Note that, since I found this one, I naturally wanted to change the name of the first one to "Volume 1." You can find the renamed version here:
https://albumsthatshouldexist.blogspot.com/2022/06/the-carpenters-with-tony-joe-white-bbc.html
The Carpenters had a great run of singles in the early and mid-1970s. But in the late 1970s, things took a darker turn due to self-inflicted health problems, with eating disorder issues for Karen Carpenter and drug problems for Richard Carpenter. Those problems didn't improve, and Karen died in 1983. So I'd say 1976 was near the end of their peak era. Thus, this was a good time for a BBC concert, as it allowed them to include nearly all of their most popular songs.
I normally try not to do this, but I deliberately took out of a couple of songs. One of them was a kind of comedy thing by Richard Carpenter, which apparently was a sort of homage to comedic musician Spike Jones. I found it pretty unlistenable, so it got the axe. Another was a long classical number by Richard, which was okay, but I thought it really bogged down the momentum of the concert. So that got the axe too. Sorry, but sometimes less is more. Plus, when I listen to the Carpenters, I want to hear Karen Carpenter singing, since she had one of the most interesting vocals in pop music history. If you want the whole thing, you can find the video of this on YouTube. If you watch that, you'll see the drum solo at the end of "Strike Up the Band" was performed by Karen. Her vocals were so exceptional that people tended to forget she was the drummer in the band as well, and a very good one at that.
This album remains unreleased. Unfortunately, due to time constraints, many of the band's hits were performed in medley format. And curiously, one of their biggest original hits, "Yesterday Once More," wasn't sung at all. (There was an instrumental version performed at the end during the display of the credits in the video that I also cut out, because it was very short and then faded out.)
This album is 36 minutes long.
01 Only Yesterday [Instrumental Version] (Carpenters)
02 There's a Kind of Hush (Carpenters)
03 I Need to Be in Love (Carpenters)
04 talk (Carpenters)
05 Strike Up the Band - Drums (Carpenters)
06 talk (Carpenters)
07 From This Moment On (Carpenters)
08 talk (Carpenters)
09 [They Long to Be] Close to You - For All We Know - Top of the World - Ticket to Ride (Carpenters)
10 I Won't Last a Day without You - Hurting Each Other (Carpenters)
11 Superstar [Groupie] (Carpenters)
12 Rainy Days and Mondays (Carpenters)
13 Goodbye to Love (Carpenters)
14 We've Only Just Begun (Carpenters)
https://pixeldrain.com/u/mWPPHu8D
alternate:
https://bestfile.io/en/2DhViTT5GGIPOvv/file
The cover image is a screenshot I took from a video of this concert. As with many such videos, the image quality was low-res. So I used the Krea AI program to improve the quality.
The correct title is "Yesterday Once More"
ReplyDeleteFixed. What was I thinking? Total brain fart.
DeleteAlways good, when you can find some "new" live Carpenters.
ReplyDeleteAs always, a download done well. Thank you.
Have you heard the Tori Holub album PJ posted over at AIWE? It is as if she is Karen's spiritual descendant. https://albumsiwishexisted2.blogspot.com/2024/03/tori-holub-something-to-believe-in-2024.html#comment-form
ReplyDeleteThank you, I look forward to checking this out!
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteThanks! Note that track 9 ends with and track 10 starts with Only Yesterday.
ReplyDeleteTrack nine ends with what? Whatever it is, it's very short.
DeleteOnly Yesterday. Only Yesterday is split between track 9 and track 10.
DeleteThanks. When I get back from vacation, I will work on fixing that so it won’t be split.
ReplyDeleteHi Paul
ReplyDeleteMaybe rethink this London, Britain business... Britain is a merely a geographical term referring to the island that includes the countries of England, Scotland, and Wales, which collectively is known as the United Kingdom... The city of London is in England.
Out of curiosity I went and visited the YouTube video of this show, after reading about your omissions with some consternation. However, as a "live album that should exist" I fully agree with your decisions to remove Richard's various indulgences here. The Carpenter family, and presumably Richard himself, were infatuated with Richard considering him to be the musical genius and star attraction of their act, because of his writing and arrangement, and keyboard dexterity which admittedly were all exemplary, and are the reason for his "showcase" bit close to the start of this show. Simultaneously they all seemed totally ignorant of Karen's phenomenal one-of-a-kind voice, and that she in fact was the real star, borne out by the fact that Richard has had no real career to speak of since her passing. Regarding this actual show, it's a shame it was originally edited down for a 45-50 minute TV special slot by the BBC. The big hits are included which indicates that probably several album tracks or lesser known songs got excised before broadcast. A longer special would have made your live album even more incredible.
ReplyDeleteI know you don't like The Carpenters much, but it can't be denied that their ability to recreate the complex multi-layered studio recordings they were renowned for live on stage was often nothing short of breathtaking. And hearing Karen's note-perfect voice in a live setting is truly witnessing a lost art. In 1972 or '73 the 7 Network in Australia filmed (videotaped) one of their Sydney shows and a tape of that exists. I think this would make great material for another "live album" if you ever felt like doing one. To my ear it's even more perfect than the English show presented here. It may need a bit of work to improve some of the slightly degraded bits but overall it seems in good shape (and a magnetic source).