it really well. I know this may sound strange, but "Beechwood" doesn't bother me half as much as "Those Good Old Dreams" does. Where "Beechwood" is unapologetically corny and all out fun, "Good Old Dreams" to me comes off as too contrived and overly sweet. It's always seemed a bit lightweight and its tone cemented the Carpenters even further into that square image that they were wrongly criticized for. I think it bothers me that Karen's vocal goes so high on the chorus as well.
Some of my favorite moments in "Beechwood" is the 'La la la la.. hey hey yeah..' Great drums too! Makes me smile.
Some of my favorite moments in "Beechwood" is the 'La la la la.. hey hey yeah..' Great drums too! Makes me smile.
Jamesj75
Well-Known Member
As I mentioned in an earlier thread of reviews of Made in America, I think the Carpenters tried too hard with that album to duplicate earlier successes. To paraphrase my earlier comments: They wanted "Beechwood" to be the next "Please Mr. Postman." They wanted "Those Good Old Dreams" to be the next "Top of the World." And they wanted "Because We Are in Love" to be the next "We've Only Just Begun." And, dare I say, it's hard to duplicate such classics. So, for me, "Beechwood," though mildly enjoyable, seems too contrived and doesn't shine as brightly as "Postman" (their highest selling hit worldwide).
Geographer
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I'm a "Nay" (or should I say "Eh") on "Those Good Ol' Dreams," too. Never really got it nor why other people like it so much.
I'll give it a 'yay', as I liked it when it was released in 1981. I even played it as a DJ in college and got an OK reaction to it (people danced). It's definitely contrived, but I will always enjoy the great section where all the wild instrumentation is going on behind Karen's voice towards the end. Karen sounds uber playful and pulls it off very well. The video, however, is another story. Karen looks so sick and the whole thing reeks of CHEESE. But I'd rather have it than not.
^THIS, I think, is the key to why the song gets so much negative press - the video. Had they not made a video, or even THAT video, my belief is that the song would rate higher among fans.
IMHO, a lot of people are very visual oriented and have difficulty separating the video from the recording.
Harry
newvillefan
I Know My First Name Is Stephen
I actually find it hard to believe a video this cheesy was actually recorded as late as 1981 and that they were still being steered down the cornball route as late as this into their career.
I do wish they'd made a video for '(Want You) Back In My Life Again' though!
I do wish they'd made a video for '(Want You) Back In My Life Again' though!
ullalume
Well-Known Member
I actually find it hard to believe a video this cheesy was actually recorded as late as 1981 and that they were still being steered down the cornball route as late as this into their career.
I do wish they'd made a video for '(Want You) Back In My Life Again' though!
Agreed, Stephen. Karen seemed to have a blind-spot when it came to dubious sketches/scenarios (remember her quote after Space Encounters saying she felt each one was better than the one before). But Richard, by and large, had/has impeccable taste. Planet qualude stopped him giving a damn about late '70s stuff, but he was firing on all cylinders by '81. . . truly a (very frustrating) mystery.
And a video of Back in My Life would've been lovely.
Mark-T
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"Planet qualude stopped him giving a damn about late '70s stuff"- here i disagree. I think Passage and Christmas Portrait show great ambition. I think he was probably disappointed by the response to Passage. Perhaps that's why much of the recordings of '78 show include many with less "gusto", for lack of a better word.
ullalume
Well-Known Member
You misunderstood, Mstaft. I meant Richard was past caring about their TV shows and marketing strategies. I think both Passage and Christmas Portrait are stellar pieces of work. . . . the specials Space Encounters and Christmas Portrait are not.
I don't really think of the video when I listen to 'Beachwood'. I just hear a concerted attempt to repeat the 'Postman' formula. That being said, the video really didn't do them any favors.
I wonder why they didn't do a video for 'Back In My Life'. Makes no sense. Would have been primo!
I wonder why they didn't do a video for 'Back In My Life'. Makes no sense. Would have been primo!
Musically, it's an 'Ehh...' for 'Beechwood'. It's OK - far better than 'Goofus', for instance - if rather lightweight.
Artistically though, it's an outright 'Nay'. They'd already tackled this style (with better results) with 'Postman', so it's largely redundant within their catalogue. Someone quoted the AllMusic reviewer in another thread saying that 'Sweet Sweet Smile' would struggle to find a place on a Greatest Hits Volume 3 for the duo, and I'd say the same is true of 'Beechwood'. A ridiculous choice of song to record and release (and then put out as a single!) on a comeback album in a new decade when they needed to come back with something bold, not ersatz versions of more of the same.
The video is corny but I give it some leeway as in 1981, the making of music videos was still in its infancy, so they weren't very sophisticated at this stage. At least they tried, albeit that the final result just adds fuel to the fire of their image problem. However, I'd imagine that before its release on the Yesterday Once More video, few would have seen it at the time of its release anyway. For that reason though, I can't imagine that if a video for 'Back in My Life Again' had been made at the time, it would have been any better.
I think someone mentioned in another thread that the video was shot in mid-1981, so if that's the case, then it was obviously identified as a future single at the time of the album's release. Not that Made in America was overflowing with cutting-edge tracks that radio would fall over themselves to play, but still ... REALLY!?
Artistically though, it's an outright 'Nay'. They'd already tackled this style (with better results) with 'Postman', so it's largely redundant within their catalogue. Someone quoted the AllMusic reviewer in another thread saying that 'Sweet Sweet Smile' would struggle to find a place on a Greatest Hits Volume 3 for the duo, and I'd say the same is true of 'Beechwood'. A ridiculous choice of song to record and release (and then put out as a single!) on a comeback album in a new decade when they needed to come back with something bold, not ersatz versions of more of the same.
The video is corny but I give it some leeway as in 1981, the making of music videos was still in its infancy, so they weren't very sophisticated at this stage. At least they tried, albeit that the final result just adds fuel to the fire of their image problem. However, I'd imagine that before its release on the Yesterday Once More video, few would have seen it at the time of its release anyway. For that reason though, I can't imagine that if a video for 'Back in My Life Again' had been made at the time, it would have been any better.
I think someone mentioned in another thread that the video was shot in mid-1981, so if that's the case, then it was obviously identified as a future single at the time of the album's release. Not that Made in America was overflowing with cutting-edge tracks that radio would fall over themselves to play, but still ... REALLY!?
Dave
Well-Known Member
Woh, and what if Karen & Richard did it the other way around?! That is, if they elected to do "BE4-5789" on Horizon, whereas "Please, Mr. Postman" would never have seen the light-of-day until 1981, on Made In America?
Some concerted thoughts...!
-- Dave
andywithaz
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Postman was cute. Beechwood needs to be buried.
Dave
Well-Known Member
To me, at times "Beechwood..." has a bit of a "Love Will Keep Us Together", which is why I had wondered of the thought of them doing it at the time of Horizon... (Perhaps w/ the hired background singers lending their brand of effervescence...!)
"Please, Mr. Postman", as dated an idea tended to be more timeless, and at least more favored enough that it would have held up better to the test of time had it been saved for Made In America; maybe not?
Just something to ponder, comparing "CarpenterS Oldies" decades apart, as the nostalgia-trend of the '70's meets the retro-revisited oldies act worship of the '80's...
-- Dave
"Please, Mr. Postman", as dated an idea tended to be more timeless, and at least more favored enough that it would have held up better to the test of time had it been saved for Made In America; maybe not?
Just something to ponder, comparing "CarpenterS Oldies" decades apart, as the nostalgia-trend of the '70's meets the retro-revisited oldies act worship of the '80's...
-- Dave
ullalume
Well-Known Member
It's funny, people often speak of Karen, at 31, being too old for the lyrics of this song (a feeling forever cemented by the sub-happy days video). Even Richard worried that the lyric for Slow Dance was too young for them, and she was only 28 then. Yet I just saw the new album by Kylie Minogue (massive in UK. . .not sure if she ever cracked the states)features a track called Sexercise. Ms Minogue hits 46 in a couple of weeks. I realize that Karen's voice had a maturity that Minogue's could never approach, but funny how things change.
Cordell
Well-Known Member
Yes! I like it although I didn't bear it in the beginning...it is a big fun in my opinion. However, the song itself has the touch of the 1980s, especially the drumming. I think the big secret of the Carpenters that they were able to turn an ordinary or a not-so-good song to a massive standard. This is a good example, I have never liked the original version at all. The video..it is so bad that I like it. Karen resembles Lea Thompson from the movie 'Back to the Future'.
70sFan
Well-Known Member
"Beechwood..." was fun and enjoyable. I think Richard's arrangement was genius. I would have loved a complete album of Karen and Richard performing 60's classics. Bette Midler released It's The Girls and it is a lot of fun. Karen and Richard's take on these classic songs would be so amazing. Now and Then is a perfect example.
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