🎤 Interview Richard Carpenter discusses new book on TalkShopLive, September 16 @ 7 p.m. Eastern

[Vinylalbumcovers]

A bit off-topic here, but I just looked at Wikipedia's discography page of Walter Afanasieff (whose name I was not familiar with, I shamefully admit).
I was amazed to see all those big names, the list just goes on and on and on!
When I was on vacation in Barcelona back in 2004, I discovered the cool music of Robi Draco Rosa (listening to it in a record store there) and had to take that CD home. I now see that he even produced that album as well!

He has a Carpenters' connection too. He's written with John Bettis.

Ed

 

[Chris May]

He has a Carpenters' connection too. He's written with John Bettis.

Ed

Indeed. He told me an incredible story the other day about a tune he and Bettis wrote for Streisand back in ‘94. A tear jerker for sure.

 

[Vinylalbumcovers]

Written by Walter Afanasieff, John Bettis, and Trey Lorenz:

 

[Chris May]

Written by Walter Afanasieff, John Bettis, and Trey Lorenz:

Cool!

It's actually a different tune that he was referring to—a song that Walter was going to write on his own but was having trouble coming up with a lyric for.

Back around '94, John [Bettis] came to stay with him up at his home in the Bay area. The next morning when Walter went to check on him, he wasn't in his room and his bed was made, which was concerning. He went outside to look for him, and it turns out that John had been sitting out there most of the night, writing lyrics he'd come up with on a legal pad. He handed Walter the finished sheet, which had water drop stains on it and said "Vladimir (Walter's birth name), I think I have your lyrics for you. My wife just left me, and I'm gonna call it "Sweet Forgiveness."

Barbra and Walter recorded it shortly after it was written, and I believe it's just recently seen its release.

To conclude the story, the water stains on the page were actually John's tears.

 

[Joeyesterday]

Cool!

It's actually a different tune that he was referring to—a song that Walter was going to write on his own but was having trouble coming up with a lyric for.

Back around '94, John [Bettis] came to stay with him up at his home in the Bay area. The next morning when Walter went to check on him, he wasn't in his room and his bed was made, which was concerning. He went outside to look for him, and it turns out that John had been sitting out there most of the night, writing lyrics he'd come up with on a legal pad. He handed Walter the finished sheet, which had water drop stains on it and said "Vladimir (Walter's birth name), I think I have your lyrics for you. My wife just left me, and I'm gonna call it "Sweet Forgiveness."

Barbra and Walter recorded it shortly after it was written, and I believe it's just recently seen its release.

To conclude the story, the water stains on the page were actually John's tears.

I just listened to a clip on iTunes. It’s from Barbra’s Release Me 2 CD. Beautiful.

 

[Timmerman]

For folks outside of the US who still would like to preorder the book, with a chance to score an autographed copy, you can order HERE:
Carpenters : Michael Cidoni Lennox : 9781648960727

Thanks so much. Just ordered from there.

 

[Mike Cidoni Lennox]

I've been really busy the past few days - I knew I would be! - so I've only caught about two seconds of the video just to see if it would work. With doctors appointments today, I hope to have more time over the weekend. It looks like it was a fabulous time for all.

Congrats as we get closer to "book time"!

Thanks, man! This one was for you (and many others). 💕

 

[Mike Cidoni Lennox]

I've just watched this interview. I'm certainly glad we got it and appreciate the effort that went into pulling it together. My only quibble is that Richard was very reigned in by Mike specifically and there were times when he clearly wanted to talk but wasn't really free to do so. Mike talked a lot and while I promise I mean absolutely no offense at all, I'd much rather have heard more from Richard. Again, though, I really am grateful for what we got.

Ed

Oh, trust me, Ed: I would have rather let RC go on … But we had TWO products to sell, so the heat was on. A challenging balance.
Rest assured, you’ll get hours of Richard in the book. Thanks for understanding.

 

[Mike Cidoni Lennox]

Pray for next Christmas, Rick.
He’s already told us exactly what it is, and … we are losing it, we’re so psyched!

Spot on, as far as the earpiece and p.a.., Rick. Next time, man.

 

[Mike Cidoni Lennox]

Thank you all for a great gift!

Our pleasure, Mark.

 

[Nick]

For folks outside of the US who still would like to preorder the book, with a chance to score an autographed copy, you can order HERE:
Carpenters : Michael Cidoni Lennox : 9781648960727

Bought a third copy here. Hoping for a signed one. Fingers crossed Thanks @Chris May

 

[Chris May]

Bought a third copy here. Hoping for a signed one. Fingers crossed Thanks @Chris May

Absolutely! And thank you!!

 

[WYBIMLA]

Great show guys. Been a looong time since I messaged on here since RPO 2018, and now just had to type in something with so much going on with the Musical Legacy book and Richard's 3rd solo album.

Also, I'm pretty sure I was one of the original members using the phrase 'Carpenterology' or 'Carpenterologists.' It's neither here nor there.
I don't know it might have been a group effort kind of thing, but I didn't know it'd have been used so frequently by now. Lol

I remember as far back as 2007 I'd joined fan forums when I was in high school, and even by 2012 I was talking with Randy Schmidt for a podcast (unfortunately that file did not survive a hard drive failure) and wish I had been able to share it with fans.

From my perspective, I feel like a lot of fans in that Carpenters is like an area of study in how we pick up more pieces each year. From different sources of course. Anyways, I know I was one of the fans using that term at least by 2016.

PM me about sharing credentials, if you wish. I remember I was there in the early days too describing the fan experience. ahaha

Anyways, it's a lot of fun to see how things have shaped up here and the resurgence of 70s sound going on now. It's great News!

 

[Guitarmutt]

Basically what Richard was trying to convey, is, the entire overture was not recorded in a single shot, as it consisted of multiple masters which were mixed, then spliced together to make a seamless medley.

When Universal put in the request to pull the tapes from Iron Mountain that were needed to piece it back together, one of the masters were never retrieved. It's an easy enough fix—in that, he would simply pull the original chart out and recut this one particular piece, and link it all back together again.

The "RPO treatment" is simply referring to the major cleanup of the audio—i.e. the removal of background noise, clicks, instrumental defects, and what have you. Karen's lead would also be pushed up in the mix, and the reverb would essentially "go away" for the most part.

As Richard mentioned on the show last night, this project wouldn't involve a complete re-record of the orchestra, as the one that was recorded originally was essentially the same size as the Royal Phil.

I hope this clears up some of the confusion.

So this begs a question, is this a redo of the special edition or both albums or might this be again something a little other? Though, I do like the idea of getting rid of most of the reverb. Curious.

 

[Chris May]

So this begs a question, is this a redo of the special edition or both albums or might this be again something a little other? Though, I do like the idea of getting rid of most of the reverb. Curious.

Unfortunately, I can't really divulge much more, other than to say it will be worth the wait when it's complete.

 

[GDBY2LV]

Maybe we will get both Christmas albums in the set? Now that would be a real treat, to here all the instrumental cuts with new symphony recordings as well as the vocal cuts.

 

[Mike Blakesley]

Maybe it's going to be....both original albums plus a bonus disk of Richard's long-awaited, still-unreleased Christmas album? (I can dream, right?)

 

[Portlander]

Here's a question for you Chris. Does Richard, his personal assistant or any of his family members visit this forum on occasion to check the pulse and musings of his loyal Carpenter followers? Given the limited attention that he and his webmistress gave to the official Carpenters site over the years my guess would be probably not.

 

[Chris May]

Here's a question for you Chris. Does Richard, his personal assistant or any of his family members visit this forum on occasion to check the pulse and musings of his loyal Carpenter followers? Given the limited attention that he and his webmistress gave to the official Carpenters site over the years my guess would be probably not.

The Carpenter family is much more aware of what's going on than most people give them credit for.

As for the "official" website at 'www.richardandkarencarpenter.com'—it is likely to get an overhaul at some point in the near future.

Stay tuned...

 

[Portlander]

Thanks and great news for the official website.

 

[Rick-An Ordinary Fool]

Maybe we will get both Christmas albums in the set? Now that would be a real treat, to here all the instrumental cuts with new symphony recordings as well as the vocal cuts.

According to Chris HERE there will not be a new symphony recordings, the reference to RPO treatment is simply a cleanup of the audio...not a new symphony since the original orchestra on the Christmas albums were essentially the same size as the RPO.

We have a long time to discuss until released but it will be interesting how this will be titled and sold to the pubic. It won't be Christmas Portrait/An Old-Fashioned Christmas with the RPO. Maybe each album will just retain it's original title and liner notes will determine this is a whole new remaster for 2022/2023. Or maybe titled Christmas Portrait Remastered? Or they could be bundled together with a specific title to show these are new cleaned up recordings. Many possibilities.

I for one am very happy the original orchestration will remain and not changed on the Christmas albums. I just want to hear a closer Karen and reverb gone.

 

[Kacfan]

According to Chris HERE there will not be a new symphony recordings, the reference to RPO treatment is simply a cleanup of the audio...not a new symphony since the original orchestra on the Christmas albums were essentially the same size as the RPO.

We have a long time to discuss until released but it will be interesting how this will be titled and sold to the pubic. It won't be Christmas Portrait/An Old-Fashioned Christmas with the RPO. Maybe each album will just retain it's original title and liner notes will determine this is a whole new remaster for 2022/2023. Or maybe titled Christmas Portrait Remastered? Or they could be bundled together with a specific title to show these are new cleaned up recordings. Many possibilities.

I for one am very happy the original orchestration will remain and not changed on the Christmas albums. I just want to hear a closer Karen and reverb gone.

at least one song will have the full rpo treatment though: merry christmas darling =)

 

[Rick-An Ordinary Fool]

at least one song will have the full rpo treatment though: merry christmas darling =)

Not necessarily, that song could be exclusive to the RPO album. I'm just guessing but based on what Chris wrote it sounds like there will be no new orchestration so that means it would not included the version of MCD that's found on the RPO album.

 

[Chris May]

Not necessarily, that song could be exclusive to the RPO album. I'm just guessing but based on what Chris wrote it sounds like there will be no new orchestration so that means it would not included the version of MCD that's found on the RPO album.

I suspect Richard will include the RPO version of "Merry Christmas, Darling" since it's already complete and one he considers to be the definitive version.

 

[Rick-An Ordinary Fool]

I suspect Richard will include the RPO version of "Merry Christmas, Darling" since it's already complete and one he considers to be the definitive version.

Interesting...if that's the case it sounds like Christmas Portrait as a whole will sound very different from the original release. I thought he was essentially leaving the album the way it was except for cleaning up the audio such as getting rid of noise and reverb yet bringing Karen up in the mix. I'm not sure how I feel about changing the entire sound of the original Christmas Portrait. If you just listen to MCD from the RPO although it's the same vocal of Karen, the entire song changes feel with the additions of the RPO and to me wouldn't seem to fit into the original CP album as a whole.