The Carpenters

Karen & Richard Carpenter

 

No one can ever replace the Carpenters especially the beautiful and angelic voice of Karen in my heart and this blog is to continue to spread the word of their legacy to all music lovers around the world.

 

Lately, I was able to watch a couple of documentaries of the Carpenters.

The one that I particularly got inspired to was the one made by BBC. They made the music and the progression of the story of the duo all fit together. I’m glad to see all the people in the documentary who were involved with the Carpenters’ success such as John Bettis, Tony Peluso, Paul Williams, Herp Alpert, Burt Bachrach, Petula Clark, Dionne Warwick and Richard Carpenter as well as the numerous videos frozen in time consisting of those moments when the Carpenters were active and when Karen was still alive.

It breaks my heart as I saw how the life of Karen progressed into tragedy due to anorexia nervosa which no one have ever heard of in her time. I sure wished I was alive that time to tell her that she didn’t need to lose weight just to look good in front of us her fans.

Other than that, I was so grateful for those who have kept those years – such a short time yet those years were just magical – and have given us the opportunity to listen to them through the documentary.

Some of the things I thought was so nice about the more than ten-year career of the Carpenters is that they worked not just to play what they wanted to play but also they worked hard to bring forth excellence in their music and Richard and Karen combined have proved that. Richard is the leader of the band composing songs and playing the piano while Karen becomes the drumbeat as well as the voice of the duo.

During the hiatus of Richard due to his rehab after his issues on drug abuse, Karen went to New York to do a solo album. Sad to say, it’s not the same when Richard is doing the music because only Richard knows how the music should be and how Karen would sound like in their music. It didn’t disappoint me because I’m listening to Karen, but I have to say the 80s is something I wouldn’t bear the Carpenters to be involved with. The notion of the music of the 70s with orchestras and old instruments is just enough for me to associate the Carpenters with. Which is why I guess God must be nice to us that he kept the image and music of Karen Carpenter in the 1970s and the early 1980s. She was adorable in those years and she deserves to be.

Today, I’m glad that there are people who appreciates the songs of the Carpenters and it’s not merely just the music or the voice or the career the Carpenters have painted to all of our minds whether we lived during their time or not (a.k.a. the new generation) the Carpenters had something to offer to us that we can never let go and that can never even disregard from telling our kids about.

You’re a star in heaven Karen. Your voice along with Richard’s phenomenal talents – which we are still aware of at this time – will be remembered.

Another Blogsite 4 Me

Well, after writing so much in many blogsites, at last, I found one where I might be able to at least write whatever I want without worrying about who will read it… to those who have an idea of who I am, I can only come in the name of Indie Citizen in this blog.

How the heck did I decide to call myself that? Well I’ve been inspired with the world of indies whether in the music scene, the arts & comics scene and even the world of films and filmmaking. Artists who are independent from the mainstream do have a lot of fun with what they’re doing – but eventually, they would crave for a label or a publisher in order to survive and earn a livable amount of money resulting to being pressured to what the companies wanted them to do.

If there’s anything figurative about it, I guess indies is mostly associated with young artists who only do what they love to do without being bothered by anyone else except their parents – it’s independence associated with youth in my point of view. And I’m not talking about independence from family, but independence from the society: the ability for us to be able to look for our own coming-of-age through inspiration and not by social norms or peer pressures. It’s basically our individuality working towards a meaningful life.

I love how this world is moving. I’m a very optimistic person and I can say that for every challenges, successes and failures that we have, we always have one goal after that, being able to rest and being able to move on trying to do more of what we love and getting out a lot more in what we do – living our lives to the fullest as many people would say.

As I give my greetings to this blog, let me take the opportunity to introduce myself.

I’m Indie Citizen. Call me anything I guess. You can make it an acronym like IC. But I’m glad to be at your service telling stories, rants, raves, jokes, anything under the sun, I will hopefully devote myself to showing my love (~cheese lolz~).

Cheers!