Library Rock's Backpages

The Carpenters

Carpenters, The

23 articles

Free articles

The Carpenters: Horizon

Review by Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, July 1975

IT'S CERTAINLY LESS than revolutionary to admit you like the Carpenters these days (in ‘rock’ circles, if you recall, it formerly bordered on heresy). Everybody ...

Audio interviews

The Carpenters' Richard Carpenter (1989)

Interview by John Tobler, Rock's Backpages audio, November 1989

Richard takes us, in depth, through the Carpenters' career: listening to pop radio as a kid, and learning piano; the family move from Connecticut to California; their first groups; signing to A&M, and first single 'Ticket to Ride'; co-writing first hot 'Close to You' with Burt Bacharach; the family vocal blend; the succession of hits, including 'We’ve Only Just Begun', 'Superstar', 'For All We Know' and 'Rainy Days and Mondays'; 'Goodbye to Love', and Tony Peluso's guitar solo; covering older songs; Karen qualities as a singer and drummer, her solo career, anorexia and death.

File format: mp3; file size: 84.4mb, total interview length: 1h 27' 52" sound quality: *****

List of articles in the library

By date | By writer | Most recently added

Right Song Saved The Carpenters

Interview by Ann Moses, New Musical Express, 3 October 1970

TODAY THE Carpenters are soaring from requests to make in-person concerts and television appearances, and record fans are buying their discs like crazy! ...

The Carpenters: "I've Got a Problem Here"

Profile and Interview by Peter Jones, Record Mirror, 18 September 1971

THE CARPENTERS were into jazz for a while — Richard and Karen and a bassist. Then they went into rock — Richard and Karen and ...

The Carpenters, Labi Siffre: Royal Albert Hall, London

Live Review by Richard Green, New Musical Express, 2 October 1971

MUSICALLY THE Carpenters are a very pleasing group and the selection of numbers they played at their Royal Albert Hall concert on Friday were well ...

There Aren't Many Girls In Hard Rock, But A New Day (And Attitude) Is Dawning

Essay by Jacoba Atlas, Billboard, 6 November 1971

WHEN I mentioned to Nicky Barclay of the first successful all-girl rock band Fanny that I was working on an article dealing with women in ...

The Carpenters: Anaheim Convention Center, Anaheim, California

Live Review by Richard Cromelin, Phonograph Record, March 1973

IT'S 1973 ALREADY, and still we're trying to figure out who the Big Star of this young decade will be. Many opt for David Bowie, ...

The Carpenters: Now And Then

Review by Gene Sculatti, Phonograph Record, July 1973

YOU CAN'T DEPEND on anybody these days. Once you make your mind up about some group or other, they change their act or audience response ...

The Carpenters: Then And Now (A&M SP 3519)

Review by Arthur Levy, Zoo World, 2 August 1973

KAREN AND Richard, Carpenters, greased and ready to kick the sleazy jams and jellies out of Tin Can Alley and back out onto Sunset Strip ...

The Carpenters: Summer Sweethearts

Overview by Nick Kent, New Musical Express, 22 September 1973

If it's muzak you're looking for, look no further... ...

The Carpenters: It's Plane Sailing!

Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 29 September 1973

HEAD DOWN THE Santa Ana freeway, turn off on San Gabriel, make a couple of rights and you're in Downey, a right-wing, unpretentious suberb of ...

Carpenters: Now And Then

Review by Lester Bangs, Let It Rock, November 1973

WHAT ARE WE gonna do with these two? Look, ain't saying I don't love 'em – they've always been one of my favourite swoontracks, especially ...

The Carpenters: My little sister, the big star

Interview by Peter Jones, Record Mirror, 19 December 1973

RICHARD CARPENTER SPILLS THE BEANS ON HIS SISTER KAREN ...

The Carpenters

Report and Interview by Andrew Tyler, New Musical Express, 16 February 1974

PEOPLE ARE always saying that the real modern age miracle is how you can fly London to Furt-frank and stand a penny on a table, ...

The Carpenters: Up From Downey

Profile and Interview by Tom Nolan, Rolling Stone, 4 July 1974

KAREN CARPENTER, the solo singing half of a brother and sister musical duo that has sold over 25 million records world-wide, has classic "good looks" ...

Neil Sedaka: Second Stairway To Heaven

Report and Interview by Tom Nolan, Rolling Stone, 4 December 1975

AWAY FROM the Vegas casino clatter, inside the Riviera Hotel's now empty Versailles Room, onstage, seated at a piano is a petite, energetic man who ...

The Carpenters: Palladium, London

Live Review by Tim Lott, Sounds, 4 December 1976

THE CARPENTERS: A PLAY IN TWO ACTS BY TIM LOTT ...

The Carpenters: Palladium, London

Live Review by Peter Jones, Billboard, 18 December 1976

COMPARED WITH the almost clinical and perfectionist act provided by the duo on a previous visit, the Carpenters went all out Nov. 22 to pull ...

The Carpenters: Made In America (A&M)

Review by Laura Fissinger, Creem, October 1981

TOO MUCH TO DREAM LAST NIGHT ...

The Carpenters: Chips off the old block

Report and Interview by Andy Gill, The Independent, 25 August 1994

The Carpenters are hip — and that's official. Andy Gill on the indie world's unexpectedly heartfelt tribute to Karen and Richard Carpenter ...

Interview with Richard Carpenter

Interview by Chris Ingham, MOJO, April 1996

For the grisly details of pill addiction, anorexia nervosa and blue velvet jackets, try Ray Coleman's book. Today, Richard Carpenter talks to Chris Ingham about ...

Karen Carpenter

Retrospective by Stephen Dalton, Uncut, August 2000

KAREN CARPENTER possesses such iconic value now — feminist totem, camp death-cult, Prozac Nation suffragette — it is increasingly difficult to assess her unique musical ...

The Carpenters' 'Superstar'

Retrospective by Johnny Black, Blender, September 2002

PERFORMERS: Karen Carpenter, lead vocals; Richard Carpenter, piano, vocals; Hal Blaine, drums; Joe Osborne, bass; Jim Horn, wind instruments; Bob Messenger, bass and wind; Doug ...

RSS

back to LIBRARY

COPYRIGHT NOTICE