Page 5
175) Close to You
The Carpenters
rollingstone.com
Karen Carpenter sang and drummed; her brother Richard arranged their lushly melodic music. Both contributed to their thoroughly wholesome image. "It's like we're Pat Boone, only a little cleaner," Richard lamented to Rolling Stone in 1974. "As if all we do all day is drink milk, eat apple pie and take showers. I don't even like milk." Close to You, their second album, has two of their best ballads: "(They Long to Be) Close to You" and "We've Only Just Begun." In the early Seventies, the Carpenters epitomized the mainstream, but now their influence is audible in cooler, slightly less-clean indie bands: the Cardigans, Stereolab and "chamber pop" acts such as Belle and Sebastian.
Total album sales: 2 million
Peak chart position: 2
Carpenters article:
Richard & Karen Radio interview
Date unknown
Vickie's note: This is a piece of an interview that I was listening to one night, and this section I found interesting... hope you enjoy it.
It opens with Barry Manilow's I Write The Songs
Interviewer: We're chatting with the Carpenter's today in our current series of retrospective reviews - people we've talked to over the years that we really go a kick out of, and we chatted with the Carpenter's on several occations, and the reason I wanted to play that (the Manilow song) to open this segment with - I talked to Karen once and I said "Did you ever hear a song on the radio, Karen Carpenter, and thought to yourself "Man, I wish I would have recorded that"?
Karen: Mm..Hmm. That happens once a week! (laughs)
Interviewer: Does it really?
Richard: Oh, yeah.
Karen: It's happened quite a bit.
Richard: Sure, I Write The Songs is a perfect song for Karen and, uh...
Karen: Killing Me Softly?
Richard: Oh, yeah! Killing Me Softly
Interviewer: Yeah, yeah, that would have been a perfect...
Karen: I wasn't in the right place at the right time. (laughs)
Interviewer: You weren't on that airline that what's her name was...
Richard: Roberta Flack, that's right...
Interviewer: How about either of you, you're biggest disappointment with regard for a record you made that you had the greatest amount of enthusiasm over but for whatever the reasons are, the public doesn't take to a recorded performance YOU feel is perfect. It just for some reason didn't happen. This is going to be "double 0 above 1" and we'll say it doesn't even... well, maybe it hits the top 10 but it doesn't reach your expectations...
Richard: Yeah, Only Yesterday
Interviewer:Only Yesterday ...
Richard: Yeah.
Karen: Went to 4
Richard: Yeah, it did very well - it went to number 4
Karen: It went to 3 below 1 (giggles)
Richard: But, it sold over 600,000 copies, which is nice, umm...
Karen: it's good, nice... yeah, we kinda thought that was going to do it
Richard: I thought that one was really terrific
Vickie: Another clip from the same tape... this one caught my attention because it once again reminded me of how much work went into the making of the songs... how some songs can be left unfinished... and also to the musical genius of Richard. Now, there are some things concerning Richard's ideas that I don't agree with, but when it comes down to imagining how he can hear in his mind all the different parts that all the different instruments will play - what the flute will play, what the oboe will play, what the drum will do... for all the songs he writes... it's just overwhelming. Of course, Karen's giggles throughout all her interviews are contagious, and her little humorous comments add life to what could otherwise get a bit dull...
Interviewer: We talked about the Carpenters' music and got some of their thoughts that went into the make-up of the finished product. You listen to their singles and their albums and each track or performance sounds so darn clean, uncluttered, and it sounds as if so much tender-loving care went into each one that they do, and I mentioned to Richard and Karen the fact that each album track was done... it sounded as if it was going to be a single record. And I asked them to give us an idea about the planning of a Carpenter's album... what went into the planning?
Richard: It's a long process. We have a person at A&M records who works for us and all the stuff comes from the publishers, and from people we meet on the road, and unknown people who just see what label different artists that are interested are on, they send it all and it all goes to A&M. And he goes through the thousands of things and narrows it down to hundreds of things that he thinks I'll be interested in. Then I take the hundreds home. And, uh...
Karen: (laughs) you don't see him for days!
Richard: yeah, listening, listening, listening... and of course they come in a variety of recorded ways - cartridges, cassettes, dubs, singles, little local record company singles, just...
Karen: singing telegrams...
Richard: ... tapes, and you have to have all the different machines to play everything on.
Interviewer: And all the different speeds, too.
Richard: Oh, yeah... 45, 33...
Karen: And some of them are right in the middle (giggles)
Richard: ... 15... so it takes time to do. And I listen to all of them, and of course I write some of the tunes, myself, and John Bettis writes the lyrics, so we usually don't get ALL the material that's going to go onto the album at once and then go into the studio. We start with several things, go in... and do the tracks... by tracks I mean we work it bass, piano, and drums - basic foundation to the tune. And... then we'll start with usually something like overdubbing guitar next, or electric piano on top of what we've got. And we do one thing at a time, to achieve better sound. So you don't have... if you do it all at once in a studio you can have different instruments 'leaking' into the drum microphones, whatever, it doesn't give you as clean a sound.
Interviewer: How many tracks do you usually have, total, to work with?
Richard: 24. And that, again, takes time. So instead of in one hour where you could get 35 musicians say, on one song, we start with three and add one, add one, add another, add another, and then do the vocals, and then move on to the next song, and the next. Then when we have four done, we call in a string section. Because the union allows you to do four tunes in one session. And we complete it, and put it aside, to be mixed, then start in again.
Superstar: The Carpenters Story
1993 BBC Radio special
CHAPTER 1
There have been many recognizable voices in popular music, but few have been as special as this:
Why do birds suddenly appear / Every time you are near? ...
Ten years ago today, that voice was silenced: Karen Carpenter suffered a heart-attack and died at the Downey Memorial Hospital, California,
February 4th, 1983 - and fans around the world mourned. The loss has been somewhat cushioned by the fact that we've been left with
recordings, but recordings are only part of the story; we're all familiar with the music and the songs, and have even heard about Karen's
battle with anorexia nervosa. But what do we know about the person behind the voice? In the next two hours, we'll hear - mainly from
Richard Carpenter -
Richard Carpenter (RC): To have our music (and Karen felt the same way) be successful in England was very special to us.
...but also from Karen,
Karen Carpenter (KC): There are ups and downs, not only in this business, but in everything...
...Burt Bacharach,
Burt Bacharach (BB): A voice like Karen Carpenter's just threw away them all.
...and Paul Williams,
Paul Williams (PW): She brought a purity to these lyric ideas that made them totally believable.
...as they tell us about the person behind the voice. I'm Mike Reynolds inviting you to join me for Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story.
Long ago / And oh so far away
RC: First off, mine and Karen's roots: my dad was a Brit - from London! He met my mom over here and of course he became a citizen, in 1937,
I think. My dad's brother - my namesake Richard Carpenter - still lives in London. Always has. He and his wife Mary.
Karen Carpenter was born March 2nd, 1950, and initially grew up in New Haven, Connecticut, in a house echoing with sounds from her father's
eclectic record collection. On the surface there was nothing special about her childhood: she was bright, cheery and often went out playing
with her friends. Unlike some of her playmates, Karen was not an avid doll collector, although Richard remembers,
RC: Oh, she had some! (Muses) She had a 'Betsy-wetsy'... but I can't say that she was a typical example of a little girl with dolls. No:
she was more into sports, she liked baseball very much... Oh, and of course music!
Yesterday Once More
When Karen entered her teens, the family moved to Downey, California, a few miles from Los Angeles. Karen joined a new school and quickly
made new friends. Up until then Karen had given no thought as to what she might do when she grew up. But as Richard recalls:
RC: Of course when people asked her, the two answers she would give were a 'nurse' or a 'stewardess', which I think is what all little
girls answer!
If Karen had given this no thought, society virtually dictated what she would do next.
RC: Growing up in the fifties, Karen went through the obligatory accordion lessons. I mean, I had accordion lessons, everybody did! So she
had a few lessons, but she didn't like it... Then the band director at our elementary school decided that he needed flutists and Karen was
rendered a flute. And that didn't go either! And that was pretty much it, as far as Karen was concerned, for many a year.
It's Going To Take Some Time
CHAPTER 2
The seeds for our future are sown in formative years, and there's a strong possibility that what happened to Karen at this stage would
affect everything about her later life: she was beginning to have a weight problem.
RC: Karen was a chubby teenager - definitely.
Karen was growing up at a time when thin was 'in'. Magazine covers constantly sported pictures of Twiggy, the Shrimp and other models.
Southern California is renowned for its active outdoor lifestyle and a chubby teenage girl may have been the subject of ridicule. And
although Karen liked certain sports and games, at age 13 she finally got into music as a way of getting out of a sporting activity.
KC: Oh that's absolutely true! Rich went to Downey high for his senior year and when I joined him the following year, I didn't like gym. I
liked softball and basketball and all that type of stuff, but I DIDN'T like running around a track at 8 o'clock in the morning. 'Cos
running ISN'T one of my gifts, believe me!
RC: And I found out that if a person were in marching band, they could be excluded from physical education.
KC: So Rich said "We'll get into the marching band!", and I said "But I don't play anything". And he said "That's no problem - Gifford [the
musical director] will let you play the glockenspiel". So I did, but I didn't really like it because it's not a very convenient instrument
to play and it's hard to carry... and it's always a quarter-step sharp to the band, which used to drive me crazy! But the good thing about
it is, the glockenspiel is a percussion instrument, it marches in the percussion line. And I was automatically TAKEN OVER by a love for the
drums! I had no idea whether I could play 'em or not, but I wanted to and I was very determined... but the band director said "That's not
really normal". Of course, all you have to tell me is that something's not normal and I'll go for it!! And luckily I had a gift for it, and
within a couple of weeks we went out and bought a drum set...
Now a teenager with a drum-set in the house might spell trouble. It was also highly unusual for that teen to be a girl. But as brother
Richard explains, they were blessed with exceptional parents:
RC: They were very good, my folks, in every way, and one was encouraging anything like this. Now you have to understand, they were a bit
sceptical at first: here comes this 13 year-old girl... oh, you know how it goes with kids! She'd wanted a dog, she SAID she'd take care of
him, so they got her the dog and the FOLKS took care of him! And now the latest thing is "I want a set of drums". Well, drums are noisy,
they take up room and they cost money... and we all figured this was going to pass within about a month. But we had these stools that went
up to the breakfast bar in the kitchen and she'd play on these stools! (It started with dad's chopsticks and then some drumsticks!) And you
could tell that she... she knew it! All these cadences and stuff... So they broke down and bought her a little set of Ludwigs brand new and
obviously - THE REST IS HISTORY! She took to them, she could play in all time signatures and she possessed the most important thing a good
drummer needs to possess, which is time. Rock-solid, like a metronome, her time! And as her teacher Bill Douglas said, she had "good
wrists". Obviously she didn't have the strength of a lot of drummers, but she had good time, a good sense of fill and...she was a very good
drummer!
And Karen was happy to demonstrate her technique on a recording made in the Carpenters living room in the summer of 1965.
Caravan
KC: Also that year was a horror, what with geometry. I lasted three days and I was totally lost, so I joined the choir, 'cos I didn't sing.
RC: Karen really exhibited... no talent! The little bit I asked her to sing would be for the really high parts that we would use every
third blue moon in our recordings. But the lower voice hadn't shown itself yet.
As the playing improved, so too did Karen's singing. Through a friend Joe Osborn who had a garage studio and a record label 'Magic Lamp',
Karen signed a solo record deal!
RC: By 1965, the lower voice started to show itself. I have recordings which I won't let anyone hear because... oh boy, she would not be
happy! If you heard it, you'd barely know that it's Karen: it's in tune and there is somewhat of the sound, but there is no vibrato, it's
kinda 'nasal' and it's just in its embryonic stages. If anything it kinda sounds a little 'country'. But by the time we went into Joe
Osborn's garage studio, it was definitely THE VOICE. I mean, she matured somewhat over the years, but the sound was there. She had a hit
voice in 1966 by the time she was 16.
I'll Be Yours
CHAPTER 3
Karen's influences up till now had been taken form her father's eclectic record collection and like Richard she too listened to Spike
Jones, big bands, Liberace, even Les Paul and Mary Ford. It had been the duo of Les Paul and Mary Ford that had intrigued Richard since
childhood, and with Karen's voice now developing into something distinctive and unique, he formulated a sound for the Carpenters.
RC: I was hooked on the overdub sound of Les Paul and Mary Ford back in 1951. I had no idea how they did it, I just knew that was a whole
bunch of Mary Fords, I knew it! You could tell! And I remember asking my mother, "How does she do it?" I mean, I was six years old, I
didn't know about overdubbing! [Laughs] And of course my mother didn't know! So she said, "She just works at it. You have to work at it!"
Top Of The World
In 1966 Karen and Richard decided to pool their musical resources and along with a friend, Wes Jacobs, they entered the 'Battle of the
Bands' at the famed Hollywood Bowl.
RC: I was highly competitive and so was Karen... and Wes in his way, but maybe not to the degree then that Karen and I were. But WE knew it
was a competition! Oh sure! But it wasn't the type of thing, as people tend to believe, where you get a recording contract if you win. It's
just to go through the competition, to see what you can do... of course you get a beautiful trophy, but that's pretty much it! We did two
tunes in the competition: one was a multi-time signature of The Girl From Ipanema, the other an original of mine called Iced Tea.
Iced Tea
They won the competition and were feeling pretty pleased with themselves.
RC: I guess I'm heading towards the car and this fellow approaches me. He says he liked it and all of that and would we be interested in...
[pauses] I don't know, it had something to do with a contract and a recording studio, and he thinks there may be some potential in our
sound... something like this. And I said [chuckles] "Oh, we're already with a record label!" And he replied, "Well, if the situation should
happen to change, here's my card" - I still have that card - and it reads: Neely Plumb, West Coast Representative RCA Victor Records. At
this point I'm thinking "Oh my God! What a jerk you are Rich! Pull your foot out of your mouth and see if you can dance your way out if
this!" So I replied, "Well, my SISTER is signed with the label, and as a vocalist", because he didn't know she sang. He had just heard the
trio! Well, this went on for months, we cut some sides up at RCA in Sunset Boulevard and of course - the thumbs down!
But Richard and Karen were undaunted, gathering together more musicians to form another group - Summerchimes.
You'll Love Me
RC: We never thought about giving up, but it was hard. Just in Karen's talent alone, I could not figure someone not picking her up. But I
believed in Carpenters sound too, you know; with Karen's lead and then all those overdubs... I just thought it made for a very commercial
sound. Anyway, around this time Joe Osborn, who believed in us and especially in Karen, said that we could use his studio, gratis, just to
try out things. And when we heard all those overdubs from the group done by just Karen and me... well, Spectrum was good - this was better.
You can't beat a blend with yourself!
Don't Be Afraid
Don't Be Afraid, from the Magic Lamp sessions, and part of the demo tape sent to Herb Alpert by Richard and Karen, who by now were calling
themselves, plain and simply Carpenters.
RC: Around this time there was a group called The First Edition (before it became Kenny Rogers and The First Edition). And they were
auditioning for girl singers and Karen decided to have a crack at it. And I figured, once they hear Karen... Karen's voice REALLY became
magical when it was amplified. I mean, if she stood in this room and sang she was great, but it was very soft. So once it became amplified,
it brought out just how terrific it really was... And I figured, here goes everything I've been working towards because they're gonna sign
her and that's that! Come on, this was 1968, Karen sounded like KAREN! And they turned her down! I couldn't believe it! I mean, you are
talking about a BIG mistake!!!
But as one door closes, another one opens: through a friend Karen and Richard made it onto a locally shown TV talent contest.
RC: And as a result of this we got a call, some time in '68, from a chap named John Bahler. He and his brother Tom were big jingle singers.
And we were invited to join their group, The Going Thing which promoted the Ford campaign on TV. But in addition to doing the campaign,
they were going to augment the group and send it on the road... So we went up to the offices at J. Walter Thompson and talked to the ad
executives, and it turned out we would be promoting the new Ford Mustang. Well, lo-and-behold - within DAYS of signing this contract, the
A&M deal comes through! [Laughs] It's like, either all or nothing at all, you know? Of course it was a big deal giving up $50,000 a year
PLUS a car each... but that was to be in another group! Obviously what we were working towards was the two of us. And here was Herb
Alpert... Well, the people at J. Walter Thompson were all very nice about it, they let us out of the contract instead of being hard-nosed
about it - and on we went to A&M.
Ticket To Ride
The Carpenters
rollingstone.com
Karen Carpenter sang and drummed; her brother Richard arranged their lushly melodic music. Both contributed to their thoroughly wholesome image. "It's like we're Pat Boone, only a little cleaner," Richard lamented to Rolling Stone in 1974. "As if all we do all day is drink milk, eat apple pie and take showers. I don't even like milk." Close to You, their second album, has two of their best ballads: "(They Long to Be) Close to You" and "We've Only Just Begun." In the early Seventies, the Carpenters epitomized the mainstream, but now their influence is audible in cooler, slightly less-clean indie bands: the Cardigans, Stereolab and "chamber pop" acts such as Belle and Sebastian.
Total album sales: 2 million
Peak chart position: 2
Carpenters article:
Richard & Karen Radio interview
Date unknown
Vickie's note: This is a piece of an interview that I was listening to one night, and this section I found interesting... hope you enjoy it.
It opens with Barry Manilow's I Write The Songs
Interviewer: We're chatting with the Carpenter's today in our current series of retrospective reviews - people we've talked to over the years that we really go a kick out of, and we chatted with the Carpenter's on several occations, and the reason I wanted to play that (the Manilow song) to open this segment with - I talked to Karen once and I said "Did you ever hear a song on the radio, Karen Carpenter, and thought to yourself "Man, I wish I would have recorded that"?
Karen: Mm..Hmm. That happens once a week! (laughs)
Interviewer: Does it really?
Richard: Oh, yeah.
Karen: It's happened quite a bit.
Richard: Sure, I Write The Songs is a perfect song for Karen and, uh...
Karen: Killing Me Softly?
Richard: Oh, yeah! Killing Me Softly
Interviewer: Yeah, yeah, that would have been a perfect...
Karen: I wasn't in the right place at the right time. (laughs)
Interviewer: You weren't on that airline that what's her name was...
Richard: Roberta Flack, that's right...
Interviewer: How about either of you, you're biggest disappointment with regard for a record you made that you had the greatest amount of enthusiasm over but for whatever the reasons are, the public doesn't take to a recorded performance YOU feel is perfect. It just for some reason didn't happen. This is going to be "double 0 above 1" and we'll say it doesn't even... well, maybe it hits the top 10 but it doesn't reach your expectations...
Richard: Yeah, Only Yesterday
Interviewer:Only Yesterday ...
Richard: Yeah.
Karen: Went to 4
Richard: Yeah, it did very well - it went to number 4
Karen: It went to 3 below 1 (giggles)
Richard: But, it sold over 600,000 copies, which is nice, umm...
Karen: it's good, nice... yeah, we kinda thought that was going to do it
Richard: I thought that one was really terrific
Vickie: Another clip from the same tape... this one caught my attention because it once again reminded me of how much work went into the making of the songs... how some songs can be left unfinished... and also to the musical genius of Richard. Now, there are some things concerning Richard's ideas that I don't agree with, but when it comes down to imagining how he can hear in his mind all the different parts that all the different instruments will play - what the flute will play, what the oboe will play, what the drum will do... for all the songs he writes... it's just overwhelming. Of course, Karen's giggles throughout all her interviews are contagious, and her little humorous comments add life to what could otherwise get a bit dull...
Interviewer: We talked about the Carpenters' music and got some of their thoughts that went into the make-up of the finished product. You listen to their singles and their albums and each track or performance sounds so darn clean, uncluttered, and it sounds as if so much tender-loving care went into each one that they do, and I mentioned to Richard and Karen the fact that each album track was done... it sounded as if it was going to be a single record. And I asked them to give us an idea about the planning of a Carpenter's album... what went into the planning?
Richard: It's a long process. We have a person at A&M records who works for us and all the stuff comes from the publishers, and from people we meet on the road, and unknown people who just see what label different artists that are interested are on, they send it all and it all goes to A&M. And he goes through the thousands of things and narrows it down to hundreds of things that he thinks I'll be interested in. Then I take the hundreds home. And, uh...
Karen: (laughs) you don't see him for days!
Richard: yeah, listening, listening, listening... and of course they come in a variety of recorded ways - cartridges, cassettes, dubs, singles, little local record company singles, just...
Karen: singing telegrams...
Richard: ... tapes, and you have to have all the different machines to play everything on.
Interviewer: And all the different speeds, too.
Richard: Oh, yeah... 45, 33...
Karen: And some of them are right in the middle (giggles)
Richard: ... 15... so it takes time to do. And I listen to all of them, and of course I write some of the tunes, myself, and John Bettis writes the lyrics, so we usually don't get ALL the material that's going to go onto the album at once and then go into the studio. We start with several things, go in... and do the tracks... by tracks I mean we work it bass, piano, and drums - basic foundation to the tune. And... then we'll start with usually something like overdubbing guitar next, or electric piano on top of what we've got. And we do one thing at a time, to achieve better sound. So you don't have... if you do it all at once in a studio you can have different instruments 'leaking' into the drum microphones, whatever, it doesn't give you as clean a sound.
Interviewer: How many tracks do you usually have, total, to work with?
Richard: 24. And that, again, takes time. So instead of in one hour where you could get 35 musicians say, on one song, we start with three and add one, add one, add another, add another, and then do the vocals, and then move on to the next song, and the next. Then when we have four done, we call in a string section. Because the union allows you to do four tunes in one session. And we complete it, and put it aside, to be mixed, then start in again.
Superstar: The Carpenters Story
1993 BBC Radio special
CHAPTER 1
There have been many recognizable voices in popular music, but few have been as special as this:
Why do birds suddenly appear / Every time you are near? ...
Ten years ago today, that voice was silenced: Karen Carpenter suffered a heart-attack and died at the Downey Memorial Hospital, California,
February 4th, 1983 - and fans around the world mourned. The loss has been somewhat cushioned by the fact that we've been left with
recordings, but recordings are only part of the story; we're all familiar with the music and the songs, and have even heard about Karen's
battle with anorexia nervosa. But what do we know about the person behind the voice? In the next two hours, we'll hear - mainly from
Richard Carpenter -
Richard Carpenter (RC): To have our music (and Karen felt the same way) be successful in England was very special to us.
...but also from Karen,
Karen Carpenter (KC): There are ups and downs, not only in this business, but in everything...
...Burt Bacharach,
Burt Bacharach (BB): A voice like Karen Carpenter's just threw away them all.
...and Paul Williams,
Paul Williams (PW): She brought a purity to these lyric ideas that made them totally believable.
...as they tell us about the person behind the voice. I'm Mike Reynolds inviting you to join me for Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story.
Long ago / And oh so far away
RC: First off, mine and Karen's roots: my dad was a Brit - from London! He met my mom over here and of course he became a citizen, in 1937,
I think. My dad's brother - my namesake Richard Carpenter - still lives in London. Always has. He and his wife Mary.
Karen Carpenter was born March 2nd, 1950, and initially grew up in New Haven, Connecticut, in a house echoing with sounds from her father's
eclectic record collection. On the surface there was nothing special about her childhood: she was bright, cheery and often went out playing
with her friends. Unlike some of her playmates, Karen was not an avid doll collector, although Richard remembers,
RC: Oh, she had some! (Muses) She had a 'Betsy-wetsy'... but I can't say that she was a typical example of a little girl with dolls. No:
she was more into sports, she liked baseball very much... Oh, and of course music!
Yesterday Once More
When Karen entered her teens, the family moved to Downey, California, a few miles from Los Angeles. Karen joined a new school and quickly
made new friends. Up until then Karen had given no thought as to what she might do when she grew up. But as Richard recalls:
RC: Of course when people asked her, the two answers she would give were a 'nurse' or a 'stewardess', which I think is what all little
girls answer!
If Karen had given this no thought, society virtually dictated what she would do next.
RC: Growing up in the fifties, Karen went through the obligatory accordion lessons. I mean, I had accordion lessons, everybody did! So she
had a few lessons, but she didn't like it... Then the band director at our elementary school decided that he needed flutists and Karen was
rendered a flute. And that didn't go either! And that was pretty much it, as far as Karen was concerned, for many a year.
It's Going To Take Some Time
CHAPTER 2
The seeds for our future are sown in formative years, and there's a strong possibility that what happened to Karen at this stage would
affect everything about her later life: she was beginning to have a weight problem.
RC: Karen was a chubby teenager - definitely.
Karen was growing up at a time when thin was 'in'. Magazine covers constantly sported pictures of Twiggy, the Shrimp and other models.
Southern California is renowned for its active outdoor lifestyle and a chubby teenage girl may have been the subject of ridicule. And
although Karen liked certain sports and games, at age 13 she finally got into music as a way of getting out of a sporting activity.
KC: Oh that's absolutely true! Rich went to Downey high for his senior year and when I joined him the following year, I didn't like gym. I
liked softball and basketball and all that type of stuff, but I DIDN'T like running around a track at 8 o'clock in the morning. 'Cos
running ISN'T one of my gifts, believe me!
RC: And I found out that if a person were in marching band, they could be excluded from physical education.
KC: So Rich said "We'll get into the marching band!", and I said "But I don't play anything". And he said "That's no problem - Gifford [the
musical director] will let you play the glockenspiel". So I did, but I didn't really like it because it's not a very convenient instrument
to play and it's hard to carry... and it's always a quarter-step sharp to the band, which used to drive me crazy! But the good thing about
it is, the glockenspiel is a percussion instrument, it marches in the percussion line. And I was automatically TAKEN OVER by a love for the
drums! I had no idea whether I could play 'em or not, but I wanted to and I was very determined... but the band director said "That's not
really normal". Of course, all you have to tell me is that something's not normal and I'll go for it!! And luckily I had a gift for it, and
within a couple of weeks we went out and bought a drum set...
Now a teenager with a drum-set in the house might spell trouble. It was also highly unusual for that teen to be a girl. But as brother
Richard explains, they were blessed with exceptional parents:
RC: They were very good, my folks, in every way, and one was encouraging anything like this. Now you have to understand, they were a bit
sceptical at first: here comes this 13 year-old girl... oh, you know how it goes with kids! She'd wanted a dog, she SAID she'd take care of
him, so they got her the dog and the FOLKS took care of him! And now the latest thing is "I want a set of drums". Well, drums are noisy,
they take up room and they cost money... and we all figured this was going to pass within about a month. But we had these stools that went
up to the breakfast bar in the kitchen and she'd play on these stools! (It started with dad's chopsticks and then some drumsticks!) And you
could tell that she... she knew it! All these cadences and stuff... So they broke down and bought her a little set of Ludwigs brand new and
obviously - THE REST IS HISTORY! She took to them, she could play in all time signatures and she possessed the most important thing a good
drummer needs to possess, which is time. Rock-solid, like a metronome, her time! And as her teacher Bill Douglas said, she had "good
wrists". Obviously she didn't have the strength of a lot of drummers, but she had good time, a good sense of fill and...she was a very good
drummer!
And Karen was happy to demonstrate her technique on a recording made in the Carpenters living room in the summer of 1965.
Caravan
KC: Also that year was a horror, what with geometry. I lasted three days and I was totally lost, so I joined the choir, 'cos I didn't sing.
RC: Karen really exhibited... no talent! The little bit I asked her to sing would be for the really high parts that we would use every
third blue moon in our recordings. But the lower voice hadn't shown itself yet.
As the playing improved, so too did Karen's singing. Through a friend Joe Osborn who had a garage studio and a record label 'Magic Lamp',
Karen signed a solo record deal!
RC: By 1965, the lower voice started to show itself. I have recordings which I won't let anyone hear because... oh boy, she would not be
happy! If you heard it, you'd barely know that it's Karen: it's in tune and there is somewhat of the sound, but there is no vibrato, it's
kinda 'nasal' and it's just in its embryonic stages. If anything it kinda sounds a little 'country'. But by the time we went into Joe
Osborn's garage studio, it was definitely THE VOICE. I mean, she matured somewhat over the years, but the sound was there. She had a hit
voice in 1966 by the time she was 16.
I'll Be Yours
CHAPTER 3
Karen's influences up till now had been taken form her father's eclectic record collection and like Richard she too listened to Spike
Jones, big bands, Liberace, even Les Paul and Mary Ford. It had been the duo of Les Paul and Mary Ford that had intrigued Richard since
childhood, and with Karen's voice now developing into something distinctive and unique, he formulated a sound for the Carpenters.
RC: I was hooked on the overdub sound of Les Paul and Mary Ford back in 1951. I had no idea how they did it, I just knew that was a whole
bunch of Mary Fords, I knew it! You could tell! And I remember asking my mother, "How does she do it?" I mean, I was six years old, I
didn't know about overdubbing! [Laughs] And of course my mother didn't know! So she said, "She just works at it. You have to work at it!"
Top Of The World
In 1966 Karen and Richard decided to pool their musical resources and along with a friend, Wes Jacobs, they entered the 'Battle of the
Bands' at the famed Hollywood Bowl.
RC: I was highly competitive and so was Karen... and Wes in his way, but maybe not to the degree then that Karen and I were. But WE knew it
was a competition! Oh sure! But it wasn't the type of thing, as people tend to believe, where you get a recording contract if you win. It's
just to go through the competition, to see what you can do... of course you get a beautiful trophy, but that's pretty much it! We did two
tunes in the competition: one was a multi-time signature of The Girl From Ipanema, the other an original of mine called Iced Tea.
Iced Tea
They won the competition and were feeling pretty pleased with themselves.
RC: I guess I'm heading towards the car and this fellow approaches me. He says he liked it and all of that and would we be interested in...
[pauses] I don't know, it had something to do with a contract and a recording studio, and he thinks there may be some potential in our
sound... something like this. And I said [chuckles] "Oh, we're already with a record label!" And he replied, "Well, if the situation should
happen to change, here's my card" - I still have that card - and it reads: Neely Plumb, West Coast Representative RCA Victor Records. At
this point I'm thinking "Oh my God! What a jerk you are Rich! Pull your foot out of your mouth and see if you can dance your way out if
this!" So I replied, "Well, my SISTER is signed with the label, and as a vocalist", because he didn't know she sang. He had just heard the
trio! Well, this went on for months, we cut some sides up at RCA in Sunset Boulevard and of course - the thumbs down!
But Richard and Karen were undaunted, gathering together more musicians to form another group - Summerchimes.
You'll Love Me
RC: We never thought about giving up, but it was hard. Just in Karen's talent alone, I could not figure someone not picking her up. But I
believed in Carpenters sound too, you know; with Karen's lead and then all those overdubs... I just thought it made for a very commercial
sound. Anyway, around this time Joe Osborn, who believed in us and especially in Karen, said that we could use his studio, gratis, just to
try out things. And when we heard all those overdubs from the group done by just Karen and me... well, Spectrum was good - this was better.
You can't beat a blend with yourself!
Don't Be Afraid
Don't Be Afraid, from the Magic Lamp sessions, and part of the demo tape sent to Herb Alpert by Richard and Karen, who by now were calling
themselves, plain and simply Carpenters.
RC: Around this time there was a group called The First Edition (before it became Kenny Rogers and The First Edition). And they were
auditioning for girl singers and Karen decided to have a crack at it. And I figured, once they hear Karen... Karen's voice REALLY became
magical when it was amplified. I mean, if she stood in this room and sang she was great, but it was very soft. So once it became amplified,
it brought out just how terrific it really was... And I figured, here goes everything I've been working towards because they're gonna sign
her and that's that! Come on, this was 1968, Karen sounded like KAREN! And they turned her down! I couldn't believe it! I mean, you are
talking about a BIG mistake!!!
But as one door closes, another one opens: through a friend Karen and Richard made it onto a locally shown TV talent contest.
RC: And as a result of this we got a call, some time in '68, from a chap named John Bahler. He and his brother Tom were big jingle singers.
And we were invited to join their group, The Going Thing which promoted the Ford campaign on TV. But in addition to doing the campaign,
they were going to augment the group and send it on the road... So we went up to the offices at J. Walter Thompson and talked to the ad
executives, and it turned out we would be promoting the new Ford Mustang. Well, lo-and-behold - within DAYS of signing this contract, the
A&M deal comes through! [Laughs] It's like, either all or nothing at all, you know? Of course it was a big deal giving up $50,000 a year
PLUS a car each... but that was to be in another group! Obviously what we were working towards was the two of us. And here was Herb
Alpert... Well, the people at J. Walter Thompson were all very nice about it, they let us out of the contract instead of being hard-nosed
about it - and on we went to A&M.
Ticket To Ride
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Web site design (c) 2007 KarenCarpenter.com