425. CARPENTERS, "Superstar"
Produced by Jack Daugherty ; written by Bonnie Bramlett & Leon Russell
A&M 1289 1971 Billboard: # 2
Produced by Jack Daugherty ; written by Bonnie Bramlett & Leon Russell
A&M 1289 1971 Billboard: # 2
Since I lived through the 70s the first time, for me the Carpenters are a love/hate thing. Actually, it's mostly hate, because I despise nearly all their orchestrations. If Phil Spector's overstuffed arrangements had taken the longing of the early 1960s and raised it to operatic levels, Richard Carpenter's arrangements for the tracks he and his sister Karen laid down in the early 1970s made passion and even desire safe for mass consumption. And of course, when Herb Alpert's one of your bosses, it never hurts to throw in a few peppy horns on the choruses, no matter how depressing the song is supposed to be. After all, you want to make sure all that those L.A. session players can keep drawing a semi-regular paycheck.
What keeps me coming back to the Carpenters, though, is what keeps anyone coming back: Karen Carpenter's voice. That voice may be safe, but it's not shallow. There is a sadness there that haunts even a song like "Close to You" that's supposed to be about indescribable bliss. In retrospect, we know now that Karen Carpenter's sadness killed her. It almost literally ate her up from the inside out, and no matter how much I appreciate her performances, I would much rather that she had been happy than successful. I would never have wanted to be her boyfriend, but part of me might have liked to have been the brother that a sweet soul like her deserved.
Supposedly, the vocal for this song was recorded on the first take, because Karen was uncomfortable with the sexual contact implicit in the lyrics. As it was, watchful brother Richard rewrote the original lyrics of the song so that "sleep with you" became the more ambiguous "be with you." Nevertheless, the Carpenters chose to record this song, even if it was a little out of their comfort zone. That's what makes the single interesting, of course: that it is a little out of the Carpenters' comfort zone. Birds and butterflies and beasts and children are easy. Waking up to realize that the love of your life was a one-night stand is hard.
Before Karen stepped up to the microphone for that single take, this song had already been sung by Bonnie Bramlett of Delaney & Bonnie (who cowrote it), Bette Midler, Rita Coolidge, and Cher. Subsequently, it would be recorded by Luther Vandross, Sonic Youth, and Chryssie Hynde. And you know what? Karen Carpenter still owns it. Even though I wish her brother Richard had left the lyrics the way they were, I don't think "Superstar" is primarily a song about sex or its aftermath. It's a song about unfulfilled longing and the confusion that it brings. And something makes me think that Karen Carpenter had more of a handle on that than all the rest of those singers put together.
What keeps me coming back to the Carpenters, though, is what keeps anyone coming back: Karen Carpenter's voice. That voice may be safe, but it's not shallow. There is a sadness there that haunts even a song like "Close to You" that's supposed to be about indescribable bliss. In retrospect, we know now that Karen Carpenter's sadness killed her. It almost literally ate her up from the inside out, and no matter how much I appreciate her performances, I would much rather that she had been happy than successful. I would never have wanted to be her boyfriend, but part of me might have liked to have been the brother that a sweet soul like her deserved.
Supposedly, the vocal for this song was recorded on the first take, because Karen was uncomfortable with the sexual contact implicit in the lyrics. As it was, watchful brother Richard rewrote the original lyrics of the song so that "sleep with you" became the more ambiguous "be with you." Nevertheless, the Carpenters chose to record this song, even if it was a little out of their comfort zone. That's what makes the single interesting, of course: that it is a little out of the Carpenters' comfort zone. Birds and butterflies and beasts and children are easy. Waking up to realize that the love of your life was a one-night stand is hard.
Before Karen stepped up to the microphone for that single take, this song had already been sung by Bonnie Bramlett of Delaney & Bonnie (who cowrote it), Bette Midler, Rita Coolidge, and Cher. Subsequently, it would be recorded by Luther Vandross, Sonic Youth, and Chryssie Hynde. And you know what? Karen Carpenter still owns it. Even though I wish her brother Richard had left the lyrics the way they were, I don't think "Superstar" is primarily a song about sex or its aftermath. It's a song about unfulfilled longing and the confusion that it brings. And something makes me think that Karen Carpenter had more of a handle on that than all the rest of those singers put together.
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