From the MCRFB news archives: 1983
AN APPRECIATION
LOS ANGELES — The wondrous instrument that was Karen Carpenter’s voice was perhaps described by writer Tom Nolan in a 1974 Rolling Stone cover story: “Hers is a voice of fascinating contrasts, combining youth with wisdom; chilling perfection with much warmth.”
It was that warmth and heart and emotion that set Carpenter apart. There was a conversational intimacy and matter-of-fact naturalness in her style that made her thoroughly unpretentious and appealing.
In an interview with the Los Angeles Times after Carpenter’s death of heart failure Friday, February 4, A&M co-founder Herb Alpert remembered the first time he heard a demo tape of Karen’s voice in early 1969: (her voice) “It just jumped right out at me,” he said, “it felt like she was in the room with me.”
In a mid-70s interview, Alpert also touched on this vocal intimacy. “Some people think they’re (the Carpenters) corny,” he acknowledged at the time, “but I’ve always thought of Karen as the type of singer who would sit on your lap and sing in your ear.”
That ease and subtlety in Karen’s style caused her to be dismissed by critics as tame and bland. But if there was a surface serenity to Karen’s vocals, there were also layers of of often contrasting emotions just below. Olivia Newton-John, one of the few artists to escape “the easy-listening pigeonhole and gain broader pop acceptance, told the L.A. Times after Carpenter’s death: “I think she was underestimated by many people. Her recordings were beautiful. She had a lovely voice and such wonderful control and feeling.”
Newton-John’s tribute were one of many in the wake of the singer’s death at age 32. Burt Bacharach, who wrote the Carpenter’s breakthrough hit, “Close To You,” noted: “When we first appeared together in concert, all that I could think of was that she had a heaven-sent voice, like no one before her and no one since.”
And John Bettis, lyricist of such Carpenters hits as “Yesterday Once More” and “Only Yesterday,” said simply: “My words have lost the best voice they ever had.”
In her last major print interview in 1981, with this writer, Carpenter downplayed dissection of her vocal technique. “I’m not that complicated,” she demurred. “I’m just a real easy-going singer. I don’t push. Even if I screamed I couldn’t sing as loud as some people. I just open my mouth and thank God it’s there.”
It’s sad that image considerations came to overshadow Carpenter’s vocal talent, and that she didn’t live to take her rightful place alongside Barbra Streisand and Dionne Warwick as one of the preeminent female vocalist of her generation. But the joy is that Carpenter’s expressive, beguiling is there to behold on 11 A&M albums.
The intimacy and personal connection in Carpenter’s voice render all the more poignant these closing lines (as written by Leon Russell) from the duo’s fourth album:
“And when my life is over
Remember when we were together
You were alone and I was singing this song
For you.”
PAUL GREIN
(Information and news source: Billboard; February 19, 1983).
