Close to You: Remembering the Carpenters

For most people, the word "Karen Carpenter" means "anorexic". It's like "Clinton" and "Lewinski", "Bin Laden" and "911", "collosal failure" and "NASA". What's fascinating about this show is before 1978, the word Karen Carpenter was never affiliated with anorexia. No-one knew what anorexia was or that Karen Carpenter was anything but a voice.

The first 40 minutes of the show rely on the Richard Carpenter of 1997 sitting by his piano and giving accounts of how the music was made. He talks in a kind of apathetic, removed, Ben Stein voice, maybe because he's told the story too many times or wants to forget it.

Famous modern musicians tend to speak in terms of "spirit of the music", "peace love and happiness", "life is beautiful". Richard seems to be from another world, talking about why he used a major 7th, how he used a quintuplet at the end of the first bridge, extemporaneously recalling passages at the keyboard while he talks.

His account is very matter of fact and down to earth about about the mechanics of the music. It wasn't knowing the right people or having the right mojo. It was chord progressions, key modulations, and major 7ths.

He definitely seems one with his instrument and it makes you wonder if he's going to get to "what happened with Karen" or if the show is just going to end with "Carpenter's greatest hits".

Sure enough, the clothing starts to hang, the bones start to show, and Richard brings up a lot of courage to talk about the anorexia and his response to it. In his account of her attempt to get treated, we find a surprising similarity to modern treatment. 25 years later, with all the technology and knowledge we have, it isn't much better than it was in 1982.

Through stills, interviews, and archival performance footage - This intriguing celebrity documentary takes a close-up look at The Carpenters who were one of the very top American music acts of the 1970s.

Not only does this presentation focus in on the songs that made The Carpenters famous - But, it also reveals the personal side of both Karen and Richard's lives, too.

Of course, it goes without saying that Karen Carpenter's tragic death at 32 (due to anorexia nervosa) has proven to be a great shock to many fans.

This PBS TV special chronicles the Carpenters legacy for the 14 years they were with A&M Records, and the course that was charted getting there. Richard Carpenter is very candid and open about Karen's anorexia, and even about his own chemical dependency problem in 1978. The show touches only very very briefly about his own solo career after Karen's death, which is sad because so few people are keenly aware of Richard's huge role in the Carpenters' success. Bonus materials include commercials for both candy and soda in the Orient and potato chips in Texas, an additional half hour of material not seen in the program, and their Nixon White House performance. Highly recommended for any Carpenters fan.

This documentary is still readily available on DVD and I would highly recommend you buy it if you like the Carpenters - even just a little. It also includes some extras not shown when this was originally aired such as video of sections of the Carpenters performance at the White House when invited by then President Richard Nixon to play a show to a large audience on the evening of the official dinner given for the visiting German Chancellor, Willy Brandt. Pres Nixon's adoration for these people is interesting and the scene at the end when both the President and Mrs Nixon stood on the small stage hand in hand with Karen and Richard is really quite touching.

Much of the documentary is the quite excellent narration by Richard Carpenter which viewers will find so useful in gaining a much greater understanding and appreciation of just what made the Carpenters and their music and why they were such an international success. Interviews with names such as Burt Bacharach, writer -musician John Bettis, writer -musician John Williams, Carpenters talented guitarist (the late) Tony Peluso, A and M Records co-founder and musician Herb Alpert and others adds greatly to the story.

The show includes some live performances by Karen whose voice is just so fine and pure it virtually blows you away. Unfortunately time constraints did not permit the entirety of these live performances to be shown in most cases. This included the very moving live performance of Karen and Ella Fitzgerald singing "This Masquerade" during the last TV special performed by Richard and Karen. What a tragedy this entire performance by these two great singers was not included in full.

Richard provides an excellent summary of the background to the development/production of many of the songs that contributed to the Carpenters success and viewers will find this most interesting. Prior to having seen this documentary I did not fully appreciate just what a genius Richard really was in popular music and just how much he contributed. He was the backbone to the duo - without a doubt - and his musical arrangements and creations were and still are fabulous.

As for Karen, she is just a beautiful angel with an extraordinary singing voice that one never gets tired of hearing. Sadly one sees during the documentary a Karen that seems to get just a little thinner and thinner as times elapses until she sadly passes. The voice never deteriorates though.

Thankfully this beautiful lady lives on through her many magical recordings due in great part to her very talented brother Riichard. No doubt, in 50 years people will still be listening to that marvelous angelic voice from this delightful lady that has given, with her brother, so much happiness and joy to so many people around the world.