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The following are articles from several media sources including newspapers, magazines and radio.
The Washington Post - Summer 1973
by Megan Rosenfeld
WHOLESOME IMAGE NO PUT-ON FOR POPULAR CARPENTERS
Karen Carpenter, 23, says she sometimes eats a Peanut Butter Cup for quick energy before a performance.
When she's on tour, which amounts to about eight months a year, she travels with a seven-foot tall wardrobe trunk which is one of her proudest possessions. In one half of the trunk hang the long culottes she wears onstage, protected with plastics bags. A pair of fluffy bedroom slippers rests underneath. On the other side of the trunk are drawers for her matching boots and shoes, and little plastic packages of spot remover and shoe polish.
The trunk came to Washington recently when Karen and her brother, Richard sang at a White House state dinner for West German Chancellor Willy Brandt. After their performance, President Nixon described the Carpenters as "Young America at its very best."
Judging from the Carpenters' sustained national success, there can be little doubt that the President's assertion is supported by a impressive number of Americans. Now heading into their fifth triumphant year, the Carpenters have acquired thousands of fans of all ages. Last week their latest record "Sing," was certified "Gold" - that is, it had sold a million copies.
It is their 11th gold record. They won the 1970 Grammy Award for "best new group," and the 1970 and 1971 Grammies for "best vocal duo."
With their earnings they have purchased two apartment complexes (named "Close to You" and "We've Only Just Begun" after two of their early hits), two shopping centers and are talking about opening a music school in Southern California.
The musical style upon which the Carpenters have ridden to such success is eclectic, to put it mildly.
Richard, 26, the acknowledged leader of the duo and the six-man back-up band, claims Liberace, Spike Jones, Red Nichols, Dixieland, the big band sound and Les and Mary Ford as musical influences.
The Carpenters' music belongs in a sub-category of rock known at various times as soft-rock, pop, easy listening or top-40.
On almost any car radio station you hear the sounds of soft rock. Second cousin to Muzak, grandchild of folk and estranged relation of rock, its musical effect is to soothe, to pep up or to amuse.
Like the Carpenters, its popularity increased as reaction to harsh electronic hard rock set in. In reaction to rock's loudness, it is quieter, using the same electric guitars, drums and horns as rock, but not as loudly.
In contrast to the angry anti-establishment lyrics of many rock songs, soft rocks leans to songs that talk about love in the rain and yellow ribbons on oak tress.
On the day that you were born the angels got together
And decided to create a dream come true.
So, they sprinkled moon dust in your hair of gold
And starlight in your eyes of blue."
(From "Close to You," by Burt Bacharach and Hal David.)
In terms of interpretation, strong feelings articulated in lyrics are muted in performance, so that broken hearts never sound any more serious than indigestion.
The high-living antics and anti-establishment lifestyles of hard-rock stars are anathema to the pop crowd. Soft rock stars, like the Carpenters, are proud to belong to the establishment; their lifestyles as well as their music reflect traditional middle-class American values.
"We've been call sickly sweet, goody-two shoes and squeaky clean," said Richard in a interview at the time of the White House appearance. "But it's all relative, isn't it? I mean, when we came along in '69 it was right in the middle of acid rock when all the performers had this negative sort of 'Take me as I am' attitude. And then we walk out, just normally clean. I mean, everyone takes showers, right?"
Sometimes the Carpenters sound like a cross between the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and the early Beatles. The key to their "sound" is their use of Les Paul and Mary Ford's techniques of over-dubbing voices - blending many recordings of the same two voices, singing different harmonies, onto one track. The Carpenters have used as many as 39 recordings of their voices in one song.
Like the Osmonds, Glen Campbell, or the Jackson Five, the Carpenter's appeal is largely in their music and partly in their image as just-plain-folks happy family. It's not personality that sells their records, nor gimmicky theatrical antics onstage.
Karen may eat a Peanut Butter Cup for quick energy but not an amphetamine, and there are no groupies camped out in hotels where the Carpenters stay.
The Carpenters' "wholesome and sincere" image is not a put-on.
The two live with their parents in a newly constructed home near Los Angeles. ("Why not?" asks Karen. "We always have. It works out great.")
"A work-free afternoon or evening," says one of their numerous press releases "will find them out bowling, playing a game of baseball with friends, or - like any typical L.A. young folk- dancing at a discothèque. Or dropping in at Bob's Big Boy for a super-hamburger."
Richard started music lessons at 12, studied classical piano at Yale while the family was living in New Haven, Conn. When his father, now a retired pressman, moved the family to Southern California, Richard was ready to start pursuing a career in the music industry.
Karen, the idol of thousands of girls for her cuteness, her career, and for having an older brother, started drumming when she was 16. Through subsequent group transformations, first as the Carpenter Trio (with a friend), then as Spectrum, as a larger band, she developed into the lead singer.
Although she has been successful in what is generally considered a man's field (drumming) she has little patience for "women's lib" and feels it's a wife's duty to cook for husband, because, "well, I like to cook."
"And just look at him," pointing to her brother, "he can't even cook water. . . just say that I certainly plan to cook for my husband."
Transcript of radio broadcast
Radio KIQQ
December 24, 1978
"Christmas Portrait"
Interview with Karen Carpenter
MC.. "This is KIQQ Los Angeles, wishing you and yours the very best and Merry Christmas. And as our special gift to you on his Christmas Eve, share with us the music of Karen Carpenter. It's a Christmas Portrait now, on KIQQ.
Karen: "The original idea that we've had for 8 or 9 years, to do this Christmas album, started out with Richard's concept to start the album with an overture. So that was the first thing that he wanted Peter Knight to orchestrate, and we couldn't have been more pleased, because we both feel that Peter was brilliant, and it really turned out to be something else! (laugh)."
"And out of the overture, he wanted the strings to hold through and go right into Christmas Waltz, which is an up tune, and the message of the tune is very basic, which is it's that time of year, that it's the best time of year,….. and it's a beautiful song, and a happy way to start out an album".
CHRISTMAS WALTZ PLAYS
"Sleigh Ride was one of the songs we recorded for our first Christmas special, and that was done by Billy May, who, again, is a brilliant orchestrator , from the old school.. hasn't changed a bit.. He's just got his own type of talent, and it really worked well on the show….again, it cross-faded right out of the Christmas Waltz.. it's a lovely piece!"
SLEIGH RIDE PLAYS
" The next two or three songs… there are 2 versions of "It's Christmas Time".. there's a piano/vocal version, and then the singers do their version, then it goes right into "Sleep Well, Little Children". These are two of my favorites, not only to sing, to listen to, but also because we've taken a lot of the material off of this album from the original Spike Jones Christmas Album, which is, in our opinion, practically the best Christmas album ever recorded…. It's just a happy feeling that sticks with you all the time.. I enjoy doing this type of music all year round, which has been proved, because it took us 14 months to cut this album, and while people were walking down the aisles saying, 'what in heaven's name are you doing Christmas stuff in the middle of August, it never occurred to me, cause I could do it anytime of the day or night, anytime of the year."
IT'S CHRISTMAS TIME PLAYS, then SLEEP WELL LITTLE CHILDREN
""Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" is one of the all-time standards, and that's one thing that Rich wanted to get into this album, he wanted to combine standards with contemporary and some of the more classical type things like the "Ave Maria" and "Christ is Born" . Billy did a beautiful arrangement on this tune, and I think it was one of my favorite to sing."
HAVE YOURSELF A MERRY LITTLE CHRISTMAS PLAYS…..
Part II
SANTA CLAUS IS COMIN TO TOWN plays
KAREN: ""The Christmas Song " is something that we've always wanted to do… and even though it's nearly impossible to match Nat King Cole's version, we wanted to do it anyway, because we had such fond feelings for the song."
THE CHRISTMAS SONG plays
KAREN: ""Silent Night" was another one that Peter Knight arranged. Incidentally, he did all the orchestra arranging, and also all the choir. And it takes on a little different feel… there's really no rhythm to it, it's just choir and myself, and then the orchestra comes in…it's just very basic, it's a song that is really over-sung by all types and by everybody, and you never really stop to think how beautiful a song it really is…"
SILENT NIGHT plays
MC: This is KIQQ with Karen Carpenter, and "A Christmas Portrait"
KAREN: ""Jingle Bells", the way we did it… Rich wanted to get in the toy-soldier feel to it, so right in the middle of it, it was brilliantly executed with the instrumentation that Peter chose… again, it's a fast-hitting "up" thing, and it's just a song that everybody knows and loves, and it's a different treatment of it."
JINGLE BELLS plays
KAREN: ""The First Snowfall" and "Let it Snow" is another combination of tunes that we have been living with, off of the Spike Jones' Christmas album for years, and it's just something we've always wanted to do, because they are both beautiful songs. We used that on the last Christmas special, and then we did it in a Christmas "live" show in Vegas and in Lake Tahoe. No matter which song you talk about, it's just an overall terrific feeling. I listen to it all the time… it just makes me feel good!"
THE FIRST SNOWFALL and LET IT SNOW play
KAREN: ""Carol of the Bells" is a song that Richard discovered (ooooo).. maybe 3, 4 years ago, when we did the Perry Como Christmas show. It was suggested to Richard by Ray Charles, (the choral Ray Charles), to do as a piano solo, and Richard loved it so that he wanted to use it as a piano number on the album, and it's a terrific chart."
CAROL OF THE BELLS plays
Part III
KAREN: ""Merry Christmas Darling" I think, is a little extra special to both of us, because Richard wrote it, and the lyrics were written by the choral director at Long Beach State choir, where we went to school, Frank Pooler. Frank was very helpful in our college days, when we were trying to get a contract and constantly missing classes and everything. He was the only one down there who actually understood what we were after, and he stood behind us all the way. We just did a benefit at Long Beach state, for a scholarship fund, and we did it with the choir and the whole thing, and we did "Christmas Darling" and he just "glows" everytime we do it….. I think it's my favorite, because it's really close to me."
KAREN: ""Merry Christmas Darling" I think, is a little extra special to both of us, because Richard wrote it, and the lyrics were written by the choral director at Long Beach State choir, where we went to school, Frank Pooler. Frank was very helpful in our college days, when we were trying to get a contract and constantly missing classes and everything. He was the only one down there who actually understood what we were after, and he stood behind us all the way. We just did a benefit at Long Beach state, for a scholarship fund, and we did it with the choir and the whole thing, and we did "Christmas Darling" and he just "glows" everytime we do it….. I think it's my favorite, because it's really close to me."
MERRY CHRISTMAS DARLING plays
MC: This is KIQQ. More of "A Christmas Portrait" with Karen Carpenter, in a moment.
KAREN: ""I'll Be Home for Christmas" , again is another classic standard, and with Peter's treatment, even became more special. To sing these songs is something that gives me more pleasure than I can really put into words…just taking all of these tunes… I think we came out with something like 29 songs.. We've got at least another 12 in the can that we couldn't finish and we couldn't stuff on the album, like "Little Altar Boy", and, oh, all sorts of them (sigh) we were dying, cause we couldn't stuff them on the record.. . ya know, we had to leave the label off, but there are so many beautiful Christmas songs, that, where do you stop? I mean, we were pulling our hair out trying to decide… but it's just a lovely thought, and it's a beautiful tune…."
I'LL BE HOME FOR CHRISTMAS plays
KAREN: ""Christ is Born" is a piece that we came across when we were in school. We did it (the choir did it) at one of the concerts, and we were so taken by it, that Richard remembered it. We did that with 2 choirs, as a matter of fact, I think there were 80.. and it's in a different vein.. it's a little more serious.. but the beauty of it, it holds its own."
CHRIST IS BORN plays
MC: This is KIQQ.. presenting "A Christmas Portrait". We'll hear more with Karen Carpenter, in just a minute…
KAREN: "The next medley of "Winter Wonderland", "Silver Bells" and "White Christmas", is something that we also did on the first Christmas show, and it covers three different areas of songs. "Winter Wonderland" is just an all-out terrific piece, and then Richard put "White Christmas" on the end. "Silver Bells" is done in the Spike Jones mode, with all the silliness thrown in, and it goes right into "White Christmas"… there wouldn't be an album without "White Christmas", especially since the loss of Bing, which I know that the entire world feels, and it even has a more special meaning now. I just hope that people think I do justice to it, because I know that it's impossible to touch Bings.. cause he's my favorite human, nobody could touch Bing."
WINTER WONDERLAND, SILVER BELLS, WHITE CHRISTMAS play
KAREN: The "Ave Maria".. we were going back and forth between the Bach-Gounod version, and the Schubert, and we had them both cut.. when it came down to the last choice, we didn't have any more time to cut the other one, Richard felt he wanted to go with this one, which is the Bach-Gounod, because it was less known and we felt that even though they are both so gorgeous, that this is just a touch classier, and again, Richard's always leaned to the side of doing things that aren't run into the ground. Peter did an absolutely unbelievable job on the chart, and I enjoyed singing it more than ever, because I'd never.. it was quite an undertaking….
AVE MARIA plays
MC: You've been listening to "A Christmas Portrait" with Karen Carpenter, KIQQ, Los Angeles. I thank you for listening, happy holidays to your family and to you, I'm Bob Sky, I'm going to be signing off now, and Maggie Ross is coming your way up next, with more music, the music of Southern California on FM 100.
KAREN CARPENTER
"When I Was Sixteen"
Phone interview by Nancy Hardwick
Karen Carpenter, the feminine fox in that love-song duo, The Carpenters, is a sexy, outspoken example of a young girl who made up her mind to "make it" in show business, and DID. Before she was barely 20 years old!
But in spite of all her scrambling to get to the top, Karen is no Women's Libby. In fact, she puts down the hard-nosed bra-burners in this interview.
Dressed casually in cutoff Levis and a "Carpenters" T-shirt and furry slippers when I was called, I soon discovered that Karen is a very genuine, down-to-earth foxy lady who makes you feel comfortable to be with. She has a friendly sense of humor, and likes to tell the story of how she and her brother Richard first got their group going, and the obstacles they were up against. Karen also raps about the guys she went steady with in high school - and why she didn't think any of them were worth sacrificing her musical ambitions!
NANCY: Karen, we're especially interested in rapping with you about your early high-school days - what were you like and what got you interested in a show business career?
KAREN: Well, I looked quite a bit different when I was in high school cause I was heavier, about twenty pounds heavier, to tell you the truth. And I was just tired of being fat so I went on a diet! In fact, just the other day I was cleaning out my bedroom closet...and it was really hard just getting in there...but when I got in, there I found this sweater I used to wear in high school...Good Lord, I think I could get into it three times today...I mean I don't know how I ever got through a door...Oh, I really wasn't that heavy, but compared to now...wow!
NANCY: How long were you on a diet?
KAREN: Uh, good grief...I think it was five weeks...I had lost like twenty-three pounds. It really worked. It was the water diet...that one where you drink eight glasses of water a day...and I despise water.
NANCY: Twenty three pounds? That's incredible...Was it a diet that you your-self designed?
KAREN: No, I went to a doctor. I decided to go on this diet just at the point when we had our first big hit...and we were running day in and day out...I can remember that we would go to rehearsals and we'd rehearse till about 1am, and then all the guys would want to go to eat at Coco's (and those are the people that make those fantastic onion rings), and I would sit there with my hamburger pattie and cottage cheese...while the guys ordered 47-layer cheeseburgers and giant sundaes! I don't know how I did it...cause I couldn't do it now.
NANCY: You were the only girl in the group at that time?
KAREN: Right...There were five guys, and Richard and I. That was our first group called The Spectrum.
NANCY: did you have time for guys back then? Did you have a lot of boyfriends? Or one special boyfriend?
KAREN: When I was in high school I had a couple of boyfriends. But in my junior year, I started getting interested in music...and that kind of came in front of everything...But I did have one special guy in my sophomore year...and another one in my junior year.
NANCY: Were you going steady?
KAREN: Oh yeah, don't we all? IT was a real serious scene. At that point I thought if we ever split up I'd die...you know with the ring, and going steady and all that garbage!
NANCY: Did you want to marry him?
KAREN: Oh sure, that day I did, of course. But when music started to get into my head...kind of everything was you know, put aside...I mean I still dated and everything, but it was kind of hard for guys to understand why music was more important than they were.
NANCY: What did you tell them?
KAREN: Well, for example, a guy would ask, "Do you want to go out Friday night?"...and I'd say well, no, we're rehearsing, which didn't go over real big. But that's the way it was. Playing in my brother's group was really all I was interested in...cause that was when we had the Richard Carpenter Trio...it was a jazz trio. We won the Hollywood Bowl Battle of the bands in 1966 when I was 16. And that was when we first started trying to get a record contract with our jazz trio...and that was needless to say, important, more important than going to the movies with some dumb guy. We were just starting to record at A&M studios. So I would spend most of my time up there recording, and at that point, let's say if we were going to play a job that weekend or whatever, that would always come first.
NANCY: Did you know that you wanted to go into show business when you were 15 or 16?
KAREN: When I was about 16, that's when it all happened...that's when the turning point was.
NANCY: What made you choose show business...what made you decide to follow your ambitions?
KAREN: Well, Richard has always been musical since the day he was born...and all through his life his musical interests kind of rubbed off on me, but it didn't hit home till I was 16 years old. And then, all of a sudden, I started to play drums and I started to sing.
NANCY: Was it mostly your own personal initiative or did your parents or your brother encourage you?
KAREN: Well, my parents always encouraged us, more so Richard because he is the oldest, but when I decided I was going to get into music, it just sort of happened, mainly because I used to follow Richard when he played a job. I'd go and listen because whatever he was involved with I somehow ended up there too...cause Richard and I have always been very close. And when I found out that I could sing and I could play, it seemed a natural thing. And from then on that's all I was interested in.
NANCY: What kind of conflicts came up because of your decision to go into music? Were there any conflicts between you and your parents or between you and boyfriends, or school?
KAREN: Well, never between my parents or Richard and myself, because they were always there at all times for whatever was needed. I mean like they bought all the amplifiers, and if Richard decided we wanted a grand piano. Even if we couldn't afford one, which we couldn't at that time, they found a way of getting him one. And when I decided I wanted a drum set, they went and they bought me the best one. My parents have always been like that. If they couldn't afford it at the time, they found a way.
NANCY: Are you close to your parents today?
KAREN: Oh, yes, they're right downstairs.
NANCY: Well, how about any conflicts that might have arose between you and school? You said that you went to college, did you finish college? Or did your career take precedent over that?
KAREN: Oh, yeah, ...college kind of got in the way! I went through two years of college...and then we signed and that was it. But in high school, the choir director influenced Richard and I quite a bit. We met this choir conductor at school, Frank Pooler, who's now our orchestra conductor. Frank is an extremely talented choral man, and when Richard got into the choir in his junior year at school, all of a sudden he developed an interest in vocal...that's when he decided on a vocal group. I was just getting started in high school and I had to take gym, which everyone has to take...
NANCY: How did you like that?
KAREN: I didn't. I mean even though I'm very sports-minded, I didn't like running around a football track at 8 o'clock in the morning...freezing to death...that didn't thrill me at all. So Richard said, "get into the marching band, because if you get in the marching band, you get out of gym! So I said great...what am I going to play? That's before I did anything...you know. So Richard was real good buddies with the band director.. cause he played gigs with him on the weekends. So he said my sister wants to get into the band, so the band director says fine, what does she do? And Richard says "nothing"...so he says well, OK, I'll give her a glockenspiel, the bells, or whatever you call it...I said well, gee, that's great! So, I learned how to play that...which isn't really exciting, is it? I suppose a glockenspiel could be, but I mean, I wouldn't go out of my way to buy one!
NANCY: Do you play them today?
KAREN: No, actually no... But anyway... the bells march in the drum line...because they say it is a percussion instrument, as it were. So I marched in the drum section, and one of my good buddies, Frankie Chavez, who had been playing the drums since he was three years old, was a Buddy Rich freak, (you know, Buddy Rich the drummer), like he even ate the same food as Buddy Rich! So I used to march down the street playing these stupid bells, watching Frankie play his tail off on the drums. I mean, he really loved it, and all of a sudden I discovered I had an interest in drums...I loved them! So what happened was I played bells for like two months, and all the time I'm watching Frankie and these other guys play drums, and it soon occurred to me that Frankie was the only one who knew what he was doing. And all of a sudden it hit me that I could play drums as good as nine-tenths of those boys in the drum line...outside of Frankie...So I told Gifford (he was the band director) that I wanted to play tenor drum...and he kind of looked at me funny. I finally had to talk him into it, because at that time no girl anywhere was in the drum line of any school in the marching band! So Frankie showed me both drum sticks, what to play, how to play and I became very interested in drums, and we completely reworked the entire drum section. We did like a whole rock and roll number in the drum section. The band couldn't march to it...but it was fun! But then, before long, I decided I wanted a set...you know a full set of drums...so Frankie went up and showed me what I should buy...and I bought a brand new set of Ludwigs. And from then on, that was my main interest...so like all through high school at the time my brother Richard was becoming interested in the vocal thing and we put a vocal group together and I started to sing at the same time I started to play.
NANCY: Can you remember some of the first songs you sang?
KAREN: Oh, wow...we did stuff like Ebb Tide, and all the stock things at the time like Yesterday, Hey Jude...We were all extremely into the Beatles...I guess that's our all time favorite group.
NANCY: Is it still?
KAREN: Oh, yeah. Them and the Beach Boys.
NANCY: Did you break any boy's heart because you put your career before dating?
KAREN: Well, to tell you the truth, none of the guys I went steady with knocked me out that much that I would have given up or changed what I wanted to do! And I'm so glad that I had enough brains at that point. Because once I finally got into the music thing...and Richard and I started working, with the groups and all that stuff...nothing seemed to sway what I wanted to do...And, like from the time that we started working, music really became a 24 hour a day thing for both of us.
NANCY: Looking back on your teenage years and your successes, what sort of thoughts would you have for a girl that's about 15, 16 or 17 and wants to be a musician or wants to follow a career in the arts, but she has pressure from her parents or boyfriends?
KAREN: It depends what the girl wants and if she wants it bad enough. She can figure it out for herself if she's going to stick to it. And if a guy is really in love with her, he would stick with her. I mean, if a guy was really hung up on a chick... like if a chick wanted to do something really bad, the guy would give of himself and let the chick do what she wants. That's only natural.
NANCY: How about Karen Carpenter today, are you looking for a guy? How about Karen Carpenter today, are you looking for a guy? How long do you think you'll stay in show business? Do you have any long range plans?
KAREN: It's really the only thing that I have an interest for. It's just the love of what we're doing that's really important. And I don't know...there's nobody in particular. There's certain people but not anything that's serious right now. Whether or not I'm looking...when it can happen, I really don't know.
NANCY: You find the role for a woman changing> Do you see more opportunities for a girl to do things that she really wants to do?
KAREN: Oh yeah! But that's another thing...this bit about Women's Lib. People always call me because they think that being a chick drummer, I'm a woman's Lib fanatic, and I'm not ! Besides, I don't know that much about what they're fighting for. For myself, when I decided what I wanted to do, I went ahead and did it. Nobody got in the way. If they did, you had to figure out a way to get around them. I think anybody who has enough self respect and enough brains can do what they want to do and the bit about blaming it on somebody else is just garbage! There's nobody that's going to stand in the way of somebody if they really want it - male or female!
NANCY: Good, I'm with you.
KAREN: Its stupid you know, just because you're a girl...so what?
NANCY: RIGHT ON!
KAREN: We've got as much brains as anybody else. You see a lot of dumb guys around too! This bit about me being a successful girl drummer. I'm not a successful GIRL drummer, I'm just a drummer that happens to be a girl that's happy! I have a ball!
NANCY: Do you like being a star?
KAREN: Oh yeah. It's a kick. At times, it's just a little...well, you have to walk very fast! sometimes you just want to go out, go down the corner and buy a hamburger. But you really can't do that. That gets me sometimes not being able to walk around on my own! Sometimes you get tired of being protected 24 hours a day but...
NANCY: And what about your brother, how does he feel about your success?
KAREN: Oh he loves it. What I'm trying to say is that both of us are extremely happy and it's a great way to live, but it's a 24-hour-a day job. You're in competition with yourself. But it's really something else to live a life that is not only your own, it's really quite an experience.
NANCY: What kind of clothes do you like? Do you like clothes?
KAREN: OH YEAH! Whenever I have a chance I go straight to the clothes stores.
NANCY: What do you like to wear if you're getting all dressed up - going to a big party or something?
KAREN: It depends on where I'm going. If it's really formal, it would be a long gown. I like velvets and chiffons and crepes.
NANCY: Very feminine things?
KAREN: Yeah, but on the other hand, I love suedes. I have a huge collection of suede. You know, gaucho pants and all that sort of stuff. Suede pant suits and jackets and purses. I'm definitely a suede person.
NANCY: Your outfits on stage- do you design any of those?
KAREN: I have a designer whose name is Rick Turner and he works on NBC. He does all the shows like Carol Burnett and Sonny and Cher and stuff like that. He's very versatile, he can go in many directions. I like my outfits each different from the other. They really have to be or I'd go completely ape.
NANCY: What style of outfits do you like to wear on stage? I've seen you in long gowns.
KAREN: Well, I do wear long gowns on stage because of playing drums...but what I actually do wear is a gown that's really pants, and when I stand up it looks like a dress. It really works very good on stage. I can go from a cotton jumper, little puffy tops with a turtle neck (very casual), or to a long chiffon gown, or a low-cut front with a velvet dress with the rest of the dress done in lace.
NANCY: Sounds like you like very feminine fabrics.
KAREN: I think it's necessary because when there's seven guys on the stage all in their suits, I like to wear something different from the guys. They all wear the same tuxs which is usually co-ordinated with what I have on. The whole group is co-ordinated. Let's say I'm wearing red and blue. Richard'll be in red, and the guys will be in blue. sometimes it takes us weeks to decide what the heck we're going to wear! It's quite involved.
NANCY: How do you like traveling around with seven guys? What's it like?
KAREN: Well, in the road group there's 22 people. There's eight of us, a hairdresser, lighting director, a road manager, five roadies, a manager-manager, a promoter- oh it's wild! It's like a party!
NANCY: Are you the only girl?
KAREN: No, my hairdresser is a girl. Sometimes the guys are able to bring their wives or it depends on whoever's around at the time!
NANCY: It's like the old chivalrous thing.
KAREN: Oh, it's really funny! To watch the guys on the road - to watch them find the chick they want!
NANCY: Carpenter groupies?
KAREN: Oh, yeah! They're very clean cut, but they're there! I can be by myself if I want to, but if I need protection there is always someone around. There always has to be. But everybody has such a great time on the road because everybody's really close. And that helps when you're gone five weeks at a time.
NANCY: Do you enjoy traveling around so much or does it get so hectic you really can't relax?
KAREN: The last seven-eight months have been relatively easy compared to the way we used to travel. Like a year ago, we used to fly commercial, but there's no way you can carry 22 people and equipment and travel commercially. So about a year and a half ago, we started flying in two Lear jets. And we decided that all of a sudden there were 22 of us (there used to be 14) and we couldn't do it all in two Lears. So now we charter a great big plane, a Cessna 580, and it seats 40. We put everybody in the one big plane, and we have our own flight crew and stewardess. And we just have a ball, I mean we really do. We bowl in the aisles, we have quite a good time.
NANCY: You have to have a sense of humor.
KAREN: Oh, we have to, because if we lose control of the show, who will "take it"? In the oldies medley we have, we have an opening act called Skyles and Henderson (who are famous for their noises). And like when we do: Why do the stars go on shining or why do the birds go on singing? Pete comes out with this gun, and he shoots a bird out of the sky and this huge thing falls onto the piano. It's a classic comedy.
NANCY: It sounds like it's a regular burlesque routine. Who dreams up all this stuff?
KAREN: We do the medleys, but as for the comedy part, it's up to Bill and Pete. And every night, Bill does something different...he comes out as a robot or whatever. I can never tell what he's going to do next. One night he chases me off the stage, or into the audience, whatever! If I thought about it, I could come up with a story for every night, like kids crawling in the backstage windows when they're not locked and come right into the dressing room.
NANCY: Oh yeah? How do you handle that?
KAREN: You call your manager! But some of the things the kids dream up to get to you are hysterical. They really have some damn good ideas, stuff that I'd never think of. I mean, some kids rent a limousine and follow us into a car or they climb all over the car, or you get into an elevator, they watch to see what floor you get off, and then they just knock on every door on that floor. It's wild!
NANCY: Karen, we've really had fun talking with you.
KAREN: I've had fun too. Thanks for calling!
The Washington Post - Summer 1973
by Megan Rosenfeld
WHOLESOME IMAGE NO PUT-ON FOR POPULAR CARPENTERS
Karen Carpenter, 23, says she sometimes eats a Peanut Butter Cup for quick energy before a performance.
When she's on tour, which amounts to about eight months a year, she travels with a seven-foot tall wardrobe trunk which is one of her proudest possessions. In one half of the trunk hang the long culottes she wears onstage, protected with plastics bags. A pair of fluffy bedroom slippers rests underneath. On the other side of the trunk are drawers for her matching boots and shoes, and little plastic packages of spot remover and shoe polish.
The trunk came to Washington recently when Karen and her brother, Richard sang at a White House state dinner for West German Chancellor Willy Brandt. After their performance, President Nixon described the Carpenters as "Young America at its very best."
Judging from the Carpenters' sustained national success, there can be little doubt that the President's assertion is supported by a impressive number of Americans. Now heading into their fifth triumphant year, the Carpenters have acquired thousands of fans of all ages. Last week their latest record "Sing," was certified "Gold" - that is, it had sold a million copies.
It is their 11th gold record. They won the 1970 Grammy Award for "best new group," and the 1970 and 1971 Grammies for "best vocal duo."
With their earnings they have purchased two apartment complexes (named "Close to You" and "We've Only Just Begun" after two of their early hits), two shopping centers and are talking about opening a music school in Southern California.
The musical style upon which the Carpenters have ridden to such success is eclectic, to put it mildly.
Richard, 26, the acknowledged leader of the duo and the six-man back-up band, claims Liberace, Spike Jones, Red Nichols, Dixieland, the big band sound and Les and Mary Ford as musical influences.
The Carpenters' music belongs in a sub-category of rock known at various times as soft-rock, pop, easy listening or top-40.
On almost any car radio station you hear the sounds of soft rock. Second cousin to Muzak, grandchild of folk and estranged relation of rock, its musical effect is to soothe, to pep up or to amuse.
Like the Carpenters, its popularity increased as reaction to harsh electronic hard rock set in. In reaction to rock's loudness, it is quieter, using the same electric guitars, drums and horns as rock, but not as loudly.
In contrast to the angry anti-establishment lyrics of many rock songs, soft rocks leans to songs that talk about love in the rain and yellow ribbons on oak tress.
On the day that you were born the angels got together
And decided to create a dream come true.
So, they sprinkled moon dust in your hair of gold
And starlight in your eyes of blue."
(From "Close to You," by Burt Bacharach and Hal David.)
In terms of interpretation, strong feelings articulated in lyrics are muted in performance, so that broken hearts never sound any more serious than indigestion.
The high-living antics and anti-establishment lifestyles of hard-rock stars are anathema to the pop crowd. Soft rock stars, like the Carpenters, are proud to belong to the establishment; their lifestyles as well as their music reflect traditional middle-class American values.
"We've been call sickly sweet, goody-two shoes and squeaky clean," said Richard in a interview at the time of the White House appearance. "But it's all relative, isn't it? I mean, when we came along in '69 it was right in the middle of acid rock when all the performers had this negative sort of 'Take me as I am' attitude. And then we walk out, just normally clean. I mean, everyone takes showers, right?"
Sometimes the Carpenters sound like a cross between the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and the early Beatles. The key to their "sound" is their use of Les Paul and Mary Ford's techniques of over-dubbing voices - blending many recordings of the same two voices, singing different harmonies, onto one track. The Carpenters have used as many as 39 recordings of their voices in one song.
Like the Osmonds, Glen Campbell, or the Jackson Five, the Carpenter's appeal is largely in their music and partly in their image as just-plain-folks happy family. It's not personality that sells their records, nor gimmicky theatrical antics onstage.
Karen may eat a Peanut Butter Cup for quick energy but not an amphetamine, and there are no groupies camped out in hotels where the Carpenters stay.
The Carpenters' "wholesome and sincere" image is not a put-on.
The two live with their parents in a newly constructed home near Los Angeles. ("Why not?" asks Karen. "We always have. It works out great.")
"A work-free afternoon or evening," says one of their numerous press releases "will find them out bowling, playing a game of baseball with friends, or - like any typical L.A. young folk- dancing at a discothèque. Or dropping in at Bob's Big Boy for a super-hamburger."
Richard started music lessons at 12, studied classical piano at Yale while the family was living in New Haven, Conn. When his father, now a retired pressman, moved the family to Southern California, Richard was ready to start pursuing a career in the music industry.
Karen, the idol of thousands of girls for her cuteness, her career, and for having an older brother, started drumming when she was 16. Through subsequent group transformations, first as the Carpenter Trio (with a friend), then as Spectrum, as a larger band, she developed into the lead singer.
Although she has been successful in what is generally considered a man's field (drumming) she has little patience for "women's lib" and feels it's a wife's duty to cook for husband, because, "well, I like to cook."
"And just look at him," pointing to her brother, "he can't even cook water. . . just say that I certainly plan to cook for my husband."
Transcript of radio broadcast
Radio KIQQ
December 24, 1978
"Christmas Portrait"
Interview with Karen Carpenter
MC.. "This is KIQQ Los Angeles, wishing you and yours the very best and Merry Christmas. And as our special gift to you on his Christmas Eve, share with us the music of Karen Carpenter. It's a Christmas Portrait now, on KIQQ.
Karen: "The original idea that we've had for 8 or 9 years, to do this Christmas album, started out with Richard's concept to start the album with an overture. So that was the first thing that he wanted Peter Knight to orchestrate, and we couldn't have been more pleased, because we both feel that Peter was brilliant, and it really turned out to be something else! (laugh)."
"And out of the overture, he wanted the strings to hold through and go right into Christmas Waltz, which is an up tune, and the message of the tune is very basic, which is it's that time of year, that it's the best time of year,….. and it's a beautiful song, and a happy way to start out an album".
CHRISTMAS WALTZ PLAYS
"Sleigh Ride was one of the songs we recorded for our first Christmas special, and that was done by Billy May, who, again, is a brilliant orchestrator , from the old school.. hasn't changed a bit.. He's just got his own type of talent, and it really worked well on the show….again, it cross-faded right out of the Christmas Waltz.. it's a lovely piece!"
SLEIGH RIDE PLAYS
" The next two or three songs… there are 2 versions of "It's Christmas Time".. there's a piano/vocal version, and then the singers do their version, then it goes right into "Sleep Well, Little Children". These are two of my favorites, not only to sing, to listen to, but also because we've taken a lot of the material off of this album from the original Spike Jones Christmas Album, which is, in our opinion, practically the best Christmas album ever recorded…. It's just a happy feeling that sticks with you all the time.. I enjoy doing this type of music all year round, which has been proved, because it took us 14 months to cut this album, and while people were walking down the aisles saying, 'what in heaven's name are you doing Christmas stuff in the middle of August, it never occurred to me, cause I could do it anytime of the day or night, anytime of the year."
IT'S CHRISTMAS TIME PLAYS, then SLEEP WELL LITTLE CHILDREN
""Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" is one of the all-time standards, and that's one thing that Rich wanted to get into this album, he wanted to combine standards with contemporary and some of the more classical type things like the "Ave Maria" and "Christ is Born" . Billy did a beautiful arrangement on this tune, and I think it was one of my favorite to sing."
HAVE YOURSELF A MERRY LITTLE CHRISTMAS PLAYS…..
Part II
SANTA CLAUS IS COMIN TO TOWN plays
KAREN: ""The Christmas Song " is something that we've always wanted to do… and even though it's nearly impossible to match Nat King Cole's version, we wanted to do it anyway, because we had such fond feelings for the song."
THE CHRISTMAS SONG plays
KAREN: ""Silent Night" was another one that Peter Knight arranged. Incidentally, he did all the orchestra arranging, and also all the choir. And it takes on a little different feel… there's really no rhythm to it, it's just choir and myself, and then the orchestra comes in…it's just very basic, it's a song that is really over-sung by all types and by everybody, and you never really stop to think how beautiful a song it really is…"
SILENT NIGHT plays
MC: This is KIQQ with Karen Carpenter, and "A Christmas Portrait"
KAREN: ""Jingle Bells", the way we did it… Rich wanted to get in the toy-soldier feel to it, so right in the middle of it, it was brilliantly executed with the instrumentation that Peter chose… again, it's a fast-hitting "up" thing, and it's just a song that everybody knows and loves, and it's a different treatment of it."
JINGLE BELLS plays
KAREN: ""The First Snowfall" and "Let it Snow" is another combination of tunes that we have been living with, off of the Spike Jones' Christmas album for years, and it's just something we've always wanted to do, because they are both beautiful songs. We used that on the last Christmas special, and then we did it in a Christmas "live" show in Vegas and in Lake Tahoe. No matter which song you talk about, it's just an overall terrific feeling. I listen to it all the time… it just makes me feel good!"
THE FIRST SNOWFALL and LET IT SNOW play
KAREN: ""Carol of the Bells" is a song that Richard discovered (ooooo).. maybe 3, 4 years ago, when we did the Perry Como Christmas show. It was suggested to Richard by Ray Charles, (the choral Ray Charles), to do as a piano solo, and Richard loved it so that he wanted to use it as a piano number on the album, and it's a terrific chart."
CAROL OF THE BELLS plays
Part III
KAREN: ""Merry Christmas Darling" I think, is a little extra special to both of us, because Richard wrote it, and the lyrics were written by the choral director at Long Beach State choir, where we went to school, Frank Pooler. Frank was very helpful in our college days, when we were trying to get a contract and constantly missing classes and everything. He was the only one down there who actually understood what we were after, and he stood behind us all the way. We just did a benefit at Long Beach state, for a scholarship fund, and we did it with the choir and the whole thing, and we did "Christmas Darling" and he just "glows" everytime we do it….. I think it's my favorite, because it's really close to me."
KAREN: ""Merry Christmas Darling" I think, is a little extra special to both of us, because Richard wrote it, and the lyrics were written by the choral director at Long Beach State choir, where we went to school, Frank Pooler. Frank was very helpful in our college days, when we were trying to get a contract and constantly missing classes and everything. He was the only one down there who actually understood what we were after, and he stood behind us all the way. We just did a benefit at Long Beach state, for a scholarship fund, and we did it with the choir and the whole thing, and we did "Christmas Darling" and he just "glows" everytime we do it….. I think it's my favorite, because it's really close to me."
MERRY CHRISTMAS DARLING plays
MC: This is KIQQ. More of "A Christmas Portrait" with Karen Carpenter, in a moment.
KAREN: ""I'll Be Home for Christmas" , again is another classic standard, and with Peter's treatment, even became more special. To sing these songs is something that gives me more pleasure than I can really put into words…just taking all of these tunes… I think we came out with something like 29 songs.. We've got at least another 12 in the can that we couldn't finish and we couldn't stuff on the album, like "Little Altar Boy", and, oh, all sorts of them (sigh) we were dying, cause we couldn't stuff them on the record.. . ya know, we had to leave the label off, but there are so many beautiful Christmas songs, that, where do you stop? I mean, we were pulling our hair out trying to decide… but it's just a lovely thought, and it's a beautiful tune…."
I'LL BE HOME FOR CHRISTMAS plays
KAREN: ""Christ is Born" is a piece that we came across when we were in school. We did it (the choir did it) at one of the concerts, and we were so taken by it, that Richard remembered it. We did that with 2 choirs, as a matter of fact, I think there were 80.. and it's in a different vein.. it's a little more serious.. but the beauty of it, it holds its own."
CHRIST IS BORN plays
MC: This is KIQQ.. presenting "A Christmas Portrait". We'll hear more with Karen Carpenter, in just a minute…
KAREN: "The next medley of "Winter Wonderland", "Silver Bells" and "White Christmas", is something that we also did on the first Christmas show, and it covers three different areas of songs. "Winter Wonderland" is just an all-out terrific piece, and then Richard put "White Christmas" on the end. "Silver Bells" is done in the Spike Jones mode, with all the silliness thrown in, and it goes right into "White Christmas"… there wouldn't be an album without "White Christmas", especially since the loss of Bing, which I know that the entire world feels, and it even has a more special meaning now. I just hope that people think I do justice to it, because I know that it's impossible to touch Bings.. cause he's my favorite human, nobody could touch Bing."
WINTER WONDERLAND, SILVER BELLS, WHITE CHRISTMAS play
KAREN: The "Ave Maria".. we were going back and forth between the Bach-Gounod version, and the Schubert, and we had them both cut.. when it came down to the last choice, we didn't have any more time to cut the other one, Richard felt he wanted to go with this one, which is the Bach-Gounod, because it was less known and we felt that even though they are both so gorgeous, that this is just a touch classier, and again, Richard's always leaned to the side of doing things that aren't run into the ground. Peter did an absolutely unbelievable job on the chart, and I enjoyed singing it more than ever, because I'd never.. it was quite an undertaking….
AVE MARIA plays
MC: You've been listening to "A Christmas Portrait" with Karen Carpenter, KIQQ, Los Angeles. I thank you for listening, happy holidays to your family and to you, I'm Bob Sky, I'm going to be signing off now, and Maggie Ross is coming your way up next, with more music, the music of Southern California on FM 100.
KAREN CARPENTER
"When I Was Sixteen"
Phone interview by Nancy Hardwick
Karen Carpenter, the feminine fox in that love-song duo, The Carpenters, is a sexy, outspoken example of a young girl who made up her mind to "make it" in show business, and DID. Before she was barely 20 years old!
But in spite of all her scrambling to get to the top, Karen is no Women's Libby. In fact, she puts down the hard-nosed bra-burners in this interview.
Dressed casually in cutoff Levis and a "Carpenters" T-shirt and furry slippers when I was called, I soon discovered that Karen is a very genuine, down-to-earth foxy lady who makes you feel comfortable to be with. She has a friendly sense of humor, and likes to tell the story of how she and her brother Richard first got their group going, and the obstacles they were up against. Karen also raps about the guys she went steady with in high school - and why she didn't think any of them were worth sacrificing her musical ambitions!
NANCY: Karen, we're especially interested in rapping with you about your early high-school days - what were you like and what got you interested in a show business career?
KAREN: Well, I looked quite a bit different when I was in high school cause I was heavier, about twenty pounds heavier, to tell you the truth. And I was just tired of being fat so I went on a diet! In fact, just the other day I was cleaning out my bedroom closet...and it was really hard just getting in there...but when I got in, there I found this sweater I used to wear in high school...Good Lord, I think I could get into it three times today...I mean I don't know how I ever got through a door...Oh, I really wasn't that heavy, but compared to now...wow!
NANCY: How long were you on a diet?
KAREN: Uh, good grief...I think it was five weeks...I had lost like twenty-three pounds. It really worked. It was the water diet...that one where you drink eight glasses of water a day...and I despise water.
NANCY: Twenty three pounds? That's incredible...Was it a diet that you your-self designed?
KAREN: No, I went to a doctor. I decided to go on this diet just at the point when we had our first big hit...and we were running day in and day out...I can remember that we would go to rehearsals and we'd rehearse till about 1am, and then all the guys would want to go to eat at Coco's (and those are the people that make those fantastic onion rings), and I would sit there with my hamburger pattie and cottage cheese...while the guys ordered 47-layer cheeseburgers and giant sundaes! I don't know how I did it...cause I couldn't do it now.
NANCY: You were the only girl in the group at that time?
KAREN: Right...There were five guys, and Richard and I. That was our first group called The Spectrum.
NANCY: did you have time for guys back then? Did you have a lot of boyfriends? Or one special boyfriend?
KAREN: When I was in high school I had a couple of boyfriends. But in my junior year, I started getting interested in music...and that kind of came in front of everything...But I did have one special guy in my sophomore year...and another one in my junior year.
NANCY: Were you going steady?
KAREN: Oh yeah, don't we all? IT was a real serious scene. At that point I thought if we ever split up I'd die...you know with the ring, and going steady and all that garbage!
NANCY: Did you want to marry him?
KAREN: Oh sure, that day I did, of course. But when music started to get into my head...kind of everything was you know, put aside...I mean I still dated and everything, but it was kind of hard for guys to understand why music was more important than they were.
NANCY: What did you tell them?
KAREN: Well, for example, a guy would ask, "Do you want to go out Friday night?"...and I'd say well, no, we're rehearsing, which didn't go over real big. But that's the way it was. Playing in my brother's group was really all I was interested in...cause that was when we had the Richard Carpenter Trio...it was a jazz trio. We won the Hollywood Bowl Battle of the bands in 1966 when I was 16. And that was when we first started trying to get a record contract with our jazz trio...and that was needless to say, important, more important than going to the movies with some dumb guy. We were just starting to record at A&M studios. So I would spend most of my time up there recording, and at that point, let's say if we were going to play a job that weekend or whatever, that would always come first.
NANCY: Did you know that you wanted to go into show business when you were 15 or 16?
KAREN: When I was about 16, that's when it all happened...that's when the turning point was.
NANCY: What made you choose show business...what made you decide to follow your ambitions?
KAREN: Well, Richard has always been musical since the day he was born...and all through his life his musical interests kind of rubbed off on me, but it didn't hit home till I was 16 years old. And then, all of a sudden, I started to play drums and I started to sing.
NANCY: Was it mostly your own personal initiative or did your parents or your brother encourage you?
KAREN: Well, my parents always encouraged us, more so Richard because he is the oldest, but when I decided I was going to get into music, it just sort of happened, mainly because I used to follow Richard when he played a job. I'd go and listen because whatever he was involved with I somehow ended up there too...cause Richard and I have always been very close. And when I found out that I could sing and I could play, it seemed a natural thing. And from then on that's all I was interested in.
NANCY: What kind of conflicts came up because of your decision to go into music? Were there any conflicts between you and your parents or between you and boyfriends, or school?
KAREN: Well, never between my parents or Richard and myself, because they were always there at all times for whatever was needed. I mean like they bought all the amplifiers, and if Richard decided we wanted a grand piano. Even if we couldn't afford one, which we couldn't at that time, they found a way of getting him one. And when I decided I wanted a drum set, they went and they bought me the best one. My parents have always been like that. If they couldn't afford it at the time, they found a way.
NANCY: Are you close to your parents today?
KAREN: Oh, yes, they're right downstairs.
NANCY: Well, how about any conflicts that might have arose between you and school? You said that you went to college, did you finish college? Or did your career take precedent over that?
KAREN: Oh, yeah, ...college kind of got in the way! I went through two years of college...and then we signed and that was it. But in high school, the choir director influenced Richard and I quite a bit. We met this choir conductor at school, Frank Pooler, who's now our orchestra conductor. Frank is an extremely talented choral man, and when Richard got into the choir in his junior year at school, all of a sudden he developed an interest in vocal...that's when he decided on a vocal group. I was just getting started in high school and I had to take gym, which everyone has to take...
NANCY: How did you like that?
KAREN: I didn't. I mean even though I'm very sports-minded, I didn't like running around a football track at 8 o'clock in the morning...freezing to death...that didn't thrill me at all. So Richard said, "get into the marching band, because if you get in the marching band, you get out of gym! So I said great...what am I going to play? That's before I did anything...you know. So Richard was real good buddies with the band director.. cause he played gigs with him on the weekends. So he said my sister wants to get into the band, so the band director says fine, what does she do? And Richard says "nothing"...so he says well, OK, I'll give her a glockenspiel, the bells, or whatever you call it...I said well, gee, that's great! So, I learned how to play that...which isn't really exciting, is it? I suppose a glockenspiel could be, but I mean, I wouldn't go out of my way to buy one!
NANCY: Do you play them today?
KAREN: No, actually no... But anyway... the bells march in the drum line...because they say it is a percussion instrument, as it were. So I marched in the drum section, and one of my good buddies, Frankie Chavez, who had been playing the drums since he was three years old, was a Buddy Rich freak, (you know, Buddy Rich the drummer), like he even ate the same food as Buddy Rich! So I used to march down the street playing these stupid bells, watching Frankie play his tail off on the drums. I mean, he really loved it, and all of a sudden I discovered I had an interest in drums...I loved them! So what happened was I played bells for like two months, and all the time I'm watching Frankie and these other guys play drums, and it soon occurred to me that Frankie was the only one who knew what he was doing. And all of a sudden it hit me that I could play drums as good as nine-tenths of those boys in the drum line...outside of Frankie...So I told Gifford (he was the band director) that I wanted to play tenor drum...and he kind of looked at me funny. I finally had to talk him into it, because at that time no girl anywhere was in the drum line of any school in the marching band! So Frankie showed me both drum sticks, what to play, how to play and I became very interested in drums, and we completely reworked the entire drum section. We did like a whole rock and roll number in the drum section. The band couldn't march to it...but it was fun! But then, before long, I decided I wanted a set...you know a full set of drums...so Frankie went up and showed me what I should buy...and I bought a brand new set of Ludwigs. And from then on, that was my main interest...so like all through high school at the time my brother Richard was becoming interested in the vocal thing and we put a vocal group together and I started to sing at the same time I started to play.
NANCY: Can you remember some of the first songs you sang?
KAREN: Oh, wow...we did stuff like Ebb Tide, and all the stock things at the time like Yesterday, Hey Jude...We were all extremely into the Beatles...I guess that's our all time favorite group.
NANCY: Is it still?
KAREN: Oh, yeah. Them and the Beach Boys.
NANCY: Did you break any boy's heart because you put your career before dating?
KAREN: Well, to tell you the truth, none of the guys I went steady with knocked me out that much that I would have given up or changed what I wanted to do! And I'm so glad that I had enough brains at that point. Because once I finally got into the music thing...and Richard and I started working, with the groups and all that stuff...nothing seemed to sway what I wanted to do...And, like from the time that we started working, music really became a 24 hour a day thing for both of us.
NANCY: Looking back on your teenage years and your successes, what sort of thoughts would you have for a girl that's about 15, 16 or 17 and wants to be a musician or wants to follow a career in the arts, but she has pressure from her parents or boyfriends?
KAREN: It depends what the girl wants and if she wants it bad enough. She can figure it out for herself if she's going to stick to it. And if a guy is really in love with her, he would stick with her. I mean, if a guy was really hung up on a chick... like if a chick wanted to do something really bad, the guy would give of himself and let the chick do what she wants. That's only natural.
NANCY: How about Karen Carpenter today, are you looking for a guy? How about Karen Carpenter today, are you looking for a guy? How long do you think you'll stay in show business? Do you have any long range plans?
KAREN: It's really the only thing that I have an interest for. It's just the love of what we're doing that's really important. And I don't know...there's nobody in particular. There's certain people but not anything that's serious right now. Whether or not I'm looking...when it can happen, I really don't know.
NANCY: You find the role for a woman changing> Do you see more opportunities for a girl to do things that she really wants to do?
KAREN: Oh yeah! But that's another thing...this bit about Women's Lib. People always call me because they think that being a chick drummer, I'm a woman's Lib fanatic, and I'm not ! Besides, I don't know that much about what they're fighting for. For myself, when I decided what I wanted to do, I went ahead and did it. Nobody got in the way. If they did, you had to figure out a way to get around them. I think anybody who has enough self respect and enough brains can do what they want to do and the bit about blaming it on somebody else is just garbage! There's nobody that's going to stand in the way of somebody if they really want it - male or female!
NANCY: Good, I'm with you.
KAREN: Its stupid you know, just because you're a girl...so what?
NANCY: RIGHT ON!
KAREN: We've got as much brains as anybody else. You see a lot of dumb guys around too! This bit about me being a successful girl drummer. I'm not a successful GIRL drummer, I'm just a drummer that happens to be a girl that's happy! I have a ball!
NANCY: Do you like being a star?
KAREN: Oh yeah. It's a kick. At times, it's just a little...well, you have to walk very fast! sometimes you just want to go out, go down the corner and buy a hamburger. But you really can't do that. That gets me sometimes not being able to walk around on my own! Sometimes you get tired of being protected 24 hours a day but...
NANCY: And what about your brother, how does he feel about your success?
KAREN: Oh he loves it. What I'm trying to say is that both of us are extremely happy and it's a great way to live, but it's a 24-hour-a day job. You're in competition with yourself. But it's really something else to live a life that is not only your own, it's really quite an experience.
NANCY: What kind of clothes do you like? Do you like clothes?
KAREN: OH YEAH! Whenever I have a chance I go straight to the clothes stores.
NANCY: What do you like to wear if you're getting all dressed up - going to a big party or something?
KAREN: It depends on where I'm going. If it's really formal, it would be a long gown. I like velvets and chiffons and crepes.
NANCY: Very feminine things?
KAREN: Yeah, but on the other hand, I love suedes. I have a huge collection of suede. You know, gaucho pants and all that sort of stuff. Suede pant suits and jackets and purses. I'm definitely a suede person.
NANCY: Your outfits on stage- do you design any of those?
KAREN: I have a designer whose name is Rick Turner and he works on NBC. He does all the shows like Carol Burnett and Sonny and Cher and stuff like that. He's very versatile, he can go in many directions. I like my outfits each different from the other. They really have to be or I'd go completely ape.
NANCY: What style of outfits do you like to wear on stage? I've seen you in long gowns.
KAREN: Well, I do wear long gowns on stage because of playing drums...but what I actually do wear is a gown that's really pants, and when I stand up it looks like a dress. It really works very good on stage. I can go from a cotton jumper, little puffy tops with a turtle neck (very casual), or to a long chiffon gown, or a low-cut front with a velvet dress with the rest of the dress done in lace.
NANCY: Sounds like you like very feminine fabrics.
KAREN: I think it's necessary because when there's seven guys on the stage all in their suits, I like to wear something different from the guys. They all wear the same tuxs which is usually co-ordinated with what I have on. The whole group is co-ordinated. Let's say I'm wearing red and blue. Richard'll be in red, and the guys will be in blue. sometimes it takes us weeks to decide what the heck we're going to wear! It's quite involved.
NANCY: How do you like traveling around with seven guys? What's it like?
KAREN: Well, in the road group there's 22 people. There's eight of us, a hairdresser, lighting director, a road manager, five roadies, a manager-manager, a promoter- oh it's wild! It's like a party!
NANCY: Are you the only girl?
KAREN: No, my hairdresser is a girl. Sometimes the guys are able to bring their wives or it depends on whoever's around at the time!
NANCY: It's like the old chivalrous thing.
KAREN: Oh, it's really funny! To watch the guys on the road - to watch them find the chick they want!
NANCY: Carpenter groupies?
KAREN: Oh, yeah! They're very clean cut, but they're there! I can be by myself if I want to, but if I need protection there is always someone around. There always has to be. But everybody has such a great time on the road because everybody's really close. And that helps when you're gone five weeks at a time.
NANCY: Do you enjoy traveling around so much or does it get so hectic you really can't relax?
KAREN: The last seven-eight months have been relatively easy compared to the way we used to travel. Like a year ago, we used to fly commercial, but there's no way you can carry 22 people and equipment and travel commercially. So about a year and a half ago, we started flying in two Lear jets. And we decided that all of a sudden there were 22 of us (there used to be 14) and we couldn't do it all in two Lears. So now we charter a great big plane, a Cessna 580, and it seats 40. We put everybody in the one big plane, and we have our own flight crew and stewardess. And we just have a ball, I mean we really do. We bowl in the aisles, we have quite a good time.
NANCY: You have to have a sense of humor.
KAREN: Oh, we have to, because if we lose control of the show, who will "take it"? In the oldies medley we have, we have an opening act called Skyles and Henderson (who are famous for their noises). And like when we do: Why do the stars go on shining or why do the birds go on singing? Pete comes out with this gun, and he shoots a bird out of the sky and this huge thing falls onto the piano. It's a classic comedy.
NANCY: It sounds like it's a regular burlesque routine. Who dreams up all this stuff?
KAREN: We do the medleys, but as for the comedy part, it's up to Bill and Pete. And every night, Bill does something different...he comes out as a robot or whatever. I can never tell what he's going to do next. One night he chases me off the stage, or into the audience, whatever! If I thought about it, I could come up with a story for every night, like kids crawling in the backstage windows when they're not locked and come right into the dressing room.
NANCY: Oh yeah? How do you handle that?
KAREN: You call your manager! But some of the things the kids dream up to get to you are hysterical. They really have some damn good ideas, stuff that I'd never think of. I mean, some kids rent a limousine and follow us into a car or they climb all over the car, or you get into an elevator, they watch to see what floor you get off, and then they just knock on every door on that floor. It's wild!
NANCY: Karen, we've really had fun talking with you.
KAREN: I've had fun too. Thanks for calling!
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Web site design (c) 2007 KarenCarpenter.com