They were praised and ridiculed. They were hip yet square. They were simple yet complex. In short, they were everything you could find in any other popular music act at that time.
In their case, it was all a matter of presentation.
This past week marked the 31st anniversary of the passing of Karen Anne Carpenter. At 32, she succumbed to complications arising from anorexia nervosa, which few people had heard of until the news of her death spread worldwide.
I was 13 when it happened on February 4, 1983.
I was returning home from the Super Dollar grocery store with my father, who was nursing a back injury after tripping over a telephone line cord at work that day. We had the radio on and heard "Close to You" broadcast over 3WS, then an adult contemporary formatted station before switching to oldies in 1988. The DJ came on the air and back-announced the record, played "in memory of Karen Carpenter...Karen died this morning at the age of 32."
My dad and I looked at each other with widened eyes. We were both distraught.
We came home and asked my mother if she saw anything on the news. Her jaw dropped and she gasped. The story was obviously still developing.
My parents were Top 40 radio people. What they listened to, I listened to as well. Therefore, I had grown fond of acts like Fleetwood Mac, the Bee Gees, the Eagles, Chicago, America, James Taylor, Jim Croce, Harry Chapin and Carly Simon.
And yes, the Carpenters. We had the 8-track of their Greatest Hits album, "The Singles 1969-73" released in 1974. Plus some of their other albums.
I found myself listening to more of their music, and gaining a new appreciation for it during my teen years. I was spending allowance money on 45's and albums bearing their name.
For Christmas of 1985, I asked for and received "Yesterday Once More", which was a VHS montage of film and videotape performances they had made of their hit songs back in the days that predated not just MTV, but cable television as we know it. Such films were usually produced by record labels to sell product to record store buyers and influence concert bookings.
I had brought the tape in for a classmate to borrow at high school one day, as she was a fan. Others seeing me with it asked what it was. Then they asked if they too could borrow it for the night.
All told, the tape ended up in probably a couple dozen VCRs in the first three months I had it.
And oddly enough, some students who asked me to borrow it looked as if they'd rather be caught dead listening to a Lawrence Welk Christmas album before anything from the Carpenters.
Students watched it with their parents. Teachers watched it with their families, explaining who Karen Carpenter was and what she and her brother Richard brought to the world.
Some even cried, seeing the New Haven, Connecticut native zigzag between 110 and 80 pounds throughout her professional career, and the montage of family photos at the final video on the tape set to "Close to You".
Until recently, I had no luck in finding this presentation on DVD. It recently resurfaced as "Carpenters Gold", the same identical product repackaged under a different name.
And next paycheck, it will find its way into my DVD library.
NEXT WEEK: Part II
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