The lyrics of many Carpenters songs and the goody two shoes images they still can conjured up in the minds of anyone who remembers them are so at odds with the sadness behind the scenes...I was always a fan of their music and more specifically Karen Carpenter's voice, but after a while I just couldn't listen anymore because instead of the music I was thinking about the anorexia...weird I know, but true...for me, at least. Many other pop singers have died from unusual causes, but somehow we don't think of their death immediately upon hearing their songs...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y9ii-Tquf4o
when i first heard this song years ago, i hated it, but later on i became a sonic youth fan (their version of "superstar" is amazing!)...i still don't like "tunic" that much, but find it an oddly touching tribute to a widely misunderstood singer...
the tribute album pictured below is also one of the weirdest things i ever heard, but a pretty good album with or without the carpenters influence....cracker's version of "rainy days and mondays" is so good i actually like it better than the original in some ways...
i think part of the reason the video and song are so disturbing is because they attempt to see life through karen carpenter's eyes...and can we ever really see things exactly as they happened to someone else, whether we know her or not? the skeletal images at first strike me almost as garish or "family guy" territory (where eating disorders used to be a running joke on the show), but i think kim gordon is being earnest, not mocking...she's mentioned in interviews how much she admired karen carpenter's voice...
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