My body keeps changing my mind

Proudofyou

Well-Known Member
I get it. It was disco. It was kinda cheesy. It was different for her. Who cares about the lyrics. That being said, I think it would have been a great addition to the other dance stuff going on at the time. It's like this Love Boat meets Donna Summer meets Olivia meets Bee Gees. Just my opinion. Would have been fun to rollerskate to.
 
I love this song! Richard must have had at least a guilty pleasure feeling for it since he chose to do his own mix and include it in the "From The Top" box set. I think Karen fits quite nicely with the arrangement. I wish that there would have been an extended 12" version made.
 
I love this song! Richard must have had at least a guilty pleasure feeling for it since he chose to do his own mix and include it in the "From The Top" box set. I think Karen fits quite nicely with the arrangement. I wish that there would have been an extended 12" version made.

I have no real issue with the song either. Karen doesn't quite sell it but the production and arrangements (rhythm, string, and vocal) are excellent. I'm not a fan of Richard's mix either. His decision was the just add a bunch of non-sensical reverb. I much prefer her approved mix.

Ed
 
Because I heard the remix before the solo version, that remains my favourite. I was quite shocked when I finally heard the solo version at how dry and lifeless the track sounds without the reverb on the lead vocals and drums. Further shock when I got to second chorus: just before the bridge, the remix had the line "when I see you dancing" from the first chorus overdubbed onto it. On the solo version, it was never there in the first place. What it revealed was a weak, airy, out-of-range vocal by Karen that I am convinced Richard tried to hide by covering it in the remix.
 
Great song.
Loved it from first hear....after purchasing From The Top.
It sparkles. Nothing cheesy about it.
I like both versions (solo approved and FTP).
Kudos to Karen for having the guts to record it !

"Kudos to Karen for having the guts to record it !"

Amen to that! You have to admire Karen, not only for her "guts" but also being smart enough to know that the trajectory of her career had to change with the times.
 
Because I heard the remix before the solo version, that remains my favourite. I was quite shocked when I finally heard the solo version at how dry and lifeless the track sounds without the reverb on the lead vocals and drums. Further shock when I got to second chorus: just before the bridge, the remix had the line "when I see you dancing" from the first chorus overdubbed onto it. On the solo version, it was never there in the first place. What it revealed was a weak, airy, out-of-range vocal by Karen that I am convinced Richard tried to hide by covering it in the remix.

This is interesting and perhaps points to the fact that Richard had so much experience making Karen sound amazing on virtually anything she sang. He recognized what needed "fixed", to best frame Karen's vocals, and improved the song without turning it into a "Carpenters" version of the song. I like the remix better as well. It has more energy and sounds more alive.
 
I absolutely love this song. Both the solo and remixed version. There's also quite a few edits floating around on YouTube.

Extended disco mix:


Another extended mix:


With Michael Jackson. I find this difficult to listen to (like hearing two songs at once) but still interesting due to the many parallels of Karen & Michael's careers:
 
Speaking of Michael Jackson, I hear lots of stylistic and melodic similarities between his 1979 track It’s The Falling In Love and My Body Keeps Changing My Mind. You can superimpose the trumpets from the first two bars of Karen’s track over the line “It’s the falling in love/That’s making me high/It’s the being in love/That makes me cry” and it works perfectly. The rhythm guitar arrangement is also similar.

 
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The liner notes on From The Top say that the song was " remixed 1990."
Now, I just listened to the Solo album version, time 3:46.
The FTP states a time of 3:50.
My point is this: No matter what the re-mix apparently accomplished,
I hear no weaknesses in the solo version.
FTP
may sound better after the remix of 1990,
but, that song is vocally what Karen gave us in 1979-1980,
without any technical wizardry or hocus-pocus.
So, again, I say, Karen and Phil accomplished what they intended to accomplish.
 
Because I heard the remix before the solo version, that remains my favourite. I was quite shocked when I finally heard the solo version at how dry and lifeless the track sounds without the reverb on the lead vocals and drums. Further shock when I got to second chorus: just before the bridge, the remix had the line "when I see you dancing" from the first chorus overdubbed onto it. On the solo version, it was never there in the first place. What it revealed was a weak, airy, out-of-range vocal by Karen that I am convinced Richard tried to hide by covering it in the remix.

I disagree, completely! I LOVE that line and I was pissed Richard covered it up.
 
Karen shouldn't of done disco because Richard asked her not to?

But I'm glad she did. My Body Keeps Changing My Mind is one of the better "disco" songs and Karen sings it well. It may have come to late to catch the disco craze had it been released in '79, but it's lots of fun hearing Karen cut loose on it! I would forgive her for doing this one song, as many artists of that era cut at least one disco/dance song, if not an entire album..........

If it was really so bad, why did Richard select it for "From The Top?" I think he realized Karen was a more than just Karen Carpenter of the Carpenters. They are both talented individuals, although more magical as a duo. There was room for both of them to shine together or apart!
 
It's always the track wheeled out on documentaries whenever the solo album is discussed, as if to say 'look how disco she went' or, more often, to imply 'look what a bad decision she made recording it'. And yet it's so much fun. I remember what a revelation it was to hear it when I got the From the Top box set. Karen sounds like she's having a ball on it. I'm really glad we have this recording.

I've just listened to the remix, as I haven't played it in a while. It's certainly a bit glossier sounding, but to be honest I don't think it's an improvement on the original version. If anything, I prefer the slightly drier sound on the original, as it allows the background instrumentation to stand out better and Karen's vocal sounds more direct without the reverb.
 
The more I keep reading comments regarding this song and others on her solo album, the thought came to me; what if Richard had produced Karen's solo album? Her vision? His production? :crazy:
 
Well, that would simply be a Carpenters album! The point of this project was NOT to be ‘Karen Carpenter of the Carpenters’.

I mean, would it be? Richard seemed, to many here, to have "remixed" many of her solo songs better than the original. He didn't pick them or sing on them himself; however, it seems his "tweaks" improved them though.
 
I mean, would it be? Richard seemed, to many here, to have "remixed" many of her solo songs better than the original. He didn't pick them or sing on them himself; however, it seems his "tweaks" improved them though.

I don't agree that, with the exception of "If I Had You" that his tweaks improved them. I think the others are fine as they are, honestly.

Ed
 
Obviously, given what was going on in their lives in 1979/1980, Richard was in no position to be producing Karen's solo album - indeed, the solo album chiefly came about directly because of that situation. More pertinently though, there's no way such a set-up could have produced anything other than a Carpenters record. Richard would never have selected songs like 'If I Had You' or used people like Rod Temperton as songwriters and vocal arrangers. You only have to compare the sort of tracks on and the sound of the Made in America album to those on the solo album to see the massive difference in the approaches taken.

On the issue of the solo remixes, I think Richard only remixed three tracks - 'Lovelines', 'If I Had You' and 'My Body Keeps Changing My Mind'? Because we heard them the wrong way round (i.e. the remix before the original), I can understand why some default to the remix versions as they were the first and only versions in release for several years. However, aside from 'If I Had You', where I do still expect to hear the cold ending whenever it's played, I've heard the original versions of 'Lovelines' and 'My Body...' enough now that they've become the definitive versions in my head. I was playing the Lovelines album the other day and was surprised to hear the title track fading out so quickly, as I've become so used to hearing the longer solo album version.
 
A comparison of two versions of one song, Make Believe It's Your First Time,
is comparison enough for me--especially, since that is the one song completely re-recorded and re-arranged.
That shows the direction Richard was going at that time.
I heard a disco song on the radio, recently, and still feel that Karen's vocal nuances on her so-called 'disco' tracks
were quite a bit better and more distinctive than some of the disco of the time.
In other words, she did fine with the material she chose.
 
A comparison of two versions of one song, Make Believe It's Your First Time,
is comparison enough for me--especially, since that is the one song completely re-recorded and re-arranged.
That shows the direction Richard was going at that time.
I heard a disco song on the radio, recently, and still feel that Karen's vocal nuances on her so-called 'disco' tracks
were quite a bit better and more distinctive than some of the disco of the time.
In other words, she did fine with the material she chose.

Yes, it quite slipped my mind that in 'Make Believe It's Your First Time' we already have an example of Richard's take on a Karen solo song. The difference between the final versions is enormous and this tells you all you need to know on the queston really.
 
I too don’t like how this track has become the singular example of why Karen shouldn’t have even attempted to branch out. It’s disco, and? It’s literally one disco song and she pulls it off. It wasn’t a whole album full of disco schlock. The remix even shows that Richard later found some enjoyment with it, and I do like his mix better. This track is so much better than If I Had You which never seems to take off and soar like this one does.

I know that disco was on its way out by 1980, but didn’t Streisand just have a huge hit with The Main Event, a disco song using a boxing metaphor for love? I think My Body... would have been just fine on the album, if not a single with some success.
 
On the issue of the solo remixes, I think Richard only remixed three tracks - 'Lovelines', 'If I Had You' and 'My Body Keeps Changing My Mind'?

He remixed If We Try, Still Crazy After All These Years and Remember When Lovin' Took All Night as well (according to the liner notes), but the difference on these three has always been inaudible to me.

I know that disco was on its way out by 1980, but didn’t Streisand just have a huge hit with The Main Event, a disco song using a boxing metaphor for love? I think My Body... would have been just fine on the album, if not a single with some success.

Absolutely right, disco wasn't completely dead by 1980. Just look at the Billboard chart of dance singles for that year. This song, or the title track, would have sat quite nicely among songs like Lipps Inc's Funkytown, Stacey Lattisaw's Jump To The Beat, Diana Ross' Upside Down, Irene Cara's Fame and Kool and The Gang's Celebration.

List of number-one dance singles of 1980 (U.S.) - Wikipedia
 
He remixed If We Try, Still Crazy After All These Years and Remember When Lovin' Took All Night as well (according to the liner notes), but the difference on these three has always been inaudible to me.



Absolutely right, disco wasn't completely dead by 1980. Just look at the Billboard chart of dance singles for that year. This song, or the title track, would have sat quite nicely among songs like Lipps Inc's Funkytown, Stacey Lattisaw's Jump To The Beat, Diana Ross' Upside Down, Irene Cara's Fame and Kool and The Gang's Celebration.

List of number-one dance singles of 1980 (U.S.) - Wikipedia

Just dug out the Lovelines liner notes on the remix issue. Interestingly, it says that 'If We Try' and 'Remember When Lovin'...' were remixed by Phil Ramone and Jim Boyer (as you say, they both sound identical to the versions on the solo album), while 'Lovelines' and 'If I Had You' were remixed by Robert de la Garza. Given that remix credits are normally never given for all the other remixes done on Carpenters songs, does that in fact mean that Richard didn't really have much involvement with these and farmed them out?

The two solo tracks on From the Top don't feature any remix credit, so presumably these were Richard's work. Again, the version of 'Still Crazy...' sounds identical to the original verison.
 
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