Why do you think the solo Christmas project is shelved?

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JAZZ4JEFF

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Again another Christmas season is upon us, and again we have not seen Richard's solo Christmas project. What reasons do you think have caused this anticipated project to be delayed again?

The songs that we have heard from the project, both in concert and on television, are first rate. Richard sounds great! He recorded Petula Clark at Capitol records four years ago for the project.

The Carpenters have one of the best selling holiday albums of all time. With the international market, I am sure the demand for a solo project would be profitable. Just this year, 70's acts Tony Orlando & Dawn & The Captain & Tennille have returned to recording with holiday sets.

Why is this project doomed to sit on the shelf?
 
Richard has said he wants to make sure it's "just right" before releasing it. I guess we can assume it's not reached that state yet.
 
Richard has said many times that he is now semi-retired. He is making music on his terms and at his own pace. I would imagine raising 5 kids keeps him fairly busy too.

If I were Richard, I would not refer to this X-mas record again until it is finished and ready for release. Hopefully that will be in 2006.

I am not holding my breath.
 
I, for one, have accepted it to be a "shelved" project. He doesn't want to talk about it (or anything else).
 
Steve of Chatsworth said:

Columbus said:
...Exactly!

...My thoughts, as well! :laugh:

However, I would imagine that Richard feels that the buying public would probably miss Karen... A solo album such as this is very likely to have too many sentiments; we're not talking another Time...!


Dave

...Also accepting that this album is probably just "delayed..."
 
We all know what an awesome perfectionist RC is as well as how he has (most indeed) earned the right to work at his own pace to deliver -what I consider to be- his gift to us.
This brilliant man has had enough of the years and times where he had to deliver on demand. Let's respect his artistic freedom and give him the credit due knowing that when he does deliver this gift to us, it will be his best and his most personal work yet.
We're with you Richard, and YES! We can hardly wait. :tongue:
 
While we all know Richard takes his time, the confusion with this stems from Richard himself.

If you go to his web site right now, he says in the "fans ask" section that the disc will be released this year. He has not changed the information, yet we know it is too late in the season for 2005.

And while the Carpenters are still popular, each year he does not release the project allows their popularity to diminish. And for the release to be successful, he would have to either go on a promotional tour of talk programs and holiday specials, or actually tour. All of us respect his life at home and the joy he must get from watching his family grow up. But all of these delays just do not seem right. It's four years since this project began. If any RC solo project were to have the greatest possibility to succeed, it would be a Christmas album.
 
If you go to his web site right now, he says in the "fans ask" section that the disc will be released this year.

That's the only bad thing about Q&A sections on websites. They tend to go out of date. I have a large Q&A on my theatre site, and I go through it periodically and trim out questions that are no longer relevant, and update the ones on which the circumstances have changed.
 
It is most likely RC's solo Christmas album will never be released. I doubt he would subject himself to any further comparisons to the music he made with KC as his solo efforts just do not compare. It's been over 20 years. Artistically - RC still lives in his sister's shadow, despite the fact HE was raised to be The Star. I doubt he could handle the failure of another solo project. Beside, it is more profitable for him to continue to let KC be his meal ticket on music she recorded over two decades ago.

Carpenter Kool-Aid Drinkers: Don't give me a hard time! With KC at his side, RC had a voice for all the beautiful music in his head. His efforts without her have been average at best. His own ego has gotten in the way of partnering with several other artists and achieving new success.

Don't worry about him. As long as people are willing to continue to buy re-tweaked compilations, he will have a musical purpose. After all. it is on his own terms - as usual.

Fortunately we do have the original music Karen & Richard gave us all.
Now that was a true gift!
 
It is most likely RC's solo Christmas album will never be released.

Why do so many people insist on negative speculating? There's really no point in the guy working years on a project and then not releasing it.

At any rate -- welcome to the forum, thanks for speaking your mind, but prepare for a few toasty moments ahead! :D
 
JAZZ4JEFF said:
If any RC solo project were to have the greatest possibility to succeed, it would be a Christmas album.

Well, it will also depends on the millions of so-called Carpenter fans who weren't there to support his 2 solo CDs and the other CDs that he produced for other singers.


Danny
 
Richard's strengths as an artist are NOT as a solo vocalist. He knows it. He shined as a composer/arranger/orchestrator. While his sound, style and talents do lend themselves to a Christmas album, he KNOWS his vocals will ALWAYS be compared to his sisters. Even with his skill on a sweetening board, his vocals still come off mediocre at best (he has proved this on his solo albums and sales and reviews confirmed it.)

Richard has turned down numerous opportunities to orchestrate and score various projects. It does not interest him. His style and sound have not evolved (not that we WANT him to sound like the "artists of today".

Without taking the risk of doing something new and sharing it with the world, Richard Carpenter can never fail or be compared to his dead sister again. It is so much easier this way for him. This way, he can still be regarded as a sad victim of Karen's tragic passing and not hailed as a has-been.

I know I sound cruel. It my personal observation based on a history of an acquaintance with Karen & Richard and having worked with them a few times. I believe he truly was a musical genius. It's true the music world could use him today, he just can't figure out how to get out of his own way emotionally or professionally. It makes me sad. I wish all the Carpenter Kool-Aid drinkers would stop deifying him and making excuses for him.

Sorry to ofend!
 
Mr. SPAC said:
I doubt he would subject himself to any further comparisons to the music he made with KC as his solo efforts just do not compare.

People shouldn't be comparing, but unfortunatly, they do.

It's been over 20 years. Artistically - RC still lives in his sister's shadow, despite the fact HE was raised to be The Star. I doubt he could handle the failure of another solo project. Beside, it is more profitable for him to continue to let KC be his meal ticket on music she recorded over two decades ago.


I can understand your fustration, because my feelings are kind of similar, but not for the same exact reasons you stated here.

When I first heard "Something In Your Eyes" on the radio, I went out to search for the "Time" CD. When I finally found it (it took me about a few weeks to hunt it down), and sat down and gave it a critical listen to it, I thought that it was a pretty good album (I've made a copy from my CD and that copy sort of have a semi-permenant place on my car's CD changer while I keep the original CD at home). In fact, I felt like it was a good "come-back" from the devistating blow he just went through.

Unfortunalely, I believe that most of the Carpenters fans turned their backs on this CD, not because they didn't like the music in it, but for the sole reason that Karen wasn't on it. It also didn't help that A&M Records didn't even made an effort to promote the CD (I had to go to several stores to hunt it down when it was released, because no one even knew about it, until I mentioned it).


Carpenter Kool-Aid Drinkers: Don't give me a hard time! With KC at his side, RC had a voice for all the beautiful music in his head. His efforts without her have been average at best. His own ego has gotten in the way of partnering with several other artists and achieving new success.


How can you say that his ego has gotten in the way? He had 3 guest singers on his "Time" CD (Scott Grimes, Dion Warwick, and the late Dusty Springfield), He then produced the CDs for Scott Grimes, Canadian singer Veronique Beliveau (I'm still hunting for my very own copy of that CD), and a japanese singer name Akiko Kobayashi. All the people that he worked with had nothing but praises for him.

But, it didn't really mattered because most of the Carpenters fans still rejected them all because, I repeat, Karen was not on any of those CDs.

Don't worry about him. As long as people are willing to continue to buy re-tweaked compilations, he will have a musical purpose.

Unfortunately, there is some truth to that, but I don't think that this is his only musical purpose. He can do a whole lot more, but only if the fans just let him do his own thing.

After all. it is on his own terms - as usual.

I have to disagree with you there. He's doing it because the fans sort of demands him to do it. I mean how many times over the years have you heard that there were still unreleased recordings of Karen and Richard Carpenter that the fans kept screaming for it to get released?



Danny
 
Just my $.02, but in all reality, ANYTHING we got out of Richard after 1983 was "gravy". Due to circumstances with Karen, "Carpenters" as we know them (or knew them) ceased to exist, at least as far as any "new" material goes. If Karen were still alive, I can almost guarantee that we would not have heard even half of the "unreleased" Carpenters tracks that we have.

As far as recycling the old material, this is most often times a direct result of the Japanese market. Thanks to them (and I mean that in a *good* way), we have a majority of the remixes that we do, and an occasional unreleased track of sorts. The reality is that Richard is not Karen, never has been, never intended to be, and never will be...and is well aware of that. Aside from that, he is married, has (5) children and lives his life the way a retired person with a young family would. I don't think we can chastise him for that nor *expect* anything from him. He doesn't owe us anything, and quite frankly, I think as an artist he has gone WAY above and beyond as far as giving the fans more, more, more since Karen's passing. There are plenty of artists who have died, left a legacy and you never hear their unreleased stuff.

It's been 22 years, time to put it to rest and continue to enjoy what we have. If and when Richard decides to put out something fresh, be it a solo effort or a long lost track of Karen's, then again it will be gravy and all the more thrilling to hear, but nothing that any of us have any "right" to *expect*. -Chris
 
Daniel Perales said:
Canadian singer Veronique Beliveau (I'm still hunting for my very own copy of that CD),

Danny - too bad I didn't know this a week ago. I saw this copy on eBay:

Click here ---> Veronique on eBay

It went for $9.99 after being listed twice - the first time with no bids! I'm very fond of that album, and still play it quite often.

As for the proposed Christmas album that the thread deals with - if and when it comes out, I'll buy it. If not, I'm not worrying about it,

Harry
 
... said:
...When I first heard "Something In Your Eyes" on the radio, I went out to search for the "Time" CD... ...Didn't help that A&M Records didn't even made an effort to promote the CD (I had to go to several stores to hunt it down when it was released, because no one even knew about it, until I mentioned it...)

I found Time on Cassette as a Cut-Out, and among enough copies to make an In-Store Display, which I thought I was actually choosing a copy of it out of... A sad fate, and I also thought that it didn't seem to be properly promoted, especially when a number of CD Copies of it also seemed to be "discontinued" after it was just released...

As long as Richard has enough good ideas, a distinctive piano playing style, a still-good vocal and a good choice of singers for duets, then anything New would be good to hear or at least be worth the wait...


Dave
 
As a longtime Carpenters fan (did I drink the Kool-Aid? :o I may have!!),
I feel a need to respond regarding the die hard fans supporting Richard's solo stuff and getting behind it (or not). "Time" was a good album, but the fact is, I have always found Richard's LEAD vocals almost bland ...including on Carpenters albums. THIS is my opinion only. I DID buy "Time" on the day it was released, but the best tracks for me were the Dusty & Dionne tracks. Wasn't knocked out by Scott Grimes (who is now on "ER" in case you didn't know). Radio and the general public basically ignored his solo projects with the exception of some airplay for the Dusty single, and Richard's "Calling Your Name Again" which got light airplay.
What Karen and Richard had TOGETHER was Magic. Pure Magic. His stunning arrangements and production which hinged on her amazing vocals and their overdubs. Separately, the magic isn't the same. There is nothing wrong with that, it's an outstanding compliment to both Richard and Karen. They were a perfect team musically. I believe that Richard knows this and accepts it as well. No matter how much we die-hard fans (who now sometimes mix rum with our Kool-Aid:cool: ) support Richard's projects, the other casual Carpenters fans won't buy it without Karen. It's OK.
I'll be happy to keep buying the remixed hits, SACD's, hope for a new tune of a lost Karen track. And if Richard puts out a solo CD I'll buy it, but it won't be the same as CARPENTERS.
Thanks for letting me share my opinion!
 
Dave said:
As long as Richard has enough good ideas, a distinctive piano playing style, a still-good vocal and a good choice of singers for duets, then anything New would be good to hear or at least be worth the wait...
Dave

My feelings, exactly. It's just that I really wished that he could have been more like David Foster and Quincy Jones, for example. They would put out albums with songs that they've written and produced featuring guest vocalists to sing them. They also would handle the instrumentals on their own.

But anyway, to get back on track, I will buy Richard's Christmas CD when it comes out, because I know that it's going to be really good. And who knows? That CD may be his last hurrah in his recording career, and he wants to make sure that every track will be right up to his high standards.


Danny
 
I only agree with about 50% of Mr SPAC has written. However, sometimes we need a little controversy to stir up interesting discussions such as this one.

Carpenter's Kool-Aid drinkers... I LOVE IT ! :laugh:
 
Maybe we could convince Richard and his web site designers to release a track on his web site?

Since only his fans visit the site, it would be a nice Christmas present. What do you think?
 
JAZZ4JEFF said:
...Maybe we could convince Richard and his web site designers to release a track on his web site...? ...What do you think...?

Yes, why not? If he's got at least one available, then I'm ready with my Kool-Aid...! :laugh:



Dave :oneeye:
 
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