Karen carpenter biography book

Karen Carpenter was a star at age 22, a has-been at age 30, and gone at age 32. No book or movie, until Little Girl Blue, has come close to telling the whole story. I love good music journalism, so I really thank the author for doing such a thorough job. Dozens of articles, t.v. appearances, and concert books are cited.

I remember seeing Karen Carpenter on television when I was 12, and seeing her in concert a year later. A woman drummer singing lead in a band. This was groundbreaking in 1972. This was year before women even played lead guitar in rock. She and her brother introduced a softer rock sound, and produced some wonderful songs in the early years. Her alto and interpretation were never better on Superstar and Rainy Days and Mondays.

Then things got off track. Brother Richard insisted on reproducing their winning sound on album after album. A brilliant arranger, he couldn't resist overproducing, at times. A&M Records did not know how to package this sound, and, instead, played up an all-American image. Goofy album covers with soft focus photos and hearts and flowers did them no favors. By the time Karen was doing songs like "Sing," her fate was sealed. It leaves you wondering how the woman who could be so mournful on the jazzy, "This Masquerade," could be the same one singing some of the forgettable ditties that wound up on the albums.

She deserved better in life. Her voice is unique and unforgettable, but some of the material never matched her abilities.

She struggled with anorexia nervosa for eight years before dying in 1983. She always considered herself a drummer first, a singer second. Still, in 1975, a revamp of their stage show required her to come out behind the drum kit and take center stage. She was terrified. The author posits that this key change is one of the things that led to the eating disorder. She was no longer a musician/singer, but the front man in the spotlight. It didn't help that her mother was cold and critical, no matter what she sang, how much she weighed, or who she dated.

The book points to instances of how the mom really saw Richard as the star and praised him openly and often. Reportedly, her mother never told Karen she had a good voice. She initially objected to Karen playing the drums. They weren't "suitable" for a young lady. Obviously, she was as out of touch as some of the others that surrounded Karen. Can we even imagine a "Carpenters" without Karen's voice? By the mid-1970s her brother's addiction to prescription meds also impacted family dynamics.

In the late 70s, Carpenter record sales were down. While Richard was recooperating and taking time off, Karen took on a solo project — an album to be produced by Phil Ramone. The A&M producers arranged it. Ramone was producer for Billy Joel and Paul Simon, among other mega-star musicians. He suggesteed that Karen allow herself to grow up, musically. She worked for a year on 20 cuts, some with dance beats, some with sensual lyrics. The author lets us in on some great music trivia, like the fact that Paul Simon, Billy Joel, and his backup band, came by the studio to help with some song tracks, and encourage her. And the fact that John Lennon stopped Karen on the way into a restaurant and told her she had a fantastic voice.

In 1979, when she played the project for brother Richard and A&M producers, including Herb Alpert, she received no praise. Just silence. According to the author, it was one more event that helped to kill her. Richard and her mother were never really behind the solo project, anyway. The Carpenters might be over should the solo album be a runaway success. Richard and company told Karen that the record didn't have any obvious "hits." Privately, he is reported to have told her the album was, "shit."

While not being ordered to shelve the album, Karen knew what was expected of her. She decided to not release it. She focused instead on her personal life and reuniting with brother Richard for another album. Her failed marriage in the early 1980s, brought more crushing grief and more spiral into anorexia. She hit bottom, and finally sought help for her eating disorder. She weighed 80 pounds. This is a fascinating and sorrowful part of the story. Like any story about addiction, the reader is left with so many, "what ifs." What if she had sought a different therapist? What if they knew then what we know know about eating disorders? What if her brother could have simply supported her in recovery? Reportedly, he told Karen she was going about treatment in "all the wrong ways."

Denial runs deep. For years after she died, Richard Carpenter did all he could to protect his aging parents from any criticism and to try to cast his sister in the best light. He could speak about the heartbreak of anorexia, but couldn't admit that, perhaps, some of the family dysfunction played a part. She would have been an anorexic if she had never been a singer and was an unknown housewife, he told the press.

He closed down projects, he insisted on editorial control of any books or movies written about her. It could be seen as an act of love, but many found it to be stifling and controlling — that kind of controlling behavor that leads to silent addictions and secret eating disorders. It took years, but Richard did start to slowly open up on some points. While the author of Little Girl Blue was not granted an interview with Richard, he did get to interview many from the old back-up band, producers, and home staff.

In 1996, 13 years after it was produced, Richard Carpenter finally allowed his sister's solo album to be released. In issuing the project he dismissed years earlier, he called Phil Ramone's wife to ask if Karen wrote any notes or dedications. She did, said "Itchy" Ramone. It read, "Dedicated to my brother Richard with all my heart."

Richard Carpenter reportedly wept.

For any reader who has made it this far into my review, I suggest you do yourself a favor. Search online for any footage of Karen Carpenter's drum solos. Look for clips from the early days — before the anorexia. Look for the Karen who was a normal-sized woman with the silky voice. I did this the past week. She looks vibrant and blissful. Sources in the book say Karen was never happier than when she was drumming and singing. It shows.