Solo album

Nov 5, 2014 9:10:27 GMT -8 rob52 said:

When I first heard Karen's solo album I was not sure about it but over the years it has grown on me to the point it is an essential part of my carpenters collection, maybe I was too young to appreciate it at the time. There are some really great tracks, I personally like If we try, If I had you, Still in Love with you and Phil Ramone did an outstanding job  on producing and arranging the album. As for its late release I read somewhere that Richard was trying to protect Karen from adverse criticism he thought would come on its release. In my opinion she could have handled it, after all she had been doing it all her career. What she couldn't handle was criticism from her beloved brother and A and M management. What does anyone else think?

Rob52

I think people keep thinking the 'adverse criticism' was about the music content or style and all that.  There were some things going on behind the scenes and one of those things leaked out in front of Alpert and Moss accidentally by Rod Temperton (and Rod got an elbow in the ribs from Karen when it happened).  Rod was explaining about a concept of physical (Baby) versus emotional / romantic (Darling) love theme for Karen's album.  Alpert and Moss were very impressed and liked the idea.  Then Rod got the elbow from Karen after Rod let it accidentally slip out that Darling was one of Karen's students.  Some definite problems after that.  Rod was living with Phil Ramone at the time, and Phil had a lengthy track record of using the tabloids as a free way to boost visibility for his productions.  The problem with that is that tabloids are not looking for 'nice' stories about people.  Alpert, Moss, and Richard Carpenter were all a bit leary of Phil trying to 'pull a stunt' and Karen getting adverse publicity.  There was a lot of messy stuff going on behind the scenes, not just Richard's quaalude addiction and Karen's anorexia nervosa.  Karen was an 8th grade english teacher from September 1978 to June 1979.  Karen worked with children and luckily, this one child (Darling) had a 'gag order / order of suppression' placed on him back in 1973 by the Archdeacon of Canterbury so a possibly harmful article against Karen (written by one of Karen's "friends", but not Rod, that had very close ties to Phil Ramone) never got published.  Darling was considered a lifesaver twice over and when asked whether Karen preferred pepp-o-mint or wint-o-green Lifesavers, Karen replied that she preferred wint-o-green because she loved winter and christmas time.  And honestly, Karen and Darling never physically touched except one incident where Karen wiped some dirt off of Darling's cheek before Karen and Darling met with His Holinesses the 13th and 14th Dalai Lamas (the 13th Dalai Lama spoke very little english, so the 14th Dalai Lama did most of the talking).

The big part people keep forgetting is that Karen and Richard were NOT looking to break up the band. After about a decade things can get a little stale. Try something different.  Different ideas.  Different techniques.  Richard Carpenter and Karen Carpenter were never ones to compete against each other.  Richard and Karen each had their strengths and weaknesses and they both usually tried to work off their strengths and compliment each other.  Richard the businessman.  Karen the diplomat.  Richard the pianist.  Karen the drummer.  Richard the thinker.  Karen the motivator.  Richard and Karen always tried to work together.  Richard the favorite and Karen the 'black sheep'.  Sometimes you need a favorite that puts the round peg in the round hole and the square peg in the square hole, and sometimes you may be looking for that black sheep that tries to put the round peg into the square hole and the square peg into the round hole.  Darling was a bit of a black sheep myself.  Karen and I were a LOT alike.  Rod Temperton was very much into horoscopes and cosmic consciousness and stuff like that and a very delightful and intelligent person to talk to.

As a side note, Michael Jackson's "Rock with You" and "Off the Wall" were originally songs written by Rod Temperton during Karen's solo album sessions.  Karen told me that "Rock with You" was originally a song that Karen and Rod came up with about Karen and I (Karen and I both wanted to 'rock' but I was 14 at the time, and Karen was 28 then 29 and a school teacher.  There was a definite 'no physical touch' rule between Karen and I.  Imagining was a different story [chandeliers, persian rugs, waterfalls, etc.].  Thus, "I want to rock with you" instead of "I am going to rock with you".  We wanted to, but couldn't without Karen getting into trouble).  "Off the Wall" was written by Rod after a conversation that Rod, Karen, and I had while Rod was packing to take his two week trip to Los Angeles to work with Michael Jackson.  Oddly, Karen and I called Rod to ask Rod about the flight schedules at the airport because Karen used to sneak in with passengers to make Phil and Itchy think she flew in from California when in reality, Karen drove about 5 hours to the airport and 'faked' flying in by blending in with the passengers making it look like she came off the flight.  Airport security was a bit different back in 1978 and 1979 than it is now.  Rod then said, "Didn't you get Phil's message that he is sending me to Los Angeles and that you can take the next couple weeks off?"  Then Karen and I explained about why Karen asked, and "Off the Wall" became an idea then a song as Rod worked on it during his flight to LA based on this phone call that we had.