Thunderbirds

[SakuraSYayoi]

What Thunderbird do you recall, thunderbirds are with Carpenters?

Richard's cars?
"Time" album?
"Time" album cover in "The Ultimate Collection"?
T-bird in "Fun Fun Fun"?
Older video "Something in Your Eyes"? (New video has another car.)
[I love 3 Richard singing chorus with Dusty Springfield in the video.
I love 2 Karen drumming on the first television special, too!!]
Or story in Fan Club Newsletter?

I saw Thunderbirds photos at auction site several days ago.

( lareger one )

( enlarge )
Richard was wearing another A&M T-shirt in Japan; A&M LP T-shirt.


I have seen more beautiful photos of Karen and Richard with Thunderbirds at www.highgallery.com before.
Carpenters with Thunderbirds pilots at Air Force Base and in Las Vegas,
and Richard in Thunderbird with another Air Force pilot standing.
(I don't know if they still have celeb photos.)

NEWSLETTER #19 - November, 1972
....
A special treat was afforded Karen and Richard when they were invited to
meet the U.S. Airforce "Thunderbirds", and watch their air show. The pilots
in turn attended one of the Sahara concerts.

NEWSLETTER #20 - December, 1972
....
Other VIPs who dropped in to visit during their Vegas run were Astronaut
Buzz Aldrin, the Air Force Thunderbird pilots, Gerry Vail, Chill Wills, and
Julie Nixon Eisenhower....Karen and Richard also visited the Nellis Air
Force Base, meeting again with the Thunderbird pilots, and were privileged
to climb aboard one of the planes while Dad Carpenter took movies of the
action.

In "Deadman's Curve", what kind of car did 'I' drive? Could you tell me
what car had 'six tail lights' that Jag could see?

Sakura

 

[DAN BOLTON]

[quote="SakuraSYayoi"




In "Deadman's Curve", what kind of car did 'I' drive? Could you tell me
what car had 'six tail lights' that Jag could see?

Sakura[/quote]

That was a Sting Ray...a Chevrolet Corvette produced from 1963-1967. The Sting Ray name disappeared in 1968, and returned as one word[Stingray] in 1969 for one year. At least, I think it did...


Dan

 

[SakuraSYayoi]

Thank you, Dan!!!

I might see new Stingray or Sting Ray in '80s.

Were six tail lights rare?
http://richardandkarencarpenter.com/Auto-19 1966 Chevrolet Corvette Sting Ray.htm

Was the car that Karen drove at Christmas TV Special Corvette?

Sakura

 

[DAN BOLTON]

As far as I know, which isn't really much of a stretch, the only Sting Ray with 6 taillights was a styling exercise done in 1964. It was used by Bill Mitchell, who was the chief stylist at GM during that era, and it featured several styling cues that were adapted to later Corvettes, like the fender louvers, the side exhausts and other things.

I imagine that Jan and Dean used the phrase "six tail lights" because it sounded better than "four tail lights"...it seems to roll off the tongue a little better...


Dan

 

[Actorman]

Actually, "six tail lights" was a revised lyric for the single version of "Dead Man's Curve." In the original version from the Drag City album, the lyric was "all the Jag could see were my French tail lights."

A couple other differences between the original album cut and the single:

Original - "the strip was deserted" and "pulled her out and there I was"
Single - "the street was deserted" and "pulled her out and there we were"

Also, the single version added the "slippin', slidin'..." background vocals.

(The hit version was then used on the Dead Man's Curve/ New Girl In School album.)

So, "Dead Man's Curve" was Jan & Dean's "Top of the World."

 

[DAN BOLTON]

Actually, "six tail lights" was a revised lyric for the single version of "Dead Man's Curve." In the original version from the Drag City album, the lyric was "all the Jag could see were my French tail lights."

A couple other differences between the original album cut and the single:

Original - "the strip was deserted" and "pulled her out and there I was"
Single - "the street was deserted" and "pulled her out and there we were"

Also, the single version added the "slippin', slidin'..." background vocals.

(The hit version was then used on the Dead Man's Curve/ New Girl In School album.)

So, "Dead Man's Curve" was Jan & Dean's "Top of the World."

It was probably "frenched" instead of "french"..."frenched" is an automobile customizer's term that has to do with making car body parts like headlights, taillights, grilles, etc. look as if they were molded into the bodywork of a certain car. Usually, the trim around such parts that would usually be chrome plated was painted body color, or there might be a narrow band of chrome plating left unpainted as close to the ornament as possible. Corvette taillights from the Stingray era might be able to qualify as being of this type...a clear example of "frenching" on a production car would be the 1968 Plymouth Fury grille, as opposed to the similar 1967 grille. The '68 had a narrower chrome grille section, with a body-colored valance that ran just underneath it, but above the bumper.

"Frenched taillights" would be rather awkward to say or sing, and even more difficult to decipher in the listeners' ears, so I can see why it was changed to "six". Also, since no Sting Ray ever left the factory with six taillights, it's clear that the song was about an imaginary car, and there would be no question of licensing fees to GM or any possible product liability concerns...



Dan

 

[DAN BOLTON]

A better dewfinition of frenching can be found here http//en.wikipedia.orgwiki/Frenching_%28automobile%29


Since the taillights on a Sting Ray were 4 separate units[two tail/stop and two backup lights] and were in fact accessed from behind, technically, they were frenched.


But six is still easier to sing and understand. I can understand the switch.


Dan

 

[Actorman]

Very cool, Dan!! Thanks for the info. That actually makes much more sense. (I always wondered what in the heck a "French" taillight would look like anyway. Oooh la la! LOL!)

You're totally right that the "ed" of frenched would easily "disappear" against the "t" in taillight without the singer taking a quick (and awkward) breath or doing some way over the top annunciation.

Jan Berry and frequent co-writer Roger Christian were both major "gear heads" and threw a lot of obscure car and racing terminology in their lyrics. Most of them I have figured out over the years, but there were still a couple I had no clue about. I can now scratch one more off the list!

 

[Dave]

There's really so much action in this song, that if you're going to dramatize "a car speeding away in the night", then what better way than to make it "something to do with its tailights", and who is really going to be that up on "Frenched" or whatever "trick" a car is gonna have?

Just "stating a number of them or how many the car has" can give the same effect, and a decade later, "Six Tailights" could'a been a FIREBIRD, 1974-1978...! Or how 'bout a Mercury Cougar XR-7 with six tail lights on which the turn signals flash in sequence...



Dave

 

[SakuraSYayoi]

Thank you very much for detail!

3 weeks ago I saw yellow 60's Stingray coming, I couldn't help myself to checking how many taillights the Stingray had. Then 350 was coming!

Sakura

 

[SakuraSYayoi]

Jan & Dean's "Like A Summer Rain" was released as a single. It was re-recorded for the "Silver Summer" album. There is a CD which has the original version.

I saw
Jan and Dean-Like A Summer Rain 1966 at video site.

I was not sure if it was the same version as original version on CD that I bought several years ago.

There was mentioned that Karen sang back-up vocal for this song at Jan and Dean's site.

Sakura

 

[Actorman]

I’m a huge Jan & Dean fan and collector. I’ve never heard anything about Karen singing on Save For A Rainy Day but it’s certainly possible. Most of that album was recorded in “Joe Osborn’s garage” in mid- to late- 1966, the same time and place that Karen and Richard recorded Karen’s Magic Lamp singles. (Magic Lamp was co-owned by Joe.)

However, nothing is mentioned in the liner notes of the 1996 CD release of Save For A Rainy Day or any of the books I have on J&D and I would think any contribution, no matter how small, by someone of Karen’s significance would have been mentioned somewhere. But the timing does line up so while likely only coincidental, it’s not inconceivable.

Save For A Rainy Day was essentially a Dean Torrance solo project under the Jan & Dean name. Jan Berry was still recovering from his near-fatal accident that previous April and was not involved with its recording.

A very small pressing of the single “Summertime, Summertime” b/w “California Lullaby” was originally released as Magic Lamp #401. (It was later released as Jan & Dean Records #401.) I’m not sure what the catalog numbers were for Karen’s Magic Lamp singles but I can’t imagine Magic Lamp had a very large catalog since it was only in existence for a very short time.

At the very least, they (Dean, Karen and Richard) could have been acquaintances during that period since they obviously had friends in common.

 

[newvillefan]

A very small pressing of the single “Summertime, Summertime” b/w “California Lullaby” was originally released as Magic Lamp #401. (It was later released as Jan & Dean Records #401.) I’m not sure what the catalog numbers were for Karen’s Magic Lamp singles but I can’t imagine Magic Lamp had a very large catalog since it was only in existence for a very short time

Karen's single was Magic Lamp # ML704