BB and Karen Carpenter

[blueonblue]

Sometimes.......words fail.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EKs_fYrMMqk

"blue"

[George_b]

The overall question to me is not whether Burt Bacharach could/should have produced for her. But could she and/or the Carpenters have recorded and performed more BB/HD material. The answer is yes. Let us not forget Karen the drummer, and her ability to handle complexities of rhythm and melody (as confirmed by Dionne Warwick in previous post here). To my ear, Karen was the princess of Bacharach interpretation - although I would have loved to have heard more Scott Walker as well. But Karen had the agility in voice and drums to do this material - and a great singer needs great material.

[BachtoBacharach]

George, Agree that Karen certainly had the chops but would Richard have allowed Bacharach the freedom to explore Karen with no constraints as he had with Dionne? Since both Richard Carpenter and Herb Alpert were somewhat controlling of Karen according to "Little Girl Lost", an excellent biography of Karen, she wasn't able to explore what Bacharach probably would have wanted her to explore if he had chosen to work directly with her and I base that remark on the work she did without Richard later in her career...he struggled so with her work with Phil Ramone...this was some of most inspired (and honest) work Karen ever did IMHO. I don't believe either Richard or Herb (or Agnes Carpenter, the domineering mom) would have ever allowed Karen to work with Bacharach without their oversight and Bacharach knew that, I believe. His work with Dionne Warwick was sans any outside influence...he, Dionne and Hal did exactly what they wanted to do and when they wanted to do it and Dionne had an edginess and a natural slight tension to her voice that suited their tunes perfectly whereas Karen had a small voice which came alive only when miked; in her biography it mentions that many folks were astounded to hear how small her voice actually was when singing without a mike. Her tonality was so absolutely perfect but she didn't project at all and that tonality just popped when she was miked. She had such an intimate voice as well. I don't think Richard Carpenter was even capable of considering his sister in any context other than working with him which is why he has tinkered so with her solo work; I don't believe he would have let her out of that box he had her in to work alone with Bacharach. And, was Bacharach even interested, knowing that if he worked with Karen that Richard was part of the deal? I'd say no, he was not interested in the package deal. And, after the split, Bacharach chose to work with Stephanie Mills when he could have chosen Karen, Barbra Streisand or Dusty Springfield and later still he chose to work again with Jackie DeShannon. We will never know but based upon that taste of Bacharach/Karen we got from those "Carpenterized" versions of Bacharach, it would have been an intriguing combination. I have really grown to despise that homogenized box Richard kept Karen enclosed in...just my thoughts.

[BachtoBacharach]

The question is, why DIDN'T they record more Bacharach covers than they did? It seems as though Burt wasn't interested in working with Karen directly but it also seems as though they weren't that interested in recording more Bacharach after that initial burst of Bacharach covers...Karen was a huge fan of Bacharach and Warwick and I am not sure Richard felt the same way...but it was Herb Alpert who brought Close to You to Richard's attention. I can speculate as to why they didn't cover Bacharach more but for reasons known to Richard, Karen and Herb, they didn't. I wonder if Richard assumed that Bacharach would be interested in writing for the Carpenters after they turned Close to You into a massive hit...Burt is a creator not someone's song-writer and perhaps that's why...Burt couldn't control the product and had no interest in writing for someone he couldn't produce. For some reason Richard ignored Bacharach's back catalog after that...and I for one am glad. Who needed recycled Warwick/Bacharach at that time? In 1970-1971 Warwick was the most programmed female singer on the radio and was so closely associated with Bacharach that continued mining of Bacharach's back catalog would not have served or furthered Karen and Richard's career...Close to You was wonderful as was One Less Bell to Answer by the Fifth Dimension but they were not tunes associated with Warwick. The Bacharach medleys and Knowing When to Leave Covers left me flat...what excited me was Karen's work on songs like Rainy Days and Mondays and others not associated with any particular songwriter. Could Karen handle singing Bacharach? Sure! Did Richard want to continue to cover Bacharach? Obviously not for some reason.