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Where were you 04 Feb 1983 ?

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I was thinking about an unusual phenomenon that happened to me in the months after Karen's death -- in the very early '80s, I didn't really go around proclaiming my adoration for the Carpenters. While I listened to their records obsessively, I didn't let on that they were my favorite group. Everyone around me knew that I loved Olivia Newton-John, Michael Jackson, Kenny Loggins, and a few others, but they didn't really know about my love for the Carpenters.

After Karen's death, it was as if it became "cool" to like the Carpenters. Being a Carpenters fan was all of a sudden in the same league as being a John Lennon fan.

Did anyone else find this to be true in their personal experience?
 
davidgra said:
After Karen's death, it was as if it became "cool" to like the Carpenters. Being a Carpenters fan was all of a sudden in the same league as being a John Lennon fan.

Did anyone else find this to be true in their personal experience?
Click to expand...
Nope.
 
davidgra said:
After Karen's death, it was as if it became "cool" to like the Carpenters. Being a Carpenters fan was all of a sudden in the same league as being a John Lennon fan.
Click to expand...
Not in the States. But I recall posting on Firefly (an early social network site, very much a precursor to Facebook) that I loved the Carpenters' music, then sort of apologized for it. Europeans who saw that comment wondered why I would be sorry, as they felt the Carpenters' music clearly warranted admiration, and that had never changed for them. But in the States, it was a completely different story, and one I'm afraid that hasn't really changed in the minds of the general public. Often, the most their detractors will give them is, "She had a beautiful voice." And then, out of politeness, they stop there ... but the silence speaks volumes. I just don't think they're ever going to completely outgrow the image that people still carry in their minds. For many, Karen and Richard were the poster children for all that was wrong with suburban America ... and those folks threw all their vitriol at them.
 
To me, I don't think it's about people's views of 'suburban America' - unfortunately, music here is marketed in a very flavor-of-the-week and image-driven way. Radio (such as it is) tends to be locked in to a one or two song per artist repertoire, for all kinds of acts like the Supremes, Donna Summer, Earth Wind & Fire, etc. So many artists like Supertramp and Toto (to name two) have huge fan bases in Europe and Asia; they sell out arenas and larger venues and have support for their new music, but here they play club-size places and are relegated to near-joke status. It's not the fans but the marketing mentality. Add in the reality-show personality aspect of it, and you really don't need to release music to be a famous musician. There's very little outlet on any wide scale to hear and appreciate what made the Carpenters special, and not just hear a story about them, or suffer through snarky critics....
 
23yrs. old, I was outside chopping wood for the evening fire. My younger sister, all of 16yrs. old, came outside with a $#!^ty grin on her face (nerves, not lambastic). She delivered the news, just in time for me to confirm on TV via "Entertainment Tonight". I cried, and entered a period of not listening to Carpenters for about 10yrs.....I tried a couple times, got incredibly depressed, and put the albums/cd's away.

Thanks to this site, Randy's book, and time overall, I have renewed my Carpenters listening. But I still get weepy with the thought of the tragic loss, and how much more music was in store had Karen lived.
 
I was off work that day from my job in a Waldenbooks in the local mall....my FIRST job. Karen influenced me the very first time I heard she played drums. I went to many concerts in my teens and also played drums myself because "Karen did". I got to meet them for one brief moment in 1975 in Saratoga Springs, NY by sneaking backstage with a friend. Karen's response? "How did you girls get in here?" I said "Oh, we came in from downstairs." What a dip I was, but Karen was ever gracious.
Anyway......being home from work that day, I had the tv on and around noon, the report came on that Karen had died at her home. I couldn't stop crying for days and days, but nobody understood. It was just devastating. I couldn't listen to their albums for many years after that. Until the internet appeared and I slowly did a few "searches" for Karen Carpenter and came across other people who loved her as well.
 
I was home from school. I was about 9 and a huge snowstorm had blanketed the DC area so we were all home from school for about two weeks. I remember my mother bringing the "People" magazine home. I"d just come in from playing in the snow so we touched down at the same time. She was a casual fan (as was my father on some level) so this mattered to her a little. I remember noticing it and doing the math on how young 32 was. I remember being moved by it on some level but not it didn't devastate me. I did read the article and it was the first time I'd ever seen the term Anorexia Nervosa. Thanks to Karen, I knew what it was at 9 years-old.

For something that didn't move me much at the time, the clarity with which I remember it is pretty startling...

Ed
 
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