She was an average American kid with middle-America values, growing up with others in the fabled baby-boom generation in the 60's. She was the daughter of a printing pressman and a homemaker from New Haven, Connecticut. The younger sister of a talented musical prodigy.
Karen Anne Carpenter was more or less dragged along for the ride when Harold Carpenter made the decision to move his family to southern California, having had enough of New England's freezing winters and a desire to further his son's yet-to-begin music career.
Yes, they'd only just begun.
Though Harold had a move on his mind as early as 1955, it would not be until eight years later that he activated his decision and moved his family to Downey, California...an L.A. suburb close enough to afford Richard opportunities to develop his career, yet far enough away from the hedonistic superficiality often associated with the City of Angels, even then.
In 1964, Karen finally developed a feel for music when she took up the drums, after the flute and accordion had gone nowhere. Richard by this time, was slowly making a name for himself and eventually, Karen began to tag along.
They eventually evolved into Spectrum, and the Richard Carpenter Trio. Then finally, a demo tape made by a friend-of-a-friend-of-a-friend-of-a-friend, found its way to Herb Alpert's desk at A&M Records.
And the rest, as they say, is history.
But what if?
Woulda, shoulda, coulda.
What if Harold and Agnes Carpenter decided to stay in New Haven? What would their children become?
Richard likely would have still found a career in music. Either as a teacher, or making the relatively short drive to New York City for more. After all, there was the famed "Brill Building", which gave birth to the talents of the likes of Gerry Goffin, Carole King, Neil Sedaka, and other gifted songwriters.
One thing I've learned about New York City, is that it's far more real and much more accepting of outsiders than its cross-coastal sister. Just about anyone can blend in. Fad dieting and obsession with physical appearance doesn't seem to be the mainstay. At least not as much as L.A.
And Karen was very much 'one of the guys', if you were to ask anyone around her growing up. She loved sports, eating junk food and sweets, but could still be the girly-girl if need be.
She was very much the quintessential All-American girl. Unfortunately, the Midwest Farmers' Daughters all undergo a morph of some type once landing on the West Coast. She was certainly no exception.
Thin was in. She had all but mastered the techniques of the expert anorexic, when it came to willingly deprive her body of the food it needed to fuel itself. She felt this was the sacrifice she needed to make if she was to be at the center of attention onstage...and sadly enough, offstage.
What if the all-American girl stayed in New Haven?
Maybe the Carpenters could still have been a possibility. They do have recording studios in New York City too, ya know.
I would have seen her as settling down, having two or three kids, and relishing the thought of being a stay-at-home mom. Desperate for children, she abhorred the thought of having a child in her line of work and then turning them over to a nanny. She saw her short-lived marriage to real estate developer Tom Burris as a springboard to that future. However, those closest to her were less optimistic.
To Richard, the marriage "didn't have a snowball's chance in Hell of working."
"Because We Are in Love", penned by brother Richard and longtime songwriting partner John Burris, seemed to be an answer to those asking "Why, Karen?"
Karen herself wavered in going through with the ceremony, because her knight in shining armor turned out to be a pig in a poorly disguised blanket, revealing just days prior to their nuptials that he had undergone a vasectomy some time ago. It was also discovered that the real estate tycoon, hiding behind expensive homes and cars, was barely able to keep his head above water, and burned through his new wife's fortune very quickly in failed real estate ventures.
Trying to survive in a 'thin-is-in' culture. An emotionally detached and domineering mother who openly favored her talented older brother. Pressure to fight stage fright as she was now the front of their act. A flim-flam man of a husband. An aborted solo album that cost her (and her brother) almost half a million dollars to produce, charged against future Carpenters album sales royalties.
It was life in the fast lane to a girl clearly more comfortable with the scenic route.
We will never know what your family has gone through since your passing. We have been blessed with the legacy you left behind. The same legacy that rock and roll visionaries later took notice of and saw the contributions you made to pop music. So much so that a compilation CD of covers by modern rock bands was subsequently released in 1994, and your solo album finally became released two years later, as you originally approved it. It was truly a masterpiece way ahead of its time.
Thank you.
What more needs to be said?
NEXT WEEK:
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