The Rainbow Connection Question

[350hunny]

I wrote to Richard about something I noticed during the song.
I wrote:
Well, my question is whether there may be a leakage of a sound where Karen sings "dreamers and meeeeeeeeeeee".
The first point is at 3:28 and the second at 3:46 each in the middle of
meeeeeee.
I'm not sure if this is the reason why you left it out as an outtake to
begin with.
In Yuka( Yuko-then)'s mook, you mentioned "Karen would come down to get me
if the song was completed" or so.
I was guessing her lead was only partial so Richard thought it had better be
untouched.
But now with Richard's effort and enthusiam, we are able to listen to this
beautifully arranged song with previously unreleased vocals by Karen.


The reply:

Thanks for your interesting questions. That's not just a cliche, as Richard's response will prove. Please bear with me as I transcribe his notes:

Regarding "The Rainbow Connection" - it was originally written for Kermit the Frog (Muppet), with the accents on the wrong syllables. Richard changed the melody and took artistic license. Even though, Karen just didn't like the song, and it didn't make the album. For years fans kept requesting the recording, so Richard completed the chart and put it out. In the matter of leakage, there is none. Richard doesn't know what you are hearing.

Gee, I didn't imagine Karen didn't like the song
This is a new fact.

I'm sure I hear something funny or wrong with the part 'meee' but I think I failed to express the problem properly. Maybe 'leakage' is not the best word for it. I don't know how to say it in the right English. If any of you notice this discontinuous sound of meee, please tell me how to put it in English.
You have to listen to it carefully or you just get carried away with the song.

 

[Rick-An Ordinary Fool]

Not to sound negative but why can't we just be happy that we have this song, remember that this was a work lead by Karen. This song was never really suppose to be released, had Karen lived I'm sure she would have re-recorded it possibly. It's perfect the way it is.

I can see Richard now, there not happy that I'm not releasing it & there not happy that I did release. I just think we need to be careful with our questions. Especially with a song like a work lead. A work lead is not a perfect lead.

...whose grateful Richard released this song as is, online....

 

[350hunny]

Chris-An Ordinary Fool, personally I'm happy with this song for us to be heard.As Richard is a recording perfectionist, I'm also curious to know what is the matter with what I've found. I am not a faultfinder, you know.

I think we can't be happy the way you feel because we feel differently.
We keep complaining until we realize what we desire is what we can't get.
I think that's what humans are.
If we complain, it doesn't always last forever. How you feel about something may feel as you grow older.
By listening to other ideas, you find different aspects of the matter and they will make you consider and deepen your thoughts, if they sound better than others.

Look, Richard keeps remixing their recordings even now and I think some of us are happy with Santa Clause Is Comin' To Town or Please Mr. Postman Single versions while Richard seems to prefer them remixed.

I'm sure Richard did his best to make all the demos and work leads sound as good as their standards. Still, any kind of artistic work can't elude appreciators:especially cd buyers.

Though you say, work leads are not perfect, Superstar,Trying To Get The Feeling Again, Now for example are terrific, I think.

Artistic appreciation may differ but at least Carpenters CDs are still in store and have been selling in Japan these days. That's a fact.

 

[350hunny]

If we complain, it doesn't always last forever. How you feel about something may feel as you grow older.

Oops, I meant How you feel about something may change as you grow older.

I'm feeling old

 

[Calvin R Murty]

I think the "leakage" being referred to at these points of the word "me" is actually what is referred to in linguistic terms as a 'creaking voice'. Sometimes, when sustaining a note, the voice can sort of 'crack' and a rougher, more 'gravelly' tone comes out. You can hear Karen doing this a lot in the song Desperado. Sometimes it is deliberate, sometimes it is beyond a singer's control (and depending on how it sounds, they may choose to re-do that segment).

 

[Rick-An Ordinary Fool]

Of course you have every right to ask whatever you wish to Richard, I'm sure he can handle any question that comes along.

My take is that I just don't want Richard to think something he might release is not perfect, especially something rare like a work lead. This song was really never suppose to see the light of day. Just afraid that if we pick apart a song that is unreleased because it's not perfect than Richard may never release that kind of stuff again in the future. That is probably one of the main reasons he will not release alot of left over stuff cause it's not perfect & up to his standards. The minute I read Richard's notes & he tells me that a particular track was a "work lead" than I tend to take it for just that, a run through once by Karen & was not able to be touched up again. So it's just what it is.

That is why I wasn't suprised with his answer in that he doesn't hear what your hearing. Maybe it's just his way of saying...the song is just the way it is. I just hate to see a rare unreleased work lead picked apart cause it may not sound quite right compared to other Carpenters songs.

Just my opinions.

 

[andywithaz]

If I remember correctly, the me was drawn out by a studio engineer for a longer effect. This was discusses a couple of months ago I think.

 

[newvillefan]

It's also referred to as 'vocal fry' - I missed the discussion that's referred to (don't know how though!) but I don't think that last note was drawn out artificially by an engineer. Although you could technically lengthen a singer's note on a song using studio wizardy, I don't believe you can create that break in a voice where it wasn't there before!!

I think it sounds like it was naturally done by Karen for effect at the end of that song - just as she had done many times before on other songs, including Desperado as mentioned above.

Another example that springs to mind, from the same era as 'Rainbow Connection', is 'Somebody's Been Lying' - the last line is a wrencher, even more so because she does it there too:

'Were we just too much in looove'

Stephen

 

[Bruno]

I noticed this strange sound on "me" the very first time I listened to RAINBOW CONNECTION. In my opinion, it has nothing to do with Karen's voice. I think, Richard "prolonged" the "me" technically, so it would fit into the arrangement.

Bruno
the first snowfall in Germany today

 

[newvillefan]

Hi Bruno

Being a singer myself, I have listened and listened back to this and I know what people mean when they hear this 'jump' in Karen's voice, like a badly edited line. I have heard myself recorded and this can happen quite naturally, just a little glitch in your throat..

Had her voice broke unintentionally, fair do's he might have wanted to hide it, or to help prolong the line to fit the melody.

But - I don't think he'd purposely leave something so obvious if it wasn't an intentional vocal mark by Karen on her demo try out. You could easily erase that and cut and paste the milliseconds of her voice just before over it to hide it. I still think it's her. And he knows her voice better than anyone.

But maybe I'm wrong - I have been many times before!

Stephen

 

[aaflyer98]

I am just glad to finally have "The Rainbow Connection" (even with the MOR choir :| ) in a completed form. Thank you, Richard, for completing this song. Ok, we want more! As a true Carpenters fan, I seem to want everything Karen ever recorded (great or less than great) completed and released! I just love hearing her voice and any song or snippet of song that she sings will always get my attention and $$$! I know many of you feel the same.

 

[enigma]

I don't know about this vocal fry or leakage but that rasp in Karens voice has always been there to some degree. Its just an aspect of her voice when she hits certain note I noticed it throughout her career and it has never been a big deal to me. :| I also would like to see the unreleased tracks finished and released as well; they don't have to be perfect; I love her unreleased solo songs and they are not even finished.

 

[coolvox]

Love Making Love To You and Midnight are my top two favorites
from the unreleased material. I
hope that some, if not all of these
songs are released. I would also
love to hear the other song Siedah
Garrett worked on with Richard
while finishing Kiss Me.

JIM

 

[Johnny Angel]

That same vocal sound can also be heard on the last note of Boat to Sail... "in a boat to saaaailll..."

As for Rainbow Connection, Karen recorded it at Richard's request during the Made In American sessions, but she simply didn't like the song, and so it was never completed. Richard was quoted as saying that if he ever released it, that "Karen would come down and get me." My feeling is that after the freedom she had experienced on the New York solo sessions the previous year, where she was able to stretch a bit and do more "grown-up" songs, she didn't want to sing a song recorded by a Muppet. I think that's why Richard included songs on Made In America like Strength of A Woman, (Want You) Back in My Life Again, and Somebody's Been Lying; they have similar sounds to what Karen recorded on her solo album.

I recently completed a video for Rainbow Connection:

Carpenters - Rainbow Connection
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=23NvaiQPIkw

(Listen for another "strange" vocal sound at around 3:33 on the video)

 

[Trevor]

"Rainbow Connection" was written by Paul Williams.

Also, "Sing" was a hit for the Carpenters, and wasn't that a song from Sesame Street? Muppets are on Sesame Street.

But I do agree that "rainbow connection" was written for a muppet who can sorta sing and it's meant to be a little off key (a vocalist's nightmare).

I always like "I am going to go back there someday" sung by Gonzo. That's a great song. MAybe Karen should have done that.

 

[richard_sloat]

I was browsing the Oscars database curious to check who beated The rainbow connection back at the 1979 awards:

http://awardsdatabase.oscars.org/ampas_awards/DisplayMain.jsp?curTime=1296617769559

1979 (52nd)

MUSIC (Original Song)

"I'll Never Say 'Goodbye'" from The Promise -- Music by David Shire; Lyric by Alan Bergman and Marilyn Bergman
*"It Goes Like It Goes" from Norma Rae -- Music by David Shire; Lyric by Norman Gimbel
"It's Easy To Say" from 10 -- Music by Henry Mancini; Lyric by Robert Wells
"The Rainbow Connection" from The Muppet Movie -- Music and Lyric by Paul Williams and Kenny Ascher
"Through the Eyes of Love" from Ice Castles -- Music by Marvin Hamlisch; Lyric by Carole Bayer Sager

I believe I haven't watched any of these movies. I had The Muppet movie at hand once but it went unwatched. I have always been curious about Norma Rae though, being it the first Sally Field's Oscar winning. The second one I did watch, Places in the heart.

 

[newvillefan]

I think the "leakage" being referred to at these points of the word "me" is actually what is referred to in linguistic terms as a 'creaking voice'. Sometimes, when sustaining a note, the voice can sort of 'crack' and a rougher, more 'gravelly' tone comes out. You can hear Karen doing this a lot in the song Desperado. Sometimes it is deliberate, sometimes it is beyond a singer's control (and depending on how it sounds, they may choose to re-do that segment).

It's also known as 'vocal fry'. Karen was a master of it. You can also hear her doing it in 'Rainy Days and Mondays'. I believe that while some singers couldn't control it, Karen absolutely could and used it to full advantage when she thought the song required it. THAT'S how good she was at interpreting songs!

 

[richard_sloat]

Yesterday I was listening to Last one singin' the blues and she does it in that song as well, in the very last line.

I believe vocal fries are typical of singers with a soft quality to their singing style like hers.

 

[Calvin R Murty]

Gospel singer Sandi Patty used Karen's vocal fry for comic effect in her 1983 concert sequence during which she looks back at her musical influences.

http://www.4shared.com/audio/CUqlyCCc/Sandi_Patty__More_Than_Wonderf.html

 

[Vinylalbumcovers]

For the record, I totally get why Karen didn't like "The Rainbow Connection." It's a great song but Richard didn't have a beat on it at all. His arrangement is downright boring and it plays up the "kid" aspect of it way too much. The opening toy piano was an awful idea and the rest of the production sounds almost "phoned in." If he'd have done what Sarah McLachlan and others have done and treated the song with more respect, it might have been better.

I'm glad we got to hear it and all but it's no mystery to me at all why Karen didn't like it 'cause I don't either.

Ed

 

[Rick-An Ordinary Fool]

I'm glad we got to hear it and all but it's no mystery to me at all why Karen didn't like it 'cause I don't either.Ed

But I thought Karen DID like the song, I thought she always wanted to record it and that is why she did, it was a work lead so maybe that's why it never surfaced, she probably wanted to re-do it and they never had the time.

Unless I'm forgetting something I'd read before but I always thought she adored this song. Now the way Richard finished it up, that's a different story.

 

[richard_sloat]

No, Richard has said more than once that Karen simply didn't like the song.

Mr. ThaFunkyFakeTation, Mr. Chris-An Ordinary Fool is right, most of the elements you point out were done by Richard many years after.

I can't see why she didn't like the song to begin with though, it IS a great song.

EDIT: http://richardandkarencarpenter.com/fans_ask_Archive-All.htm

"Still, Karen just didn't like the song, and it didn't make the album."

EDIT 2: Little girl blue, page 235:

Even so, Karen was displeased with the outcome(...)

EDIT 3: Idem:

They loved the songs from that movie and wanted to record 'Rainbow Connection'.

So there's a contradiction. They loved the song and wanted to record it? Richard loved it and "they" means Richard while Karen was not thrilled about it? Karen was not pleased with the outcome or with the SONG to begin with?

 

[Rick-An Ordinary Fool]

Ok, so it must have been the Miss Piggy photo that got my mind all twisted.

Still I find it rather odd that this was a song Richard wanted to record. I can see Karen more of leading Richard into thinking hey I want to record this, we need to record this. Richard doesn't seem like the type of person to have wanted to record something of this nature. It seems to fit more of Karen, in this world of Disney stuff she adored.

The toy piano Richard added does give it a more childlike feel, I love the song and think Karen sounds amazing on it. It would have been interesting to hear the recording on playback to see why Karen didn't like it, yeah I know the read is what she heard but what was the song REALLY like before Richard finished it?

 

[richard_sloat]

Whose idea was of recording Sing? Richard's or Karen's or it came from both? Probably the same would apply here.

 

[Vinylalbumcovers]

No, Richard has said more than once that Karen simply didn't like the song.

Mr. ThaFunkyFakeTation, Mr. Chris-An Ordinary Fool is right, most of the elements you point out were done by Richard many years after.

Oh, I'm well aware of that. What was already in place was the vocal phrasing in the arrangement. It's awful and it shouldn't have been messed with. Paul Williams didn't like it either and I don't blame him. Richard should have left it as it was. It's integral to the song. If I'm judging her vocal by her best stuff, it crumbles badly. She did so much better.

Ed