Posted on 02/04/2023 1:21:55 PM PST by RckyRaCoCo
This (day) marks the 40th anniversary of the untimely passing of Karen Carpenter. The singer, whose worldwide popularity has not waned for 53 years, was a month shy of her 33rd birthday when her heart stopped beating the morning of Feb. 4, 1983. Her death was attributed to the effects of anorexia nervosa, from which she had suffered for several years.
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That seems to be the case with the parents of a lot of performers: Murry Wilson, Joe Jackson, etc.
All great choices! What impressed me about Linda Ronstadt was her ability to crossover and sing in different styles.
Like putting in the great guitar solo (Tony Peluso?) in “Goodbye to Love”...I guess Richard wasn’t afraid to occasionally stray from the “goody 4-shoes” image and expand his music.
People always forget this. She was a very good drummer.
I remember reading an account stating that it was in an article about her and Richard’s performance…the reporter had referred to her as “chubby”. Either way, thinking she was chubby was like a toxic seed planted in her brain and she lived with its destructive growth for decades.
Even Buddy Rich praised her drumming. And Buddy Rich rarely said anything nice about anybody.
I doubt she would be as big of a success today. There’s actually less money in the music business today that back in the 70’s. Only a very few top artists are making big bucks today. Plus, I don’t see the Carpenters having any hits with their genre of music. Can you imagine Karen Carpenter singing the simplistic and over produced crap that passes as popular music today? Try listening to the Spotify or iTunes Top 50. There’s great production and audio engineering, but the music is uninteresting, barely a key change. Add to that the use of autotune. Karen Carpenter had perfect pitch and a tremendous range. Her voice would be under utilized and under appreciated today. Just my two cents.
Annie Lennox? Just looking at her makes me want to throw up.
“The singer, whose worldwide popularity has not waned for 53 years”
Um, what? If her popularity is as high now as it was when she was alive, why are we even talking about her? If you mentioned Karen Carpenter to anyone under 40 I would be stunned if more than 1 in 10 answered with something other than “Who?”. I was a kid when she died and I barely know anything about her other than she sang Christmas songs and died of anorexia.
I never thought of her as anything special, nor does my mother who would have been part of her prime audience.
Carpenter was 5'4" and weighed 108 pounds when she died. Slim, but not insanely skinny. Nonetheless, she had anorexia, was hospitalized for it repeatedly, and it killed her.
I believe it was her mother
Agreed, her talent would not fit in today’s world. Actually much of the good stuff from the mid 50’s to mid 70’s wouldn’t fit at all.
“Her mother was a piece of work, by all accounts.”
Their father looked like a blue collar worker. I saw him once at Gemco in 1976 and he was wearing work shoes, coveralls, and a flannel shirt.
It damages the heart, the periods of fasting and malnutrition.
Greta Thunberg looks weird and young because of that and she damaged her heart by doing that.
When I was a teen, I was about that height and weight, but no amount of eating would change that.
I could eat anything and everything in those days and did.
Those days are LONG gone.
It’s really a shame. I sort of stopped listening to any new music in the late 80’s/early 90’s and stuck with stuff that I grew up with. But recently, I have been searching for new music with an understanding that I won’t find an exact replica of my old listening tastes. I’ve run into a few artists that are incredibly talented, but they certainly are not well known. If they were around in the 70’s they could have played at the same concerts that I went to as a kid, when groups would regularly draw crowds that exceeded 100k at JFK stadium in Philadelphia. Today they would be lucky to fill a large theater. The bottom line is there’s still great talent, but the music business has zero interest in you listening to great talent.
Her Spanish ballads gives me goosebumps. I may not understand the words, but I get the feeling.
I remember when Heart’s “Dreamboat Annie” came out, how enraptured I was by Anne Wilson’s voice. Still the best rock voice I’ve ever heard.
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