wideawakeat4am
Well-Known Member
Richard and Karen went into their comfort zone with 'Made In America', and thought they could repeat their run of top selling songs from one album, similar to what happened to the album 'A Song For You' which culled so many hit singles.......that could not be repeated. Richard tried really hard to update their sound, I think he succeeded, but he made one big mistake by including something so personal as 'Because We Are In Love', this really should have been locked in the vaults forever. Karen sort of enjoyed informing us how tight the schedule was in getting this song finalised for the wedding and ultimately for the album. I'm sorry, but all that effort was completely lost on me.
It was a bit lost on me as well.
I always got the vibe that Richard didn't like Tom Burris all that much, so why get so involved with the wedding? Why not just turn up and look happy?
I also agree that it was an odd choice to include something so personal on an album, unless they were really short of material. Apart from anything else, it must have been obvious that the marriage was not working out.
Karen admits that she lost too much weight in 1975 which led to her collapse. So she was willing to admit this in 1981, yet she was at or approaching the 1975 weight in 1981. How could she not see this?
And I am still perplexed why Richard and Herb and Jerry let Karen do publicity for MIA in the state she was in. They must have known there would be questions like Sue Lawley at Nationwide. Not everybody would be a Carpenter fan like Ray Moore and tell Karen she looked "fully fit" when she did not. Just look at pictures of her at her wedding less than a year earlier to here. But A&M put her out there anyway.Perhaps for business reasons, but I have to think Richard and Herb were above that.
I was surprised that Karen admitted to the weight loss during such an interview, considering what she said during the interview with Sue Lawley.
I agree that the promotional interviews weren't a good idea considering Karen's obvious ill-health, but I guess that they had a new album they had to try and do something with. What else could they do apart from try and sell some copies?