Karen Carpenter: Thoughts on her vocals and isolated vocal tracks

For me, it's comforting and soothing.

 

My thoughts on Karen's vocals? Listen to "We've Only Just Begun", without Karen's lead vocal and just try to imagine someone else in her place and that pretty much sums up what I think!

 

According to Hal Blaine when he first heard this song he took her aside and asked her to sing it in a lower register - which stuck despite her parent's objections.
Not my kind of music, but any lady drummer catches my ear and eye. Sad how she passed.

 

That's a nice story, but isn't Hal Blaine notorious for inflating his importance/contributions to things?

 

Her voice always turned me on.

 

For me, a song that shows just how great a singer Karen Carpenter was is "Trying To Get The Feeling Again."



The song was written for the Carpenters and was considered for the album Horizon but it was decided not to include the song on the album. The above vocals are from a work lead (a vocal draft of the song) and are likely the first (and only) time she sang the song. Despite this, she sings the song perfectly.

 

The contralto singing voice has a vocal range that lies between the F below "middle C" (F3) to two Fs above middle C (F5) and is the lowest type of female voice. In the lower and upper extremes, some contralto voices can sing from the E below middle C (E3) to two B♭s above middle C (B♭5).[1]Although both men and women may have voices in the contralto vocal range, the word is usually used only in the context of a female singer.
Often mistaken as a alto, Carpenter was a contralto which is most often found in opera. Other noted contraltos in pop music include
Adele, Amy Winehouse, Annie Lennox, and Judy Garland. Karen stands alone imho though!!

 

interestingly, listening to that clip posted one of my thoughts,I did think her vibrato was quite violin'ish.

 

I'm just the messenger...

 

Amazing that she always considered herself a drummer who sang! Maybe it's time for a Karen Carpenter isolated drum thread.

 

Outside of some British folkies and Eva Cassidy, very few come remotely close to Karen in the realm of female vocalists.

 

What's amazing is there is nothing on her voice, recorded dry and most of the time not double tracked and it still sounds beyond incredible...

 

I'm not sure that's really true.
For the most part, Karen sang very quietly - almost a whisper.
That's why you can hear "mouth noise" on some of the isolated tracks.

If I remember correctly from a biography I read, it was never intended that would be the singer in the band.
She really just wanted to be the drummer, but got pushed into singing when it worked so well.

And yes, Richard's vocal arrangements were the bomb.
Too bad the harmonies are missing on these isolated tracks.

 

"Sad" is too simple. Her vocals are sublime.

No doubt some, if not most, of that comes from the deep well of sadness she carried with her. Too damn high a price to pay even if it brought beauty to the world.

 

Just going by what I've heard on multitracks.

 

You know the saying, I'm a sucker for a pretty face? Well, I've always been one when it comes to certain female singers.

Patsy Cline is one that can really pull on my heart strings. Eva Cassidy another. Karen, oh my, she does a number on me. I get this guilty feeling when I listen to these types of singers when my girl friend is present. It's like I'm paying more attention to another woman.

She also enjoys hearing them but they dig deep on me. Maybe cause my mother listened to Patsy Cline a lot through my childhood days and hearing women sing take me back? Or, it's just a guy thing?

 

I've been trying to find these somewhere. I only see the usual clips when they were starting out and Karen jumped around drums set-up on stage. Not what I want to see her do. I loved her simplicity approach and her drumming technique when rolling through the toms, her bass pedal and hi-hat style.

 

When this song appeared on the "Interpretations" collection I was so overwhelmed of the beauty of both Karen's interpretation and the arrangement. This track would have fitted perfectly on "Horizon". Simply perfect.
Incidentally one can hear the lyric sheet being turned over by Karen as she segues from the end of the first chorus into the second verse (from the booklet accompanying "Interpretations").

 

I agree strongly about the arrangement. Richard arranged the song in a way that gave it a very cold and icy sound, and to me it is perfect match for the song.

 

Fantastic post. Nice observations, all. When I was younger, I couldn't be bothered by the Carpenters...they just weren't cool. But I've learned since that good is good, and it doesn't matter what is deemed cool. The only one that has to approve of my music choices are me. So...these days I think she is just lovely.

 

This is exactly my problem when anybody mentions the Carpenters. My dad's a huge fan of them, Bread, that kind of stuff... it's much like my own attitudes towards opera, for instance. I can respect the talent but the music does noooooooothing for me.

 

Funny you say this. Without me even knowing it, my father's taste in music seeped into my head. We used to drive around in this huge station wagon, listening to Paul Simon, John Denver, the Carpenters and Bread. Didn't love it at the time but it was what it was. Fast forward a few decades, last December, I'm flipping through the tv channels, looking for nothing in particular. I stop on a local PBS channel trying to raise money. They're playing a John Denver Christmas concert. I stopped to watch. My wife, in the kitchen asks me after about 3 songs...are you listening to John Denver?!?! Know what? I knew every word. "...You fill up my senses..."

That's right.

 

Karen had the voice of an Angel. no one comes close. What damn shame how it ended up.

 

Weren't almost all of her vocals first takes?

 

I think she was one of the best singers of the 20th century. I'll always love The Carpenters.