Monday, April 23, 2007

Not To Be Construed...Musical Mulligan #4



The previous post means nothing more than a song I heard on the Ipod today. It was kindof a gray Monday moring and I thought there was some kind of harmonic convergence going on with the song coming on the ol' Ipod. Yes, I have The Carpenters on there. 11 of them to be exact, including a nice version of "Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft". Loved Karen Carpenter's voice the first time I heard "Close To You". Thought they were great pop songs, nothing more, but then I had an affinity for "pop songs". Great hooks, good production, first rate writing. Yep, another one of those "bottom of the pile" artists.
Back when they were popular, I'd go to the record shop and pick up Deep Purple, Zeppelin, Sabbath etc, and stuck on the bottom of he pile so my friends couldn't see...

With that in mind, my five favorite Carpenters songs....SHADDUP!!!

1. "Close To You"-fourteen and madly in love. 'nuff said
2. "Goodbye To Love"-nasty guitar solo at the end by Joey Paluso
3. "Hurting Each Other"-seventeen and fighting with the first wife
4. "Superstar"-most "purists" hate this version. Only Bonnie's version is better.
5. "Rainy Days and Mondays"-great pop song

So, there it is, I am really baring my soul now. And yes, I even have the box set.

4 comments:

Brian Holland said...

Ain't no sin in admitting to liking The Carpenters, my friend! They may be what you'd call a
"guilty pleasure", but they did put out some darn good pop music that was well-suited for the times. In addition to your Top Five, "Only Yesterday" and "Yesterday Once More" were top-notch stuff, and I always liked their version of "Please Mr. Postman" also. Karen was a real cutie too--"Merry Christmas Darling" became a lot harder for me to listen to after she died.

Didn't Karen also ace out John Bonham for Best Drummer in some magazine poll in the early '70s? I can only assume that Bonzo beat out Karen for Best Female Vocalist...

Chicago Socialista said...

I thought the Carpenters were stupid.

Then I turned 30, and realized they were magnificent and I was stupid for talking sh!t about them when I was a snot-nosed kid listening to Van Halen and Zeppelin thinking that "Black Dog" was the greatest song ever recorded. Still love the VH and Zeppe, but I also swoon over great, lush vocals wherever I find it.

I like Judas Priest and The Carpenters. :)

Bonnie

Anonymous said...

I saw the Carpenters with my 9th grade chorus, and I am 46 (you can do the math). I thought they put on a very good show. So who cares what other people think. And I also enjoyed Superstar, I thought the song had a cool sound.

RR said...

And that's why I love you....

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