Martin Medrano
Well-Known Member
For me can someone check the song I'll never fall in love again. I hear a caugh type sound when karen sings about catching pneumonia at 0:48. Does anyone else hear this?
What Carpenters' albums/songs are almost perfect to you if it weren't for small details?
- Thread starter JuanDela
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JohnFB
She was born to belong to the lines of a song...
That long goodbyeeeeeee is pretty much what I said to this recording way back when...what a freakin' mess this is with Karen moving seemingly at random in and out of multiple voice tracks - here she's singing by herself, there she's singing with Karen No.2, then by herself, then with what sounds like 2 other Karen's, then back to her solo self, etc., etc...this is simply totally artificial and totally unlistenable...what the hell was she thinking going along with this assault on good taste and good music? Apparently, there were two sides to Karen Carpenter - the woman with the spectacular voice and the woman who insisted on sabotaging that voice.
Brendon McMahon
Well-Known Member
Different strokes for different folks. I love the ending on that song, with that head voice!
Late2theParty
Member
agreed...particularly because when Karen shifts into the lower range at different parts of the bridge...I get chills. NO ONE will ever match what she does in that lower range. No one is close.Best part of the entire song IMHO!
And I'm also a fan of the inverted major seventh, which is the chord heard on the piano (in the original mix) immediately before Karen sings "... you came out in front and I was hiding." It's a Bbmaj7, with the "A" voiced just below the tonic. This is probably Greek to most here, but for those with some music theory, you get it.
Late2theParty
Member
Doesn't he make a comment on the "Close to you" documentary that he likes Major 7ths? Going to have to learn more about music theory...
He does. And I even mentioned this chord specifically in “A Song For You” to him one day. He ran over to the piano and plunked it out. It’s the close harmonic that makes it special.Doesn't he make a comment on the "Close to you" documentary that he likes Major 7ths? Going to have to learn more about music theory...
Arthur Talarico
Member
I love the "A Kind of Hush" album, but I can't seem to like "Goofus". It's the only track on the entire album that I always skip.
JohnFB
She was born to belong to the lines of a song...
I hear you on "Goofus" - and personally I can't listen to the title track AKOH for precisely the reason that even I am getting tired of hearing myself complain about...
Matthew S
Well-Known Member
I used to feel the same way but it’s kind of grown on me the last several years and I can listen to and appreciate it now. But it’s not in my top 10 list for sure.
Arthur Talarico
Member
Something happened to me in the opposite direction. I was very fond of "Beechwood 4-5789". Today I don't like it so much anymore.
Another Son
Well-Known Member
I, too, LOVE the oo-oo-oo-oo-oo-oo-oo-oo-s at the end of ‘Two Sides’. I LOVE Karen’s head voice - the beginning of ‘I Won’t Last a Day Without You’ and ‘Our Day Will Come’, for example - beautiful!
Another Son
Well-Known Member
The DJ / alien skit at the beginning of ‘Calling Occupants’ was probably important in the regions where ‘Passage’ and the single sold well, though, in that, to have a hit, you had to appeal to teens. The one TV station that we could get in my area played the ‘Calling Occupants’ video regularly, at the time, and the radio station played the single probably at least once a day. “Calling Occupants” became a Top 5 hit in our capital city, ‘Passage’, Top 15 and, where school-mates would generally express / feign loathing of Carpenters, I remember a couple of them, (early teens at the time), even enthusiastically quoting the DJ / alien conversation from “Occupants” at school! I still like that section - I enjoy the humour in it, for one thing….. plus the nostalgia.
JohnFB
She was born to belong to the lines of a song...
I find the DJ intro to "Occupants" mildly amusing, although to be coldly logical about it I could never quite figure out why aliens wishing to make contact would call a DJ, of all Earthlings, and then in the bargain give him the phony name of Mike Ledgewood (?) or whatever it was...and then at the end of their conversation the aliens hesitate and then say "baby", although it should have been "babe" since they're trying to imitate the term the DJ has been using...but other than that...
goodjeans
Well-Known Member
I had always thought that Karen did it to sound more country.
newvillefan
I Know My First Name Is Stephen
Most of those sound effects throughout the song are like nails down a blackboard to me. I don’t think I’ve listened to that song more than half a dozen times in my 33 years of Carpenters fandom. I disliked it from first hear.
Jack A.
Well-Known Member
One track I’ve come to like more recently is “Strength of a Woman,” but for some reason it’s always bugged me the way Karen sings a couple lines in that song (“…has the cat got your tongue,” “and it isn’t new to you no more.”) Overall I have listened to it countless times, however.
Matthew S
Well-Known Member
Same here, however I didn’t mind the version on the Space Encounters special though with Suzanne Somers, because it looked like they were having fun singing it. (And I already know this is an unpopular opinion….)
newvillefan
I Know My First Name Is Stephen
She pronounces “new” as “noo”. I think that’s the problem.
Arthur Talarico
Member
I don't have many things against "Man Smart, Woman Smarter". The only problem is the long duration of the sax solo at the end of the song for a whopping 2:31...
Jack A.
Well-Known Member
Yep. It’s nice to give a song some variety and sing it a little differently sometimes, but I feel like SOAW is too quiet of a song to make that sound good to the ears, if that makes any sense.
newvillefan
I Know My First Name Is Stephen
The verses are very quiet, too quiet for it to have been a single as was mooted at one point. The other thing that’s always struck me is that Karen is pretty much drowned out on the choruses by the backing singers, and completely on the high note in the line “to understand the weakness of her man”, especially after the key change. It sounds too high in range for her (which is ironic for obvious reasons).
