Posts Tagged Karen Carpenter
Archive
August 31, 2020 by Simon Sweetman
The Vinyl Countdown # 63
Carpenters, Ticket To Ride (1970) Bought a few Carpenters records recently – already had a few, but trying to pick up the ones I don’t have. In part it was because I was talking about the band for a radio show – which is done now. You can click that link to check it out […]Archive
August 27, 2020 by Simon Sweetman
RNZ Feature: The Legacy of the Carpenters
About once a month or so I have a long chat on RNZ about a particular music or a theme – for their regular Tuesday music features. I’ve long been a fan of the music of the Carpenters and wanted to play some of my favourites, some of the key examples of Karen’s great singing […]Archive
August 22, 2020 by Simon Sweetman
The Vinyl Countdown # 69
Carpenters, Passage (1977) Of all the Carpenters albums (and I’m aiming to collect the set) I was most surprised by this one – a recent addition, one I hadn’t heard all the way through until just very recently. A strange, strange album – and I love it. It’s a very weird record; exhaustion from all […]Archive
August 13, 2020 by Simon Sweetman
Poem: The Signs Along The Way
I love the music the Carpenters made. Nearly every sha-la-la-la, and probably most of the wo-oh-wo-woes still shine. But Richard was weird. And Karen was scared. And when you see that you start to hear that. And it’s not that it makes the music better – or worse. But it’s hard to not know it […]Archive
July 27, 2020 by Simon Sweetman
Carpenters: The Road To Yesterday (Live 1974)
Carpenters The Road To Yesterday (Live 1974) Stiletto Discs The Carpenters worked themselves non-stop. They were a hard-touring band on account of all the hits they had. That’s how it worked. They kept having hit singles, kept hitting the road. It sent Richard to the uppers and it was a big downer for Karen, part […]Archive
July 24, 2020 by Simon Sweetman
The Vinyl Countdown # 85
Carpenters, Voice of the Heart (1983) I am a Carpenters fan – but that wasn’t always the case, I had to ‘come out’ as such. The tribute album gave me the license – but the songs had always been in my heart. For many years I had a Greatest Hits album on vinyl but in […]Archive
December 18, 2019 by Simon Sweetman
Drummers You Just Can’t Beat: # 19 – Karen Carpenter
Karen Carpenter – sadly thought of as a punchline by some, known to be an incredible singer and one half of the mega-successful sibling duo, the Carpenters – was a drummer. Brother Richard was in charge of song selection (covers) arranging, producing and composition. But if he was the boss Karen was the star. Ask […]Archive
November 27, 2019 by Simon Sweetman
The Vinyl Countdown # 210
Carpenters, Horizon (1975) Been on a big Carpenters trip lately, and though they’ve been in my life forever it’s only now I realise that I’m a Greatest Hits-player…well, I know a few of the albums but this is the first time I’ve decided to listen through to them all. There’s some great lesser known gems […]Archive
April 7, 2019 by Simon Sweetman
Weyes Blood: Titanic Rising
Weyes Blood Titanic Rising Sub Pop Records Karen Carpenter is alive. And well. She’s survived. She has continued to sing with that voice – clear as a bell. She is the modern-day torch singer. She is a soothsayer connecting us to the ugly truths of this age, reminding us of the amazing opportunities in and around the daze. She’s now writing […]Archive
November 21, 2018 by Simon Sweetman
Poem: A Ham Sandwich Walks Into A Bar…
The old joke has it that if Karen Carpenter and Mama Cass had just shared the same ham sandwich they’d both be alive today. It’s hilarious – because one of them was rather thin, the other not so much. they both died due to conditions of the heart. (I’ve no idea where the ham sandwich […]Archive
March 6, 2018 by Simon Sweetman