Excursion #3 • The Carpenters
Welcome Back
This, our 3rd adventure in the Pop Time Machine, will have us landing in the year 1970.
Leaving right now for...
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Excursion 3
October 18, 1970
The Ed Sullivan Show (Yes again!)
To review, this blog is all about music and pop culture, with a little different twist. In each entry, the goal will be to assist the reader to sort of retro travel through space and time. In this next outing, we will experience some of the transition from 60s rock music to 70s pop, very much being pioneered by a brand new musical group from Southern California. They are known as The Carpenters, Karen and Richard, who will quickly come to dominate the pop charts and win the hearts of millions.
In our last excursion, we were transported to the events of February 9, 1964, when The Beatles made their first appearance before an American audience on The Ed Sullivan Show. This launched the so-called British Invasion and began the transformation of Top 40 music and pop culture in America during the 1960s. But now the turbulent 60’s is coming to an end. Or is it? The turbulence continues....
Join me as we venture together (through this Pop Time Machine) to the Fall of 1970, a new decade alive with hope. Yet filling the air is a growing sense of uncertainty and despair. Try if you can to feel the fear and distress in the news and on people’s faces. A murder at the Altamont Rock Festival in California during a Rolling Stones set in late December 1969 ended the 60s with a feeling of the loss of innocence for the “Love Generation.” There is the heaviness of political unrest, the Vietnam war, a drug epidemic, and the Cold War. Apollo 13 almost ends in total disaster during man’s 3rd attempted moon landing, the Beatles break up in April. And then both Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin have died from tragic drug overdoses just this last month.
In a sort of contrast to this cultural chaos is the simplicity of pop music and culture, with its attempt to sort of escape from all the stress. From the Woodstock Rock Festival, to the Sunset Strip in Hollywood, this new young generation is dropping out, seeking to find itself, and trying to create a new world that feels peaceful and loving.
After years of hard driving rock music (such as Creedence, The Guess Who, Steppenwolf, Iron Butterfly, The Stones, etc.), there has emerged an appetite for softer, kinder pop music. Into this climate come The Carpenters (as well as a milder genre of artists such as David Gates & Bread, Michael Jackson, Carole King, James Taylor, Smokey Robinson and many others).
And now once again, this October, we visit the Ed Sullivan Show (Yes, his show is still on the air all these years later!). It’s October 18th. I’m actually trying to get ready for a dance at my High School, when I walk past the TV in our Living Room. On the screen, I see the unusual sight of a girl playing the drums. As I stop and watch, I realize it’s Karen Carpenter. The beautiful song is very familiar, because it’s been on the radio a lot the past month or two. In fact the song, “Close To You” (By Burt Bacharach & Hal David, big time song writers in the 60’s) made it all the way to number one on the Billboard pop charts, where it stayed for 5 weeks! The 2nd song they do on the show is new, called “We’ve Only Just Begun.” In the next 2 weeks that song will go on to make it all the way to the number 2 spot (kept from number 1 by a Michael Jackson song (Jackson 5), “I’ll Be There.”
The Carpenters on Ed Sullivan • Oct. 1970
From this moment on, there’s no holding them back. They are unstoppable. In the next five years, they will rack up their score to an incredible 18 number 1 singles, and another 5 number 2 singles. The Carpenters will go on to sell more than 90 million records worldwide, making them one of the best selling musical artists of all time. And causing them to be a large part of the soundtrack of life in the first half of the 1970s.
Sometimes it may seem that the sort of Soft Rock sound of the Carpenters, and their squeaky clean image limits their influence - maybe people are afraid to admit publicly that they are fans. But that’s simply not the case when the following is considered
Sir Paul McCartney, a Beatle, expressed that she (Karen) had "the best female voice in the world: melodic, tuneful and distinctive."
Michael Jackson, who will later be called the King of Pop, said that his 3 biggest influences were the Beatles, Motown and The Carpenters.
Madonna, who will later be called the Queen of Pop, says that “Karen Carpenter had the clearest, purest voice. I'm completely influenced by her harmonic sensibility."
Elton John, describes Karen as “one of the greatest voices of our lifetime.”
Olivia Newton-John, a close, dear friend of Karen’s, said later in the 1980s, “I still miss Karen a lot to this day. She and I became friends immediately. I was drawn to her terrific sense of humour and, of course, her extraordinary talent. She was also a kind and authentic human being.”
Gwen Stefani: "It doesn't matter how many times you hear it; you'll still get goose bumps when you hear her sing."
Richard Carpenter
And though Karen Carpenter receives most of the praise and focus, it is significant to take note of the musical genius behind her success, her brother Richard. He is truly the musical mastermind and creative force behind the Carpenters' unique sound.
Richard conducting The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra for recording of “Superstar” • 1971
Richard Carpenter isn’t just a casual pop song writer, or organizer of a teen garage band. He is a studied, accomplished keyboardist and record producer at a very early age. He commented in an interview that when he was 3 or 4, he recalls noticing the complex harmonies (and what he would later learn was overdubbing) which he heard at times on the radio. An example was his reference to 50s duo Les Paul and Mary Ford. He would later come to master the technique and take it to a whole new level with sister Karen, creating and recording as many as 12 simultaneous harmony parts in a single song.
Richard and Karen Carpenter in the Studio
Richard is in the same league as a Henry Mancini or Burt Bacharach, and he is only in his 20s. Few who are doing Top 40 pop music can compare with his skill at finding great songs to record, or his visionary sense of sound production. He seeks to emulate the rich harmonic sounds exemplified by groups like The Beach Boys and The Mamas and The Papas. That and Karen’s vocal gift from God seem to explain what will unfold as the 18 number 1 hit records of the Carpenters.
I’m not sure if anyone besides me will long remember this appearance of The Carpenters on Ed Sullivan. But once again it becomes a watershed moment in pop history, and the launching pad for this young duo who will make such a difference in our lives. But unfortunately, being again “out of time” for today, we’d better wind this down. As in our last “excursion,” we must get “back to the future,” and rejoin that annoying reality thing!
Sadly what I have characterized as my sense that the air is filled with “...a growing sense of uncertainty and despair” (here in 1970); yes, sadly such a description too accurately matches the uncertainty and despair here and now 50 years later, as we return to the world of 2020.
However, one possible way to respond to that uncertainty and even despair, is to choose for your mind and heart to virtually “time travel” to a more pleasant and positive place. You might try doing that through the playlists attached below. I hope you’ll check them out.
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Before we close this entry, may we add a few final thoughts about Karen and her illness:
For the purpose of this little “time travel blog,” it is our intention to celebrate the incredible life and talents and creativity and kindness of Karen Carpenter. If we wanted to dwell on the way it so tragically ended for her at such a young age, we might have “time-traveled” to 1983, to a day when many of us sat stunned in our cars as we heard on the radio that she had died of a heart attack. There has been so much written about that, and her struggle certainly shined the spotlight around the world on the significant problems of eating disorders and all sorts of body dysmorphia. These huge challenges are overwhelming and touch so many lives and families. We won’t be able to sort out all of those matters here today.
And the truth is we may never know in this life all that contributed to the pain and severe loneliness that at times took such a harsh toll on the life of Karen Carpenter. We are all broken people in so many ways. Some things will always defy understanding and explanation.
But for now, for today, may we remember with great nostalgia and deep affection the one and only Karen, and may her music stir in our hearts something of the emotions and the meaning that she so authentically poured into them. Let us also remember her fun loving nature, her laugh, and that beautiful smile.
May her songs, these works of musical art, honor her memory. And may they move us to follow her example, to care more, to feel deeply, and to share our hearts with those around us. She did that so well.
Well... please tune in for our next excursion when we will visit the turn of the new century (21st of course), to consider perhaps the last “real band.” One writer commented: “A band of incredible depth, storytellers who used music as their medium, sound as their canvas. They touched millions of lives, of all ages.” Stay tuned to hear more....
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A Video is worth a thousand words:
Enjoy a few performances below of various Carpenters hits, beginning with the number 1 selling “Superstar,” from the Fall of 1971: (Karen’s magical voice & Richard conducting)
Karen: Rainy Days & Mondays / Summer 1971
Karen & Richard: Song: Hurting Each Other / Performed on The Carol Burnett Show, 1972
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Check out this Spotify Playlist of songs: The Best of The Carpenters
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Check out this Spotify Playlist of songs from October 31, 1970:
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Here’s the Billboard Hot 100 for the week of Oct. 31, 1970, to help create your own playlist:
Until next time....
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