What lies in the future is a mystery to us all. There may come a time when I will see that I've been wrong. But for now this is my song. And it's "Goodbye to love".
Waves of vocals raining down.
A guitar solo that refuses to die.
from A Song for You (A&M) available on CD - Carpenters Gold (A&M)
22 Mar 06 ·FlyingDutchman1971: Excellent track. A lot of fans were upset by the guitar solo at the end of the song, feeling that the Carpenters had sold out to the hard rock sound that bands like Led Zepplin were creating at the time.
The Carpenters have become like Abba were for me about 15 years ago - I can lose hours at a time just listening to their best songs with the volume up high. I actually never really dared to venture beyond my favorites from Abba's hits, but with the Carpenters I have a few LPs and recently picked up a 5-CD reader's digest set, allowing me to hear some less famous tracks by them.
This track is a bit of a revelation for me. Highly produced, early 70s. Piano-led, with strings, guitar, bass etc, and Richard providing some backing vocals. Karen's singing is beautiful as ever, although her voice sounds a bit funny - she over-pronounces words like 'goes'. The verse is plaintive and moody, while the brief chorus is funky in that glorious way tracks from the early 70s can be funky. This section is reprised with pretty sick flute playing!
In all, a really beautiful track that for me showcases all the best things the Carpenters have to offer. The band are still stigmatized by many, for reasons I'm not exactly clear on. I understand that this kind of highly produced, clean sounding music might not be for everyone, but if you've just been put off listening to them because they're not very cool, maybe give this track a try!
from A song for you (A song for you) available on CD - Magical Memories of the Carpenters (Reader's Digest)
10 Apr 06 ·FlyingDutchman1971: You are not alone in you love of the Carpenters! I am proud to say that I have every studio album produced by Richard and Karen and still play them all the time. I need to pull them off the shelves and post a few songs on here... thanks for bringing it to my attention! 17 Apr 06 ·callgirlscene: I like the Carpenters too. They have a pristine flawless and happy quality that is slightly unreal. It's fascinating and yet there's a kind of tragic undercurrent in some of their music too.
You might be familiar with Francoise's incredible 1971 album La Question, a track from which was recommended by another user almost four years ago (Oui, je dis adieu). I managed to get a friend to copy the album for me at the time, and I recall being very taken by 'Viens', the first song. I put this track on a compilation but somehow never really savoured the album as a whole.
Recently I found I could get the album on CD, so picked it up (along with another interesting Francoise album, 'If you listen').
The difference for me now I have the CD is vast, and I'm now able to appreciate the album in all its glory. The clincher for me is the blend of percussive Brazilian guitar, beautiful strings, and the Melody Nelson-style sparseness of the arrangements.
I chose this track to recommend because of the bizarre extra dimension brought by the fact that Francoise is just scatting - there are no words - and the intermittent moments of complete silence, which are surprising and really hold the attention. Parts of the chord sequence remind me of Henry Mancini (in particular, a track called 'Softly' from the Mr Lucky soundtrack), while the overall effect of the sexy echoey vocal naturally brings to mind Ennio Morricone's work with Edda Dell'Orso.
from La Question, available on CD ()
26 Apr 06 ·ambassador: this album's a favorite of mine, too. I also really like her album "Soliel" of a couple years earlier. The interesting thing about this album is that the Brazilian female guitarist Tuca (just one name) backed her on this as she did on Nara Leao's gorgeous tribute to Bossa Nova (recorded in France), "Dez Anos Depois." If you listen to these albums side by side you can clearly here the similarities, not to say they sound identical. And doesn't Fracoise look stunning on the b&w album cover?
Deeply awesome! It's a slightly psychedelic pop song from the late 60s. Delectable instrumentation and vocals. Strings and a bit of sitar on top of a regular guitar band. Lots of moaning in the vocal. Really lovely stuff. A compilation CD is available on Revola. It hasn't arrived yet but if it's all up to this standard I'm excited!
available on CD - The Blades of Grass Are Not For Smoking (Revola)
15 Oct 06 ·eftimihn: I'd like to second that, absolutely terrific song and i must say nothing on "Are not for smoking" can match this gem for me.
It's a song about a suicide pact gone wrong. Amazing falsetto (and non-falsetto) vocals. Great glam production. Fantastic guitar solo at 1:40.
It's hard to choose just one track to recommend by this group, but I've settled for this one for now. 'Thank God it isn't Christmas' was a close runner up.
(weirdly, there are a few tracks by them that I would really rather never hear again in my life. Like 'Get in the swing'. Have you heard this track? I have serious trouble with it!)
18 Nov 06 ·Mike: Sparks have indeed produced some good and some extremely bad material. I may still own - somewhere - this LP, though the most-played track on it was always "This town ain't big enough..."
1974 - yes, an incredible year which also brought us such marvels as the Glitter Band's "Angel Face". 18 Nov 09 ·geezer: only Sparks could be comfortable with such subject matter there is humour in everything they do like Tryouts for the Human Race a song for sperm everywhere
