![]() Now, are they going to ever have a place in my heart like Prince, Tom Petty or R.E.M.? No. Once I got all of that, I returned to my fandom. It actually becomes something as subversive and the Ramones doing “I Wanna Be Sedated” in a manic manner or Boy George singing love songs in his garb and make-up. It’s a total yin and yang, tug and pull type of thing. ![]() Oh sure, the music is soothing, but it the perfect juxtaposition to Karen’s painful vocals. The guy is a musical genius! His orchestration and arrangements were innovative and light years ahead of everyone else at the time. Christ! I can’t believe this, but Richard Carpenter was not simply riding on the coattails of his sister’s voice. “I Won’t Last a Day Without You,” “Rainy Days and Mondays,” “Goodbye to Love,” hell, even “Ticket to Ride,” foretold us that she was never going to be long for the world. It’s all right there before us, those demons that afflict so many of us, being shown to us, the listeners. But, then you begin to hear the pain behind those lyrics she is singing, and suddenly her tragic life makes sense. As I said, on the surface it’s an All-American voice, non-threatening and tamed, very soothing to the average listener. And, that “it” is Karen Carpenter’s voice. Sure, on the surface, there seems to be a glossy pop sheen to the production of their music, but when you started to listen more deeply, you hear it. So, I went back and re-listened to all those old LPs. And, when I heard Sonic Youth’s powerful version of “Superstar,” I thought wait a second! There was something substantive with the Carpenters. And, I held onto that view until the Nineties when I was forced to reevaluate my opinion upon the release of that Carpenters cover album recorded by a bunch of alternative artists at the time. So, after I discovered Elton John, Alice Cooper and Kiss, I started to think that the Carpenters were wimpy. Then, by the time you reach your teen years, your tastes change. Now, when you are in elementary school in the early Seventies, radio hits were everything. It came through those cover versions played on those stations, in particular the cover of “Ticket to Ride” by the Carpenters. All of this makes it difficult to say, but my entry into the music of the Beatles was NOT direct. The other was the very conservative WIBC in Indianapolis, which was known for their stellar news reports, very non-rock music playlist and an out-and-out cynicism toward rock music. I actually remember being three and listening to Dad’s team playing some large school in Indianapolis on the radio as his school, which had about 100 students, kick the butts of those Indy kids. The first was WHBU in Anderson, Indiana, which played the softer side of rock music but had great high school basketball coverage. Growing up, the only radio stations I ever heard where two AM stations. But, her collection, if you could call it that, consisted of show tunes and stuff I’d call lame. Mom, on the other hand, was the art teacher, and did she ever love her music. ![]() His idea of great music was Barbra Streisand, which is great, but he really didn’t like rock music at all. Now, the whole sports thing might make sense because of him, but the music did not. He warped me for life because I thought all coaches were like going to be like him, but they weren’t. The man remains one of my best friends, my mentor and my role model, even though our relationship was very strained after he and Mom got a divorce. My dad was a high school history teacher, athletic director, varsity basketball and baseball coach who eventually became an elementary principal at three schools, the last one for 25 years. First off, I am the older of two sons born to educator parents. Over the course of this self-help therapy I call a blog, I have dropped hints of my developing musical tastes over the course of my first 13 years of my life. Hi! I’m Scott Keller, self-appointed arbiter of musical tastes and self-confessed vinyl junkie, and I am about to pull back the curtain a bit on my musical history. ![]()
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