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Can you provide a link to that FB pg. I can't seem to find it.Just watched it via the link on the Carpenters fb page. Really good~
Karen Carpenter - Goodbye to Love.mp4 »Can you provide a link to that FB pg. I can't seem to find it.
She said "It's like being haunted, it's the worst thing in the world. I'm disgusting. I am. I'm disgusting." I'm positive she's talking about the eating disorder, and that she blames herself for the breakup - the ED made her so disgusting, that Tom couldn't live with her anymore.There was another scene I was also a bit disturbed about was when the marriage had failed and Richard came upstairs Karen was on the bed alone in her room and Richard asked what they were fighting about and she said, It's like being ---- I didn't get that word, did she say conned in the marriage? It's the worse thing in the world. Then she said I'm disgusting (at least that is what I think Adele said) I couldn't tell if the writers of the movie were trying to say Karen was disgusted at herself because of the marriage not working and she blamed herself or were they referring to her eating disorder Karen could not control. I don't know.
I also don't believe the scene where Karen plays back her solo album with all of A&M and Richard really took place like that, it reminded me of a gangster mob scene, totally off base I believe.
I wasn't crazy on that scene either but I think what they were trying to portray was that Karen was pressured into giving up the album by the powers that be, as if to say that the shadow of Richard and the A&M brass loomed much bigger than just Karen alone.
I'm so glad to read the positive reviews that continue to come in - I do think it was exceptionally well done and featured a really nice cross-section from Karen's friends and work colleagues.
Unless I am mistaken, the final 1980 Television Special featured none of her drumming, as seen on earlier telecasts.
And, the relative scarcity of her session drumming for the records is even more baffling. (At least, to me it is.)
Now, in regards the solo project, I would be surprised if her stamina and strength supported drumming.
And, yet, I could be wrong ! The Olivia special and the Herb Alpert 20/20 episode show definite strength in Karen.
So, as usual, I am left asking questions , hoping for answers that will never be available in my lifetime.
I do wonder exactly the dates that Karen would have recorded her drum sequence--that is, in A&M studios
before actually filming that drum sequence for television. Were they the same sessions as when the vocals were laid down ?
If so.....I do stand corrected....plenty of stamina to be had !
Thanks everyone for all the comments about the film. As writer/director it's been really interesting reading the positives and the negatives. Re an earlier post, I did ask permission from rights owner to release the merv griffin footage (not seen before) to you guys .... but the company insisted that I didn't. Which is really tedious cos we paid a lot of money for the rights and I thought he might just do me a favour on your behalf. So apologies, I can't release it to you.
I'm glad the drama has (mostly) played well. Some things were not perfect I know but mostly it was time and money. We only had 7 days shooting, one day to rehearse and a real skeleton crew compared to the movies. I too was bugged by Karen's hair not being right on Bruce Forsythe but we were so rushed that day that I did not have time to send Adele back into hair and nake up. I'm also bugged that I didn't get Karen's accent quite right. Adele Keating is actually English, in fact from the north of England,and she worked hard on the voice. But if I had had time to pull out more samples I think we would have picked up the East Coast tones which stayed with Karen even years after she'd lived in LA. My mistake again. Adele could def have done it if I'd given her more samples to work on. Again... so rushed for time on the schedule. But anyway...I too thought she was brilliant. One big national paper in the UK printed Adele's picture and thought it was the real Karen!
Though I did invent dialogue, I tried really hard to suggest the spirit of what was happening at the time as well as incorporate genuinely real quotes. Even though sometimes it looks just made up. If you go back into the books and a lot of old documentaries - as I did - you can collect an awful lot of quotes. eg: Karen's "It's like being haunted...it's the worst feeling in the world" was a line she apparently actually DID say (though admittedly not to Richard) Also Karen drumming in the studio and being discovered early in the morning before the rest of the band showed up DID happen. Ramone told the story on a BBC radio documentary a few years back. The so called "Goodfellas" scene (made me laugh that) Yeah a bit of creativity there. I kind of let go there a bit but as someone said, the whole point was to reflect that Karen was almost certainly pushed into shelving the album.
The other really painful thing was that we had to shoot it all in London, though I would have killed to fly the actors out to LA (or NYC) for some exteriors. Would have loved to have Karen and Richard driving on Sunset etc. (I loved the Karen driving scene that Scorsese built into ep two of his "Vinyl" series recently)
I agree that Werner was more candid than expected. When I visited him he was quite simply one of the nicest guys I ever met. He showed me a needlepoint cushion that Karen made and gave to him . The cushion is in classic 1970s orange and brown and has the letters TINSTAAFL (...no such thing as a free lunch) on it. I took a picture of him holding it which is a great memory. And BOY did I wish he would give it to me but I knew he wouldn't. He really REALLY misses her still. And when you hold that cushion as I did, it feels like you're with Karen in the room.
Interestingly the same day I interviewed him Jerry and Herb were lined up to talk to me on camera but they cancelled a couple of weeks before I got to LA...which was a shame. I would have loved to have met them. I came close to one or two others but they too didn't happen. I met Frenda in Beverley Hills and we spent a couple of hours talking off camera. But she politely declined an on screen interview... which I can tell you would have been total dynamite.
But I suppose more than anything I would have liked to have interviewed Karen. Her voice was one of the soundtracks to my early life growing up in a one horse northern English town.
Thanks again for all your comments.
We only had 7 days shooting, one day to rehearse and a real skeleton crew compared to the movies.
Well, there is this...
If Karen wasn't up to drumming by 1980 due to lack of energy, you'd never know listening to the tracks from Music, Music, Music because Karen is in great form! Her technique is as great as ever and while the drum tracks don't have the weight and punch of the likes of Hal Blaine, they're perfectly fine for the lovely material that featured in the special.